Good morning from Friday the 13th in Foxford, let’s see what it brings. We lived through storm Daragh last weekend, it was rough enough but there was no major damage. We will need a new sign for the gate beside the shop and I’m sure at some point someone will tell us where the old one landed, oops!
On Saturday last we visited the sea side. Daragh was coming from just the right direction for the west coast. The Atlantic was in a wild state, it is something I love to experience during big winds. The raw power of the waves thundering against the cliffs, the spray, the foam, Nature, it’s amazing. Certainly not a day for shore angling.
By Sunday water levels in the river were rising dramatically and with this the Loughs filled up again making it almost impossible to access them for angling. From Monday we had hard frost which has dried things up a bit again. We did manage a session on a small remote Lough that holds a good stock of small pike. It was a cold start to what turned out a lovely day. We caught a few pike, unfortunately no records were broken and we are still searching for a big one. Apart from that it has been a busy week for us. We got a lot of orders on line and on the phone so we have had a week of packing and posting.
Good Salmon numbers, is it a result of C&R, Debatable.
I was involved in a conversation recently regarding fish numbers and the possibility that we have turned the corner and stocks are recovering. I,d like to think we are but none of us can say it for sure. During the conversation Catch and release, the benefits, or problems it causes were discussed. It brought me back to this piece I wrote a few years ago which I have rehashed here without any change in my own point of view.
It’s a subject that comes up on a regular basis in the shop and I said i’m going to write about it in the blog this winter. The problem with writing about it in the blog is that it’s a big issue. Big as in everyone has an opinion and as often is the case with opinions whether correct or incorrect, people believe that they are right, their opinion is correct and they are willing to fight to defend their opinion. This is not the forum for that, I want this blog to be enjoyable and somewhat informative. However, it is something that I feel needs to be discussed so I will give MY OPINION (said with a smile). No, I’m just going to give you some of my thoughts and observations. The longer version will have to wait for another while.
The beginning: It’s my belief that our sport of angling came from a need to provide food for the table. We were hunter gatherers and thus lived of the land. We hunted and fished, fed our families and friends. In reality what I’m talking about there, surviving off the land, is a long time ago. You and I, have never actually survived off the land, we have never needed to. It is though, part of our foundation, our roots, and I believe forms some of our instinct. I can say with certainty that in my early life catching fish to eat was important and I know that in my grandfathers time it was even more so. Now if we go back further to say my Great grandfather or his father, it was essential and the method of capture did not matter. At some point or if we study it closer all along the way between my great grandfather and my son there has been change. We could look at this period and see what the changes were but for this short blog that would be too much. Its fair enough to say that economically we are better off and the availability and variety of food is better. I’m not saying that overall, that is better, just from a point of view of needing to kill fish
Change: So, my great great grandfather used a gaff or a spear and my son used a top of the range lightweight fly rod to catch the same species. What has happened over the years is that we have a change of purpose. The angler who buys a rod from me today is not buying a tool to feed his/her family, no, they are buying an item to use for sport and recreation. We go fishing for fun today but yet deep down inside us is the hunter gather instinct, a want to provide. Like a sheep dog whos’ parents and grandparents were working dogs, even if the pup grows up in the city never seeing a sheep, its instinct is to chase and herd. Something we cannot understand, something we cannot see makes us want to fish, our foundation and roots. In recent years and I would say especially in the past ten years there has been a great swing towards Catch and release. The pressure is on, fish stocks are in trouble we should not kill and those who do are almost ridiculed. We see it all the time now on social media, keyboard warriors having a go at other anglers for killing a fish, this to me is wrong. I believe that if we remove the foundation and roots of our sport, we will damage it. We will breed out the instinct and eventually there will be very little reason to fish. Angling is not a sexy sport; it doesn’t exactly attract people.
The future: I believe that the way forward is education from a young age. As adults we should teach young people how to catch fish, yes to kill and to eat, to enjoy with our families, to provide. However, we should teach them to do this with respect for nature and the finite resource we take this food from. We should teach them that there is fun and enjoyment to be had in nature and in following our instinct. We should teach them about balance, putting something back when we take something, not killing for no reason, the future, the environment. This to me is evolution and the way it should be done. Ridiculing our fellow sportsmen, banning pictures of “Dead fish” and emails telling anglers they should not kill a salmon will not work. I enjoy a Salmon dinner with my family, I enjoy the splash of water hitting my face as a Salmon flicks its tail leaving my grasp, to continue its journey. I was once a commercial fisherman and now I am an angler, that instinct is still there but I have some common sense as well.
