Why do you think angling has become so polarised

[tiinker]

Why do you think that the majority of anglers fish mainly for one specie or type of fishing even forty years ago anglers fished to the seasons. In the spring it was tench carp crucians ect autumn would be perch chub barbell roach and dace and winter roach chub perch and pike. Anglers in general fished Stillwater and rivers though out the season for all the different species. Anglers in the past had a far broader knowledge of methods and baits because they fished many different situations. Why do you think angling is where it is today.

 

[pidgergj]

Maybe it has something to do with the financial situation. I think your average bloke would be hard pressed to be able to buy all the different gear required.

Using myself as an example, i wouldnt be able to go out tomorrow and buy the gear i would need to fish for pike now its getting to that time of year. I chose the type of fishing i want to do, tackled up accordingly and have to stick with it.

My local lake is 12 miles or so away, i have already paid for the year. If i wanted to go go fishing for chub, it would mean paying again to fish a river somewhere, again something thats not really feasible.

just my thoughts, may have nothing to do with it at all

 

[dorsetandchub]

Certain fish, carp, barbel, predators, have become "sexy" and the market in tackle reflects this. Reels to give extra distance, roda likewise.

gadgets and gizmos are invented all the time to pave over the hundreds of practice sessions many of the chaps on here underwent.

It's a "results now" society nowadays.

That said, I love trotting a stick float for roach and I do, I genuinely do, feel sorry for kids who go straight onto pole, pellets, F1s and bulging nets. The learning, the thinking, the ideas, the thoughts and the "cunning plans" - they're what it's all about, really.

 

[sam vimes]

Humans are inherently tribalistic. Many like organizing themselves into groups and being part of such groups. Add a sprinkling of folks into those groups, that are vocally intolerant of alternate groups, it appears that angling is more polarized than it actually is. I very much doubt that angling is any more polarized than it ever was. However, twenty or thirty years ago, the only way such things were apparent were in the letters pages of the angling press. I doubt that most folks even bothered to read such content. Most just couldn't care.

 

[jacksharp]

You don't need to have all the "right" gear. My 1.75tc barbel rod and 4000 sized Baitrunner does fine for casual carping and a bit of pike fishing with the addition of a cheap bite alarm, swinger and the right bits of end-tackle.

 

[Paul Boote]

You don't need to have all the "right" gear. My 1.75tc barbel rod and 4000 sized Baitrunner does fine for casual carping and a bit of pike fishing with the addition of a cheap bite alarm, swinger and the right bits of end-tackle.

You didn't "then", but you appear to do now....

Take my old cane Mk IV Avon that I have had since the age of 10, for example - it's had everything, from minnows to mullet, from big barbel to floatfished and touch-legered Mini Mahseer, to bass to salmon, and so did / have a handful of its first glass then quality carbon successors. But then you could do and "have it all" at one time without having to defend yourself from swivel-eyed single-species sort attackers for doing so.

 

[tiinker]

I do not think it is down to the cost of tackle as such because we had far less spare cash fifty or forty years ago. Most youngsters had one rod and reel. in your teens you aimed at having a match rod and a avon type or legering rod. These two rods covered you for all your fishing Some of the men had nice kit for the time with three or four rods but most managed with a couple of rods. They even made combination rods do you remember them they made up into sometimes four kinds of rod. It just seems a shame that there is so much more to fishing than targeting just one or two species.

 

[Terry D]

As a generalisation, I think a lot of it is down to the explosion of commercial waters on the scene and anglers drifting away from rivers and natural venues.
Those that have stuck with the latter have seen them devastated by cormorants and therefore difficult to just go out and enjoy a days fishing for whatever comes along. The fish are just not there in abundance any more. Hence the need to polarise your fishing either to a specific water or to which style of fishing you prefer.

 

[dorsetandchub]

Terry,


A bit chicken and egg but surely the commercials came about as a result of demand?

 

[Peter Jacobs]

The factors are many and varied I believe.

Firstly we have the general decline of the Rivers that in a great part were responsible for the initial growth of the Commercial fisheries. Within this sub-set then you have the polarisation of the pleasure angler versus the Match angler.

