You've mentioned one of my pet hates - TV programmes/adverts that depict 'fishing' in an amateurish and unrealistic way. Crime series seem to enjoy showing an 'angler' hooking a dead body. In one programme (can't recall which one) an angler hooks a body, can't reel it in, and wades out to it - across reedbeds - in about 2ft of water! There's no way anyone would be fishing there, or hope to land a fish... Also one episode of Lewis, when Lewis and Hathaway took Hathaway's father fishing - they used a carp rod with a Baitrunner to fish maggots on stick float tackle on a small river, while the father, who was dressed in fly-fishing gear (why do programme makers think that ALL anglers wear Barbour coats and tweed hats with flies on?) - hooked a fish, and before it was even landed, Lewis - a non-angler - identified it as a rainbow trout...
Going back a bit, the comedy-drama Boon had the title character and his associates 'stewarding' a fishing match - it was laughable; there was a steward - in waders! - standing behind each angler, all the 'anglers' had out-of-date gear and didn't know how to shot a float or place a keepnet, and - worst of all in terms of angling's image - the weigh-in (one fish!) took place in a marquee away from the river...!
Pride of place, however, must go to The Bill, in which a known villain was seen 'fishing' in a small stream somewhere in London - he pretended to have a 'bite', struck, and swung in .... a sprat! He had to jiggle the rod around to give the illusion that it was alive!
Do programme makers have the same careless attitude to football, or any other major sport?
And don't get me started on adverts and catalogues...makes me even grumpier.