The leaves are all turning now and Autumn is slipping by as we approach winter. I am still seeing fish moving around Foxford. I can’t say they are fresh, most of them that jump are well coloured. Still another while until they spawn but the future is looking bright.

I had intended to get out for a few casts last weekend but it did not work out. A friend who did go pike fishing said he done well on Sunday. He was using a traditional copper and silver spoon which goes to prove you don’t have to do anything fancy to have success, just get out there.

Have we over-complicated things :

This is something that I wonder about on a regular basis and something I feel partly responsible for. We have manged to take the simplicity out of angling and create a complicated sport that people are afraid to try. When I say we I mean the tackle industry, people like me who earn a living selling fishing gear. I know this has happened in lots of things but having been involved in angling from a young age and now been not so young, I have a few years to look back on and I have seen the changes. Im not saying that all these advances and change have been bad. In fact, a lot of them have been for the better. I am definitely saying that we are doing harm to the future of our sport by making it complicated, expensive and difficult to get involved in. We need to get back to basics and enjoy simple fishing, get young people involved and make it fun.

I have said here before that some of my earliest angling memories are as a young boy using a hook, a piece of lead and a worm, sitting on the river bank watching the tip of my rod for bites. Very simple and very enjoyable. My first fly rod was given to me, it had been broken and repaired using a piece of metal piping, the reel made noise and the line was in tatters. I managed with it and even caught salmon; Mike was happy.

Fishing tackle is an industry :

For that industry to be successful we need people to buy fishing tackle. What do you do to a happy person to make them buy? you make them unhappy. You tell them you have the solution to their problems and you sell it to them and that’s exactly what the tackle industry have done. For years the smart marketing people used glossy magazines packed full of articles by “The top Guys” telling happy Mike with his broken fly rod that it was no good and he needed a new modern rod. Of course, with the new rod he also needed the new light weight reel and the ultra-new extra slippery fly line and the new Invisible leader with the chemically sharpened extra pointy hooks. Funnily enough the same magazines were packed with adds selling all this new stuff. Yes, Mike was now not happy with his broken rod and YES Mike bought a new one. I could go on here and I know you could join in a write a paragraph of your own…

What can we as anglers do :

A few simple things would help. Why not give your old gear to a kid or even an adult who might get some use out of it. Offer to take that person out fishing and teach them the basics. Take a step back yourself, ignore a lot of what the marketing gurus are telling you. Go out and “simply” enjoy your angling, a fish will just be a bonus. Do it now during the winter, while you have time and before Salmon fever sets in again. Of course, if you lose your hook, I’ll be here to sell you one!