Hooked while young

Who says fishing is uncool? It is the ideal sport for the young and the young-at-heart – and the perfect way to find peace

- JAMES FISHER

I am an outlier, they say, because I am young and I like fishing. Perhaps I should have expected this. After all, it would appear that many of the things I enjoy in life, such as naps, whisky, further naps, cricket, napping at the cricket and Werther’s Originals are also enjoyed by those of years more advanced than mine. Although my list of hobbies has always made me popular with the fathers of my girlfriends, sadly, sharing the interests of those three times my age is unlikely to get me further up the queue when it comes to getting vaccinated. Instead, I am here, writing about why more young people should get into picking up a rod and reel and heading to water.

The irony will no doubt not be lost on you, dear reader, that a person by the name of James Fisher should be quite keen on his fishing. It was certainly not lost on my schoolmates, who upon learning that I was a member of the fishing club howled with laughter every time they saw me shuffling past with my rod and a trout in a plastic bag. In my final year, the asteroid of nominative determinism exploded over Windsor when I was named head of the fishing club, which meant that the entire school found out and rarely a day went past without some future prime minister sending me an email with some half-baked insult along the lines of ‘James Fisher loves fish’. I can tell you, with some experience, that just because a school is expensive, it does not necessarily mean it always attracts the brightest minds.