Trendy! I’ve tried once too. Someone I know is into that and has been successful. 
Nice dream. We’d need a bigger boat just for the average size of the crew let alone the groundbait! 
I know it catches fish, it is however deeply boring.
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I had to google drop shotting - I obvs need to top up my angling faff 
Not much of an enthusiast, but much younger used to love the early ride out and late home return, it was only 5 miles or so but felt like the middle of nowhere. I was 12 at most but my younger 10 year old brother got into it big time and still is 35 years later. I remember eating all the sarnies by 11am and going home famished.
When we were teens it was eeling and night fishing with an eighth of leb. I missed pretty much all my bites.
In my late twenties took a trip to listowel to see family and the races, FNil took me out on the river feale salmon fishing. Spent all day there, but came home with a beauty.
I much prefer the hunt of fishing, coming home with nothing never bothered me.
My young lad is taking a fondness to the day out. Its the constant untangling etc that spoils the sarnie eating at present
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A few years ago we took a canal boat for a week on the Trent-Mersey heading West from Sawley (SW of Nottingham). Great fun and a view of the landscape from a very different perspective. I took a couple of rods & had a fine time with our 2 young FoL catching gudgeon, perch, roach, skimmers, eels and some decent chub (by the sluice gates). That reflected the spread of species I’d caught as a kid on the canals at home and to be honest the traffic on the canals made it too busy to try & do anything serious during the day. However, one of the mornings, when we were moored just outside of Alrewas I was awake early, 5 am, before the boats started moving, and set up a leger with a lump of luncheon meat on a hair & flicked it out over near the far bank. It took about 30 minutes & all hell broke loose when a really good sized carp went steaming off with it. Quite entertaining trying to get that onto the boat & in the end I think I climbed out & onto the towpath to land it. A very dark coloured (almost black) common that weighed in at about 17 lbs iirc. The highlight of the week for me. I had an inkling that the canals held such fish but I’d never actually seen one coming out of a canal. Then the boat traffic started again & even though I tried on other mornings, I didn’t get another sniff. Won’t forget it though. Much more satisfying than catching them in commercial fisheries.
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Looks idyllic
Within minutes of my home I can fish (depending on season) for black bass (smallmouth and largemouth), pike, walleye (similar to zander), chinook salmon, coho salmon, steelhead salmon, brown trout, atlantic salmon, and various small species grouped together in North America as panfish.
Carp are everywhere, I’ve never actually targeted them and have only ever foul hooked a few by mistake when lure fishing. They are almost unfished in Canada and the US, but there are anglers targeting them (mostly European emigres and oddly enough fly fishermen).
The only time I fish bait is when using roe or earthworms for steelhead and brown trout (with a centrepin or fixed spool reel and float), or earthworms for walleye. I mostly fish for black bass or pike using lures.
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13 reels that see regular use, 20 rods I can think of that see regular use, several mint condition older reels just for looking/fondling, some quantity of oddball rods I’ve probably forgotten about. Lures I’d estimate at several hundred?
And mind, I rarely get out like I used to . . . I think I’m a tad overstocked 
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Oh wow, that sounds fantastic, I used to fish the Spey on the Association waters near Grantown, and the Dee near Bangor.
I got a few nice salmon out of the Spey and once a glorious sea trout. Never had much luck in the Dee, but did get a few decent trout.
Nothing tastes better than a trout, cooked over twigs at the side of the river you’ve just pulled it out of.
My brother used to go salmon fishing in Norway a lot before he got ill, he’d be in absolute heaven if he had the game fishing you’ve got on your doorstep.
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Where do you live if you dont mind me asking?
Toronto.
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I haven’t fished for chinook or coho salmon for years, the combination of hordes of big fish in small waters brings out the worst in people and makes for a shit show on the streams. I’d end up either going home very angry or to jail in handcuffs if I tried fishing that scene.
Fishing for steelhead and brown trout over the winter months (when all the fair weather anglers are inside) is more up my strasse.
Atlantic salmon are still very rare. They’re part of a program to re-establish a naturally reproducing population of the fish in Lake Ontario. I’ve not tangled with one yet, but I look forward to it.
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Jig with a plastic trailer would be a good choice for one of those “if you could only fish one lure” questions.
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Bloody hell with a list like that it’s no wonder you don’t bother with bait!
Our angling is no doubt world’s apart and not just culturally and with different species. I imagine you have miles more water per angler than we do here. Very little of ours is at all natural these days. Here we have a tiny island where every stream, river, pond, canal, lake is under pressure from millions of anglers. Apart from a few, the rivers are all shadows of their former selves and in some cases, angler’s activity, i.e bait targeting certain species has made these fish abnormally large/prolific and pushed out other smaller fish that can’t compete. A lot of waters in Southern Britain are infested by American Signal Crayfish and Mitten Crabs and our inshore waters are over fished which has forced seabirds inland to feed, decimating stocks of fish. Add to this water abstraction from rivers causing them to silt up, agriculture leading to undesirable chemicals getting into river systems and weed cutting to aid flow and stop summer flooding. It’s buggered! Funnily enough, recently, the rise of carp fishing in this country has meant that there is less pressure on the rivers because there is a whole generation of anglers brought up on over-stocked commercial lakes who have no interest in, or ability to fish for anything else. The whole thing is screwed/warped! I’m envious of the angling on your doorstep.
Most of my American angling experience has been in Florida but not much has been fresh water. I’d love to go again but costs are beyond me at the moment.