Poshness and Piscatorial Pursuits.

I just realised that yesterday (by 1½ hours) was June 16^th. When I was a lad, June 16^th came third only to December 25^th and November 28^th in the JJ Book of High Days, Feast Days, and Days to Drool Over, the reason being that it was the start of the Coarse Fishing season. And here’s the interesting point:

In Britain, fishing for salmon and trout is called Game Fishing, partly because salmon and trout are deemed culinary delicacies, and partly because it’s what posh people do. It’s the only sort of fishing that posh people ever admit to doing. It’s proper fishing, you see – gentlemen’s fishing. Ergo, fishing for any other species is what peasants do, and peasants are coarse by both birth and nature, so…

I fished for anything that would grab the bait and make the float sink, and I loved it. So that establishes my credentials in the social hierarchy of Britain. Bottom and happy to be there.