Drop out rate in angling.

I keep reading on various forums how young anglers come into this sport with a; I want it and I want it now attitude.
And how they buy all the top kit, catch various big (normally) carp, get disgruntled, bored, lacking for new goals or whatever else.
Rather than going through a gradual slow learning curve, you know the "angling apprenticeship" thing; first catching minnows and gudgeon progressing to dace, roach and perch then eventually moving onto chub, barbel, tench and carp...

Now I debate all of what I've just written above, why?
Well I look back 20 - 25 years to when I was in my early teens, my older brother, about 6 or 7 good mates and myself all went fishing regularly.
Of that group I am the only one left that frequents the bank on a weekly or more often basis and my brother is the only other one to have been fishing in the past year, or more.

So what has changed between now and then, apart from my local rivers being a load of old crock and the advent of heavily stocked stillwaters, do youngsters have to easy or are many older anglers just looking back and remembering what suits them, with rose tinted glasses??

Your thoughts.

I think it's hard for a kid to take up fishing these days.

Kids today are stuffed for transport. Their parents won't let them travel halfway across the county on bikes, the traffic is too bad. They don't have the money for buses and you can't bunk-off paying on the trains like we used to. The waters close to where they live are all private or club controlled and kids can't pay for memberships. There are virtually no free waters anymore. The macho fish species for youngsters is all about carp - and image is super-important at that age. Carp don't come for free. Dads are always working to pay off mortgages and/or credit card bills so can't take little Johnny fishing. It's hard.

I think on alot of waters its all carp carp carp. I remember explaining to one kid how i'd had two big roach well over a pound the response "so no carp then." It might be a northern thing, as I fished Gold Valley earlier this year and nobody specified carp at all when chatting. Perhaps they assumed thats what I caught anyway.

The drop out rate IS high. I suspect the returning rate is higher though. Once you have got the kids and/or mortgage resposabilities and you cant go out on the lash every weekend, too old/unfit for sunday league footy, alot who will need to do something else, and alot will return to fishing.

Also with age comes patience.

i think that one of the reasons for kids dropping out of fishing is the society that we live in,when i was younger kids were able to fish a multitude of different waters in my area from flooded clayholes full of perch to canals and sometimes estate lakes (until the keeper caught you ) you were safe to fish on your own,i started night fishing at the age of 11, kids simply do not have the amount of waters available to them that we used to have and its certainly not safe on a lot of waters for kids to fish alone ther is always some lowlife scum willing to spoil another kids day,my son has started taking a lad of 14 with him as the last time he went on his own he was beaten up and some of his tackle stolen,the lads to scared to go on his own now, its a different world we live in now and kids have different expectations to when i was younger and kids either dont want to or cant spend time learning to fish.

As you say a change in society has had a detrimental effect. I originally started fishing in the local park pond aged 11 in the 70's with a group of friends. You would need an armed escort to fish the place now as an adult never mind a youngster, the place has become a hang out for wino's and junkie's and the last person I spoke to who fished there sat with a baseball bat next to him to dissuade unwanted attention.
Again as Geoff said he used public transport, as we did as spread our wings to water slightly further afield. It used to be very amusing looking at the bus drivers face as a group of us would climb on the bus at the end of the day with all our tackle and generally covered in mud. Probably wouldn't be allowed now on Health & Safety grounds. Also now most clubs insist juniors are accompanied by an adult, which is probably to do with public liability insurance and the compensation/blame culture we now live in.
Most of the lads I used to fish with dropped out and I took a lengthy break for the usual work/family/mortgage reasons and since returning a few years ago find myself regretting the lost time. I now take my son who enjoys coming out with me and hopefully he will continue to for a long time to come.

I agree with all whats been said, absolutely spot on. Another obstacle in the way of kids taking up angling is simply finding a tackle shop. When I was a youngster I was brought up on a massive council estate but within very easy reach were three as most adults either went to see the footy or were off down to the Trent,Witham,or fen drains at every opportunity. This scenario was the same all over Sheffield/Rotherham and beyond South Yorkshire. Today they have all gone but for a very few and to get to them I would have to spend at least four or five pounds on local transport in order to buy bait etx if I didnt have the car.To a youngster that in itself is "a day out" before even finding their way to the waterside, along with all the other expenses its understandable why "game boy" rules-- innit!!!

I agree with all of the previous points. I would like to add that social changes have taken place over the past 30 years which mean that youngsters have other things to do rather than take up angling.

Where I grew up the local municipal park was closed on Sundays! You couldn't play football so in warmer months you went fishing.

Changes in Sunday trading laws have allowed Sundays to become more of a day for shopping and leisure activities, how many of you have a large out of town shopping centre, with cinema, restaurants, bowling etc... open seven days? Businesses are now set up to target youngsters as consumers.

There were no DVD's, videos, and computers and only three TV channels, which didn't show sport on a Sunday - as there wasn't any.

As for dropping out of angling in adulthood? We're all different, life changes, people change, circumstances change.

Mark

jimmy crackedcorn said:

The drop out rate IS high. I suspect the returning rate is higher though. Once you have got the kids and/or mortgage resposabilities and you cant go out on the lash every weekend, too old/unfit for sunday league footy, alot who will need to do something else, and alot will return to fishing.

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That makes a lot of sense. In our fishing club, I know a few of the lads I've spoken to are in their 30s/40s coming back to it after a long spell away from the bank.

at the age of 12 or 13 myself and 5 mates used to catch the bus to leciester (about 20 miles) every friday night to fish for carp in the warm water outlet from a power station we would fish from friday night until sunday morning (no bivvies in those days) and then catch the first bus back,i cant see kids doing that sort of thing now even if it was safe for them,all the lads that fished then are still fishing im glad to say,perhaps people dropping out has something to do with the era when they started to fish.

I am a return-ey after a 15 year break and got my brother back into it last year .
Most of my friends response is how can you stand the bordom this is going on their experiance from when we were kids, I try to explain that fishing has changed and these days there are comercials that garentee fish as well as the fact that now everybody has grown up and all night sessions with beer are a fun pastime.
My brother in law has now got his first licence and comes with me every couple of weeks .
I think most teanagers discover women and beer and forget about fishing for a few years .