One day I found a big book buried deep in the ground, I opened it but all the pages were blank. Then to my surprise, it started writing itself........

This is the opening to the Bachelorette video by that beautiful, creative genius Bjork and it came to mind the other day when I was reading through some of my old diaries. I've kept angling diaries for many years. I've been writing them in long hand since 1979 and for several years before that I kept a running total of the fish I'd caught, one year as a youngster I even noted each species in a different coloured felt tip. They are full of my memories and are as important to me as the masses of old photo's that fill boxes and albums or, more latterly, on my hard drive.

I don't think that keeping a fishing diary is unusual my only surprise is that some people don't keep a record of their catches. None of us has an infallible memory and I was amazed at the number of incidents I had either forgotten or had filed under the wrong year or river.

Some of the books are particularly tatty due to them accompanying me to and from the water stuffed into my over-full tackle bag. These though contain many of the sharper memories as I would write them in 'real time' and the mood of the hour is transmitted through the text. Of course there are plenty of perfunctory entries scrawled by a dejected soul when all has not gone well but that is countered by the pre-season optimism, the goals and challenges set or achieved as well as those great days when the excitement leaps from the page.

The other day Neil and I were excitedly discussing our fast approaching French trip and I said "It's just empty pages in my diary at the moment". I'm looking forward to the words to start writing themselves.