Barrie Rickards’ Angling – In My View

Professor Barrie Rickards is President of the Specialist Anglers Association (SAA) and President of the Lure Angling Society (LAS), as well as a very experienced and successful specialist angler with a considerable tally of big fish to his credit.

He is author of several fishing books, including the classic work ‘Fishing For Big Pike’, co-authored with the late Ray Webb and only recently his first novel, ‘Fishers On The Green Roads’ was published. He has been an angling writer in newspapers and magazines for nigh on four decades. Barrie takes a keen interest in angling politics.

Away from angling Barrie is a Professor in Palaeontology at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Emmanuel College and a curator of the Sedgwick Museum of Geology.

Big rows down under

WHEN I WAS in Australia recently I had intended to fish for the legendary Barramundi up in Queensland, but I arrived in November, just in time for the onset of the close season for that fish, and I walked into a big row in the angling world there. As you will see, it’s the same everywhere!

It seems that in some areas, a couple of days before the close season kicks in they have a free for all match and catch and kill – as many barramundi as possible. Hundreds of big fish in the 10-30 lb category are slaughtered. Of course, the fish are eaten, but is the resource being damaged? The consensus amongst anglers and conservationists is that it is. You simply cannot take out the top predator in a water in quantity, and expect the ecosystem to survive. It does seem likely that such ‘barra bashers’, as they are called, will disappear fairly quickly now. A photograph in the regional national newspaper brought an outcry from all quarters. Haven’t we heard all this before somewhere? Why is it that whether in commercial fishing or so-called sport fishing, the participants cannot recognise a golden egg when they see one?

I saw another similar incident which also shows that Australian anglers are now moving into conservation fast – and that certainly wasn’t the case when I first worked there in the 1970s. This time a Japanese angler fishing off Cairns had a black marlin of 1294 lbs (it was at 4.5m, 2-3 times the man’s height). He killed it. The outcry was enormous. It might have been the biggest black marlin caught in the world in 2006 and it is no more. It isn’t swimming around with a tag on it, something which now happens to a lot of Australian big game fish. The man has presumably taken the head and bill as a trophy and the rest will be marlin steaks somewhere. Reasons were given as to why the fish was killed (including the fact that he had always returned his smaller ones) but none was convincing. It’s rather the same when big pike are unnecessarily killed and are always given some half-baked reason, which only goes to show that they know they are in the wrong and are merely on an ego trip, amongst non-anglers mostly.

National Union of British Anglers (NUBA)

I saw recently that a gentlemen was trying to form a National Union of British Anglers (NUBA). One can see where his frustration is coming from, but hasn’t he heard of FACT? I hear that the NFA is thinking of taking its bat home! Some of you may know more about this than I do, but on the face of it, it sounds like the usual pathetic nonsense. When you look into these things it’s almost always a question of someone’s stupid ego. Some people who have spent years running committees seem to think that it is the committee and its officers which is important. It is not. It is the committee’s function to serve anglers which is important. I came across a very small such incident myself recently. One committee member threatened to take his bat home if any form of recognition was given to another angling body the aims and objectives of which he seemed to disagree with. Pathetic. When will anglers realise that angling is in many ways a very divergent sport. We must work with anglers where views and practices are quite different, even anathema, to ours. The alternative is to work for the enemy.

No backing for the angling bodies

I see there’s a lot of fuss about adding £ 1 to the angling licence so that it can be used to fund angling representation (through FACT). That would produce around £ 1 million useful pounds. There is a problem, of course, in that most anglers don’t give a stuff about the bodies that represent them. For example, many pike anglers will happily sit there behind three or four rods but will not back the organisation, the PAC, which fought for the right for them to do so. Pathetic. I was talking to one well-informed soul last week who told me that it was likely that the grand total of anglers who supported our representative bodies, such as the ACA, NFA, SSA, NFSA, SAA, etc, was probably no more than 30,000. So 30,000 are paying to help several million anglers go fishing. Maybe all anglers should be required to join the parent bodies – as indeed happens in some sports. Maybe this £ 1 a head should be levied on everyone.

