What is unsaid is that all the fish weight between 4lb & upper double figures and a 4 fish limit will probably weight about 35lbs. That is £2 per lb and the owner isn't making any money out of that.Lechlade is £75 for a 'Full Day', 4 fish catch and kill ticket .Your 'Full Day' ends when fish number 4 has been caught and killed . . . unless you go and purchase another £75 ticket.
Speaks volumes about the descent of attitudes with regards to 'a day's fishing'.
You've missed the point. I am not in favour of creating hierarchy pyramids about the fishing promised land. Let everyone take their own journey without the sideways glances of contempt.So what your saying is show them how easy it is wait for the stock truck and fish every cast and when it gets hard they give up.The opposite can also be true,show them how fishing really is,where you need to think and use skills to catch and not become one of the bung and chuck brigade.
No wonder fishing has changed and the antis are about when they view some of the mishandling by so called anglers.
You need the tough days for two reasons:I had a day on a Cotswold river with a friend a few years ago when it was literally fish a cast. The fish were so hard on the feed that the only restriction on how many you could catch was how quickly you could get them to the net and release them.
It was a bizarre and strangely unrewarding fishing trip... just too easy and with the sense of surprise and joy when a fish took your fly removed almost completely after the first few fish came in in short order. It just didn't really feel like 'fishing'.
But if we are teaching them its easy by starting on stockies we are not letting them take their own journey.Your showing them this is how easy it is and when they dont catch is when the rest of what I said comes in.Let everyone take their own journey without the sideways glances of contempt.
Well I still think a quick catch is good for an absolute beginner and then you can move on.But if we are teaching them its easy by starting on stockies we are not letting them take their own journey.Your showing them this is how easy it is and when they dont catch is when the rest of what I said comes in.
The only contempt i have is towards those who,like Douglas mentioned and those who dont respect their quarry of which are growing in numbers.
Thanks. Just filling the flask and then I am off., sometimes it does not make sense (salmon fishing).
Being an owner and making a profit these days isnt easy,but its also about looking after your stock as you would a cow or sheep.Sooner anglers realise this it would help and those who call it a sport ,should take what that entails,its about skill,patience and learning not,being easy and numbers game.Remember the old saying,1 fish is a bonus.Well I still think a quick catch is good for an absolute beginner and then you can move on.
As regards to Douglas's point I used to see people like that (taking out the exaggeration) 40 years ago, so nothing has changed. Even in that mind set though a few will come through, and as long as they do not break the fishery rules so the owner makes a profit they are in their way supporting the old guy at the other end of the pond with his size 22 black gnat.
To be fair your point of view reflects a more mature attitude than some of your companions. One's fishing career often progresses along a fairly common path. First catching a fish is important, then numbers become the measure of a day with the achievement of a limit being the goal, then it's often about big fish, then difficult fish become the most rewarding and then many abandon stocked fisheries in favour of wild fish and then it's often back to any fish to top the sheer joy of just being out.I'm relatively new to fishing so my opinion may not be worth much in the grand scheme of things, but here goes anyway.
I first picked up a fly rod maybe 15 years ago but due to other hobbies and commitments it only lasted for 6 months then it was put in the attic. When the first lockdown came last year I decided I would start fishing my local which is literally 5 minutes from my front door, so most weekends since then I have been out on the lake enjoying myself.
Now here is where I feel I may be missing the point.
When speaking to other anglers or reading about fishing it all seems to be about the numbers rather than the enjoyment. Infact I'd go as far as to say that for many the enjoyment seems to be based on the numbers.
I'm on quite a few fishing forums and groups and I hear that quite a lot. Folk saying that the fishery isn't great or it wasn't a good day because they were catching under 10 fish. So what they are saying is the amount of fish that one catches is the deciding factor on whether it is a good fishery/day and this in turn decides whether that person had a good day out.
A good example of this happened to me this week. I had been out fishing and later that evening I was talking to a mate and he asked me how I got on at my local. "Great, I had a very good day" I replied and explained about battling the crazy wind, catching a fin perfect brownie, a few fights with some tough fighting blues, a decent amount of rainbows and meeting another angler for the first time who I got on with really well. But the best part of the day was two dear walking down to the edge of the water for a drink literally no more than 10 metres from me completely at ease with me being there. They spent a good 5 minutes drinking and watching me then wandered off. That is not something I have seen before and can't imagine I will ever again.
On hearing this his reply was, "yeah yeah but how many did you catch?"
That got me thinking. Don't get me wrong, I would rather catch fish than blank, but am I bothered if it is 5 or 35...no not at all. Does it have to be an overfed mammoth slab of a fish...no. As long as I am enjoying my day out I honestly do not think that the numbers really matter. However, I also understand that we are all different and require different things in life. I actually fished pretty decent for me and made some good decisions which by the end of the day meant I caught the most on the lake. But to me the numbers were irrelevant. I had a great day and can honestly say that the numbers were just an added bonus. Having a day off work, getting outdoors, coming face to face with nature, meeting new people and chucking some flies out made a fantastic day for me.
So I guess all I am saying is perhaps if you are relatively new to fishing and are disheartened that you are catching single numbers while the person to the side of you has caught 30, there is no need to be. Ask yourself what you have enjoyed about the day and take that home with you.
The alternative is that you could be working or doing chores around the house. I know what I would rather be doing.
...I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that our approaches and preferences may change with regards to our fishing but we are still anglers and we have more in common than not.
I like thatThis thread reminds me of the fable of an old man who dies and wakes up next to a river. Being an angler he gets up and notices a fish rising in the pool just upstream. 'Lovely' he says to himself, 'if only I had a rod and line!'. Lo and behold he finds a rod next to him already strung up with a dry. Picking it up he walks stealthily upstream and then casts to the fish which has just risen again. The dry drifts downstream and is taken. After a short fight a 3lb wild brown is landed. 'Beautiful!' the old man says, 'I must be in heaven!'. He then notices another fish rising in the same spot, again the fish takes first time and an identical 3lb is landed. This process of spotting a fish rising in the same spot and it taking first time is repeated over and over, only then does the old man realise he's not in heaven......