The fishermen of Frimley Pits

I finally got to visit the Hatches lakes this weekend as my mum had managed to get a key and membership to the privately owned land which is now a fishery. I used to live right next to these beautiful lakes when I was a child, they were open to the public back then and we spent many a sunny day frolicking in the undergrowth. I have reoccurring dreams about these lakes where they are transformed into magical lands (previously blogged about)!

I had a brief explore on Sunday morning even though the weather was awful for photography. It was fairly uneventful apart from finding a creepy cabin in the woods surrounded by an army of white vans and finding an odd letterbox attached to the back of the fishery sign. I also  spotted a deer and a blackheaded gull and found a pair of vintage soiled knickers in the forest undergrowth!

I bumped into a few fisherman on my journey (a friendly bunch) and made the following observations:

1. They seem to be very fond of camouflage and all of them were kitted out head to toe in the stuff. Even their tents and fishing rod covers were camouflage which made me wonder what they were hiding from… the fish? each other? dog walkers?

2. I was surprised to find that instead of eating the fish they were catching or some other manly meaty dish, they seemed to enjoy Marks and Spencer salads.

3. They have ruddy complexions with blonde eyelashes. Even the ones with dark hair.

4. They don’t appear to do any actual physical fishing, I didn’t see one fisherman holding their own rod. They balanced them on some strange rod holder type device then sat in their camouflage tent eating M&S edamame bean salads.

5. Swans seem to love them. Every fisherman I walked past had at least 5 swans flocked around them. Perhaps they are like the Pied Piper of Hamlin but instead of attracting children with their musical pipe, they attract swans with their magical rods.

6. They like setting fire to things. Dotted all around the lakes were the charred remains of tree’s, rubbish, tyres, clothing, etc.

7. They like to use those mini laundry hangers with pegs that you get for socks and underwear to hang up their fish after they have caught them. I saw two such contraptions dangling from trees on my travels.

I would like to profusely thank the lovely fisherman who unlocked the gate for me and crawled around on his hands and knees helping me to find the key that flew out my hand whilst locking up!