Evolution and Obssession

Here is a picture taken by myself last week on my mobile phone of a beautiful Sumatran Tiger in the dark depths of Chessington. In its natural habitat it is an elusive and majestic beast. Possibly one of the most beautiful creatures we have the pleasure of sharing this wonderful planet with.

There is something deep inside of me that draws me towards these and other elusive creatures, with this in mind I embarked on a quest, a quest that was to cover five years, and, after much expense, travelling, sickness and determination I was blessed to view Bengal Tigers in the wild in the Jungles of India, in the very area which inspired Kipling to write "Jungle Book".
 What then does this have to do with fishing? "Has ol' Gurn gone all 'Attenborough' on us?",I hear you say.
Well theres a fish, you see....a fish that has been in my thoughts for many years now. It is beautiful and also elusive. I may confess that this entire journal of my angling activities is a distraction, I may even go as far to say that all of my other angling is a distraction, a distraction from thinking about this fish.
 This creature is a Carp,a Common Carp, a scale perfect, deep chestnut,woodcarving of a fish, possibly of the Leney strain.
I have spent more hours trying to catch it than any other fish and have failed,.
 Some have happened to associate a name to her, she is however, far too grand in my eyes for that.
What have I to do then? I have caught some wonderful fish this year but my mind returns to this fish time after time, like an itch I have to scratch. Catching her, and holding her aloft would be like coming across a beautiful Tigress in the early morning haze of an Indian Summer. It's a quest then, all other plans go out of the window although I may have to embark on other fishy pursuits to aid my sanity. I hope you will come along for the ride.


Another thing that Tiger made me ponder was the golfer with the same name. There was a time many years ago, when, if you were an fisherman of some skill and could provide food for your family you were high in the social pecking order, a good catch, an alpha male even, and therefore very attractive to the opposite sex.
 It seems that nowadays though, if you are a good angler, you have the adoration of many men and if you are serious about your pursuit of fish, perhaps skint most of the time.
 However,  should you be able to whack a dimply white ball in a hole adeptly, then it's cash and women aplenty.....strange world !!