Les Gustar takes a look at the impact water has on him
If not angling perhaps the next best thing is to get out by the water be it rivers, lakes or the ocean. It can be as a rewarding experience in itself, and equally stimulating, the anticipation not to mention the sounds of the water be it running or lapping over objects helps the imagination wander. Staring into deep pools or the flows and eddies created by natural or manmade objects, the shimmering reflections and ever changing rhythms of flowing waters. At times almost mesmerised while soaking up the visible watery feast, it is but an instant captured in time yet also a moment to savour sometime later as memories resurface.
It’s not only the waters that fascinate but also the associated paraphernalia much like as anglers we have rods and reels, they are but only a small part of our equipment and so it is with waterways, and all that encompasses them. Like the bridges and the signage not to mention the ways of accessing the waters. Sometimes its age old or battered and faded by time while others are fresh, bright and modern. Thoughts of who the rods may be who have fished this water or passed this way over the decades, old tackle shops all can have me thinking much the same, who crossed these thresholds in search of what items?
Some points of access are nothing more than a well-worn hole in the hedgerow or muddy path, others are farm gates or fencing. Some have steps cut out of a bank side or a stile, others a manmade break in a wall or steps constructed for the purpose of angling, the wear and tear or well-trodden ground indicating how much use a place may have had, much like the well-thumbed pages of a good book.
Then it’s down to the water, its mystifying influence all too strong that draws me to its very edge, sometimes a raging torrent as waters descend from the various feeder streams in the mountains creating a swift rise in levels. On other days it’s so shallow and serene the trickle of waters running over stones and between boulders almost creating its own symphony.
The natural flow of the water drawing the spectator's eye to follow its course, one that’s been forged by the power of nature and time. Often giving further points of interest be it undercut banks or gravel bars and over hanging vegetation, but it’s the bend in the river that niggles away at one to see what lies further beyond the last point of vision.
Inquisitiveness takes hold and the desire to know what lays beyond needs to be met, it could be an intersection where water's meet, perhaps a slow deep section or a feeling there may be a bridge or structure of sorts? Whatever it be the waters continue to glide past finding their own way much as they have always done, hidden in its flow are the native brown trout, but these waters are also the highways that are navigated by returning salmon and sea trout much as they have done for generations.
All too soon the day draws to a close, and using the back roads as a way to head home it’s only a matter of time before the roads cross some water, stopping by a bridge to view the river below.
Les Gustar is 5th consecutive generation angler of coarse, game and saltwater angling, a member of the Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society and also a team member of SOS Bass http://www.saveourseabass.org/en/home/