Are the 'new breed' of 'carpers' anglers??

In my 'phone-around looking for valve rubber (see my thread re. float making/painting), I spoke to a young lad who asked what I wanted it for. I explained. He said that he started fishing last year, but has yet to use a float. He then got fearfully excited and told me that next spring he has booked to go for a week with a mate to France where, said mate has promised, he will catch a 40. I ask you..............Or perhaps its just the old fart in me?!

He's an angler, just not a very skilled one with a very blinkered introduction to the sport.

I'm always beware of categorising what other people 'are' or 'aren't'. Done plenty of damage in the past and continuing: dry fly fishermen used to think that wet fly fishermen weren't just not anglers but the spawn of the devil, and that coarse fishermen were less than the dung beneath their boots. These days we have similar big Carp man snobbery, then the rise of the big Barbel specialist with secret squirrel venue paranoia, ditto.... whatever is next in or out of fashion.

Live and let live I prefer to say, unless and until someone starts sling his weight around and trying to bugger up or disparage other people and disciplines. Being proud and happy with what you are doesn't mean that anyone else is inferior or to be looked down on, that's the racist's mistake, just because I'm proud of being X doesn't mean I have to or am entitled to look down on Y and Z....

Its probably not his fault, no-one has taken any trouble to show him any better or different. And I'm sure plenty of people are perfectly happy just fishing for Carp on ledger gear, just sorry that they won't ever enjoy a float, a fly, an uptide locking lead, a mountain brook, an upland fell, a..... well, you fill in the blanks for another page or two.

Kids don`t have an apprenticeship anymore, the media has seen to that, many kids and some adults are now instant carpers, just add water, nothing wrong with that i suppose, its just the way things are now, carp fishing gets more promotion than any other branch of the sport at the moment, so what do you expect, sadly we have no modern Mr Crabtree

True Monk

When I started you fished for whatever came along - using bread and maggots - Some anglers today don't know howto do anything except sit behind 2 rods on bite alarms - other only pole fish and have lnow idea about waggler, stickfloat or quiver tips

Bigger ain't better. I'll have my sense of accomplishment in taking fish out of difficult waters when no one else is catching rather than going over to have an "instant" 40. He'll never know the joy of watching a float bob below the surface... his loss.

"Bigger ain't better"

size doesnt matter eh/forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif

have you had a 40 poult?

what a load of shite.................because I dont like trotting a float Im not an angler or cant be an angler ?

I swear to you this is a true story,

My mate Les and myself were walking round a local fishery, talking to a lad in his early twenties, 3 rod carp set up with all the gear.

Without any prompting, he say's, (or words to the effect), "Its dead today, do you fish it"

Me with my usual silliness, say to him, "Look at your reel handles, they're not in line, you'll never get a bite like that". I ask "Can I straighten them", he agrees to this.

I step forward, tighten up so all the handles are in the same position, I step back,....b#gg#r me his bite alarm goes off and he lands a nice carp.

As we're walking away he say's"That was great mate, have you any more tips"

hahaha can I have a tip please ?

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It matters not what discipline of angling you practise IMO but how you go about it.A true angler by my reckoning will use his/her knowledge,experience and skill to set about angling for that particular session with all things decided to bring about a successful result. Taking into account the season of the year,wind direction and strength,size and type of water,speed of flow (if a river) etc in order to find in his/her opinion the correct swim to fish,the correct tackle,correct method and the correct bait to be used.

Quite often they'll get it wrong but still the session will be enjoyed.As it will the next time and the one after that.And so it goes on throughout the years,some outstanding sessions,some periods when any sort of fish is sadly lacking but though it all learning and enjoying.

Or you can spend a couple of grand in the nearest tackle shop to get the same gear as your mates,take it along to your nearest commercial fishery,copy exactly the set up of the month in the latest fishing mag,sling the rods out,fiddle with the buzzers a while and then crack a few tinnies with your mates whilst "angling"/forum/smilies/confused_smiley.gif

One of the reasons angling is so popular is the variety.It does'nt matter what youre personal likes/dislikes are,there is a method you will enjoy.I enjoy many aspects of fishing having tried many of the disciplines and never really giving up on any method.My wife is happy to go along withthe same theme,but often chooses a different method to me.We introduced our son and daughter to all the methods but Lee now concentrates on carp(although he doe'nt limit himself to static baits and bite alarms)but Clare almost exclusively uses the pole.Both have used various methods but have found theyre own niche.The instant carper so often hasnt tried anything else and only shows his mates the one method.Some stick with it,but how many get bored and give up thinking thats the only way?

