Fishing events

I was wondering about the popularity of fishing in the UK and the overall imagine of fishing and anglers. I am probably not searching well enough but are there any events that would promote this sport especially with the younger generation?

It seems to me that there is a lot of money pouring through fishing in the UK in general but I dont see any events being organised.

Main reason I am asking is because I have friends back home who are organising events for youngsters, show them how to put together rod, tie a hook, cast etc. It is very popular and its sponsored by brands such as Fox. Mind you Fox must have MUCH lower profit back home than over here.

Overall I feel like angling in the UK is being very "introvert" all together. It seems to be a privileged hobby of few and does not seem to have any interest in expending and making it more popular. On the other hand though there have been many threads on this forum discussing why is angling not more popular and why are not youngsters interested.

So my question is, are there such events? If there would be such events, do you think it would generate enough interest?

There are all sorts of things going on, the canal and river trust have regular “get fishing” events around the country’s canals. My nephews went to a commercial somewhere near Nuneaton and paid £5 for 1/2 day learn to fish.
There’s also take a mate fishing 2 or 3 times a year were you get a free day rod license when accompanied by a full paying adult. Lots of commercials support this by offering 2 for the price of 1 when using that scheme.
My club have angling coaches if someone wants to give it a try.

Some examples I can think of, but I think a lot of it is down to kids spending too much time on Xbox,PS4 etc etc. Today’s generation seem so very different to mine from the 60’-70’s a world apart.

rich66 said:

There are all sorts of things going on, the canal and river trust have regular “get fishing” events around the country’s canals. My nephews went to a commercial somewhere near Nuneaton and paid £5 for 1/2 day learn to fish.
There’s also take a mate fishing 2 or 3 times a year were you get a free day rod license when accompanied by a full paying adult. Lots of commercials support this by offering 2 for the price of 1 when using that scheme.
My club have angling coaches if someone wants to give it a try.

Some examples I can think of, but I think a lot of it is down to kids spending too much time on Xbox,PS4 etc etc. Today’s generation seem so very different to mine from the 60’-70’s a world apart.

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I am sorry but I do have to disagree. I don't think that kids having Xbox, PS4 and whatnot has any impact on this. Almost everything you have mentioned is part of the problem. Coaches, take a mate fishing etc. This is all costs quite hefty sums, can be intimidating for beginner and once again it is very individualistic.

tomino2112 said:

It seems to be a privileged hobby of few...

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They say it's the most popular participant sport in the UK and also i don't see what's privileged about coarse fishing. I mean, what are you comparing it to, golf?

tomino2112 said:

I don't think that kids having Xbox, PS4 and whatnot has any impact on this.

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Imo it is only part of the problem of getting kids into angling, as has been mentioned there are lots of things that are designed to get them starting to learn the basics but all the game consoles are a part of it imo.

Society is a lot different now to when I started fishing, it was what kids did, we were safe and it didn't cost the earth to fish as there were lots of farm pools about that could be fished for nothing. I was the only one to fish in our family I taught myself by going fishing with mates, is it safe for kids to just go off all day now?

thecrow said:

is it safe for kids to just go off all day now?

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Arguably it's no more dangerous now than it was then, but perceptions have changed.

tomino2112 said:

Overall I feel like angling in the UK is being very "introvert" all together. It seems to be a privileged hobby of few and does not seem to have any interest in expending and making it more popular. On the other hand though there have been many threads on this forum discussing why is angling not more popular and why are not youngsters interested.

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Most of the ‘larger’ fishing clubs around the country have regular events for juniors and also include very low joining fees for juniors (occasionally even no fees).

One of my clubs (Verulum AC) has a yearly open day where people including juniors and their mums and dads if present can try out the sport of fishing ‘for free’ to see if they like it, with members sitting around the lake supplying bait and tackle which is setup for them to use.

They have a barbecue and have various different stalls showing the tackle needed for each species and photos and various demonstrations etc. Plus a raffle with lots of different fishing prizes to be won.

The local Mayor often attends to give out prizes for the biggest fish caught by the new anglers during the day, and everyone has a great fun day.

