Angling through Adversity

Do you like fishing? Do you like social systems and growing up? The you need to read Angling through Adversity. Written by Roddy Finnie ( wonderful name for someone connected with fishing).Roddy is a journalist and avid fisherman. It would be true to say he has fished his entire life and still gets that electric thrill when the rod bends. His journalistic interests are sport, human interest, history, politics and the natural world. He is a member of the NUJ . He began by writing short angling stories and submitting them to various publications. His break came when a Texas lady, a professional angler, gave him the opportunity to write for her own online magazine. He got paid $135 for a 1,500 word piece. The story was called “Brown Trout from White Water” and was their best read online. Subsequently he had stories published by the subscription-only magazine, Waterlog, one of the best angling magazines in the world. He is either the longest or the second longest serving angling club secretary in Scotland, and is a Director (Trustee) of the River Clyde Fisheries Management Trust Limited . He is also a Scottish Ministers Appointed Water Bailiff for the Clyde System. He is a happily unmarried 59-years young guy who lives in Cathcart on the south side of Glasgow. His present passion is to raise funds to teach kids (or adults) to angle properly and safely. But what of the book? “Angling through Adversity” is not just a book about how a child became interested in angling and the influences that shaped his lifelong love of the sport. The book starts with Roddy Finnie (the author) as a young boy who is entranced by everything around him and who has an immediate love of discovering nature in all its forms. Throughout the book, the reader sees Roddy grow his skills and improve his understanding of the world. As the book unfolds, the cultural, economic and industrial differences that have taken place during his life are brought into play. The book is written not just with anglers in mind, but for lay folk too, who may never have lifted a rod or cast a fly. Roddy sends his stories to his non-angling sister and asks her a double-barrelled question: on the one hand did she understand it and did she enjoy it. If the answer is in the affirmative then he knows he has achieved his objective The second half of the book takes us away from Roddy’s childhood though his teenage years and on into adulthood. He became a roadie for a Glasgow Rock Band and changed his angling from mainly sea and coarse fishing towards fishing for trout and salmon. The later parts of the book touch on Roddy’s experiences during his thirties, forties and fifties. He has managed to retain his humour (albeit with a little cynicism) while seeing the need for practical conservation and fisheries protection. It is a life story of angling, events, natural phenomenon, animals, people and what they do and say and how ridiculous (on occasion) they can be to the point of embarrassment.