Next to consider is the single species approach brought on by the growth of single species societies and the rampant growth of Carp fishing in particular followed some time later by Barbel, then Pike and more lately Zander.

So followed the common misconception that in order to pursue one particular species then you would need very specialised rods, reels and terminal tackle and then of course baits as well.
If your rod didn’t have a transfer of a Carp or a Barbel then it surely wouldn’t be any good fishing for one or the other, would it?

Tackle manufacturers were swift to realise that a ready market now existed where previously one or two rods would suit all purposes and then coupled with the “star name” in a glossy magazine that would support their claims by a myriad of infomercials posing as articles.
.
Within these sub “species” then the general financial power of the individual angler took over where only the latest and most expensive Nash or Trakker bivvy would be acceptable thereby splitting even the single species angler-types even further into almost splinter groups.

Further sub-divisions then became apparent by the type of baits that an angler uses, whether or not these are projected by a spod-rod or gently placed in position by a bait boat; all of these factors being to hand to polarise angling further.

All this occurring before the inauguration of the Angling Trust which in many ways had the opportunity to bring anglers back together into one broad group but even that seemed doomed to failure by the introduction of Kayak anglers and the lack of a proper Specimen group from the earliest of days.

And so it goes on and on, as if hell-bent of self-destruction by polarisation.

Gone are the days referred to above, where one would fish for Rudd and Roach and Dace, or have an early morning session for Tench followed by maybe a late breakfast then a move to a river for a spot of long trotting for smaller species but nonetheless prized because of their lack of size.

So, here we are today, a more diverse and polarised lot you would be hard put to beat, and yet in the simplest of analyses we all just dangle a piece of bait on a hook in order to, hopefully, catch a fish.

Would we could return to those simpler and gentler days of just . . . . . . . . Fishing

 

[Mr Cholmondeley-Corker (PaSC)]

The main reason angling has become polarised is because many anglers wear polarised glasses. Obvious.

 

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

more liek they wear blinkers

I'm right and you're wrong mentality

we see it on here each week - there are those that can't admit they are wrong or even that others are allowed to have a different point of view

 

[binka]

I have no idea why angling seems to be so polarised nowadays but very much agree that it is.

I don't know whether it's idealism in that if people haven't got the correct "in gear" they won't make do with a suitable all rounder, somehow deceiving themselves into thinking that they might not experience the same level of enjoyment or whether it's something else like just not having the time to be a jack of all trades so decide to focus on fewer or single species?

With decent gear seemingly available at cheaper prices than ever it should be more viable than ever to enjoy the broader spectrum of fishing so i'm not sure if it then becomes a "must have the best of everything" mentality or some won't do it all?

Or is it that media provides us with enough free single species information these days to be able to let our imaginations run a little with something that particularly takes our fancy... a bit like choosing from a menu?

Either way I hope to be enjoying everything from gonk bashing down the local canal to big river piking and everything in between for many years yet.

 

[BarryC]

When I was a youngster (yes I know, another old fart) for the average angler there simply was not the access to monster fish.
If you HEARD about a carp being caught you talked about it for weeks.
So apart from very rare carp the only realy big fish were pike and unless you fished specifically for them they were unlikely to grace your net, if you had one.
Barbel and tench were the next biggest but came nowhere near to todays proportions.
So when you went fishing you grabbed your rod stuffed all your tackle, bait and sarnies in a duffle bag and off you went for the day.
You could be reasonably sure that your one and only rod would handle most techniques and fish that you asked of it.

 

[tiinker]

When you look at the tackle that specialist anglers use and even matchmen there is still so much that they each use from each others methods . Anglers seem to learn from each others disciplines as they always have but do not seem to mix and match any more. Of all the methods to suffer being less than what it was is float fishing in its many forms and the use of the lead has increased out of all proportion. I remember some twenty years ago when someone said to me but you cannot float fish you are a carp angler and another young fella a carp angler for some ten years said to me how do you hook these casters then. Every thing seem to have been turned on its head over the last twenty five years. They start at the top and if they are lucky they work their way back to where we started. I am not sure what it is called but over the last few years a super light set up for catching mini species in sea angling has come about not any different from what we did as kids with sticks and bits of line. But of course they that is the younger generations have not done it before.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

The factors are many and varied I believe.