The club has various qualified Angling tutors within it who occasionally visit schools promoting the sport and occasionally organise fishing outings on club waters for them.

The club also has a junior section (and a ladies section, and a Carp section, and a Match section, and a Specialist section, and a fly Fishing section) where they can fish alongside other like minded members and take advantage of various teach-ins that are held during the year.

My other club (TWAC) is a much smaller club with only one water to fish (which is a beautiful private estate lake); the club holds a yearly open junior and ladies match where juniors and ladies can bring along their mates (members or not) and fish a match for free, and all juniors who need one can have an adult there to help them and we have a barbecue and prize giving; with prizes supplied by local Angling shops and trophies supplied by the club.
Every junior also gets a trophy to remind them of their day.

So there are events being held by lots of the clubs all over the country being organised during the year if they looked out for them being advertised.
However if a kid doesn’t have any friends or parents who already fish or who can help them find one of these events then I admit it can be fairly difficult for a lot of them to get started at first.

Keith

Have a look at the Angling Trust website. They do teachins. They also will collect unwanted gear to teach youngsters in a scheme that " helps to keep them on the straight and narrow"

As always with things like this there’s no single cause but you can’t ignore the changes in kids’ behavior over the last ten years because of the internet and technology.

My friend is a psychotherapist who provides support to students at a London University. She says the internet, social media, and gaming have all led to a generation with shorter attention spans, a sense of entitlement that means they expect everything right now, and a detachment from real life - the virtual world is carefully tailored so it’s so much more exciting and rewarding.

Fishing is about as far removed from the virtual fantasy as you can get. Kids are being told they deserve to have fun all the time, commercials are offering more of that than there used to be in fishing but the traditional way just doesn’t appeal

tomino2112 said:

I am sorry but I do have to disagree. I don't think that kids having Xbox, PS4 and whatnot has any impact on this. Almost everything you have mentioned is part of the problem. Coaches, take a mate fishing etc. This is all costs quite hefty sums, can be intimidating for beginner and once again it is very individualistic.

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Don’t have to be sorry about disagreeing pal, coaches we provide free. And the C&R trust is only a few quid I think.

I personally think video gaming has had an impact on today’s kids it can be quite addictive, but parents have to take charge of that.

Angling can be as cheap as chips if your happy silver fishing on the canals. My kit is the cheaper end but gives me hours n hours of pleasure. Trick is not to be drawn into the tackle and bait industries marketing ploys. Which we all do at times.

Angling is very much an individual sport unless your talking match fishing, or sitting in the same swim with a mate fishing different sides, which I do occasionally.

There are a number of schemes nationwide to get kids into fishing, Les Webber runs a charity that promotes this, Get Hooked on Fishing has schemes and area coordinators to organize things, Maggotdrowners are trying to get a scheme off the ground. Local clubs are another option. I get fed up of hearing about xbox, ps4 and other electronic games keeping kids indoors. Take a look at how many junior football or rugby teams are playing at a weekend. Or how many kids are doing athletics. Two football and rugby clubs near me have around 10 junior teams each, that is over 200 kids playing sport at a weekend. If kids want to go fishing they will, all the good intentions in the world will not make them do some thing they don't want to do. I ran the junior section of my club for a few years, they were entered into regional and national competitions,and did well in them, they also enjoyed the fun side of fishing, Prince Albert AS has more junior members than most clubs have total membership, They have got it right as far as junior fishing is concerned,

Everyone needs to look back to when they started fishing,my dad went fishing,but was never really interested,more interested in the boozer,so when I was bored at school I went to the library in the lunch break looking for a magazine to read,couldn't find anything but a lovely picture on the front of an angling mag caught my eye,I scanned through it and found an article by a well known FM man Graham Marsden on bream fishing on Cheshire meres,that was was me hooked,not straight away,but I read probably a dozen mags cover to cover and then just had to go and because of the format of these mags,it turned me into the angler I am,an all rounder,having fly fished,beach fished,boat fished,carp,barbel,roach,gudgeon,bleak and other species are all interesting,I've match fished at a high level,today my youngest son(16) has just got up 6-25am and got straight on his tablet playing games,I find it hard to motivate him in anything hobby wise,I've explained to him how he needs something that he can't wait to get back to after a days work,be it golf,stamp collecting,anything...

