Changes

[steve2]

A time of reflection.

As I enter my 70’s thought I just reflect on the changes I have seen in fishing over the last 60 years.
I started out like many catching newts on worms from what were bomb craters and ponds. One day my brother came home with a fishing rod, if you could call it a rod, just a piece of cane with some safety pin eye stuck on. Reel was some Bakelite centre pin. I caught my first fish on that rod, a Roach from Raphael Park in Romford and that was the start of it all

Worst change I have seen is the destruction of the small streams we use to fish as boys.
Biggest change fish wise, Carp, they have gone from the fish of dreams to the dominant easy to catch species in most waters.
Freshly dug, purpose built heavily stocked commercial waters now control what most people want from their fishing. Plenty of bites in safe surroundings with other facilities on site nothing wrong with that might even try them myself next year.
Commercial big carp fisheries have taken over from what use to be commercial put and take trout waters. Put in the fish at the right size and the anglers will come and pay to catch. Very few trout fishing lakes now left in my area most have switched over to carp.

Tackle of course as changed no end but fishing methods haven’t really changed much at all. Read old books and there is nothing really new in the methods we use.

There have of course been others but to me the mystery as now gone out of fishing. We now know to much about what is in the waters we fish.

I know there are many on this site that have fished for over 40 years what are the changes you have seen?

 

[rayner]

You're dead right Steve, nothing much has changed. Magazines tell us it's a new technique when they release their latest thing, in truth it's just an old technique re jigged.
Tackle has come on leaps and bounds but on the whole we bait an hook to catch a fish. Simple folk, anglers.

 

[rayner]

Duplicated post.

 

[silvers]

I guess I just about qualify ... having caught my first fish in 1977 (a blenny in a rock pool at Port Holland in Cornwall).

As a match angler I've noticed a few changes since I started out on that path in about 1982 ... not all for the better, but I hope this isn't seen as a moan fest!

I never really committed to the commercial match scene in the last 20 years - so match carp techniques and approaches have largely passed me by. For example, I've never fished a method feeder (other than an emstat frame feeder for bream!).
Since about 1990, the only significant addition to my armoury has been hair-rigs and pellets for Barbel - everything else has been incremental. From a tackle perspective - the carbon revolution was just as a I started match fishing, but I can see the vast improvements in the decade before 1990.

So for me - the most noticeable changes have been:

1. size of matches - smaller contests in general. Mainly because there are fewer match anglers. This isn't even confined to rivers and canals - where I'm still one of the youngsters at the age of 52! We appear to have gone full circle from the post war years of several hundred peg matches back to small sweepstakes.

2. quality of participants. When I started there were plenty who really wouldn't have much hope of framing unless they drew the absolute flier. But they enjoyed the day out and made the atmosphere of big contests. This was true of open matches and bigger galas. Very little pools fodder on the open matches that I fish these days.

3. the decline of team fishing. In the 80s team fishing was already taking over from the big opens. AT winter leagues with 12 teams of 12 anglers all over the country - meaning plenty of 144 peg matches. Up to six divisions of the National champs with 80 teams of 12. Nowadays most remaining winter leagues are 6 teams of ten or fewer - and the national is two small divisions. Should be a return to the "All England"?

4. the fish we catch. Having accrued 40 years experience I've seen the populations of target fish fir us match fisherman wax and wane. I've posted previously about the relative dearth of chub in comparison to the 80s. having said that - there are healthy fish populations in all of the midlands rivers - with roach, dace and perch being prevalent everywhere. i remember the decline of the river Trent for match fishing in the 90s. The river is rammed with silver fish these days - despite the clarity of water compared to 30 years ago.

5. the size of specimens. Although I don't target specimens - you can't help but notice that the british record for many species has shot up since my youth.

 

[john step]

Steve, I used to haunt Raphels Park but it was gudgeon mostly. My first fish a roach came from the Chelmer. About 1960 I think.
I lived next to the Chase at Dagenham which was really scruffy and litter strewn. That is one place that has improved no end. Well run and landscaped now.

The Roding was a bus ride away and was full of fish. I understand its only a shadow of its former self.

The biggest change for me has been practise and achievement. I actually expect to catch nowadays and a blank is rare.
Thats not a boast just the observation that all club matches were size limits down south.
I can remember a club match at Portholme Meadow on the Great Ouse where I caught a lot of chub but blanked as they were all just under the 12 inch rule.

 

[no-one in particular]

Just a note John, if you do fish a commercial next year or a day ticket water. You can find non carp lakes in among whats on offer, you have to research them out but worth looking for if you don't want carp and catfish. I found a nice farm with a big pretty lake that was deliberately not stocked with carp last year and the bigger commercials still have non carp lakes on some of them.
As to changes, seen quite a few but i still use a big cork float with a lump of bread on the hook, not because I am traditional or anything, I just like looking at the float.

