I was responding to another thread on this site and I wondered about what's wrong with our sport. Many of us would consider and list many common features, such as, Commercial gill neters, litter louts and dogfish kicking louts. I put those down without thinking but when I thought a bit more I decided that a fourth would be : Average Keen Sea Anglers (AKSA)
I just wonder if many of us, me included very near the top, occasionally have double standards. We're in a rush so we forget about not wrecking a rocky beach and leave rocks upside down when we've been after peelers, or we try a liitle too hard to extract a 'valuable' hook that's been swallowed by a small fish and kill it in the process. We dig more bait than we really need and finish up throwing it away, probably into a litter bin (we never leave litter on the beach do we?) At least if it went back in the sea it would go around in the same food cycle! We decide that a quick pound is to be got by selling fish we catch down the pub or the nearest Chinese restaurant or worst of all throw it away because we only took it home to prove we caught something.
I could think of more but it's not the individual 'crimes' that I want to highlight. Its
the very simple suggestion that, "It doesn't include me" when we do something that, had it been someone else, we would have criticised! How guilty are we all, in a small way but culminatively, as anglers, IN A BIG WAY!
Do we need to clean up our own act before we decide to clean up that of others?
Here's a little example. I was on Hythe beach (next to Brighton?) last February with my two infant grand daughters - (we were looking for some hoody teenagers to stalk and attack actually) The sun was shining and of course I had to show the girls the fishing! Some lads were at it and told me they were after Bass they'd heard were about (yes February! - talk about the soft South!) I thought what a pity I couldn't join them but then I was on Grandad patrol! Then a about 200 yds up the beach I watched a little 14' inboard launch being winched up the beach (lovely little boat!) so I drew nearer, being a nosy so-and-so! I took the enclosed photo. The older bloke with the boat was with his grand son and had had a great time, fishing, as you can see. The gill net was not hidden and I'm sure they did not consider that what they had been doing "300yds off the beach" was just 'good fun'. I say this because as they climbed into their Range Rover they did not look like typical commercial fishermen. I could be totally wrong and find that they were licensed etc. However I feel that the Bass they had caught finished up on the Barby but wonder how many of them found their way into the menus of local Hotels? In this case I cannot make any allegations as I do not have any proof. Mind you I bet the lads down the beach would have enjoyed just hooking ONE of the many Bass in that box, and talked about nothing else for weeks, whereas the boat owner and his grand son thought nothing of it and just disposed of the fish.
But how often do we fall into the trap of allowing our 'sport' to earn money.
Does it concern you, or don't the 'rules' include you?
I just wonder if many of us, me included very near the top, occasionally have double standards. We're in a rush so we forget about not wrecking a rocky beach and leave rocks upside down when we've been after peelers, or we try a liitle too hard to extract a 'valuable' hook that's been swallowed by a small fish and kill it in the process. We dig more bait than we really need and finish up throwing it away, probably into a litter bin (we never leave litter on the beach do we?) At least if it went back in the sea it would go around in the same food cycle! We decide that a quick pound is to be got by selling fish we catch down the pub or the nearest Chinese restaurant or worst of all throw it away because we only took it home to prove we caught something.
I could think of more but it's not the individual 'crimes' that I want to highlight. Its
the very simple suggestion that, "It doesn't include me" when we do something that, had it been someone else, we would have criticised! How guilty are we all, in a small way but culminatively, as anglers, IN A BIG WAY!
Do we need to clean up our own act before we decide to clean up that of others?
Here's a little example. I was on Hythe beach (next to Brighton?) last February with my two infant grand daughters - (we were looking for some hoody teenagers to stalk and attack actually) The sun was shining and of course I had to show the girls the fishing! Some lads were at it and told me they were after Bass they'd heard were about (yes February! - talk about the soft South!) I thought what a pity I couldn't join them but then I was on Grandad patrol! Then a about 200 yds up the beach I watched a little 14' inboard launch being winched up the beach (lovely little boat!) so I drew nearer, being a nosy so-and-so! I took the enclosed photo. The older bloke with the boat was with his grand son and had had a great time, fishing, as you can see. The gill net was not hidden and I'm sure they did not consider that what they had been doing "300yds off the beach" was just 'good fun'. I say this because as they climbed into their Range Rover they did not look like typical commercial fishermen. I could be totally wrong and find that they were licensed etc. However I feel that the Bass they had caught finished up on the Barby but wonder how many of them found their way into the menus of local Hotels? In this case I cannot make any allegations as I do not have any proof. Mind you I bet the lads down the beach would have enjoyed just hooking ONE of the many Bass in that box, and talked about nothing else for weeks, whereas the boat owner and his grand son thought nothing of it and just disposed of the fish.
But how often do we fall into the trap of allowing our 'sport' to earn money.
Does it concern you, or don't the 'rules' include you?