GROWING OLD DISGRACEFULLY

This brought a few memories back form my cave rescue days, especially the bit about the old guy not having done what everyone had thought he’d done, just change the name of the sport and we could all spot these characters. The big problem with any organisation or club that is run by voluntary personnel, is that those who volunteer are not always the ones with ability and it gets even worse when they think they have.
Over the last few years the “in thing” has been team working and leadership skills, but most end up as gangs with gang leaders. And the worst outcome is having a strong leader who doesn’t know what they are doing or where they are going, they just lead their team over the edge of the cliff faster. But hay lads, welcome to the real world, we anglers are just human like everyone else!!!

I am interested in the fact that Barrie had this article published in 1987. In the article he writes as though Walker was still alive.

Walker in fact died in 1985. Something doesn't add up somehow.

Walker always championed the younger angler. He was mindful, I guess, of the days when he was young and had to come up against a lot of criticism from much older anglers and writers.

He once wrote, concerning angling, that it wasn't how long you had been learning that counted, but rather, how much you had learned.

During the early 60s when I started writing for a number of angling publications, I came under intensive criticism from time to time from a number of much older people.

It never worried me because I could alway prove what I was catching by photos. I reckoned many of the older anglers who had a go at me spent more time in their arm chairs than on the river bank.

These days, I love to spend a bit of time in the company of young keen anglers. It reminds me of my own younger days.

The problem is that today, wherever you look on the river bank, you don't see many youngsters any more!

Like Walker, Ivan Marks always recognised the importance of the younger angler, saying that he didn't want to die wthout passing on his knowledge. Indeed, he acknowledged the help he had from older anglers when he was young. In my opinion, younger anglers compliment older anglers (and vice versa). It is a credit to the sport that it offers so much to people of all ages and abilities - there's something for everyone.

What Barrie and jon says about committees leading everyone else is quite true in my expierience, although I have respect for some of the older committee men, to others it is no more than a social gathering once a month at the club meeting.(somewhere to go).
It's really up to the membership to do something about it,but far too many people are willing to complain about how things are run, but not willing enough to do something about it.

Ron, the date of the article was handwritten on the photocopy Barrie sent to me. I misread it, the date was actually 1982.

I would have agreed with Barrie over this article in 1982, and I would have agreed with him in 1992, 1996 and possibly 2000, but I wouldn't agree with him now.

Only because I am now 57 fast approaching 58 and I feel that my mind and up-to-date knowledge is as keen as any twenty year-olds. It's really is a matter of how you train your mind - I covered this in one of my articles on running a club - are you proactive both in running your club and you thirst for information or are you reactive accpeting only those items, pieces of information that you really do have to address?

I will always agree with Barrie that all clubs need new blood and how better than for younger anglers to play an active part in running it. Yet how do we treat younger players, with contempt usually - they know nothing and they're hardly likely to learn if we don't involve them.

It's one reason I love the French - they have friends and acquaintances. They pay no attention to age whatsoever so you can find a young man of 25 going fishing with a friend of 65 and the two will hold a mutual respect for each other.

One of the aspects of the British is often the contempt for older people.

I have heard it said from the minds of young people that it's not fair for older people to know all that!

A couple of years ago I was fly fishing a Derbyshire still water. I caught my limit in half an hour whilst several other angler caught nothing. All of them were much younger than me.

I walked back to the office with the intention of buying another ticket. In the rest room I overheard two youngsters talking about the old codger they were watching who was emptying the lake and chucking at least 30 years. They couldn't understand it as they had much more expensive tackle and a fancy 4x4 compared with my old Citroen.

Yes, I would agree, the French are far more respectful of either the young or the old. Age doesn't matter to them.

When I returned to angling after a gap of 15 years I was (and still am) utterly baffled the first few times I went into a tackle shop. There were so many new things to learn. I'd never heard of unhooking mats and method feeders, to name but two of many new-fangled things. And the range of equipment for pole fishing and carp fishing has grown enormously. So, at 56, I'm one of those old 'uns who may seem to be experienced but actually knows little about modern methods. Having said that I bet that within a short time I could join an angling club and get on the committee. Hell, I might even be President, or at least Treasurer, in a year or two. The reason? Apathy! I've served on a number of club committees before (non-angling ones) and it's always the same old faces who do all the work, the bulk of members are content to have it all done for them. Volunteers are hard to get and anyone willing to put themselves forward is usually welcomed with open arms - no questions asked. Youngsters are less likely to volunteer because they've other things to do apart from fishing. There's chasing the opposite sex for instance, or maybe raising a family. Older people have usually got their lives sorted out by then and have the time, and interest, to volunteer. Human nature being what it is, I doubt the situation will change much, though there will always be the exceptions to the rule. Now some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I will shortly be joining an angling club. The bad news is that I will definitely not be trying to get on the committee. I promise I'll be good and, if the Aunt Sallys on the committee make a cock-up big enough to jerk the membership out of their general apathy, I will not join in the sniping at them since they are doing a job that I won't consider. All ships need a captain and if Hornblower won't volunteer you'll have to put up with Pugwash.