Week 1
The day after I arrived in London, I wanted to walk around and explore the city. While aimlessly walking, I stumbled upon an interesting intersection at the cross between Pall Mall and Waterloo Place. I stopped at a small section of grass in front of a stature that bisected Waterloo Place. After admiring the statue, I turned to the beautiful British flags hanging down Waterloo Place. In the corner of my eye, I saw a fishing store I had read about before arriving called Farlow’s. Farlow’s is one of the only fishing stores still around in London. While reading Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now, I read about London’s forgotten fishing culture. The author, Craig Taylor, described that before television and the computer, London was a very passionate fishing community. Taylor had said that in the late 1800s, London had over 200 tackle shops in just one square mile downtown. Now, Farlow’s is one of the only remaining fishing stores that resemble London’s glorious fishing heritage. Walking in to the cement building on the corner of Waterloo Place and Pall Mall wearing my Red Bull Racing hat immediately made me feel at home. On the left, a display of fishing rods greets visitors. The display contained very few rods similar to those found at tackle shops in Massachusetts. The majority of rods were light action trout rods and various weighted fly rods. Only a handful were saltwater deep-sea rods that are common at home.
Taylor sparked my interest in the different types of fishing in Britain before coming to London. I watched a video by Jon B. an American freshwater bass angler and fishing Youtuber whom traveled to Great Britain to experience the very different culture of UK fishing. He met up with two UK anglers that brought Jon to their favorite fishing locations. Through the video, I learned that the majority of ponds in Britain are private property and require joining a fishing club. Many of these ponds are extremely small and contain a finite number of fish. The most thrilling fish species to catch in Britain are trophy sized carp and the Wels catfish. I learned through Jon’s video what equipment and techniques are used for these types of fishing and one of the biggest things I learned was the amount of waiting involved. I learned that there is very little lure fishing and the best baits for carp are compact pieces of bread on a small but strong hook and Spam or any other pungent food for the Wels catfish. Jon goes on to catch multiple giant Wels catfish and trophy sized Mirror carp throughout the multi-episode series. Farlow’s had an array of terminal tackle required for the carp and catfish fishing I saw in Jon’s video as well as for trout and other smaller species. I noticed that much of the tackle was made by the same companies at home with a few not available in the US. In the back-left corner of the store, laid a glass cabinet containing some of the highest quality Shimano reels. I am checked to see if they had any of the reels Shimano does not offer in the US. The week before coming to London, I saw on Shimano’s social media page that they released a new version of a reel that many of the Cape Cod Canal anglers use. The old reels are not easy to locate anymore and are not only very expensive but must be bought in the UK too. While scouring the case for the new version to see if I could learn more about it, one of the staff members asked me if I needed any help or assistance. After learning that they had not received them yet, he asked me if I was a Max Verstappen or Daniel Riccardo fan, the two Formula 1 drivers for Red Bull. The salesman was very young and like me a Max Verstappen fan, although we both really like Riccardo as well. Max Verstappen is only 20 years only and is already one of the most talented drivers on the racing grid and the close age gap pushed in favor of Verstappen. The salesman took me around the store showing me the different fishing equipment while we also shared our passion for cars. After talking about Formula 1 and Verstappen crashing out of the race the day before, we started comparing car cultures in Britain and the US. His first question to me was how old I was and at what age can you start to drive. He was blown away that we could start to drive at 16 in Massachusetts and even younger in other states. He is 17 and I learned that he could only start learning to drive once he turned 17 and could get his license at 18. He was jealous of the cars we get in the US that have larger, more powerful gas engines. He explained that since gas prices were so high, most drove diesels or very small and fuel-efficient gas engines. When I asked why there were so many supercars in London he told me that people come to London show off their fancy cars and many of the Arab oil rich families spend time in London before going back. I learned a lot about not only fishing in Britain but car culture in Britain as well. I was so excited to meet someone with the shared the same enthusiasm towards my two favorite passions. |