Is fishing less popular than it used to be

Hi guys

Just wondering and as per the subject line.

Is angling/fishing less popular than it used to be, when I was younger just about everyone I knew, both friends and male family and some of the girls as well used to go fishing, but now some 40 years later I can count the number of people I know who fishing in the fingers of one hand and not even use all the fingers to do it.

I know my circle of friends and family has reduced in size but virtually none of them fish or have ever fished.

Are the number of anglers really reducing by those sorts of amounts, or do I just now know a miserable bunch.

Paul

I`m not sure tbh. Around here the only people I know are anglers but that`s because I`ve met them all bankside. I will say that the great majority of them are older than me, 50+.

Most of my friends I`ve known for years don`t fish although at least a couple did when they were kids.

It's pretty hard to tell. However, the majority of the anglers I knew twenty and thirty years ago are still fishing. I know that both of my regular teenage fishing buddies are still fishing. One of them often with me and the other I'm aware of through forums.
I don't know anyone personally that has deliberately sold up and packed in (though there's plenty of evidence on ebay and forums to suggest plenty do exactly that).

I do have my suspicions that there aren't as many kids taking up fishing, but that could be explained away by considering the types of water I fish these days. However, with that caveat, I don't see much evidence of kids (without angling parents) doing whatever it takes (cycling, walking, public transport) to get out fishing as I did as a kid.

That said, having seen the odd commercial fishery on a summer weekend, it would be hard not to conclude that angling is more popular than ever. Go to a small club stillwater or river venue at a similar time and it might be a bit more difficult to think that way.

I think it is and I think there is a very simple reason why that is so.....Golf.

When I look around the rivers and lakes up in Lancashire every things seems rosy!

When I do likewise dahn Sarf everything seems green and mushroom shaped. And there are far,far more golfers than anglers...kids too.

Up to the early eighties it was often joked amongst the "luvvies"in film making circles that if ever a film was made about a nuclear disaster where a "clean bomb" was used to destroy the local population then the best place to make it was Sheffield when the sixteenth of june fell at the weekend simply because the place was deserted as so many anglers lived there and they would all have deserted the place for a river or stillwater.Not so today, this city that once boasted more anglers per one thousand population and where there was a tackle shop within walking distance of most fishermen(no more) is without doubt bereft of the numbers of anglers it once had.
Bedides the dozens of coaches that left the city for all points of the compass there were four trains every saterday and three on sundays that left for Boston in Lincs and Brigg stopping at a total of twenty stations in all that covered venues like the chesterfieil canal, trent, sincil drain, the Witham , several drains and the river Ancholme.
All this besides as many shift working steelworkers bobbying off in private cars most days of the week (they must have had a nap at work)as soon as they had clocked off was a way of life for thousands.
Its all gone now-- a few diehards on the Trent with most of the rest on a few local commercials or canal.
It was exactly the same for towns like Doncaster, Rotherham, Worksop, lincoln,Boston and so on
yes, its declined enormously in the last thirty years.

In answer to the original question then I think yes definitely less.

But there are probably many reasons for that, life was alot simpler back in the 70s, golf was the pastime of the wealthy back then. The average guy on the street had more down to earth expectations than the youngsters of today, and back then we had not been invaded by computer games.

One thing is for sure, I cannot remember the last time I saw a youngster, new to fishing, out on the banks of a river. All the youngsters I see (or dont see) are buried in the depths of a bivvy behind a battery of carp rods.

Lovely little British Pathe News film clip of a family fishing in 1926 here - THE GENTLE ART - British Path?

You only have to look at some of the other B.P. clips of fishing matches held from the 1930s to the 1970s to get an idea of just how many people once used to go fishing - staggering.

Most who take up angling do so when young and once smitten by it will stay with it or return to it throughout life. It is one of the few things you can do all your life - and maybe even getter better at as you get older.

So i would look to the numbers of new young recruits to judge how popular it is. In the 50 plus category i would say its as popular as ever. Maybe i am not fishing where the younger anglers are, as theres many fewer than when i was young - perhaps only 10% at best.

Paul Boote said:

Lovely little British Pathe News film clip of a family fishing in 1926 here - THE GENTLE ART - British Path�

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Nice that Paul,

In my opinion I would definitely say YES, I reckon fishing numbers have been on the decline for a few years now and I would say it all started to go downhill in the mid 90's to 2000.

Christ, I can remember when the Trent was choca on a Sunday and you would be lucky to get a peg anywhere, nothing like that now.

Even on commercials, I can remember the few around here that had several pools and they ALL used to be full, again, not like that now.
I think there are a few clues as well such as, why is a lot of tackle shops closing? How many anglers under the age of 50 do you see on the banks nowadays?

Maverick

Add to the the Cost of fishing, not only with the price of gear but the price of fishing as well, most lakes used to charge a fiver at the most to fish, now its more like £15 and add to the price of bait and not to mention the cost of a rod licence, its getting quite easy to see why numbers are dropping off.

In times of hardship hobbies are supposed to take a back seat and with us all going through the third recession in the last 20 to 30 years its no wonder things are looking bleak is it.

Paul

paul80 said:

Add to the the Cost of fishing, not only with the price of gear but the price of fishing as well, most lakes used to charge a fiver at the most to fish, now its more like £15 and add to the price of bait and not to mention the cost of a rod licence, its getting quite easy to see why numbers are dropping off.

In times of hardship hobbies are supposed to take a back seat and with us all going through the third recession in the last 20 to 30 years its no wonder things are looking bleak is it.

Paul

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I'd suspect all of that is, and is certainly going to be, a drop in the ocean compared to fuel costs. I suspect the days of folks traveling the length and breadth of the country on a regular basis will diminish steadily.

maverick 7 said:

In my opinion I would definitely say YES, I reckon fishing numbers have been on the decline for a few years now and I would say it all started to go downhill in the mid 90's to 2000.

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I stopped around then and only started up again about 3 years ago. A young family and work had a lot to do with it, plus a move to a different part of the country. The change was a shock when i first got back fishing again.

I am not putting in the hours that i used to and whereas i was once an active club angler up to speed with current trends i now feel like a sad traditionalist with out-dated approaches. I do not recognise much of the "progress" as worthwhile, and rather like my taste in music from an earlier golden age, much of the new leaves me cold.

Theres many fewer places of the type i used to enjoy and still look for - traditional relatively un-managed fisheries with broadly natural stocks and few or no carp. The rivers seem a lot harder than they used to be, apart from much larger chub if you can find them and an explosion of specimen perch everywhere (both presumably linked to signal crayfish).

The only big positive nowadays - for me at least - is that rivers are almost deserted compared to before. I noticed this on bits of the Thames i had fished before and whenever i have visited stretches that i fished in the 80s or before.

sam vimes said:

I'd suspect all of that is, and is certainly going to be, a drop in the ocean compared to fuel costs. I suspect the days of folks traveling the length and breadth of the country on a regular basis will diminish steadily.

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Yep, I forgot about that that one, I am crippled by having to spend £70 a week on Diesel just to get to and from a Minimum Wage Job. so I only fish the Lakes either close to my home or close to work.

Paul