Last month the Environment Agency (EA) released figures for national rod licence sales in England and Wales covering the past ten years – and none of the news was particularly good.
The high point for licence sales was in 2009 and in the past four years the number of licences bought by adults has declined by 15% and by children a whopping 35%. The only growth area has been in concessionary licences to OAPs that rose by 10% in the same period. This data sparked a round of comment in the national and fishing press pondering why, despite the many ‘kids go fishing’ initiatives, there has been this decline.
I am as keen as anyone to see children fishing, so I started to bend my mind around the problem.
Currently the under 12s don’t require a licence, 12-16s pay £5 for the annual freshwater licence and the over 16s the full adult rate of £27. It is not a hard thing to buy online, assuming you have a credit or debit card but of course you have to be 18 to have a credit card. Fine you’d think, let an adult pay for the licence, but we can all easily imagine the difficulties that may present. Of course you can still buy a licence over the counter at any Post Office but they are gradually vanishing.
I could go on forever analysing why kids can’t or don’t buy licences but really I’m asking the wrong question. After all in what other walk of life do we require a child as young as 12 to buy a licence to engage in an innocent, healthy, outdoor pastime that will spark an interest that will last a lifetime?
Immediately I can think of none and the more I think about it the more absurd it becomes. I have no idea what proportion of the EA’s £23 million of licence income comes from kids’ licences, but I suspect it is pretty small. In an age when we are seeking engagement and participation for any sport the fishing licence has to be the ultimate barrier to entry.
From now on wherever I get the chance I am going to bend the ear of anyone who will listen to get kids licence abolished for everyone up to the age of 18.
Wish me luck and Tweet using the hashtag #kids2fishfree if you agree.
FishingMagic is delighted to bring you Simon’s feature, which was first published in his ‘Fishing Breaks’ Newsletter and on our sister site, Flyfishing.co.uk
Simon’s company, Fishing Breaks, based in the heart of the River Test Valley, offers some of the finest chalk stream fly fishing available in the UK – and a whole lot more. Check out their website HERE
