Reflections

Back out again to the same spot but realised straight away I had the tides wrong by at least three hours. I sat there on a bench and looked out across the harbour cursing my stupidity as its such a shallow venue there is no chance of wetting a line until the water reaches casting distance.

But it was ok, and today I didn't mind as I started to reflect on my youth spent bait digging and fishing this spot. My companion was a very good friend who lived four doors down from where I lived and our love of fishing made us great buddies.

Being slightly older he took me under his wing and we spent our summer holidays on our bikes searching out daytime spots to fish and digging ragworm from the harbour for bait. So I walked to the area where we used to dig, and when I say we, I can recall a conversation very clearly where he got upset with me as it was always him that was doing the digging!

Memory can play tricks, but I swear we used to walk out across what seemed like a field of old discarded tea leaves from the harbour yacht club before starting our digging. In those days it was always a bustle of activity but it is now sadly a shadow of how it used to be. The field of tea was no longer there, but the memories were, and it was lovely just to wander soaking up the atmosphere.

I took a few pictures with my phone and then sat back and watched the harbour slowly fill. Around 9 o'clock I decided to go home without a line wet, and I didn't mind at all.