Where have all the young anglers gone?

http://www.fishingmagic.com/feature...-returns-with-a-question-are-you-special.html




It’s that school holiday time of year again when the Pied Piper shows up and spirits all the children away. And by that, I specifically mean all the up and coming young anglers of the future. Take a look at the picture shown, and then let me colour in the details.

This is obviously a drain (or dyke) with a road to the left and an access road to the industrial area on the right. It may not be the most picturesque, but it does have its merits. To begin with, there are shoals of small roach in the 4” – 6” range (and the metric police can go swivel) and of course, where there are small fish there are bigger ones in the shape of some quite decent sized perch and the occasional pike muscles in on the action.
So, and perhaps most importantly, the requisite quarry are there. The swim itself is shaded by a tree, the current is slight most of the time and flowing away from you, meaning you can easily ‘trot’ the swim for just about as you can see. Or maybe a telescopic whip to hand would bring plenty of action.
If the water does start to push through, then this promontory is the only one along the bank meaning a real ‘Crabtree-esque’ slack forms behind. This provides excellent shelter for the fish, shoaling them up quite tightly, and begs for a juicy worm to be lowered into it on a light leger, and just wait for the rod tip to be wrenched round.
Other plus points to note are that boat traffic is slight-to-non-existent and there is a tackle shop a few minutes’ walk away should you require additional bait or tackle during your session. About the same short distance in the opposite direction is the town centre if the angler needs sustenance, with all manner of shops and even a Golden Arches restaurant. Transport wise, it is a short walk from the train and bus stations, and there is a car park directly behind. There is even a litter bin...!
So, you may ask, how do I get on the waiting list to fish this Utopian swim? Can palms be greased to leap-frog you towards the top? Obviously this year will be fully booked, so just when do reservations open up for next year, or are places for that already being snapped up? Or maybe it is a strictly limited, invitation-only, syndicate.
Well, the almost unbelievable news is that this is free fishing, so you will obviously have to get there at still dark o’clock to stand any chance of wetting a line, such will be the clamour to claim this swim.
Errr.....no, Actually the answer is none of the above. I have passed this spot nearly every day for almost five years and the number of anglers young or old I have seen fishing this spot is none, not one. And with particular reference to the youngsters, I can’t believe that there could be a better spot to get out and about during the school holidays. As well as the proximity to just about everything you could ever want for a fishing spot, there is a degree of passing foot and car traffic so even the fear of ‘stranger danger’ is far less than along some deserted canal bank or secluded lake.
Most will blame the call of the games controller for this dearth of tyro anglers, but I blame the Pied Piper of Flitwick, one R. Walker esquire, for starting it. When I started fishing it was of the bamboo cane, string and bent hook variety. During school holidays everything from muddy puddles upwards would have a group of kids standing shoulder to shoulder vying to catch whatever they could. Floats (usually bits of twig or wooden lolly sticks) would be sat in the water almost on top of each other.
Should you be lucky enough to actually catch a fish, your mates would have their floats in the hole in the water left when the fish was pulled out. And as the lucky captor, your reward would be to go to the back of the queue for ‘the’ spot, as your next ‘cast’ would be relegated to the periphery of the action
But then Pied Walker and his cohorts came along and lured the kids away with tales of huge fish that could be caught if you ‘specialised’ and that bigger was most definitely better. In fact, ‘bigger’ was the only acceptable way to go: just catching any old fish was now frowned upon. Just like Olympic qualifying, there were now weights that had to be attained before you could be considered a proper angler.
And that is why this spot is empty all year round. There are no 30lb carp, certainly no double figure barbel, so for many youngsters it’s not worth the effort of fishing for no reward is there. I mean, what would happen if your mates saw you fishing there and asked you what you were doing? How can you say “I am just enjoying myself catching a few small fish”?


Kev Perkins.

---------- Post added at 09:50 ---------- Previous post was at 09:47 ----------

Nice one, Kev...I wish there was more! - Ed.

Firstly Kevin, another very fine article . . . . thanks.

Now, in many ways you have answered your own question:

"And that is why this spot is empty all year round. There are no 30lb carp"

Well, cum on guv, ift it ain't duna fir'ie then it ain't worff fishing, innit?

Such is the attitude and approach today and it starts, very sadly, at an early age.

Then there is all the "specialist" kit that every youngster needs before he can venture to the water (providing his parents have him electronically tagged and he calls into home every 20 minutes) otherwise God forbid he might fall prey to some of societies lesser desirable creatures.

Seriously though . . . . . on my local free or very cheap stretches of the Avon, Lord's walk for instance, I often see youngsters fishing or walking to the river, rods in hand.

In the summer holidays we also often see youngsters with their Dads on the syndicate stretch and the local commercials are (reasonably) well attended.

Long gone I am afraid are the days when your local club had an almost equal size of Junior members to Seniors.

Between them Messrs Walker and Gates have a lot to answer for . . . . .

the local canal was a big draw for kids when I was a young 'un - but we would fish any water we could get to ( some we wasn't supposed to) but kids these days seem to need all the gear before they even start (as others have said) where as we were happy just with a old rod , reel and a float (ok 4 Yorkshire man sketch time)

Cliff Hatton said:

Nice one, Kev...I wish there was more! - Ed.

Click to expand...

Me too....!!

Thanks for the few kind words, I'm not really out of writing retirement, just making sure my keyboard works occasionally :wh

Kevin
have you never been tempted to fish there yourself?

