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dezza

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I note that John Wilson has recieved recognition by the International Game Fishing Association for his services to angling.

John deserves these accolades make no mistake.

However we must be aware of the sorts of things that IGFA gets up to which quite frankly I feel is wrong, and very much against the modern philosophy of sportsmanship in our sport. What might that be? you may ask.

The problem myself and many other anglers in the past had with IGFA is "line class records". The late Barrie Rickards, president of the National Association of Specialist Anglers vehemently condemned the concept of using tackle that was unsuitable for the landing of large fish. Such an idea will result in fish which break free with tackle, hooks and or lures being left in the fish.

The American Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (BASS) was very much against these sorts of malpractices too. American bass have more than a tendency of living close to heavy snags.

But what do you think?

Are line class records the way forward?
 
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Paul Boote

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Way forward? Nope. Sure recipe for fish abuse, in my opinion. On my travels in Argentina and Chile one season I met an American in a small-town coffee-house who had, on seeing me in deep-wading jacket with two fleece patches stuck full of flies, engaged me in conversation and was soon producing pics of some hard-fighting tropical saltwater leviathan that he had caught on 4 or 6lb Test Line Class tackle.

Thinking to my self "Yer what? How long did that poor devil have to fight for?", I congratulated him on his capture, finished my coffee and medialunas (Argentine croissants) and got the devil back to the river,
 
Chris Hammond ( RSPB ACA PAC}

Chris Hammond ( RSPB ACA PAC}

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I can understand the logic that light tackle represents a threat to the fish, however a non angler would no doubt understand the logic that says fishing represents a threat to the fish per se.

Angling is such a personal philosophy that I cant see how we can really decry other angler's methods. I mean isn't it hypocritical to be examining someone else's approach when we are anglers ourselves?

In fact the very fact that we are discussing it on this thread probably hilights perefectly why angling has historically systematically failed to unite.
 
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Paul Boote

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Nothing to do with a failure to unite, everything to do with the fact that every able, American, even big-name, fly-fisher that I have met (even fished with) thought the Line Class malarkey to belong to another era, an era in which men were MEN and fish far more plentiful.
 
Chris Hammond ( RSPB ACA PAC}

Chris Hammond ( RSPB ACA PAC}

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'Nothing to do with a failure to unite, everything to do with the fact that every able, American, even big-name, fly-fisher that I have met (even fished with) thought the Line Class malarkey to belong to another era...'

Perhaps someday, maybe sooner than is neccesary if we are to be judgemental over one another, angling itself will "belong to another era"
 
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Paul Boote

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As in life, so in Angling - judgements have to made, Chris. Otherwise, any "loony tunes" view would have to be considered as relevant and important as one from people offering far wiser counsel. Go down such a total non-judgmental route, and we end up with the possibly certifiable not merely running the asylum but also fish and fishing.....
 
Chris Hammond ( RSPB ACA PAC}

Chris Hammond ( RSPB ACA PAC}

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I cant argue with that really Paul. Of course we don't want complete anarchy within the sport. I suppose it's a matter of where you draw the line. The difficult thing is in know who has the divine right to take the reading from the moral barometer I guess.
 
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Paul Boote

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My well-thought-through opinions - as you and a fair few others know very well, Geoff - make a lot of people really "frit".
 
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cg74

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Great to see John getting some sort of accolade for his services to our sport BUT the IGFA, a typically yanky organisation (it is American, yer??) all about awards, titles and the like, nothing really to do with the sport as a whole....

Infact bearly acknowledged at all in this country (rightly so IMO).:(

I once caught a 5lb 12oz chub on a 1.5lb hook-link, does that qualify for a record of sorts, ain't a paid up member an-all, see...:p:D:D

---------- Post added at 12:25 ---------- Previous post was at 12:18 ----------
Paul Boote said:
My well-thought-through opinions - as you and a fair few others know very well, Geoff - make a lot of people really "frit".
Click to expand...

Nah nah, Paul 'proper' Pigeon English would go thus: makes a lot of people "real frit".

See?!:)
 
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Dave Burr

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I met a chap hell bent on creating IGFA records for barbel in the UK. I was appalled, the river was low and the fish would have to fight for a long, long time. Unfortunately he was there with the full knowledge and sanction of the stretch owner. I expressed my feelings to all concerned.

In my opinion, this is not a practice that should be encouraged in any way in this country.
 
richiekelly

richiekelly

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Dave Burr said:
I met a chap hell bent on creating IGFA records for barbel in the UK. I was appalled, the river was low and the fish would have to fight for a long, long time. Unfortunately he was there with the full knowledge and sanction of the stretch owner. I expressed my feelings to all concerned.

In my opinion, this is not a practice that should be encouraged in any way in this country.
Click to expand...

during the very hot and dry summer of 1976 the barbel on the stretch of river that myself and a friend were fishing became very tackle shy,the only way to get a bite was to scale down on line strengh from 8lbs to 4lbs, the barbel were not huge and ranged from 4lbs to around 7lbs but fought like demons,the first day we fished with lighter tackle we got bites but it took so long to play the fish that they were exhausted,we stopped fishing after3 hours and didnt fish with the light tackle again instead we went back to 8lbs line and fished with hemp on a hair which was very succsesful, my point is that i belive it is unfair to play a fish for such a long time due to unbalanced tackle being used against such hard fighting species as barbel, everyone must have hooked a fish by accident that was to large for the tackle they were fishing with but to deliberatly set out to catch fish on unsuitably light tackle is wrong.
 
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