Why as anglers do we do so little to help ourselves? Why the hell would anybody ever dump litter? (The Friday Rant?)

I had all sorts of ideas for a blog post this morning, but before writing it I went for a dog walk with my wife because it stopped raining for a while during these wild and wet conditions that we are currently in the middle of. I think back to my cod fishing days and I’d be praying for weather like this to really get things stirred up, but how things have changed. Anyway, I digress, sorry. My wife and I went for a walk that “somehow” involved having a look at the water clarity down at Jupiter Point on the River Lynher, a tributary of the Tamar - it’s not good! - and when we got down there I was bloody horrified to see what you can see in the photo below. The tides are big and there’s a hell of a lot of freshwater in the estuary systems down here, but I can guarantee you that the fishing rubbish you see in the crappy iPhone photo was not washed up……………..

Nope, it was left by an angler, and if you look around down at Jupiter Point right now you can see a fair amount of fishing litter that has been left by anglers. It’s actually a pretty handy place for me to combine a dog walk with testing various bits of lure fishing tackle out, and I see bait anglers down there from time to time. I’m not blaming bait anglers here by the way, but the only fishing litter I see down there is bait fishing based. Try as I might I cannot understand why any angler would ever, ever leave litter where they go fishing. Hell, I don’t understand why any person would leave any kind of litter anywhere, but we as anglers spend a lot of time in the countryside yet a few of us can’t be bloody bothered to pick up our mess and either take it home or put it in a bin somewhere. It makes me so ashamed that I can be down at Jupiter Point testing something out and some dog walkers can wander on down, see the fishing litter, and then look at me as an angler and no doubt think that I am part of the problem.

It’s disgusting, and there is no bloody excuse for it. I have never seen a bait angler down at Jupiter Point without a car, and whilst there is obviously no excuse for leaving any kind of litter even if you are miles away from a car or a bin, how could the human being in you leave any kind of litter when all you have to do is bag it up and put it in your car to take home or put in a bin on the way back? A part of me feels so angry when anglers behave like this, but during these strange times when we are all feeling at least a touch overwhelmed and unsure and on edge, instead I just feel mostly sad that we collectively seem to do so little to help ourselves on so many different fronts.

Leaving litter like I saw this morning obviously got me going here, but it’s not just that at all. I see more and more unpleasantness online just as going lure fishing for bass really seems to be grabbing so many anglers with its dynamism and excitement, but perhaps I am being a bit naive in thinking that during these mad times we might actually strive to be that bit kinder and more accepting of others. I have many messages and emails here from various anglers who have asked me various questions over the years yet I see that some of those same anglers have now become serious experts online and completely forgotten how they themselves reached out for help as they started getting into a different kind of fishing. Imagine if you are seriously into lure fishing for bass but say fly fishing for wild brown trout starts to grab you. How complicated does something completely different seem when you know nothing about it, and how much would you be put off by a bunch of unpleasant experts belittling your initial efforts and questions and so on?

It has always been my belief that fishing is full of good people, and in many ways I think that social media can be brilliant. In many ways it isn’t though, but in my own naivety I am going to keep trying to make this thing we love as approachable and easy to understand as I possibly can with the tools I have at my disposal. I see litter being left by anglers and I wonder what goes through the person’s head when they do that, and whether for one second they think of the world around us and how we are perceived with, let’s be honest, the sticking of hooks into fish’s mouths for our enjoyment. Dumping litter is just plain wrong, and when it’s done by a so-called angler I just feel so embarrassed and disappointed and disgusted. You all have a good weekend……………..