Cows hate anglers.
For the un-initiated, sea anglers often don’t have the camping style experience of those who sit around lakes in little tents. Sea angling oft involves climbing to some barren remote spot which affords access to a good patch of water. A beach if you’re lucky, or a cliff or rock ledge if you’re brave / daft. As sitting by the sea for several hours can get a bit nippy, you like to be wrapped up warm which usually means several layers of clothing under a thick padded outer layer of black / fluorescent waterproofing (it’s a silly colour in case you fall in so the coastguard can see you – not for misguided fashion merit).

Now picture the scene:
Greencloud and mates are away on a fishing weekend. Monumental amounts of beer are drank. Greencloud and one mate wake early and decide to take advantage of the morning tide while the others lay strewn among a litter of beer cans & bottles, pickling in their filthy sacks. A reasonable session on the rocks was had and we headed back to the car when our hangovers cried out for fried food mid-morning. Togged up as above, carrying two 13ft rods each and various buckets & bags of kit between us we had 50 feet of cliff and about a mile of steep hill to climb. Hung over. Most of said hill was in use as grazing for ‘Aberdeen angus’. The herd must have been in a barn or possibly hiding out watching us when we’d arrived, but were now spread across the field between us and the car.

I’m no scaredy cat, I’m quite aware that the bovine beasts are generally a peaceful sort, eating grass lazily etc. I’m also aware that these hefty ones weigh about as much as a small car and these guys are getting frisky, rearing and running about in an excitable manner. Getting closer all the time. At first I was apprehensive to use my rod in defence. It cost me over £200 and I didn’t want to damage it. Taking care to hold it upside-down, it proved to be a very effective tool to keep the boisterous bovines at bay. Remember the scene toward the end of Dusk-til-Dawn where Clooney and Juliette Lewis are standing back to back while being encircled by vampires? It was like that but with anglers and cows! They paced around us with a look of sheer menace in their long-lashed big eyes, emitting the occasional taunt of "MoooOOOO!!" and gnashing their teeth in a threatening grassy sort of way.

Thankfully no damage was done to persons, equipment or automobile. However, it was interesting to know that the beefy beasts mistook my mates VW for a big grey lollipop and had licked almost every part of the cars surface. The dirty bastards.
(Greencloud Wanted to go fishing on, Fri 25 Apr 2008, 9:40, Reply)