Cliff Hatton said:

I mean, what would happen if your mates saw you fishing there and asked you what you were doing? How can you say “I am just enjoying myself catching a few small fish”?

Click to expand...

M'lud, I am a stealth angler, the less people that see me fishing, the better. Especially when I get my bamboo cane out.........

I've got a sneaking suspicion that I know the area vaguely, from many years ago. I'm pretty sure that it's not exactly the Bronx. However, I can say is that I wouldn't be overly happy thinking that my twelve year old nephew was fishing it on his own. It wouldn't be an issue though as his parents wouldn't dream of letting him. I'm not entirely sure that I'd want to fish it on my own and I doubt I'd take the lad to such a venue to fish with him. Without even thinking about the major cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and London, there's not a town in the country that I'd be entirely comfortable fishing in the middle of.

Coupled with the fact that you've never seen anyone fishing there, maybe that differing perspective on it might hint that most people have quite a different perspective to your own.

All to easy nowadays for the young one, just sit in there rooms, turn on the PC and catch an animated fish.

I am doing my bit soon, my grandson is 6 and soon will be taking him fishing for the first time, i reckon he may take to it.

I agree with the new generation are out to catch just big fish, carp,pike, shame as theer is so much to learn and understand about fishing than just lobbing balls of bait about and the likes. its more camping now init havin to wait days for a bite lol

You've passed this spot every day for five years and not seen a single angler young or old.
Why have you singled out the young.

It's a fine article and very thought provoking.

I've seen plenty of effort to try to get young people interested in fishing, but it seems like it's a struggle. As anyone amongst the matured gentlemen here on this board will testify, we didn't need anyone to encourage us or organise fishing 'fun day's and such in order for us to want to go fishing and to want to get better at it.

I honestly think there's no other culprit but the electronics. They don't seem to be as in touch with the countryside as we were - I suppose we played outside more as kids than they do now. Despite my best efforts my eldest boy (18) and daughter (16) have little interest in or knowledge of the countryside at all. They can just about tell a conker from a blackberry. Well I'm exaggerating a bit, but they wouldn't know an oak tree from a beech or that picking dandelions makes you wet the bed, or any of that stuff.

I took my eldest fishing a few times and tried to encourage him, but nothing. I mean my old man, when my mum made him take me with him aged about 9 or 10, used to take me tramping through 8 foot high stingers along the banks of the Ouse, stamp me out a swim with his wellies and then disappear off out of sight down the bank to do his fishing. I was left to myself. But my lad was helpless. A lamb. A fish out of water as it were!

First of all I'd have to set him up and get everything ready for him. Despite about a dozen attempts, he never learned the first thing about how to do that.

Didn't want to touch the maggots. Too fine y'see. Oooh no! So I had to put the maggots on the hook for him.

Casting and trotting it down he could just about manage. He only ever caught a few tiddlers, but when he did he couldn't possibly touch the fish or unhook it. So I had to do that too.

I'd try and start to set my own rod up, but I'd barely got two bits together before he'd have the most enormous bird's nest of a tangle which I'd have to sort out for him and get him going again. I'd get the third bit on and he'd have another tangle but worse. There was no prospect of me getting any fishing in at all. All I got to do was act as a sort of untangling ghillie to him for as long as my patience held out.

Well, you'd have had to have the patience of a saint.

I hope you will not condemn me too much when I tell you that on the final time I took him out, I eventually gave up and gave him a tenner and told him to bagger orf up to the pub up the bank and get a hamburger and some pop and I'd come and get him in a couple of hours.

So that is why I think they don't do as much fishing now as we did then.

Out of touch with the real world and too bloody girly.

Well now, and you think it's all down to no 30lb Carp in that water ?

Sorry I cannot agree with that, fishing is a dying sport, it has been for the last 30years.

This generation and the one before were brought up on a diet of " Instant " and fishing just isn't like that.

Lets be honest about, what has the last couple of decades had in common with the decades that went before, not a lot in my opinion, everything is at the touch of a button.

Fishing in the 1950/60tys was the number one participant sport, it still might be, supported be geriatrics and Carp anglers, match fishing is dying, at one club I belong to they have dropped the match fishing calendar, be cause there were to few Match anglers left alive to support the matches.

The are pleasure anglers and specimen anglers, nut mainly Carp Anglers and that is where you will find the youngsters mainly, fishing alongside their Dads.

It's not too dissimilar to what many of us did, fish along side a parent, relative or friend is it ?

But now of course most Dads if they are fishermen go Carping ?

Sad as it might seem to many whop were brought up in a traditional manner, catching small Roach, Perch and Gudgeon, but better kids go Carping than not go fishing at all.

Bob

Where I fish now along the Upper Thames used to be fisherman's paradise. The pubs were nearly all fishing pubs and rented rooms out. Anglers used to camp in the fields alongside the river in the summer. Coaches used to come from London and Birmingham to fish the river.

In the 8 years or so I've been fishing down there now, I should suppose I've seen maybe a dozen other people fishing total. 1 or 2 a year. Very rare to see anyone fishing down there.

Of course it's great for me. I can fish where I want in perfect peace. But it's a shame that it does seem to be on the ebb tide of popularity at the moment. Hopefully it will catch on again in the future. There will be a new trend or something.

Well here are my two Granddaughters who I took last week for the first time. We went to Hawkhurst Fishery which has excellent facilities and three ponds set up for junior anglers. If you want to see if they like it tackle is available to hire.

Well done to them for having the foresight to see where their future customers are coming from.