Sport England underestimate angling numbers

I also noted this week that Sport England has surprised us all (I don’t think) by grossly underestimating the numbers of anglers. Deliberate or just ignorance? The least said about Sport England and angling the better. It is seriously anti-angling and I think we must accept that and move on. They’d rather support our soccer teams and cricket teams in their endeavours to strive towards mediocrity.

Des Tells it like it is

I always enjoy Des Taylor’s column in Angling Times. Here is a writer telling it as it is, always original. He has been a marvellous successor to Dick Walker, yet is much broader in experience than Dick ever was. In time anglers will come to realise what a terrific column it is. I don’t think Angling Times realise this or they would not put him near the back of the paper. No so long back Des was ranting on about the sensation mongers in angling who try to make a name for themselves, and then disappear from the scene as quickly as they came. There have been many of those and they really are a pain in the arse. They are almost totally ignorant of what has gone before them, so a lot of their ‘campaigns’ have been argued through before. In fact, their objective is to become a big shot, get a quick career, and earn megabucks. When it doesn’t work out (because editors soon rumble them) they go to try their luck at ferret racing or something. I bumped into a couple of these guys who were pains in the 1960s. Neither of them had fished for forty years, and yet at the time we were led to believe they would die for angling. Its an amazing world.

Canoeists back on the agenda

Canoeists seem to be back on the agenda. This problem, such as it is (I have never had a problem with a canoeist personally although I know plenty who have) can be summarized briefly. If they would pay for a licence to canoe they’d be listened to. At the moment they refuse to do so, and they should be told to get lost. They would not take their canoes on a foul and putrid waterway, but the only reason most of our waters are not in that state is because anglers have PAID to get them cleaned up. If you want to come on our waters you’ll pay or you’ll canoe in your bath. I can just about tolerate a dog walker or a cyclist enjoying a scenic route by waters we have cleaned up, without their help, but I’m damned if I’ll support a paddle splasher unless he digs deep into his pocket.

Discovery Mobile Fishing Tackled and fishing songs on CD

It seems that a TV show called ‘Discovery Mobile Fishing Tackled’ has appeared. As I don’t understand a word of it I have passed it on to Graham Marsden who will no doubt enlighten you all if it’s worth it. It seems to feature Matt Hayes and Mick Brown, so there is hope.

Also in the changing world of media and angling Merlin Unwin have just released a CD of angling songs. They seem to be American. Their names are Archie Trawn, Chris Shaw and Tom Akstens, and I don’t think I’d heard any of the songs (never mind the singers!). I haven’t listened to it yet. Maybe I will soon. It’s got to be naff, but if it’s as naff as that singing black bass then it may well be worth it! Its called ‘Big Fish Radio. Songs about fishing’ and you can get it on 01584877456. Try it, and if its OK give me a ring and I’ll play it myself. Apparently its blues, jazz and country music. What else!

Help angling’s youngsters

As so often I find myself a complete support of Keith Arthur when he extols the virtues of Les Webber and his schemes to help angling’s youngsters. Recently he wrote, “why the NFA can’t simply embrace Les and his scheme, and find some funding for it. I don’t know.”” Quite so. Divided yet again. Ego maybe?

Appalled at the activities of the RSPB

All anglers like wild birds, and it’s one of the real joys of going fishing, especially at dawn. So I guess most of us feed the birds in our garden and perhaps even support the RSPB by buying their bird food and apparatuses. Like so many I have wondered if this is a good thing. After all we are doing two things in addition to giving ourselves a lot of pleasure: we are pulling all the birds into the household cat zone; and we are tending to make birds very trusting and less able to look after themselves food wise, in the wild. When I was in Australia last they were appalled at the activities of the RSPB (which, it must be said, gets a huge income from its sales of seed and bird-feeders) taking the view that wild creatures should not be attracted in the human habitat zone by feeding. Is it any different from using groundbait to attract roach? After all, we attract them and pike as well. This isn’t as long term, is it, nor static. Some swims probably don’t see groundbait in several years, but birdfeeders in gardens see birds every day. I don’t know about you but I reckon that that is where those 30 million songsters go every year, down the cats’ throats.