 

[peterjg]

I have been fishing for around 60 years (since I was a young boy taken by my dad). Changes over the years:

Fewer anglers now, stretches of the Thames especially used to be busy. Now you can literally walk miles along the Thames, Kennet or K&A Canal or Basingstoke Canal without seeing another angler.

Lots of "commercials" where carp are impossible NOT to catch! Not to mention the horrible "F1s"!

In the first half of the 1970s carp were still quite rare fish, methods were comparitevely basic so they were difficult to catch.

Tackle shops stocked very little carp tackle.

There used to be loads more tackle shops.

Pellets, boilies and hair rigs unheard of.

Quite rightly the most prized species was a big roach - it still is by some.

Most anglers float fished - legering was done while you ate your sandwiches!

Few anglers night fished.

Line was horrible, hooks were generally horrible with barbs that were unnecessarily too big. Most rods (in comparison) were horrible.

No bivvies.

We are now told that our rivers are cleaner - certainly our rivers are clearer NOT cleaner.

Our rivers (mostly) had more water in them!

No signal crayfish (bliss), no cormorants, no mink, no otters, less boats and canoes, no dopey carp anglers casting in your swim.


So would I turn back the clock? No not really, there is now lots of quiet, secluded spots with some big, unpressured fish waiting to pull on your line.

 

[no-one in particular]

A few more changes, maggots are a lot cleaner, you hardly ever see bread paste (a standard once), swing tips came and went, quiver tips came. Fish care became a thing , comfort improved considerable (brollies, chairs, thermal socks and boots etc). Tinned bait didn't exist once, you can buy almost anything in a tin or tub these days in a tackle shop and the biggest one of all maybe, forums like this.
Overall things have improved considerable but I wouldn't say the fishing has.
I think I would turn the clock back, probably just nostalgia however, I miss when it all seemed so much simpler, the days when you could just rock up and buy a day ticket in a village store, half a pint of maggots, a lump of bread paste, controversies just didn't exist, the only war was bailiffs with poachers, it was all natural fishing more or less and you never knew what you might catch. I think we all had more of a laugh and enjoyed the fishing a bit more back then.

Happy new year everyone, I wish you all a good year in life and fishing.

 

[108831]

I think what makes fishing so interesting is the changing of venues and methods,that said,using a waggler hasnt changed that much,just the way you target certain species on it...

 

[rich66]

I started fishing in the 70’s stopped in the 80’s and when I started again it was a shock on how much had changed. Had many a failure with new kit & heavy hook lengths seem the norm. My first rod was cane, then fibreglass and a year before I got married I bought a carbon fibre one. The whole lot was sold to a guy for far less than the value of that rod but I needed the cash and had a kid to feed.

Rods and reels are so much better than the ones I remember.
I still do use a swing tip took me a while to find a rod that had a screw in tip adapter. I’ve caught a few fish on that when others have had no luck on a feeder rod.

Rigs, jigs, method feeders have took a while and still are a learning curve. I more often than not start the day on a float and low bs hook lengths I make myself.

There seems more fish than there used to be or possibly I’m just a better angler ?

Forums like this are a gold mine of information, sadly the younger angler’s seem more social media oriented but that’s their thing biggest downside is lack of manners and keyboard warriors.

YouTube is great for finding out all sorts of stuff if you’re prepared to wade through hours of adverts product placements and basically some people almost willing to sell their soul for sponsorship.

, I miss when it all seemed so much simpler, the days when you could just rock up and buy a day ticket in a village store, half a pint of maggots, a lump of bread paste,

I miss not being able to buy a day ticket I’d probably venture to different places more often.
I actually found a club last year that still sells day tickets from the local village PO, rather refreshing really. Sutton Bonnigton Angling if anyone ventures that way. Nice wide stretch for the Soar.

That turned into a bit of a ramble

Let’s see what 2020 brings us all. I hope it brings health and happiness to everyone, plus more than a few fish.

 

[David Rogers 3]

controversies just didn't exist

I suppose that depends on far back you want to go! Re-reading a lot of copies of Fishing magazine from the 1960s recently reminded me of quite how much controversy there was between "thinking anglers" back then, and on a huge variety of topics: Whether or not eels could travel overland, why trout sometimes took a static fly (and was it really static?), what produced the occasional two-toned fish, did fluted floats actually work in the way their proponents claimed - the list went on and on. And some of the invective got pretty personal, too...

 

[steve2]

Just been rereading Jack Hilton “Quest for Carp” what a change from then to now. Back then time had to be spent hunting down waters the contained carp and to catch a double was to be looked on in awe.
I can still remember my first double, 14lb, it took some time to catch but it looked massive compared to what I had caught before. Caught on Kitekat cat food paste. You can now much catch bigger without even trying.

 

[markcw]

A lot has been said on attendances I'm matches, A winter league around Wigan attracts over 100 canal anglers , Also many years ago there were not the large payout matches that there are today, Fish o mania etc, The qualifiers on some commercials are sell outs again with 100 plus pegs, There are more specialised rods these days, The evolution of tackle and the cost,