I commend all the efforts made by clubs and organizations but is this what kids really want. I used to jump on a bus and fish the Thames for free, I cannot remember if I had license or not, just to be away from all the adult supervision was the bonus. My gear was begged or borrowed, a loaf off bread and I was off and learning how to chat up girls on the bus on the way, all adults where out of my picture frame and I learned to think for myself in fishing as well which is important for kids development. There are not many places like that for fishing anymore, they can go and run a bit wild down the park and play football or whatever they want with complete freedom and abandonment which is what my mates and me did all the time and I expect some developed into life long footballers, cricketers etc, no shortage of interest in these sports!
My local park has two big lakes, used to be full of young anglers until they got a grant to fence them off, put platforms in and then got serious about collecting day tickets, put big signs up with long lists about all the things you cant do, and now I hardly ever see anyone on them, add serious fines, public humiliation and flogging for this and that and its just off putting to kids, they want freedom, its all got too serious I reckon for kids; I am not so sure I would have got into fishing in today's set up, I might have found it all too heavy handed , I do now let alone when I was kid.

As someone who came to fishing late in life, I don't think that the electronic games are totally to blame for the lack of kids fishing. When I was a kid in the 1950s/60s there were no electronic games but there was plenty of other things to keep us at home. I have said before that none of my mates fished, that is not to say that other kids didn't. I think kids today are no different to kids of my generation, in as much as there were some kids that were more interested in outdoor activities than others. Me and my mates had mainly indoor hobbies, like stamp collecting and model-making. We were also members of the 'Explorers' (a sort of independent scout group) and the local drum and trumpet corps marching band. We had lots of things to keep us busy without thinking about fishing, so we never did.

All these things we did in the evenings and weekends. There was hardly any TV in our life, but we did spend a lot of time on our hobbies, albeit indoors.

We were not interested in fishing although in those days there were tackle shops all over the place locally. We used them a lot for tackle boxes and other useful stuff like fishing line to hang aeroplanes up from the ceiling.

Supervision seems to be a big problem these days. when I was a kid, if we wanted to join a group we did. There was no need to ask anyone. One of our circle of mates would join a group, club or just go and do something different and any that were interested would go and see if it was for them. If we liked it we would tell our parents what we were doing and when we would be home. End of story.

Life is very different now with a paranoia that is propagated by a very sensationalised news media and a mostly unrestricted social media, that exaggerates the reality. It is like the perception that south east London is full of thieves and murderers, when the reality is that we have only had four murders down our road and been broken into twice.

Ralph.

I've said it before that I think angling has it wrong in trying to target kids as the next generation of anglers. Angling entails long periods of inactivity which will be perceived as boring for kids. Add to this the supervision problem nowadays and you have an uphill struggle.

The target for angling should be the 40 year olds who are getting a bit old for physical sports like football, Rugby, Tennis and so on, have some money in their pockets and are looking for something to fill the gap. Encourage these people to start angling and you have a potential angler for the next 30+ years.

In addition get the Dads fishing and the chances are their kids will follow.

Philip said:

I've said it before that I think angling has it wrong in trying to target kids as the next generation of anglers. Angling entails long periods of inactivity which will be perceived as boring for kids. Add to this the supervision problem nowadays and you have an uphill struggle.

The target for angling should be the 40 year olds who are getting a bit old for physical sports like football, Rugby, Tennis and so on, have some money in their pockets and are looking for something to fill the gap. Encourage these people to start angling and you have a potential angler for the next 30+ years.

In addition get the Dads fishing and the chances are their kids will follow.

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I agree, I’m 49 so only just in my forties but I took up fishing again about ten years ago as an antidote to stresses and crazy pace of modern life.

The main problem is finding time at that age.

Kids drink less alcohol, smoke less and are far more aware of the perils of unhealthy eating than we were but I don’t think you can ignore how big a part technology plays in their lives these days