Fear of the truth

Following on from another thread it occurred to me that so many anglers are in denial regards our sport. When we try to deny or hide the fact that fishing causes some (usually small) damage to a fishes mouth we make ourselves look like idiots and liars. rather then denying the obvious we should be actively promoting the good aspects of angling like looking out for the wildlife on and around the water, being on hand to warn of problems with the water or the fish. The positive side of getting kids off the streets, getting families out together and fish welfare. Lets big up the positives not lie about the negatives. Everytime anyone mentions fish damage or a moron mistreating a fish someone always comes on and goes on about anti,s and ammunition and lets not talk about that. Its only through talking about it that people are educated about fish welfare and about how to keep fish damage to a mimimum.

Yeah denying it is ridiculous, still....... fishing does a hell of a lot less damage to a fish than a Herons beak eh /forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif

Couldn't agree more Bill.

The Anti's are agobby minority, ok we should keep an eye on them, BUT,let's not stop advising people where theymay begoing wrong in respect of fish handling.

here here. and well said bill.

Well said Bill and I couldn't agree more about promoting the positive side of our sport. The positives far out weigh any negative aspects.

Well said Bill, but what makes me laugh is the angling press give the antis more coverage than anyone else.

yes well said Bill, the antis are basically just that, anti angling, if they were pro fish they would support the ACA, the very fact that they are anti and not pro anything loses credibility for them in the general scheme of things, they are also negotiable, one weeks its a motorway extension, another week its animal experiments and the next its angling, they want a dam good thrashing, thats what I say, loopy buggers.

Yes and even their so-called experts are so called Marine biologists that have only studied warm bloodied whales and Dolphins from their bedsits in essex and are still wet behind their ears. Whatever did the poor fish do to deserve them antis, poor things (fish I mean not antis).

I think were all agreed then that fishing as a positive far outweighs any negatives. Monk made a good point on the dial an anti movement that seems to have sprung up over the last 25 years. I think the greenham common women bred with the flying pickets and we are suffering the offspring.