Firstly we have the general decline of the Rivers that in a great part were responsible for the initial growth of the Commercial fisheries. Within this sub-set then you have the polarisation of the pleasure angler versus the Match angler.

Next to consider is the single species approach brought on by the growth of single species societies and the rampant growth of Carp fishing in particular followed some time later by Barbel, then Pike and more lately Zander.

So followed the common misconception that in order to pursue one particular species then you would need very specialised rods, reels and terminal tackle and then of course baits as well.
If your rod didn’t have a transfer of a Carp or a Barbel then it surely wouldn’t be any good fishing for one or the other, would it?

Tackle manufacturers were swift to realise that a ready market now existed where previously one or two rods would suit all purposes and then coupled with the “star name” in a glossy magazine that would support their claims by a myriad of infomercials posing as articles.
.
Within these sub “species” then the general financial power of the individual angler took over where only the latest and most expensive Nash or Trakker bivvy would be acceptable thereby splitting even the single species angler-types even further into almost splinter groups.

Further sub-divisions then became apparent by the type of baits that an angler uses, whether or not these are projected by a spod-rod or gently placed in position by a bait boat; all of these factors being to hand to polarise angling further.

All this occurring before the inauguration of the Angling Trust which in many ways had the opportunity to bring anglers back together into one broad group but even that seemed doomed to failure by the introduction of Kayak anglers and the lack of a proper Specimen group from the earliest of days.

And so it goes on and on, as if hell-bent of self-destruction by polarisation.

Gone are the days referred to above, where one would fish for Rudd and Roach and Dace, or have an early morning session for Tench followed by maybe a late breakfast then a move to a river for a spot of long trotting for smaller species but nonetheless prized because of their lack of size.

So, here we are today, a more diverse and polarised lot you would be hard put to beat, and yet in the simplest of analyses we all just dangle a piece of bait on a hook in order to, hopefully, catch a fish.

Would we could return to those simpler and gentler days of just . . . . . . . . Fishing

PS, the above was not meant to be laying blame at any one door but just my view of how it all happened . . . . . . . . .

 

[Chris Hammond ( RSPB ACA PAC}]

You don't need to have all the "right" gear. My 1.75tc barbel rod and 4000 sized Baitrunner does fine for casual carping and a bit of pike fishing with the addition of a cheap bite alarm, swinger and the right bits of end-tackle.

Absolutely spot on IMHO. I've used my Daiwa Whiska Kevlar carp rods (2lb and 2.5lb) for Bass, Garfish, Pollack, Wrasse, Mackerel, Dogfish, Pike Chub, Barbel, Zander, Bream, Tench. Eels and of course Carp over the two decades I've owned them. (And probably a couple of species I've forgotten.)

 

[slaphead]

It's not something that gets me hot and bothered.

I enjoy my fishing for the pleasure it gives me by being out and about in our glorious countryside. Others enjoy targeting a particular species and catching the biggest or the best.

Each to his own.

 

[no-one in particular]

Any new angler going into a tackle shop and asking about taking up fishing is probably going to be 90% steered towards a commercial and carp fishing. Or persuaded to join a club where in the main it will be carp fishing again. Most clubs in my experience own one or two good carp waters that are their mainly used and advertised feature. Then he will get rapped up in the carp are best and biggest is best philosophy. I think very few new anglers these days will start out on a river and/or fishing for roach, chub etc. At some point they might give it a go, even sea fishing but, find they do not catch so many fish or, they are small and not worthy and do not fit in with his new found idea of what fishing is about and will rarely bother with it much.
I don't think there is anything wrong with that really but, it will polarize angling. I fish rivers mainly these days and they are almost devoid of anglers all summer.

 

[maverick 7]

I honestly don't think it is all that polarised......most anglers are members of clubs and most clubs supply all kinds of fishing including...river, pond and lake fishing and for all kinds of species too....and many anglers take the opportunity to use them.

....but if what you are talking about is why people choose to pursue a certain species......I just think that it is a case of whatever lights your candle really.

....but fishing has changed or the worse in the last 30 years that is for sure.

Maverick