Going Fishing

1. Going Fishing Dr Kate Pahl University of Sheffield

2. Communication wisdom • Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Connected Communities programme • Project team: Johan Siebers (philosophy), Richard Steadman-Jones (English), Kate Pahl (Education) Hugh Escott (English), Steve Pool (artist) and Andrew McMillan (poet) • Project partners: Jean Simmons and Marcus Hurcombe, the youth service, Rotherham, Angling club, Bramley ponds, Rotherham.

3. Participatory methodologies • Ethnographic fieldnotes • Immersion through practice • Writing with young people • Making films with young people • Hypertext process • Aim: To create a Compleat Angler 2.0

5. Project aims • we aim to consider, from an explicit arts and humanities perspective, the role of fishing in youth work. • In fishing practices, opportunities for the inter-generational communication of wisdom can be activated, which, however, carry their own temporal organization. • The arts and humanities are particularly well-placed to articulate the experiential dimension of the practice of communicating wisdom in communities. (from proposal)

6. I decided to sit on the bank and watch Dylan. Dylan sat very still. He dropped his line very low in the water. He watched and did not do anything else, speak or chat or move. Every so often he would catch a fish and he would bring it in, carefully, inspect it, take the hook and throw it back in. Once or twice he needed the landing net. When he caught a fish he drew it in quietly and gently. He did not boast or show other people. It was part of the process of fishing. (from fieldnotes by Kate Pahl)

7. Why fishing is so good • Fishing is an attractive and worthwhile activity because you tune in on the moment by focusing on the future • You sit and focus because you want to catch a fish. • When you catch a fish you get very aware of the life of the fish in your hands (young people’s thoughts)

8. When Reece caught a fish I took the opportunity to go and sit with him and Terry. Terry spoke at length about coaching and fishing. Especially about how you can tell in 5 minutes if someone has a natural talent for snooker or football but you can’t tell if someone will be a natural fisher. He spoke of people he knows who aren’t ‘very bright’ but were incredible fishermen. All the while he was watching over Reece’s shoulder and discussing what he was doing with him. Reece joined in with what he thought about certain aspects of fishing. Reece spoke to me for a while about his success in match fishing and his preference for Carp fishing which Terry also preferred. (from Fieldnotes by Hugh Escott)

9. I felt like the evening went on for a long time. Jean got hungry for her tea. Steve, Dylan and the others sat sill and caught fish while I watched moorhens and gulls. The water plopped with flies and fish and glittered in the evening sun. The fishermen brought tea to drink in a thermos and drank it. Sometimes we got cold and put on our jackets but in the sun it was lovely. It was like nobody could drag themselves away from the bank. Dylan was in an amazing rythmn of catching fish. Martin smiled and told me of his early morning fish that day. Jean told me about her worries about her job. I told her I wanted to be a river board man when I grew up. We began a group of figures in a landscape. Jean said the young boys had become totally different through this project, still and absorbed, self confident. (Fieldnotes Kate Pahl)

10. Kirsty (aged 13): No previous experience. The first time I went one of the fish got the bait and then it swam off, I had that a couple of times. The first time I went fishing I caught a big fish. It took about 10 – 15 minutes to get it out of the water. I had to wait until it got tired out. The fishermen had to help you land it. The thing with fishing, projects like this, it gets kids off the street instead of – kids my age can be sat by the side of the riverbank instead of being out late at night. When they are sat by the side of the riverbank they are like, admiring the nature of the place. Fishing ain’tgonna solve a problem but for the amount of time you are doing fishing it takes your mind off a problem, because its focusing on what you are doing (November 2013)

11. Kirsty: fishing helps you because it calms you down when you are sat there. What I found, with the pond, when I was watching it, I was really calm just watching the water. When it were like spitting a little bit it looked amazing on the water because it was so peaceful, you could see the little rings just spreading out.

12. Jean: The beauty envelopes you, the sun reflecting on the water, the little midges above the water, reflections in the waves, little frog, birds, and then you get the almighty snake swimming past, as much as the sun shining on the water, we have sat under an umbrella, it were pouring down, we didn’t care did we, we were sat in it, weren’t we, we didn’t care. We wanted to catch a fish weren’t we? It were pouring with rain – that’s another world, the pitter patter and pouring off edges and then you see if from a different angle

13. Youth work • This is an ideal space for youth work as it is possible to do anti-bullying work plus teach new skills • By being in the moment young people can re-assess things, what it means to be bullied or have trouble in your home life, • Gives you perspective (Jean Simmons, youth worker)

14. Jean: I can’t describe the tranquillity that comes over you when you sit on that seat. Whatever you are thinking, whatever is bothering you prior to sitting on that bank, it goes away, and you are sat here, and it is as if you are in this big bubble…(Jean Simmons Youth Worker)