More Contentious Issues About Angling

Barrie Rickards is quite right to say ‘catch ‘em young’, and with a small amount of effort, this is perfectly feasible. All it would take is an angling club/society to rope in a local tackle dealer before contacting a school. The tackle shop can act as a drop off point for donated tackle, as every customer could be persuaded to bring in surplus ‘bits and pieces’ (come on, we’ve all got them!) The club/society can then put these to use on organised trips. But, whilst I have no doubt the parents would beg you take their little darlings away for a few hours, they will not thank you if they fall in! This is the fundamental problem with mixing young children and water (unfortunately rather essential for fishing). In these ‘cotton wool wrapping’ days, the children would have to wear lifejackets, there would have to be a qualified lifeguard and first-aider in attendance, and the organisers would almost certainly have to have public liability insurance. I know you can ask the parents to sign a disclaimer, but we live in litigious days, and any hint of negligence on the organiser’s part would be pounced on.
I fear that if they cannot be ‘hooked’ in the early years, they will not be converted once they have succumbed to the charms of PS2 etc. This being the case, is fishing in danger of dying out through lack of young blood? If so, don’t we all (anglers, clubs, societies and the tackle trade) have a duty to do whatever we can to encourage youngsters to start, and continue to go fishing. Shouldn’t under-sixteens enjoy free fishing, including rod licences? Or will it go the way of most things piscatorial and die of AA (Angling Apathy)
I, for one, would pledge my support to any scheme to help guarantee fishing for future generations – but where do I sign up??

You 'sign up' by becoming an angling coach yourself Kevin, contact the NFA (or PAA) for details of available courses on how to become 'qualified'. But you are not wrong the way you speak about litigation, and that is not just from the kids themselves, I took a school trip out last year and 1 pupil totally disobeyed my instructions and went for a walk to watch a nearby match, the result, crunch!! You guessed it he stepped on a guys pole, who angrily wanted to know if I (the school) was insured, and so it went on 'I'm gonna take legal action' etc etc.

It would probably be up to us to get the 'powers that be' to move in this direction. The issue of unatended kid's is one that you can't win or you can't loose! Discouraging kid's from venues will put them off. Letting them fish alone yes you get some idiots but, it's how many got there love for fishin'.

Instead of taking them to the banks why not promote it in the school its self and give the kids info on tackle dealers and waters they can fish this way you wont be liable for any mishapp's but all of this needs funding which i must say up in the north east is extremely underfunded! Fishing needs an extra finacial boost! Where the EA thats what we pay for isnt it!

As well as promoting angling to kids there is one strata of society that is a rather untapped barrel - the young and stressed. If angling is promoted to these types as a middle management/young exec stress-buster it will eventually gain the trappings of a successful lifestyle option and hence become more attractive to the kids.

In other words Angling has to become the new Golf (and Golf has no shortage of kids lining up to play).

Just wondering at what age you started up angling? Me i was 6 and went alone with a group of mates at 10!

From this time i reckpon 50% of our time was messing about on the river bank and trying to catch the odd fish.

Skimming stones, firing maggots at each other and even on occasion fighting!

But erything seems to have become to serious! I am only 26 and have noticed that a few people are rude and offensive.

The thing that encoureges kids is to have a good time and sitting caching nowt is not good! So they mess about and get told off! So fishing becomes boring!

Obviousy when we see kids fishing we need to help them. Easier said than done! But do you ever have a laugh whilst fishing? Its not only about catching.

Me and a mate of mine regualry have the old cube of meat fight! We are not catching so i get my catty and launch a cube of primrose right to his face! smack! big greasy stain that is a declaration of war!

OOOHH i hear you say! But come on fishing is meant to be fun and for a kid sitting their catching nowt aint!

Think of what you got up to whilst you were learning (i bet it aint as bad as trying to catch a robin with maggots?) And when you compare this to breaking into cars, trashing houses ect..... that i see kids doing now what would you prefer?

My rant and i expect people to criticise but who wants a kid pissing about next to them?

Robert

I'm interested by your comments about "the new golf".... I used to work for a business travel agency, where nearly everyone in management or sales played golf, as, it seemed, did all of the sales/ management of of suppliers and competitors. Of the group of golfers that I worked with (about 8 individuals), I would think that 2 were genuinely passionate about the sport. The other six played because it served their careers. Deals get struck on the golf course. Alliances are formed. I'd even go as far to say that commercial subterfuge can be born on the golf course. I think that (for some people) this is why they take up the game in the first place.

