ANGLING METHODS

ANGLING COMMENT

A CONTROVERSIAL LOOK AT MODERN ANGLING.

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Updated Wednesday July 28th 2010

EDITORIAL COMMENT

Fishing has certainly changed over the years, and not always for the better. So many products and, it seems from where we are sitting, so many manufacturers doing everything possible to make you spend money on things you don't need. Carrying a few hundred pounds of tackle for miles just for a couple of hours fishing or half a truck load for a few days on the bank makes the whole thing hard work, not the "relaxing hobby" that many of us remember.
It's true that our own teams carry mountains of stuff when they go abroad but this is usually because the kind of gear we use is very specialised and just not available in remote locations, especially when the trip can last many weeks, . . . if something as simple as a bail arm spring breaks for instance that's the reel finished, so they have to go for overkill but for the most part we wonder just how much gear we really need and it's probably a fair guess that we all carry too much.
If Carp anglers especially were any good at catching their quarry perhaps they wouldn't need three rods . . . one placed in the right spot would do the job if they were better skilled at placing it and actually 'fished' rather than just settle for the waiting game and lounging in the tent.

A short while ago I actually enjoyed fishing for the first time in years by wandering along a river with a single rod and quite literally a small pocket full of tackle, no fuss, no hard work just a great days fishing. Pity it has all become so complicated. One of the best Carp anglers it has ever been my privilege to meet only ever uses one rod, no pods, no alarms, no fancy pre-packaged rigs. . . and the results he gets will leave most Carp specialists with all the latest gear for dead. Same with a poacher I know in Scotland and a guy I met in Indonesia who has 9 children to feed, neither have more than the basic tackle but could certainly embarrass most of the so called 'experts' who fill the magazines with the rubbish we are all familiar with reading. Put enough misinformation in print for long enough and before long we all tramp off to the tackle shop waving our money like zombies. I guess the ranks of estate agents, second hand car dealers and bankers has been joined by many in the tackle industry. How many fisheries do you know for instance that still haven't crawled out of the dark ages by failing to provide such high tech innovations as a simple toilet cubicle ? So okay, wandering off into the brambles in the dead of night, invariably in the pouring rain, to unload an earlier Pot Noodle may sound reasonable but in practice it's pretty uncomfortable to say the least. Lack of facilities often excludes taking my lady as well . . . females being generally used to some form of basic hygiene.

Another thing that has become increasingly obvious over the years is the distinct lack of youngsters on the bank. Computer games, pressure from the robot factories (schools) and the fact that Dad ( Mum not excluded ) works his nuts off all day and rarely ever gets to see the kids all has something to do with the lack of under 12's at the fisheries. It poses the obvious question " Where will the next generation of fishermen come from ?"
If the next generation don't have the skills or interest to spend time out of doors they will never get to appreciate and value the world at all, let alone enjoy a days fishing. Getting tangled up, removing hooks from clothing, fingers, trees and of course fish is all part of the learning process and a Dads experience can never be substituted by a book. So okay, many of us have felt like using our offspring as bait when the whole day has been spent on re-tackling, first aid and desperately trying to be patient whilst getting floats out of trees but every minute spent doing all of this is so worthwhile in the long run. We need kids out there as once a generation of skills is lost they rarely ever come back.

I have to say that the kind of technology we use today has produced data that was beyond the realms of science fiction just 10 years ago. Underwater cameras, advanced sonar, proximity sensors, computer generated images from microscopes and even micro-chips on the fish we study are all an essential part of understanding the behaviour of the various species in the kind of precise detail that's needed when compiling valid and accurate research data. Add the computers we use coupled with the most advanced analytical software available and it's a formidable package that never could have been matched by the likes of Crabtree and Co. My own laptop for instance uses 2 quad core processors, 8 gigs of Ram and a graphics pack that defies description, all essential tools that help our research enormously and save endless hours of guesswork. On the bank there's all the other complex technology we just take for granted, even our Delkim alarms have specially added circuits to aid our research, none of which we could do without.
But the above isn't fishing, it's just the consequence of running a marine research company.

Personally give me an isolated lake or river I've never fished before, a simple rod set up with a decent bottle of malt whisky in the rucksack and I'd happily go AWOL from the lab for days on end. Unfortunately life just isn't that ideal. There's the workload and of course the inevitable bills and meetings with people I'd rather not spend my time with but I guess that's the way it is for all of us.

Perhaps that's the real problem with life today . . . we are all just too busy trying to earn enough money to buy things we don't really need anyway.

Not surprising really, anglers especially have been on the receiving end of a relentless marketing machine fuelled by ever greedier tackle and bait manufacturers, venue owners, the media etc and the result is the inevitable brain dysfunction that comes from advertising overload. We have become a bunch of tackle tarts that some anglers take to the extreme. Don't they realise how completely ridiculous it is to clothe themselves in camouflage gear from head to toe before hurling a bait out which lands more than a 100yds away ? . . . . . the fish couldn't see the angler from that range if he was wearing a fluorescent pink shell suit !
Then there's the stupidity of camo tents, pods and even rods themselves, all essential items to hide from what ? In case anyone hadn't noticed the fish are in the water not wandering around the bank. Of course there is a valid reason for blending into the background when stalking fish but despite claims to the contrary how many anglers have you ever seen getting off their backsides at a French lake and actually stalking anything ? Then having gone to all the trouble of becoming a bush they advertise their prescence by using alarms that transmit sound through the water every time they bleep like two kids talking through old bean tins joined with string. Having monitored the effect of this we spent a fortune modifying our Delkims to prevent any sound transmission along the line with excellent results, far more effective than attempting to become a Rhododendron I can assure you. Fish don't see things in the same light spectrum as humans anyway so what they are actually seeing is far removed from what you think they are seeing, but that's a subject that we'll go into another time.

Perhaps if the angling community snapped out of the marketing induced trance that is often apparent in the glazed eyes that wander around the tackle stores we could all get fishing back to the sensible sport it once was. Until then I guess the Rambo clones we are all familiar with can remain in their stupor content in the knowledge that their ambition to become an arboreal life-form is coming ever closer.