Hi Guys and Girls...

Here's a deep question for you - what do you think the future of our sport is?? In the last few years we have seen the collapse of most of the winter leagues around the country, a reduction in numbers of anglers fishing rivers and canals - is it all doom and gloom or are there juniors in your areas still getting involved and if not what can we do to encourage them to go fishing?

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Simon Young
Admin
www.TalkAngling.co.uk

Fishing tackle shop online

As you know the super league in the east/south Yorkshire area is the biggest in the country and still thriving , all the matches are on canals or rivers and the atmosphere is great . We have some very well attended matches in winter running from oct-march on the ancholme and from my point of view it all looks rosy but you only have to look around to see there ain't many young uns at the matches . I think fishing as a whole looks fine , what with commercials but traditional match fishing in years to come looks bleak

Oneabung - Good question and difficult one to answer. I think our expectations have risen so much since the introduction of commercials that everyone expects to bag up all the time. When you talk to fishery owners with some expertise they reckon that all commercial waters follow a cycle of approx 7 years before they will need to completely revamp the venue, net / restock etc. If this is correct then all venues must follow a familiar pattern of 2/3 years brilliant fishing for stockies then 2/3 years of mixed success with larger and much cleverer fish followed by 2/3 years of slow decline. Because we live in a want it now society this fuels the short interest levels of todays youngsters who traditionally were brought up on tuff canals and rivers . Ultimately the future is in our hands but i,m buggered if i know what the future holds. Robbo

Everyone is busy workin hard nowadays and most people only get 1 fishing trip a week and most people fish commercials because you catch loads of fish, cheap easy parking and its good fun. The Matches are easy to organise and its pretty fair fishing. Canals and rivers is dying out in my opinion because most young lads like myself are being brought up on commercials. Fishing is getting bigger and popular and there are loads of young people coming into the sport but the reason you dont see many in matches is because its hard for younguns to get transport and to afford it.
I think commercials are overtaking because what do people go fishing for? to catch fish!...for five quid no matter how skilled you are you can catch a net full wich is wat most people want after a hard weeks graftin at work.
all the banter with your work and club mates, breakfast in morning then fish it out on the bank and have a good laff. Cheap, easy parking, plenty of fish and a chance of framing........all for the working man.

I think we look at it from the wrong angle, we are concerned with the lack of kids coming into the sport. This i think is due to parents not letting there kids out of sight. When i was a kid we would disapear in the morning and be back by tea time, now the kids are wrapped in cotten wool and therefor don't get out to fish in the first place (just like my kids).

What we need to attract are those in there 30s and 40s into fishing. I used to play rugby to a good standard but after a injury needed to find another sport to keep me occupied, i was taken fishing and havn't looked back. I didn't start until i was 32 and it was hard going to start with because of my age anglers thought i should know what i was doing. If the sport made it easier for this age group to start fishing the sport would be better of. They have a lot more money to dispose of than a 16 year old, so angling would be better of.

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Steve Davies

The days of introducing youngsters into the sport has sadly passed.Unless you have a crb you stand to be called all sorts of things.Very very sad state of affairs i know i keep harping on about the old days, but thats where i was grounded in the fine art of coarse fishing ..How can you just team up with a youngster now and take them fishing you dare not its a great shame . Good job we still have the Ian Bowdens of this world who can safely coach some youngsters and nurture them on. I see the occasional lad fishing now which is a great shame maybe the tackle trade should do more for youngsters before we loose them all to the virtual world of games machines and computers

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probably the biggest wind up artist in Birmingham

Larry , totally agree with what your saying . When i was at school we had a couple of days in summer were two teachers would take 20 of us fishing to a venue for the day , we even went on the trent and that was 80 miles away . It just cant happen nowadays , its 1 teacher to 3 kids and then their worried that the kid will trip up and a massive claim will follow . Its a fact, that if instilled at a young age ,fishing teaches you to respect your surroundings and belongings and have respect for people . As far as I'm concerned, its the government who are to blame for going soft on crime and they could do more to introduce it in schools

I think its a great thing to see less people on the river banks as there are more stretches & swims for people like me to fish without the fish being disturbed. If you think that the commercials are better; then just carry on thinking like that, then I can carry on catching the large bags of chub and barbel. while you fish your easy to fish overcrowded oversized garden ponds.
I know where I would rather fish any day.

Its a shame that Youngsters aren't coming into the sport as they used to; and a lot of them buy carp rods & alarms etc. straight away; then in a couple of years they get fedup & drop out; instead of doing their apprentiship with other fish and learning how to read a river or lake, and joining a club and entering club matches etc. etc. but thats the way it is nowerdays, it's a real shame though.

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Happiness is Fish Shaped (it used to be woman shaped but the wife is getting on a bit now)

Perhaps we all need to become qualified angling coaches and advertise in our local areas for dad's and lads!

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Simon Young
Admin
www.TalkAngling.co.uk

Fishing tackle shop online

My local Hull/District AA actually do open days at their club waters and these are always well attended , the young uns come along and have a lesson and catch a few as well . I think that society today is massively busy , by that i mean not enough hours in the day , parents having to work overtime to get by , so sometimes they havent got time to take the kids fishing etc . My dad use to drive 20 miles at 7 am to drop me off at a pond , go to work ,then drive back at 5 pm , the only thing i had to do was make sure i had his rod set up for him then we would fish till 9.30 pm , nearly 80 miles in a day . That was over 25 years ago , how many parents could find the time , never mind the cost today