Barrie Rickards' Angling

The SAA's new-look magazine, and news about the IFM
Before moving on to more substantial subjects I thought I'd draw your attention to a couple of recent events. Firstly the Specialist Angers' Alliance has now brought out the first issue of its new look Specialist Angler, brilliantly edited by Paul Klinkenborg. It's still A4 format, but is a little thinner and will come out more frequently, with plenty of pictures, smaller and newsier articles as well as the usual bigger pieces. This issue includes a bit on the new drive for angling unity and SAA's role in it, a feature on the River Ebro and its carp and catfish, one article on ECHO, on bream, and Dave Bird on wahoo - as well as others, and lots of newsy articles. It seems like a good step in the right direction. If you want to send in articles, reports or pictures, send them to Paul at 49 Winton Drive, Croxley Green, Rickmansworth, Herts WD3 3RB.

Secondly, the Institute of Fisheries Management is running a seminar in the NW today, 4th March, 7 pm, on use of fish refuges to minimise the impact of cormorant predation in stillwaters. It is to be held at the Holiday Inn Hotel, Runcorn, Wood Lane, Beechwood, Cheshire WA7 3HA (0870 400 9070) admission free for members or £2. One thing of immediate interest is the title of the seminar which implies acceptance at last, at least in the IFM if not elsewhere, that cormorants form a threat. I have always tried to support the IFM by participating, giving lectures and so on, even though they did treat me rather badly many years ago. The IFM has keen anglers in its ranks, and some really good people, and more anglers ought to make contact.

Angling Unity?
Now what about that unity in angling? It was announced a couple of weeks ago that the so-called Angling Governing Bodies (i.e. NFA, NFSA, and SITA) intended to merge into one overseeing body for angling. These first reports were not too encouraging because, as I have said before, none of these three bodies is actually representative of their potential and there was no mention of the 'lesser' bodies such as the SAA, or of trade or commercial interests. Later reports made things clear, however, and it does seem as if most angling bodies, small and large, are involved. I hope all representative national bodies are included, because exclusivity, of whatever brand or colour, is something angling does not want.

It is reported that final structure will be prepared by April 30th 2004. I know that my officers in the SAA will be working hard towards this, and I think all of us should be keeping our fingers, and toes, crossed. We've been here before, of course, and things foundered in the end because of personal ego problems, institutionalised ego problems, and other problems, one of which was financial.

It is said that Lord Moran is mooted as Chairman. Sounds okay to me. I hope there is someone involved with plenty of experience of the little-lamented National Anglers' Council (the founding of which was pushed by Richard Walker) because we do not want to go down that road again. It all boils down, I suppose, to whether or not the individual members of the NAA, the NFA etc. etc. can subsume their personal interests for the greater good, and whether or not the organisations themselves, like the NFA, can do the same.

One other change recently in the so-called cormorant debate is that the Minister for Nature Conservation and Fisheries has proposed that cormorants should be 'managed' at certain times of the year. It is puzzling to me why 'management' always seems to include (or exclude) scaring tactics and shooting. The easiest way to control the cormorant populations, without shooting a single bird, would simply be to prick a few eggs. Maybe that's what Ben Bradshaw, the Minister, has in mind. I suppose our response to this, as to the unity issue, is to keep our toes crossed, but not hold our breath!

Angling in schools?
A group of brave souls are trying to get angling into the school curriculum. Of course they can make an extremely good case for this, and I'm sure they are doing so. And perhaps they are doing so in the only way that might have a little success, namely tackling the matter on a local level. It seems that Kent's Lord Williams's School is at present favourably disposed towards the idea put forward by Junior Coarse Angling UK. This, of course, is before the local P.C. experts move in. National I should think the P.C. experts would put paid to any such idea. But, my word, it would be lovely to be wrong about that. If anyone is interested in learning more about this they can email Les Webber: leswebber@jcauk.org

Handling Pike
Now to pike fishing, a subject I keep a wary eye on, as you might imagine. In a recent article Dr Stuart Clough considers that holding a pike by slipping a hand up its gill covers is best avoided. Why? It is by far the safest way to unhook a pike and has become a fine art these days. Perhaps he is simply talking about holding a pike up for a photograph. If so, then there are various ways of holding a pike, and laying it along the forearm, as he suggests, is only one of them. In fact, I do not feel holding the pike under the jaw does them any harm at all. I've been doing it for fifty years and more and the waters I fish do not have pike health problems in consequence. The problems arise when people take too many photographs, take too long over it, and kept the pike out of the water too long as well. I once witnessed the weighing and photographing of a thirty pound fish where, had not Eddie Turner and I stepped in to help, the process, though technically okay, would have taken much too long. That's when the pike suffers. Stuart writes good stuff, but on this issue I think he missed the crucial point.

"I'm an angler, get me out of here!"
It's been good fun watching the business of selecting 'the best ever angler'. We'll see a lot of this kind of thing in the future: angling's 'I'm a celebrity, get me out of here'. That's all it is: fun. For a while. I must say that looking through some of the lists I do wonder where the proponents have been for this last fifty years! Some of the people on the lists have done little or nothing for angling. Plenty for themselves, in a few cases, but not much for angling as a whole. There are exceptions, like Rickard Walker and John Wilson and Des Taylor, and others, who have advanced angling dramatically over many years. And, similarly, there are sea and game anglers who have done likewise. There are three main areas where an individual can contribute: actual success at angling; contributions to administration and contribution to literature and/or the media. Few people make a mark in all three - though I have mentioned three of them above (except that Richard Walker opted out of administration to a large degree - I remember him telling me why).

Final thoughts for this time. I hope you will join me in hoping that Spring 2004 really will herald in a new era of unity in angling, that any new, overseeing body really will aim for inclusivity. And really will listen to anglers.