In fishing, there’s no accounting for people’s tastes and whether or not you like Marmite
ONE of angling’s enduring strengths is that it’s a broad church—everyone goes fishing in his (or her) own different way and with individual expectations. The spectrum of delights ranges from billfish on a 16-weight rod down to microfishing for miniature species with microscopically sharpened hooks and even a single human hair as a line.
In life, there is sometimes no accounting for peoples’ tastes— Jane Austen, Jeff Koons, spinach, Abba—and fishing is no different. You could compare it to a box of assorted chocolates, but I prefer the analogy of Marmite, that great divider of folk.
‘Love it or hate it’ was famously one of its slogans (as it happens, together with my hoards of tackle and piscatoriana, I’ve accumulated a collection of Marmite jars, including limited-edition examples such as the handsome Guinness and Diamond Jubilee models).
Until the high-Victorian era, with its passion for classifying and sub-dividing everything, most anglers were all-rounders,happy to fish for pretty much anything, chiefly for the pot. Then came the notion of ‘coarse’ and ‘game’ species, notionally based on table qualities, but, in truth, rooted in snobbery.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der February 20, 2019-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der February 20, 2019-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds