Are they missing a trick?

[Chris Hammond ( RSPB ACA PAC}]

I've just been discussing this with another angler. I was wondering why none of the angling mags or rags have ever featured a nature type column? I'm guessing that, to a greater or lesser extent, virtually all anglers make having an interest in the flora and fauna around them on the bank an integral part of their fishing. For me a little filler entitled perhaps 'Bugs on the bank' or 'Birds on the bank' etc would really liven up the angling reading material.

Anyone else think so?

Maybe Greg has a view?

 

[MarkTheSpark]

When I was on AT, I fought bravely but with complete futility for the paper to have a Page 5 bird. Look at the demographic - 90% male aged 18 - 50. I was, at the time, editor of the junior club (the delightfully-named Rodbenders) and this kind of spoiled my chances, as it was felt parents would complain.

But on a serious note, you're right, Chris. AT should try to encourage all anglers to know the plants and animals around them.

 

[Fred Bonney]

Someone is thinking very seriously about it Chris

Holding an article on Bats, and going to introduce something like
Our friends by the waterside. Space is the problem.

If my advertising search comes to fruition, maybe three a year, or perhaps quarterly.

 

[The bad one]

I've just been discussing this with another angler. I was wondering why none of the angling mags or rags have ever featured a nature type column? I'm guessing that, to a greater or lesser extent, virtually all anglers make having an interest in the flora and fauna around them on the bank an integral part of their fishing. For me a little filler entitled perhaps 'Bugs on the bank' or 'Birds on the bank' etc would really liven up the angling reading material.

Anyone else think so?

Maybe Greg has a view?

Yes they are! But it wasn't always so, some of the first artcles I had published in a mag covered this subject. All credit to the then Editor, Mike George at Course Fishing Handbook for being brave enough to publish them.

 

[preston96]

Someone is thinking very seriously about it Chris

Holding an article on Bats, and going to introduce something like
Our friends by the waterside. Space is the problem.

If my advertising search comes to fruition, maybe three a year, or perhaps quarterly.

How about one entitled "The things that scare the cr*p out of you whilst night fishing alone" Fred........i'm sure if we were honest it's happened to all of us :wh

 

[Jeff Woodhouse]

'Birds on the bank' etc would really liven up the angling reading material.

Absolutely Chris. You could even have a nature piece too.

The ones I see running up the banks of the Thames in summer are really worth seeing. All those tight Lycra shorts. OooowhooooooO!

 

[Fred Bonney]

..and that's just the blokes.

Paul, that's how the Bat article came about.

 

[makaha]

in all honesty, i would just skip that article, if i wanted to know about that kind of stuff then i would buy bird twitcher monthly. it would be way too easy for a lazy journo to pull a piece from a sister magazine to fill some copy.

so nope, sorry, not interested. and if it was a regular page filler, i would probably not buy the next issue.

 

[Stealph Viper]

If the Article was related to Fishing, and what the Fauna was how it could be recognised, which fish held up in and around those areas, that could not only be informative about the wildlife but also to what area's you may wish to target for certain species, how they add to water quality, or fish breeding etc etc.

I think that would be very helpful, and a lot more helpful than reading how someone caught a 40lb carp fishing at 150 yards on top of a gravel bar (just a personal example) which in fact tells you nothing more than they caught a fish at long range over a gravel bar.

Good Idea in my Opinion.

 

[Chris Hammond ( RSPB ACA PAC}]

Pretty much as I suspected really, the greater majority of anglers would have an interest.

 

[The bad one]

If the Article was related to Fishing, and what the Fauna was how it could be recognised, which fish held up in and around those areas, that could not only be informative about the wildlife but also to what area's you may wish to target for certain species, how they add to water quality, or fish breeding etc etc.

I think that would be very helpful, and a lot more helpful than reading how someone caught a 40lb carp fishing at 150 yards on top of a gravel bar (just a personal example) which in fact tells you nothing more than they caught a fish at long range over a gravel bar.

Good Idea in my Opinion.

Totally agree with your comments SV. Now who's going to pay me mega bucks to write them for their Mag? We live in a Knowledge Economy they keep telling us and my knowledge don't come cheap

 

[904_cannon]

Our (CSG) well travelled Editor very often includes non angling material in his 'Chevin' (Group magazine) editorials, as do members in their submissions for the magazine. Steve (editor) has featured the Scandinavian beavers he's encountered on his chubbing trips and their affect on the rivers they live by (UK beaver lovers should read this) We also get regular updates on his 60 year old 'pet' tench which lives in one of his three garden ponds. Apparently this tench is a female and has never been in a water with any male fish, Steve recons that's why it has led such a long stress free life He intends to introduce her to a younger male golden tench next spring. Also some interesting studies of the finicky feeding habits of chub that were introduced as fry, these are now coming up to sexual maturity so big things are expected in the next couple of years.

