Griffiths - Daredevil Book for Anglers

THE
Daredevil
BOOK FOR
Anglers

Cunning Strategies That Fish
Don't Know About

Nick Griffiths is an author and journalist because NASA wouldn't let him be an astronaut. He has written The Daredevil Book for Cats, The Daredevil Book for Dogs, Dalek I Loved You: A Memoir and Who Goes There (both based around Doctor Who), as well as the comic novel In the Footsteps of Harrison Dextrose, while writing largely for Radio Times. He owns a cat named Columbo, who has failed to solve any murder cases, and he has been banned from national and international fishing competitions for spiking his rivals' groundbait.

Illustrator David Mostyn began his career as a commercial artist in advertising, then moved into publishing and set up his own company Mostyn Partners in 1977. David has worked for 30 years in comic strips, producing drawings for DC Thomson, Marvel Comics and DC Comics, among others. He is married with two children and a cat, and lives in Oxford. This is his fourth Daredevil book.

This edition published in 2012 by Arcturus Publishing Limited
26/27 Bickels Yard,
151153 Bermondsey Street
London SE1 3HA

Copyright 2010 Arcturus Publishing Limited
Illustrations 2010 David Mostyn

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person or persons who do any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

ISBN: 978-1-84858-885-1
AD001472EN

H i, my name's Jim and I'm an angling addict. Show me a puddle and I'll drop a worm in it. Can't help myself. I'll fish anywhere that has water. (Except the loo.)

Why such addiction? It's that buzz of first feeling a fish take your bait, when the adrenalin kicks in and your head feels like it's been pulled off and dumped in a bowl of bees. On the rare occasions that I don't catch something, I will admit that white lies can creep in. Like the last time I drew a blank I went home via the fishmonger's, presented the wife, Sandra, with a ten-pound salmon though I'd been coarse fishing she was none the wiser and told her I'd landed it after an epic three-hour battle.

Not that I don't appreciate her support as she puts up with my repeated absences while feigning an interest. Whenever I've been fishing, I always make sure to bring her back a little gift. Most recently it was a swim-feeder. And before that a disgorger.

Angling, of course, is not the hippest of sports. It's not skateboarding, or free running. It's not even crochet. But I love it, and if you're reading this book I bet that you love it too. If I could shake your hand I would do, but I don't know where you are (or indeed where you've been). And I've just had my own mitts in a wormery, so it's probably for the best.

Still, the perceived image problems of our sport don't worry me. I'm comfortable with who I am. The wife says I look a bit like George Clooney in the right light, though I would never be so bold. (Admittedly she didn't say what the right light was.) It's out fishing when I really come alive: I'm a panther stalking its prey, with the patience of a polar bear, the eyesight of an eagle and the reflexes of a goat. Yes, a goat! If you think that goats don't have great reflexes, just you try climbing the higher slopes of a treacherous mountain and not falling off.

If you want proof, here's a recent photograph of myself (below).

Hmm, perhaps not the best example. It was a bit wet that day.

THE AUTHOR RELAXING ON A RARE DAY AT HOME WHEN HE COULDN'T GO FISHING

Anyway, before I depart into the very depths of this great tome, let me first congratulate you on buying what many* agree to be the best manual on angling available to humanity.

(* 2009 SURVEY , 'I S T HIS THE B EST M ANUAL ON A NGLING A VAILABLE TO H UMANITY ?'. R ESPONDENTS (1), 'S ANDRA', REPLIED 'Y ES', ALBEIT IN A SLIGHTLY ROBOTIC VOICE .)

Among these fine pages you will find my own hints and tips on catching the very biggest fish, whether you are game fishing, coarse fishing or out on the ocean waves. What else? I'll tell you:

H OW TO CHOOSE THE BEST ROD AND TACKLE

H OW TO CAST

H OW TO SPOT YOUR PREY

H OW TO TIE CRUCIAL KNOTS

W HETHER FISH CAN SEE AND HEAR

W HY FISH HAVE TEENY BRAINS YET CAN STILL OUTWIT YOU

W HY ANGLING ISN'T ALL ABOUT CATCHING FISH (IT IS REALLY)

S OME PERSONAL PHILOSOPHIES FROM THE RIVERBANK

A BOUT WHEN I WENT FISHING ON M ARS

Perhaps there's just enough space left here to tell you about the time I ended up hooking a 300lb conger eel, which I fought for two days, then gutted with a penknife and cooked al fresco in an old metal bath I found by the shoreside using driftwood as fuel No, my editor's making a vigorous, throat-slashing gesture behind me, so I'll just have to save that for a later date.

Jim

D arwin suggested that humans evolved from the things that crawled out of the primeval swamp, which were essentially fish that had grown funny little legs. So it follows that humans evolved from fish. QED.

But what's this funny-little-legged fish-thing going to eat? Why, fish, of course. (In the animal kingdom, eating one's relatives is not even frowned upon!) There's a problem, however.

How is that F-L-L F-T ever going to handle the intricacies of casting? It doesn't even have a rod! But all is not lost. Remember that classic diagram of the evolution of man? Here it is again, to remind you:

Our friend above is only halfway along that evolutionary scale. Move the clock forward a few hundred years to somewhere around 1962, I'd reckon and he's a fully-fledged human being with proper arms and legs, and the capability of buying a rod and tackle from his local angling emporium. Now he's in! From once being a fish, he is now fishing.