Welcome to Issue 71 | Eat, Sleep, Fish

I went to a wedding of some good friends recently (many congrats Tom and Abi!). These are the sorts of events that I try really hard not to take any conversation in the direction of fishing but sometimes it is difficult and there are also occasions like the event we were at when you are sat around the table about to eat and the stranger you are sitting next to asks "so how do you know the bride and groom?"

There isn't anywhere to hide when this question comes up and is usually followed by "ah, yes, I've heard all about you" This can be taken a number of ways but it is usually positive and I am sure, at times, that people are really interested in what you do, where you go and ask a little about fly fishing too.

This can take the conversation in a new direction when you tell them where you are about to go on a road trip or where you have just returned from.

It's not that I don't want to talk about fishing it is just I may end up talking for too long about something that means so much to me and I worry they will just glaze over and go through the motions of trying to be interested in the story I'm enthusiastically telling about a river I'd recently been fishing.

Most people I know are aware that my life revolves mainly around fishing and so often just ask me how the fishing has been or if I've been anywhere recently.

At the wedding the group of us that fished stood in a small group talking about, you guessed it!, fish while our wives and partners let us get on with it.

It is good to be around equally passionate people who have a wide range of other interests but the bond of friendship is bound tightly by fishing.

I think there are distinct catagories. Those that fish - it means everything to them and they think about it more often than perhaps they should. Then, there are those that do some fishing alongside lots of other things and lastly those that don't fish at all. I call them civilians!

Good fishing

Pete Tyjas

Pete Tyjas is a full time fishing guide based in Devon, UK

Find Pete on the river HERE