We've had accounts of eagle owls and varies species of bats encountered whilst night fishing on the Wensum, with the results of a study on the feeding habits of the eagle owl carried out by a graduate of Leeds University, we've even read about the rescue of cattle that have 'stumbled' into his swim. Steve has included a photograph of a Scandinavian chub with what looks to be a frogs leg growing from it's vent.
There is so much more to fishing and the watery environment than just catching fish.

 

[makaha]

Pretty much as I suspected really, the greater majority of anglers would have an interest.

i do wonder how you can come to that conclusion with only 4 or 5 people expressing an opinion.

not to be negative, but please dont fall into the trap of thinking everyone agrees with you based on the opinion of a very very small number of people on an internet forum

Just my opinion you understand

 

[Ray Roberts]

Well I would definitely be interested. Certainly more so than reading match results for contests I'm not involved in or watching a succession of photographs of people I don't know showing off fish I'm not interested in.

I'm always flabbergasted at anglers who take or have no interest in the natural world that surrounds them.

 

[J K]

Just reading john m h's post above was a darn sight more interesting than a lot of the repeated writings in the weeklies. And as Ray said I'm not interested in looking a pictures of someone I don't know holding a fish. So yes I would be interested.

 

[Rickrod]

I would,nt mind reading about animals fauna insects that Iam likely to encounter on the bank when iam out fishing.So yes i would be all for it

 

[Jeff Woodhouse]

Happen my previous answer was a little flippant, but the comment begged it. Still love those girls though.


Some of the best anglers I have listened to or read of have not been just anglers, but rather worshipers of nature. I get a twice daily dose when I go through our woods with the dog and nothing amuses me more than to try and converse with red kites sitting on the tall branches of an old beech tree.

At night you may think you're alone, but there are many pairs of eyes watching you with suspicion at any time. Yet some become almost tame as I've approached munjac (OK not native but what the hell) and been close enough to stroke their noses. That's not the end, because I want to know what makes them tick.

The flowers too as we approach each season, what to expect, what are they called, and even mushrooms. All are part of the life cycle of nature, it's there to behold and furthermore, it costs nowt!

 

[The bad one]

If you really want to know what makes fish and the water they are in tick. Then take an interest in the fauna assemblage in it and around it. You don't have to know the names of the fauna species, but it helps, providing you can recognise one from another.

Marry that up to fish activity and the way they are behaving and you just might put a few more fish on the bank when you fish natural waters. Less applicable on muddy holes as there's very little aquatic fauna in them, as the overstocked pond pigs will have seen them off, long ago!

For those who want to be able to recognise species of aquatic fauna, Here's the best Field guide ever written and I've never met a freshwater ecologist (and I've met and know quite a few) who doesn't have one on him or in his car.
Collins Field Guide to Freshwater Life, Fitter R Manual R. Collins , London. The one I have is the 1986 copy, but its had several reprints since. It's around a tenner.

All the field guides in this series are worth having. The Chinery M one on Insects and the Blamey Fitter R and Fitter A on Wildfowers of Britain and Northern Europe are the next must after the Freshwater Life purchase. And if trees float your boat, CFG to Trees of Britain & Europe by Mitchell A
All are used by professionals working in the various fields or cross disciplines

 

[Bryan Baron 2]

Anything that helps people understand thie surroundings would be good.
Always remember my first outing back on the river when i returned back to coarse fishing. I sat there on a chilly feb afternoon and shared my lunch with a stoat. That was me once again hooked on our sport. I see fishing as a excuse to be in natures backyard and if i catch it becomes paradise.

 

[Graham Whatmore]

Old fogies like me will remember with great fondness one person who wrote, not so much about fishing but the life of the river he was a keeper on, the Hampshire Avon. That man, Tom Williams, wrote an article every week in the AT ('My river' I think it was entitled) and it was for years, until his death, one of the most read and loved articles in there.

All river life can be of interest to the angler it doesn't have to be just about fishing but unfortunately there aren't many writers that make it interesting enough to catch and hold the readers attention. I know of one writer though that could do exactly that - Chris Yates - but I wouldn't know whether he would actually take, or even have, the time to do it.