I think you're right, fishing should be marketed to stressed people as an antidote to the workplace, but "the new golf"? From what I could tell, lots of people are still at work as they play...

Any thoughts? Any fishing golfers out there?

I started fishing at 7-8 years old, I went with my dad and his cuson, we took it seriously because of the element of danger of fishng on rivers! however now i am 16 and I always have a laught even in matches, however I dont shout over the lake and will only have a laugh with people on the next peg or two. But you will alway get the kids who take it too far! I must also say that I have been fortunate to have some great guys to show me stuff when I was stuck! Now I intend to do the same for anyone else!

I started when I was 8yrs old. A couple of school friends draged me along and I had to be draged home! The farm pit which I spent damn near every day after school holds memories of all kinds most very funny.
My old man was over the moon, he didn't like footy and I didn't fancy rugby that much. It was fishin' that let me get to know him as a person not just my Dad. As to this day he's one of the lads when were fishin'. He'd be strung up by the dangly bits if Mum heard him on the bank!

i started when i was 8.i got a new rod n reel.my pocket money went on floats and shot and a packet of size 18 hooks.nan sewn me a rod bag with my initials on,grandad made a tackle box with sliding lid(which i still have).xmas eve i went to "aquapets"for half a pint of mixed."my first time" i said."i'll put a few specials in then"replied john wass the owner.xmas day everything was taken out,put away all day.boxing day i got up at 5.30.i thought mum and dad were in bed.they were up mum had made sandwiches and made me wrap up well."fishermen don't feel cold"i said.a little after 6 i walked down the lane and over the school field.there was a frost underfoot and time passed as i was blowing in the air.i finally got to the small lake eager to cast for the first time.as i could hear the sounds of wildlife coming alive i looked out over the lake broken hearted.it was completely froze over.i turned round to see mum and dad pissing theirselves.

Has anyone tried fishing friend? You take your nephew, brother, son, grandson along with you and your mate. Only the youngsters weight counts at the end of your session. You'd be surprised how keen they become. Always receptive to new ideas, baits,fishing tips, additives or groundbait. It can be very competitive. You never know, they may out-fish you on the day.

It is actually quite funny! The world and his mate are all bleating for teaching youngsters how to fish, however the reality is, in order to teach a youngster/beginner to fish correctly you do actually have to sacrifice your own 'fishing time' for a considerable time, because no one learns to 'fish' after one session! When the MAJORITY of anglers are asked to give up a few Saturdays 'on the bounce' to help introduce new blood to the sport it is surprising how important decorating and gardening suddenly become!

In the summer hols in my comperhensive school we had a week of activities! One of these was fishing and we always had a full minibus. But if we went to a club water they would charge us a small fortune ( or the school) adding that the insurance is ended up not worth it so they school scapped it! I think the problem is its getting to expensive 6 quid aday for adults and maybe 4 for the kid, then plus bait and food and loose feed ends up cheaper to go golfing.

Perhaps commercial fisheries should charge a quid or two to encourge the kids so when they to 16 they pay the full ammount as they now are hooked and know how to fish! Tjis would guarntee future sport and so keep their buseness viable.

Warrington AA ALWAYS let me take the kids from our school to their waters for free! They have got lots of canal and also they let me take the kids on a few still waters if I choose! They've got a top attitude towards juniors.

I have just had three hours in the great outdoors with my partner and her grandson. He is very impatient and after fifteen minutes was playing with the bait. the only fish caught was a carp of 13-2. His interest was renewed, albeit for half an hour. The fishery in question is only a small pond, charging adults a fiver for the day, whilst accompanied juniors are free. Let's see more fisheries like this one, top marks!

As I said at the start, I hope we could call for fishing to be made free for all kids under sixteen. I am looking to the future, and if we are not able to entice kids into the sport now, then there may not be a future. This is a time for angling clubs and societies AGM's, why not table the motion with your local club and see what happens? The motion is that 'Children under sixteen shall be allowed to fish Club Waters if accompanied by an Adult Member' Some clubs may already do this -why not all?

I understand the point about anglers not wanting to give up there own fishing time. On several occasions I've helped me old man with his scout fishing trips. Sitting back from the water edge with it being in touching distance and not being able to cast a line is hell. On the other had it great when they catch and they appriciate that it's you who helped them catch. Even more so when a parent approaches you for advice because they are getting pestered by there son about things they don't know about.