Merv, a little help goes a long way /forum/smilies/wink_smiley.gif

It's all very well talking about the good old garden cane, string, bent pin and tiddler apprenticeship days. Not a myth, they certainly did exist back in the 60's and 70's, been there, wore out the grubby t shirt. But mainly because there were loads and loads of bits of free water for us kids to fish in and without everyone worrying about us all the damned time, kicking us off or trying to 'organise' us.

These days ? Most free or town stretches have been gobbled up, parcelled out to clubs and others whowon't or can't (because, for example,health and safety insurance considerations, amongst others)have kids near 'em. Club tickets and day tickets are costly, even for juniors. And its all very well, but the junior now needs a senior to be allowed on the water even with a ticket in the first place.

Me, I grew up with no family elder into fishing. So if I were 14 these days I'd be stymied, have to stick to my bike, model aircraft and books..... would never have the chance to even try fishing, let alone get hooked.

Too many times I look on kids as a nuisance as they flail around with a length of solid glassfibre that was out of date before their dads were born, let alone them, making a ruckuss and chucking stones in the water and..... having fun. Like I did at their age. And I then try and stop being a grumpy old b.

Plus the tackle snobbery.... what boy would dare venture near the water these days without his 16 m two grand pole or matched set of whatevers.... the answer is pretty obvious, not many. And they don't and they aren't, and if that continues then fishing is on its way to minority sport and extinction.

So maybe the answer to BarbelBonce's question isn't to ask if the evidently keen young lad is anangler or not, but to ask whetheryou might not be able to help him to become a better and more rounded one.

Merv, readingyour postover my early morning cup of tea, I've just spattered my screen with tea-drops.

Priceless - its made my day.

Just on a serious note - in tightening the reel handles, I wonder if you nudged one of the baits and that triggered a take?

Food for thought.

Evan, you've said most of it for me. The key factor of "then and now" was surely the amount of free water fifty or so years ago and the fact that kids roamed free. My own early angling goes back to the 40s - there was a war on then, and fishing tackle was scarce. Therefore you either made your own tackle or you didn't fish - and catching a fish on homemade tackle(including rod and reel) is one of the pinnacles of angling enjoyment. That experience made me a lifelong angler

Just one point - you can't join bent pins to string. Linen thread was the material of my formative years.

In a way I'm sorry for the instant carpers, even though they regard me as a "noddy" fisherman (I fish for perch and roach which both grow to a good size on many carp fisheries). Not only are these instant carpersmissing out on the joys of other types of fishing, but with a blinkered approach their interest span must surely be limited. Still, the upside is, at leastif anglers are on the commercials they leaveplenty of room on the rivers.

What's really really sad is all the 'room on the rivers', endless miles of club-appropriated water with no-one fishing it at all because the club doesn't do any day tickets.

I'm not going to name names as its not intended as a pop at any particular club or clubs, but within a very short distance of where I live there are miles and miles of very fishable river and canal water with not a soul to be seen fishing them from one year to the next. Effectively sterilised waste water these days as a result.

True enough Evan, but what's to stop anyone joining these clubs?The subscriptions are pretty cheap in most cases. My son belongs to two golf clubs, I belong to a dozen angling clubs. His total annual fees are three times my total annual fees.

More serious is the long-term prospect. At the moment I enjoy scores ofmiles of river with not a soul in sight, as a result of belonging tosix clubs who have river rights. (BTW at least three sell day tickets and a right hassle that can be, as thereare no sanctions the club can bring for themisbehaviour of casual anglers)

Butwhat happens when the penny drops at some future AGM, that the club is paying out money for just one or two river stalwarts to fish?Most club members fish the clubs' carp puddles either for matches or practice. There is a perception that "you are not supporting the club" if you don't do likewise.I can see clubs abandoning rivers in the future, and the farmers decidingthat"No fishing" signsare cheaper in the long runthan the hassle of selling the occasional day ticket.

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