It was cold by bright yesterday and while I was keen to fish, I am usually a bit ‘odd’ feeling the morning after I take my meds so decided to play it safe and just opt for a couple of hours on the wee ponds at my local fishery, Swanswater. I was up there and tackled up around 11:30. The weather was due to turn rotten in the afternoon.
I was going to fish along the nearside of the smaller pond as no one was there. I went and got my ticket and wouldn’t you know it?  but an angler from the main loch had started fishing adjacent to where I wanted to fish, casting right in toward the peg I was going to fish. (it’s on a corner). Fair enough, I decided to fish one peg further round to stay clear of him. It seemed rude to push in.
Another chap came along who I transpired was with the first and he had no such qualms and moved in where I would have liked to fish obviously unconcerned about upsetting his mate.
It was a wee bit annoying, especially as then the first angler headed back to the main loch leaving me and the second alone. I wasn’t too bothered, though the fish it, seemed were all in front of my neighbour ( as I had suspected they might be) and he was getting a lot of knocks as well as landing one while we fished. I on the other hand had nothing. Not a touch in the gin clear water. I was fishing buzzers and tiny micro nymphs, initially simply in a straight line but later under an indicator as I was dragging the weed on the fairly shallow bottom.
My neighbour and I started chatting and it transpired he fished the Annan a lot, and knew many of the same spots as me, and fished for Grayling. After passing a pleasant half hour or so like this he decided to rejoin his mates up the main loch.
The pond had I think one or two other anglers on the other banks, so I decided to sidle down one peg to my chosen spot and see if I could raise something in the last 40 mins or so. Almost right away I had a very sharp knock that seemed not to connect, and left me in a bit of a minor tangle. It always happens !
I was sitting patiently sorting this when a boy of about 12 or 13 maybe, appeared at the peg next but perpendicular to me. The one where there had been an angler right at the start. These two pegs are not really compatible unless you are maybe together, as where I was I could only fish right in front of me but the adjacent peg fishes right across my casting space. That’s bad enough but the lad then started to fish right to the foot of my casting spot, his fly was landing less than a rod length from my feet. I looked at him to show I noticed what he was doing, where exactly was I supposed to fish? He then proceeded to tell me he could see fish in front of me and I should try for them while furiously stripping a lure through the swim and recasting into it. I commented did he think it might be possible I could cast? He got the hint ( or I thought he had) and cast out from his spot over the main body of the pond. It still didn’t really give me much room but I decided to press on  ( he was just ‘a kid’) but my care to avoid crossing his line was causing me to ‘pull’ my casts a bit and it was doing nothing for my flies tangling up.
The ‘ father’ appears. I assumed it was anyway. He starts setting up a rod, I thought he might spot the problem here and say, to the youngster, ( I know if it was my son I would be saying ‘ watch what you are doing you are in front of the man’ and be apologising for the error of my offspring) but no! The youngster now moves down the bank towards me to give dad room and starts casting in to me again while dad casts across. He( father muppet) then stops, puts down the rod, and the lad says “where are you going?”. The reply was ” am gawn fur a pish amn’t  ah?” He then strides down to the corner near me where there was what looked like a wheelie bin and proceeds to relieve himself. This is not 20 yards from a toilet across the carpark behind him!
I was by now utterly ‘pished off’ myself and was getting tangled again through casting short. I stopped and stared at him ( the father Muppet) but he was too thick/ignorant to acknowledge what was wrong. I decided to call it a day I was seething, not happy, in a mess and utterly fed up.
I picked up my gear and headed back to the car, to pack up. As I passed behind them the lad says, ‘you going away now mister?’
To which I replied ‘isn’t that what you have been wanting?’.
Pair of ignorant arseholes.