Learning to fish in England (it’s a mess!)

I wanted a hobby that didn’t involve my computer, and fishing sounded like a good place to start. My grandpa used to take me when I was a kid, and I’d enjoyed deep-sea fishing with my family in Florida. Then my partner bought me a rod and the little bits for my birthday. I had the equipment. Knowing what to do with it was another matter.

The plan was to take it to the coast and practise, without much expectation of catching anything. My first attempt at filming this trip didn’t even get as far as the train. Two months later, I finally made it to Whitstable, where I discovered that checking the temperature and checking the weather are apparently two different activities.

Watch my fishing trip on YouTube.

The trip that ended before the train

I’d packed my filming equipment, wallet, headphones and a drink in my backpack, with the fishing gear in its own case. I was walking quickly to the station because I was worried about missing the train when I heard a huge bang, even through my noise-cancelling headphones.

The drink had exploded. Everything in the backpack was submerged, including the camera I’d only just bought after saving for it. This was supposed to be its first proper vlog. Instead, I went straight home and tried to dry everything out.

The microphone died and I had to replace it, but the camera seemed to work. I was still unsure how its battery would behave, so the later trip to the Kent coast was also a test before taking it somewhere farther away. I did cry about the original disaster, although I waited until I got home.

Practising in completely the wrong wind

When I reached the pier, it was quiet enough that I didn’t have to learn in front of a crowd of fishermen. That suited me. I was already nervous about looking as though I didn’t know what I was doing, which was fair, because I didn’t.

I’d watched a YouTube tutorial to learn how to attach a lure, then had to watch again while I was sitting there because I’d forgotten. I brought nail clippers to cut the line after somebody recommended them in a video. Even getting the lure attached counted as progress.

Catching a fish wasn’t the goal for this outing. I wanted to practise attaching the lure, casting and reeling it back in. The bit that frightened me was letting go at the right moment without throwing the whole rod into the water, so I kept reminding myself not to let go of it.

Unfortunately, I’d checked that the day would be cooler without looking at the wind. It blew the line right back towards me. The empty pier had seemed like excellent news when I arrived; now I could understand why the serious fishing people weren’t out there.

I did manage to get the lure into the water, and it stayed attached. Occasionally I felt something tugging and had that little moment of excitement before remembering it was almost certainly seaweed. Eventually I caught some actual seaweed. Delish.

Even with that result, I understood the appeal. I’d keep telling myself I’d do a couple more casts, because the act of doing it was enjoyable. I was disappointed by the conditions, but I still wanted to try again.

A beach walk and a better catch

I packed up the rod rather than heading straight home. The tide was farther out than I’d ever seen it there, leaving a lot of beach exposed, and I went for a walk along the stones.

I like looking for an interesting stone to take home. On holidays in Florida I’d look for shells, whereas here I have a whole collection of stones already. I also started thinking about the practicalities of another fishing trip. Taking public transport meant carrying everything myself, so buying bait at the coast would make more sense for me than trying to bring a cooler along.

Lunch became gelato, with a Biscoff chocolatey flavour and mint on top. It was delicious and already melting, so eating it while juggling the camera and fishing stuff was its own small project. By then I’d checked the wind again and didn’t expect it to ease until around seven that evening. Waiting for better fishing wasn’t going to rescue the afternoon.

It wasn’t the outing I’d hoped for, but I’d still had a lovely time. I started doing solo vlogs because doing things alone made me uncomfortable, and even the trips that don’t go to plan have been worth leaving the house for. I still want to fish again. Ideally with less wind.