Hooked

2023

When I was a child, my younger brother was invited to go fishing, which became a regular thing for him, I was never invited.

It was a ‘Man’s sport’.

Years later, I met my partner, who loves fishing. We met just after lockdown and had to try social distance dating! Both our

interests seemed to align at my local park where he could fish and I could take my camera, capturing the local wildlife. We

later moved to Falmouth together, with a strong love for the outdoors we explored new places to fish and take pictures, our mutual interests still running along side each other. He’d slowly been teaching me some of the basics but I would always be distracted behind the lens of my camera, until one summers day.

I had a maggot at the end of the line of my bright pink, cheap, fishing rod, waiting to catch a small perch, soaking up the sun,

relaxing, when I feel a pull. I ‘sink the hook’ like I’d been taught, with a swift tug and begin trying to reel in. My heart

thumping in my chest, my legs starting to shake, I’m pulling and reeling but I can feel the fish fighting! The longest 15 minute battle then ensues, my arms aching, him coaching me while I reel in my first ever carp, 13lb! We net it together and bring it up on the bank to unhook, a breathless smile spread across my face! The adrenaline still coursing through me, I finally understood fishing. Why people love it, why they spend hours often in the rain and cold, waiting. I was hooked!

 

1 year in, I am that person spending hours, sometimes in the rain and cold, waiting. The perk of waiting, is that in the

stillness, I see more wildlife than I ever did before. The patience required allows me to take better pictures. On occasion, we catch a fish and we get a rare glimpse of a carp or pike, amazingly illusive creatures we would never encounter otherwise.

I’m still a beginner and have a lot to learn, I still occasionally encounter sexist remarks and I get frustrated with the weather and the wet socks, but I am a fisher person. We are fisher people and this is how we spend as much of our free time as possible.