Fishing: The International Language - Ade Kiddell

This entry was posted on 14th September, 2016

Whilst at school I hated foreign languages. Why, at the prime of my teenage life, would I ever need to worry about learning French, Spanish, German or the like? Here I am, 40 years later, living in France and wishing I had paid more attention.

Over the last few weeks we have had lots of visitors from all over Europe and a good grasp of French, Dutch, Italian, and broad Yorkshire would have been most helpful! However, although we have had multi-national visitors we all shared one language in reality: our beloved pastime of fishing.

Firstly, my new found French friend Steven has been a great help. He can speak a little English which helps greatly and his knowledge of local fishing is very useful. He has already shown me some great spots on the River Meuse and just today we went to a much smaller river, the Semois, which I will be checking out over the next few weeks.



Today we saw some big chub and watched a shoal of hungry barbel polish off the free hemp we offered. Steve struggles to understand my passion for ‘barbeau’; very few anglers fish for barbel in France, it’s mostly lure fishing for the normal species as well as Catfish and Asp. A few French anglers fish for carp and a few fish for bits and pieces, your typical pleasure angler if you like. For all his help I have set Steve up with a feeder rod and some terminal bits and have started to teach him to feeder fish, something which is almost unheard of in this part of France. It is almost impossible to even buy a feeder. The funniest thing so far with Steve was when he asked me what language one of our guests from Yorkshire was speaking!



Last week we had two visitors from Italy. These guys were barbel nuts and fish the River Po in Italy, which has a massive population of barbel but for them a 6lb fish is a big fish. They arrived after a 12 hour drive with me thinking they would want few hours sleep before an evening fishing, no chance! A shower and coffee later these guys were on the bank catching barbel. Whilst Luca spoke a little English, Matteo spoke next to none, but we communicated well through sign language and a passion for fishing.

Matteo was keen to fish the float and when he saw I had a selection of centrepins to try his eyes lit up. We spent a very pleasant few hours together fishing the pin and catching a nice net of bits and pieces. Centrepin fishing can often seem very elitist but it need not be and don't be kidded into thinking you have to spend a fortune on a pin; the Advanta pins are great value for money and perform very well. These reels are great for both beginners and experienced anglers.



To get the best from your pin when float fishing, follow a few simple rules and you will find it much more enjoyable.

- No more than 50 yards of line - Fish a float slightly heavier than you would with a fixed spool reel, if normal is say 4 x 4 shot then fish a 5 x 4 float. - Make sure line doesn't bed too tight on reel - Leave the ratchet off and control the spool with your thumb - Keep the reel clean and avoid it getting knocked in your tackle bag.

Matteo is now a convert and has already lined himself up a new pin for the River Po barbel.



The Italian job came to an end but the guys went home happy with some new-found skills, a broader English vocabulary, and a new barbel PB for Matteo.

Before they left they had time to meet the next guests from Holland - a young lad called Rik and his dad Erik. They chose to spend the last few days of their holiday by the river, dad Erik fancied a carp and Rik was keen to catch some barbel. We left Erik to get on with his quest for a carp while I spent some time with Rik, helping him to cast both further and more accurately, as well as teach him some basic knot tying and rig mechanics.

To see the look on Rik’s face when he landed a barbel after casting a baited rig into the swim, a rig he had tied and baited himself for the first time and it produced a decent barbel, was wonderful. His expression was one of glowing excitement and he couldn't wait to tell his dad about his success.

One thing I did show Rik, as I do everyone else who visits, was fish care. It’s one thing catching a fish but once on the bank it’s so important to treat the fish with care and return it to the water as soon as possible, unharmed, to fight another day.

Dad Erik never did get his carp but had a nice few barbel and chub in far from favourable conditions: we have not had any rain here for 3 weeks and it’s been over 30 degrees for 10 of the last 14 days. Rik was already planning his return when he left and I don't think Erik will take much persuading.



It was a case of Double Dutch as, after Erik and Rik left, two fellow Dutchman joined us for a long weekend. Chris and Huub are long term friends and just enjoy their fishing; just being there is as important as catching the fish. They had a great start to the weekend with half dozen barbel in the first couple of hours. Sadly the rest of the weekend was much harder, but they plugged away with just rewards. Chris managed a few more barbel whilst Huub, a vintage tackle collector, managed to catch a fin perfect roach of well over a pound using pin and cane, allowing us to pose a perfect picture to sum up a great weekend.

I am pretty certain had all of us spoken perfect English our time together would have been no more enjoyable, simply as the language we spoke was our passion for fishing and our enjoyment of all things angling.