In sports such as athletics and football there is need for a high degree of physical fitness. This fitness is very important, for it affects not only strength and stamina, but the athlete's skill and ability also.
Angling, though seemingly less demanding, still requires a reasonable degree of fitness, and although, at first glance, it gives the impression that 'know-how' is the only factor controlling success, this is not so. To the expert, be he matchman or specimen hunter, angling is an all-consuming sport, which burns up a lot of energy and requires undivided attention.
The opinion so widely held by members of the general public that angling is a relaxing sport, is absolute rubbish! Perhaps to the chap who just wants to 'get away from it all' it is relaxing, but he is not an angler, nor even a sportsman.
The majority of sports are basically competitive, whether you are trying to outwit a fish, bird, animal or a fellow human, and I've never heard of anyone yet who could successfully compete and relax at the same time!
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Consider the purely physical side of angling. We can see that fitness affects things like how early we can get up in the morning, how far we are prepared to walk or cycle to obtain a good swim and privacy from other anglers, how much tackle and bait we can carry over these distances and how long we can endure adverse climatic conditions.
If you consider these points carefully, you will see that each one could make a big difference to your catches. For example: Mick is always tired and can't get up in the morning. One Sunday he arrives at the water, at his usual time of eight o'clock, finds the roach feeding, and takes six or seven good fish before they go off at about nine-thirty.
Had he arrived earlier his bag of roach would probably have been a lot larger. Another example is the angler who considers carrying a lot of groundbait very hard work. He is the type who sets off bream fishing with only five or six pounds of dry bait; not because he can't afford any more, but because carrying it is too big an effort. Although a small amount is often quite adequate, there are other occasions when twenty or thirty pounds are necessary.
But these purely physical aspects although very serious are of minor importance compared with the effect being unfit has on one's ability to concentrate for long periods.Before discussing concentration, it should be pointed out that certain types of angling require a high degree of attention to practice successfully.
These are, generally speaking, those which produce a small bite and those which produce very few bites. It must be obvious that if a bite is very small- that is, of short duration and/or little movement-it is going to be much more difficult to strike and hook successfully than a big prolonged pull or tug, because there is much less to see and much less time in which to react.
It must also be obvious that, if bites are few and far between it is going to be more difficult still. We can see from this that the poor old specimen hunter gets it both ways.
Firstly, he gets fewer bites than ordinary anglers, secondly, most of his fishing will be done with the leger, a method which requires a greater degree of concentration than the float. Float fishing is basically a physical effort and, because control of the tackle is not generally strenuous work, it is well within our capabilities.
The leger, however, needs little or no controlling, only prolonged concentration to detect a bite and sufficient alertness to strike and hook it. The float gives one much more time to strike than the leger, because it presents much less resistance to a taking fish.
To the specimen hunter, the ability to concentrate for long periods is, in my opinion, one of the most important factors controlling success or failure. Concentration in angling is putting in 100% effort to catch fish. You must work hard at every single aspect of the bait presentation, bite detection, ground-baiting and, most important at all, you must be thinking all the time of ways to catch more and better fish.
If you are a good angler, and have confidence in your ability, you will find that obtaining the desired amount of concentration is quite easy. Maintaining it, however, is much more difficult, especially if you are not experiencing much success.
In order to make the best of your fishing time, therefore you must concentrate for long periods and because of this burns up so much energy, you have to be reasonably fit. If you are not, you will quickly tire and your concentration will disappear. As with other sports, physical fitness plays a very important part, affecting one's performance much more than is generally appreciated.
Take this morning down at the handy BAA section of the Alne (5mins away) that I rarely fish, the air temperature was -4 the water temperature a barassic 2.5 degrees, but it was a lovely foggy winters morning where fishing 8 or 9 swims I managed nearly 10k steps. It didn't help I had to retrace my steps to try and find my rod rest and bankstick 😀, but plenty of walking both sides of the bridge to try and catch something in testing conditions.
Thankfully a nice chub fancied the bread and that came from the swim when the river is at its widest. It wasn't that deep but maybe the fact there is plenty of escape routes the chub felt safe there. Not a huge chub for the Alne as I've caught them to over 4lb a short drive away, but a welcome sight I must admit because that was the only bite I had. One bite one fish, mission complete.
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