Walton's Rucksack

I'm not going to lie: I've done my fair share of blanking. Like everyone, I'd rather catch, but I can cope with a day of dry nets, and there's still pleasure to be had in the experience.  In fact, I've probably learnt almost as much from blanking as I have from catching. The "thinking angler" reflects on why he or she hasn't caught, what might have been done better, would a change of swims have worked, a different rig, an alternative approach to feeding ...?  I suspect that prayer is rather similar. We sometimes talk about "unanswered prayer" but the fact is there's no such thing. There's always an answer: sometimes "yes", sometimes "no", sometimes "not yet." That prayer has the power to change things is something of which Scripture is certain, but when prayer isn't answered in the way we'd hoped  and doesn't change the situation itself, it still has the power to change us . ...

The late Bill Shankly, onetime manager of Liverpool FC, once famously quipped "some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." He was a great man, and a great football manager, but- on this occasion- he was wrong. I love the game, and played it for 20 years, but when all's said and done it is only an inflated sphere being kicked by 22 men who are all trying to get it to fit into a giant "onion bag" 8 feet high and 21 feet wide. It's the same with fishing. I love my fishing even more than I love football, but there are more important things than catching fish. Like family .... and faith. Last Sunday I was preaching in church on a passage from 2 Thessalonians in which the Apostle Paul is writing to a church of new Christians who are being violently persecuted for their faith. His message: "let the up-look transform your outloo...

Last night I saw Mark Knopfler at the Resorts World Arena (formerly NEC) in Birmingham. He's 69 (many in the audience were older) but, in the words of one of his songs, "the boy can play." Still loving what he's doing, and a whole lot better at it than when he was a young kid just starting out. Many of the best fishermen I've known have been "tapping on a bit." I'm certainly a better angler now than I was when I was 13. Although I had all the enthusiasm back then, I was impatient: I'd move swims too quickly, plumb the depth too hurriedly, race to the first available swim. Time and experience have made me if not a good angler certainly a better one. It should be the same in our Christian journey, too. That as time passes, we grow. That our experiences drawn from Bible reading, church, the wisdom of other Christians and - above all- our lived relationship with Jesus should lead to us becoming more effective as followers and disciples. ...

I can remember the frustration like it was yesterday, although it was probably nearer to 30 years ago. I was walking alongside a small stream (more of a ditch, really) that joined the River Cam and, as every angler does, my eyes peered through the water's layers as I walked. And then I saw it: a tiny baby pike, no more than 6 inches long. Excited, I pointed it out to my (non-angling) walking companions Graham and Alex. They looked and looked, squinted, screwed up their faces in strange contortions but could see nothing. "Look, it's there, next to that leaf .... it's just moved ... look " I implored, but still they saw no mini pikelet. Their inability to see gave way to banter: "Yea, right, you must think we were born yesterday ... nice try ... like a fish would be in that tiny stream anyway...." But the pike was there. I saw it. It made me think of so many in the crowds who saw Jesus. There in front of them was the Messiah, the Son of God and they d...

The T-shirt I'm wearing in the photo above is one of my favourites. Made for me, and given to me, by my pal David (he's the big guy next to me) when I was visiting him in the USA in 2013, it bears the legend "Go Fish", followed by the reference from Luke's Gospel that records Jesus' famous words as he called his first disciples to leave their life of commercial fishing and follow him on an adventure of evangelism.  I (like Izaak Walton) have always rather liked the fact that it was to fishing that Jesus turned when he wanted to call and commission his first followers, but a fellow member of Christian Anglers made me stop and think a couple of weeks ago when we were talking over a pint.  He'd always slightly struggled to come to terms with Jesus' "evangelism as fishing" metaphor, because, as my friend pointed out, fishing is all about deception - tricking a fish into thinking something with a hook in it is natural food, and shar...

I'm not a great carp angler but, if truth be told, carp are one of my least favourite species anyway. That said, I do fish for them and do (occasionaly) catch them as the photo above proves. But I'm not a carp angler; not a proper one. For a start, I can't really be bothered to put in the effort. Get me fishing for perch, for instance, and thre's no lengths I won't go to to try to catch my quarry, but I just can't seem to feel the same about carp. I tend to take too much equipment, get too settled and comfortable in a swim and then just sit there and hope the fish come to me. My two brothers, who would both cite carp as their favourite species are the total opposite. Our shared DNA hasn't made them the laid back, lazy carp angler that I am and they're happy to travel light, change swims and rigs as many times as it takes, to keep working at it and to constantly adapt their tactics to the behaviour of the fish. I guess that's why they catc...

Back in 2013 I enjoyed one of the biggest adventures of my life. I drove around the Southern States of America and hung out with different groups of Christian anglers, hunters and general outdoors people. Starting in Georgia I drove to South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas. It was a blast. Most of my fishing was done in enormous lakes, either from a high powered bass boat or wading into the warm water and casting, but my first experience of angling US style was in Charleston, SC and was fishing off the end of a pontoon in the ocean. My guide was Susan Dalton of Angling Women and Old Bridge Outfitters , mad keen angler and member of a large Presbyterian church in Charleston and under her tutelage I caught a skate and the flounder shown in the picture above. The skate was returned to the water, but the flounder caused a different kind of excitement. A tape measure was produced, the size of the fish noted and the pronouncement mad...