Angling is like Buddhism...

it's more a lifestyle than a sport.

Or, at least, for those of us who pursue it passionately, it is a lifestyle.

Both my brother and I are anglers and he is a great rock and surf angler, but aside from a number of trips on the deep sea ski boats, he hasn't taken his angling any further. Perhaps he doesn't need to, as he catches enough fish from the beach.

My father, on the other hand, is a great all-round angler, one of the best I know in fact. He started angling as a youngster in Scotland, sometimes poaching fish to earn a few bucks for the fish he sold to butchers. He once told me he held the unofficial world record for a freshwater salmon (the number 76lbs sticks in my mind) but he couldn't claim the record because it was poached (in fact, gaffed, it was so big) on private waters.

While he was growing up, dad got into fly fishing and for the most part, tied his own flies with great success. For anyone who knows fly tying, you will know that it involves great skill and patience, understanding the feeding habits of the fish you're trying to attract and the waters you'll be presenting your fly on. Scotland has some of the best fly fishing waters in the UK, although some of the fish are what we might call tiddlers these days, even compared to the hatchery trout we get in SA.

When we moved to SA in 1969, we moved to Springs, a little town just outside Johannesburg, and dad got us interested in angling in the dams, catching carp and barbel (catfish). He lost interest in it though, I think, when we started showing interest and proficiency in this aspect of the lifestyle.

But dad also dabbled a while in rock and surf angling, quite possibly to interest my brother and I in yet another form of angling. Just after we moved to Stanger on the north coast of SA, dad bought us all decent equipment and I still remember the first time we went to the beach together and I caught a small sandshark. He talked me all through the bite, what to wait for, when to strike, how to play and land the fish. Quite possibly, my brother will remember those times as well, but he ended up doing his own thing and developed his own (successful) style of angling.

At one point, after being friends with some of the commercial fishermen and going out on boats with them a few times, dad and a friend bought a small ski boat that was rigged out for deep sea fishing, and he took us out on a few occasions. Deep sea fishing is great fun, but not if you get seasick easily. Luckily for our family, all the men seem to have their "sea legs" and don't suffer from seasickness.

Just a couple of years ago, I got into the fly fishing "scene" and bought dad a 5wt fly rod, reel and line as I wanted to try flies in the sea, as well as see if I could rekindle his passion in fly fishing. After all, he has the entire Indian Ocean on his doorstep. To this date, dad is the only one of us all to catch a fish in the sea on fly. It was a small pompano, taken in the shallows just down from their house.

As for myself, aside from the aspects of the lifestyle I've mentioned myself in above, I enjoy angling because it gets me out of the house ("you watch too much tv") and into the fresh air. I get to socialise with people I would never have met if we didn't share the same passion in angling and we talk passionately about our shared lifestyle.

I've never fished in Scotland, except as a very small boy growing up there, but would like to go fly fishing with my aunt one day (yes, my aunt - she has a passion for fly fishing unlike her husband who only has a passion for Chivas Regal). I haven't tried fly fishing down here in the Cape yet as most of my angling days are spent on a beach with a 14ft rock and surf rod in my hand, trying to catch my first "real" fish here. I've caught a few sandsharks and puffer fish here, but those don't count. Until I catch a decent size edible fish, or a large shark, I will consider myself a Cape angling virgin.

I get out onto Kalk Bay harbour wall now and then, and try to catch my own chokka (squid) which is used as bait for bigger fish. The wall is always crammed with anglers trying to get their quota of chokka and there is always an air of cameraderie. No-one cares what tackle the other guys are using as chokka is caught from the wall with light spinning tackle, rather than large bulky rock and surf rigs. Everyone laughs when a chokka is caught as the rush is then on to get it past the marauding Cape fur seals who ambush your catch on the way in.

I've enjoyed my limited angling time in the Cape to such an extent that I've developed what I called the "False Bay Angling Assistant" to help other new anglers in the area. It's a simple double-sided A4 document that has a Google Earth picture with some GPS coordinates of angling spots, bag and size limits of the popular fish in the False Bay area, names and numbers of tackle shops, tackle repair guys, handy hints and tips in angling conservation, as well as types of fish that we are just not allowed to catch due to legislation. Since its creation, I'm on version 3, and the document is posted on three different angling websites. It's also been downloaded by over 400 anglers, so I like to think I'm doing my own small bit for the lifestyle.

This coming weekend, I hope to be standing on a beach again, rod in hand waiting for the "big toothy bus" to try and wrench the rod out of my arms, enjoying the company of a couple of guys from the fishing forum I'm a member of who are also passionate about the lifestyle.

In about five weeks time, I should be sitting on a Transkei beach, again with rod in hand enjoying the company of the Kosi Fishing Team (Fishman, his Sis-in-law, skoonpa -father-in-law- and Rudolph) and a couple of others who want to join us this year. Fishman has done his usual sterling job of organising this year's trip and everyone is all gee'd up to get out there. They, unfortunately for them, are all landlocked up in the Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces, so they don't get to do as much angling as myself. But we're all looking forward to getting together again (this will be my third trip with the team) to spend five days talking shit, drinking copious amounts of Capns Organ or brandy and coke, and just generally enjoying the outdoors and the company of other passionate anglers.

But most importantly, enjoying the angling lifestyle...