Fishing & Friendships That Encompass It

I have thought long and hard whilst composing this blog post and do realise it is not exactly a fishing related one, at least not of the fishing trip kind. However it is related to the friendships I have made via fishing, some of these have been very pleasant and have lasted and there are some that I wish I had never had. The kind where you can be as far from pretence or deceit as possible, only to find out that the person involved simply cannot help running others down behind their back.  I must admit that I don't believe a friendship that is based around a shared passion should feel like the person you are sharing your enjoyment with is constantly laying traps all the time or bartering with your information and selling it on to curry favour with others, only to move on and do the same to those that they have shared things with and I have felt like this has been the case regularly with certain individuals.


I admit that I am far from perfect and come across at times as being rather stilted when socialising and dealing with the intricacies associated with friendship. Although I am finding there seems to be a running theme with some people to be disingenuous with others as well as usually applying a good helping of double standards and duplicity toward their friendships, yet at the same time repeatedly trying to either befriend or re-friend you, wearers of two faces and if a wildlife comparison was drawn then I suppose the term "social Hyena" might be put to use.

Maybe I take friendships too seriously but when spending time on the riverbank it is nice to feel you are sharing it with someone whom has a kindred spirit for our pastime without them being judgemental or allowing other malevolent emotions to manifest themselves, whilst still gladly taking with one hand and silently slipping a knife between your shoulder blades with the other. 

The question I have mulled over the most would be how many second chances do you give another person before you become a doormat and is twice once too many?  Being able to forgive and work through a rocky period of a friendship and giving it a second chance is something that has to come from both parties. They have to be willing to look at each others faults and failings working on understanding each others weaker areas, rather than reviving the friendship only to continue to make snide derogatory remarks to others.

To myself friendship has always been a curious thing, perhaps even more so when it is combined with a passionately shared hobby, does it become more unstable because of that, indeed should it? Surely not, if anything it should give a firm foundation and the building blocks toward an extra cohesion between two anglers, strengthening their friendship and resolve.

Who knows, maybe I am not finding the right people/persons that I click with. Perhaps my friendship radar is askew, the latter would not surprise me, although I can't help feel that part of me no longer wishes to suffer fools gladly, but at the same time something another person said to me also sticks in my mind and that is not allowing one or two friendships to convince you to isolate yourself away from the chances of others which could perhaps flourish.

So blog readers I wish to ask you a straight question as I am interested to hear your replies and in doing so try to use them as a bit of a guiding hand. How many of you anglers have fishing friendships that have stood the test of time through the ups and downs, if so how have you gone about keeping that friendship strong? Have any of you fallen foul of friendships you wish you had distanced yourself from and perhaps felt you had made the mistake of attempting to reignite a friendship with someone whom will never be a sincere friend. Perhaps there were areas where you feel you may have been partly the cause of a loss of a good friendship. I would be very interested to read your views on this topic in the comments section and look forward to doing so.


I also promise to be a bit more back on topic in my future blogs.