I generally fish for an hour at a time and catch plenty. There is an art to time pressured angling that makes it more fun. Find a body of water, learn it, fish the right hour.
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Yes, you can waste much time on venues by being there at the wrong time. Itâs annoying when you find that the best time is at 2 in the morning though 
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Its ok if the fish you want to catch are local⌠A friend of mine fishes for barbel on a free stretch of the Thames in Surrey. They feed between midnight and 3 in the morning, which means a hundred mile drive each way from here for a couple of possible productive hours. I sooo wish it was local, he keeps catching bigger and bigger specimens. I went with him once and blanked but itâs too much aggro for me these days go and do it and that is just the negotiations with the missus!
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I was the same; I knew by heart to the last drm the weight of every rod-caught fish. I can remember getting my first Angling Times, I just could not believe there was a whole newspaper about fishingâŚ
This was my favourite book on fishing and I still re-read it every so often.
I have a contact at Redmire and was planning a trip with my father a couple of years ago but he got a hip problem and couldnât go - still might try it just to spend a bit of time there even if I didnât catch âowt.
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Has anyone watched the show with Reeves and Whitehouse ? Keep meaning to catch it.
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If itâs nice weather, it doesnât bother me too much if it goes quiet. Just lovely sitting on the river bank or lake side.
I used to go fishing (many years back in my twenties) with a totally mad-arse fella called Billy, if heâd not caught anything for ages, but had fish in his keep-net, he would put one back on the hook (before barbless) let it swim off then âcatchâ it again 
My FiL (rest his soul), if it was quiet, might try âduckingâ and take a brace of mallard home for tea. 
I think I read that it closed for a bit for clearing of weed or something, is that true?
Itâs that sort of thing that gets angling a bad name. 
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Not sure Iâll check thereâs a forum I believeâŚ
This is true, but he was a right character, if I mentioned anything like that, he would just say fuck em. 
Anyway, this was my favourite book when I was a kid;
I probably still have it somewhere. I must have read it a thousand times, particularly the strip about Mr Crabtree and Peter fishing a flooded Hants Avon and catching large roach and bream from some slack water.
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My Dad used to take me when I was a kid.
He wouldnât let me have a fixed spool reel until I had mastered a centre pin (I think he just didnât want to sort out all the tangles I would have got)
He gave me a split cane rod he had as a boy.
It was a three piece coarse rod, but had extra sections. You could reverse the butt end so a reel could go right at the back and change the top section for a really whippy top section which made it a fly rod and you could take the middle and top sections off and add another stiff section to make a two piece ledger rod.
It is still in the rod bag at his house I think. Must be about 80 years old now
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My dad took me to begin with and he used a centre pin, he did buy me an Intrepid Black Prince fixed spool but he didnât really know how to use it! Itâs weird, I donât actually remember he and I fishing together much, we used to go but sit apart. I sorted out my own tanglesâŚ
Did you ever get the bug Kev?
My go to book as a kid was this one
Seeing the name Clive Gammon above reminded me of a nice TV series from the 70âs called the Fishing Race where various teams had to set forth & try and catch as many different species of fish in UK waters over a limited period. I seem to recall them ending up in all manner of weird places including zoos & ornamental ponds in private gardens etc
Ian Wooldridge did a marvellously dry voice over.
https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/b64328fc75db478a9083d735eb660dfe
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Loved it when a small kid. Wasnât too impressed when my Dad raided my keep net of small roach and dace and was live baiting for pike.
When I went off to a new school aged 11 my time was taken up with Rugby and sport. Also loved the Scouts. So that was more or less the end of my fishing.
Still had occasional forays. I remember a family camping holiday when I was about 15 near Galway spinning for mackerel on light gear off the beach next to the campsite and catching breakfast.
Biggest mackeral I have seen straight off the Atlantic coast.
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I remember the fishing race well!
Anyway, farm pond no1 was only about a foot deep, there did seem to be fish moving under the trees opposite but otherwise nothing doing.
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Iâve read all of J R Hartleyâs books 
did you steal his Werthers Original as well?
Farm pond 2 much better depth; pretty rudd and decent skimmers.
Good view from up here towards Rye and Hastings
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Iâll look in on this thread more as an observer. The angling I practice (mostly casting lures for gamefish) is so different from what you all participate in, I donât know how much commonality we could find.
I fished obsessively in my teen years up to my early thirties. When I actually do get out anymore, itâs the actual act of being outdoors thatâs more important to me than catching and numbers of fish.
And the faff, pretty high up the faff hobby scale.
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There is a big bit of commonality right there