I can’t pretend that I particularly like copping flak and snide comments and even threats of physical violence over the years, but I am old enough and experienced enough to have seen it all in fishing and I know how to deal with it. I am a human being just like you though, and I can’t pretend that I think pure thoughts all the time. Maybe because I am that bit older though and I started working in fishing before the rise of social media, I do very deliberately choose not to be rude or unkind online, and I would never say anything to anybody that I would not be strong enough to say face to face. Doing what I do you simply can’t write exactly what you think sometimes, but I do happen to believe that being polite and civil and understanding of other people/anglers is part and parcel of being a decent human being……………….

So maybe my lack of understanding about why there is so much unpleasantness online especially is because of my age (48), or maybe it’s the way I was brought up and what my wife and I spend a lot of time and effort instilling into our two girls. I love fishing and I love working in fishing, but if either of my two girls ever, ever behaved in the way that I see far too many people behaving online like they do, I would come down on them so bloody hard they would not believe it. My wife and I are not parents who will stand for any of the sort of behaviour that we are seeing so much of these days. I know that not in a million years would my 14 and 16 year old girls ever even think of behaving in the way that too many people behave online especially.

What breaks my heart in terms of the sport fishing community is that there are so obviously people who are getting into fishing or perhaps anglers who are investigating another kind of fishing who ask a few innocent questions online and a small part of the fishing community comes down on them like a blanket of unpleasantness. We all start somewhere in fishing, whether it’s first getting into it or changing up how we go fishing, but it strikes me that the internet has given rise to a whole new generation of instant experts who have gone and forgotten what it’s like to be new and a bit confused and asking for help and advice. So what if a fish isn’t the biggest ever caught? So what if somebody holds it out to the camera? So what if a fish isn’t measured correctly to the nearest millimetre? What is wrong with a bit of live and let live because we’re all a bit different?

The safety of the keyboard I would suggest provides a lot of unpleasant people with a virtual safety net behind which they can hide because out in the real world they are as meek and jealous as you like and would never dream of saying to anybody’s face in real life any of the vitriol they give out online. Over the years I have come across a few of the people who have given it out to me online yet they can hardly even look me in the eye when I call them out face to face in the real world and ask them to explain why they have been so unkind or unpleasant. Life is far too safe when it isn’t face to face and there are no repercussions from behind a keyboard. It’s easy to type it (mostly pretty badly as well), but it ain’t so easy to say it to a real person.

This photo remains one of my favourite bass fishing photos I have shot over the years

In most respects I think the online fishing community is outstanding for so many different reasons, and I for one love yapping about fishing (from behind a keyboard) with anglers from all over the world in a variety of different ways - Facebook, WhatsApp, blog, YouTube etc. I still stand behind my belief that most anglers are really good people, but of course there are a few bad apples in anything in life, and everybody’s got opinions. As to whether these opinions are valid or well informed is another matter, but we are human beings who are meant to be capable of logical thought - and we form opinions.

What I do find interesting online is when one occasionally calls anglers out about these opinions. We throw our opinions around like confetti at the end of a wedding, but where’s the comeback or the ramifications when we do so from behind a keyboard and not face to face? Ask my wife and she will tell you that I am not known for my patience at all, but doing what I do I have had to develop a very strong “what’s the point in replying” kind of attitude most of the time when I see some of the crap which can be out there. Sometimes though I do choose to reply and then ask the purveyors of these opinions some simple questions - and it’s remarkable how when these people are suddenly asked some actual questions about how they have formed their often unfounded opinions, I very rarely if ever get the answers to my questions. It’s increasingly easy to virtually give it out these days, but not so easy to back things up.

Why can’t we very simply be a bit nicer? Surely if this pandemic has taught us it’s that we need human contact and communication. We need our families. We need the outdoors. I dread to think of the mental health ramifications of what we are currently going through. I wonder if anybody who for whatever spiteful reason chooses to be unpleasant online ever thinks for one second about not hitting send or publish because what they are putting out there might actually hurt somebody in a real way. Just because you might disagree or know a bit more than another person doesn’t mean you have to be unkind. We all have questions which some kind person might know the answer to and be willing to share some of their knowledge.

From my own point of view I can generally take it without snapping back. At times it can take a large amount of self-control which I am not actually very good at, but you have to have it to do what I do. Put yourself out there like I do and in some respects what I sometimes cop is part and parcel of it. I wish it wasn’t, but some people are just unpleasant and that’s the way it goes. What makes me really sad is when I see regular anglers online who get it in the neck for no other reason than some jerk is behind a keyboard and they don’t know how to behave properly. How about not hitting send if you can’t say something nice? How about being a decent human being and choosing not to be unkind to somebody else? How do you know that your unpleasantness isn’t going to impact badly upon somebody else and would you want that sort of behaviour dished out upon you or your family and friends? “Manners maketh man” is something my dad used to drum into us when we were growing up, and for all the technological advancements in means of communication I still think it’s as valid as it ever was……………..

Call me naive, but why does there have to be any unpleasantness in fishing?

© Henry Gilbey 2023