Salmon and Trout Association: Blog

October 2009

I was asked by a member recently whether children were as interested in going fishing these days as we were when we were young. We talked about our first trips, and formative years, and how our fathers either took us along with them, or were quite happy that we biked down to the local river or pond to fish on our own or with friends. Neither happens very often now, he suggested. Fathers don’t have the time or inclination to teach offspring to fish, parents are scared stiff of letting children out of their sight and youngsters, anyway, are more interested in electronic virtual enjoyment that actually getting out into the country and seaside and doing the real thing.

I know this is the common thinking today, but have children actually changed that much; deep down? When S&TA Branches organise their Junior Beginners’ Days, there is as much enthusiasm from children to join in as there ever was. They love the fishing, but the real eye opener is always their reaction to the bug hunts. Once they realise that there is a whole new world under the surface – invertebrates of all shapes and sizes, leeches, worms, snails, shrimps, fish they have never seen before – they are transfixed and turned on to the aquatic environment.

One of my colleagues told me that he had run a course in Wiltshire this year with six teenagers from Salisbury who all looked – and actually were - one step away from a young offenders’ institution. This was a last, desperate attempt to get them interested in something other than nicking cars. Following on the success of Get Hooked on Fishing and other similar initiatives, John was given the short straw of trying to sort this lot out.

He took them to the river’s edge and, more than a little concerned for his personal safety, waded in and did a three minute kick sample. Out came the net, the bugs were put into a white tray and he started explaining what he had caught, and something of the inverts’ life history; and what they turned into. Unusually, there was a hatch of fly in the air and he was able to point to some of the adults – this bug in the tray transforms itself into that graceful fly up there.

These teenagers didn’t have waders, boots or anything like that; except, John reckoned, perhaps a knife in the back pocket to do something nasty to anyone who upset them. Still concerned that he was vulnerable in their company, he suggested to the biggest and roughest looking of the six that he might like to try a bit of a dip in the water’s edge himself.

To cut to the chase, within half an hour of starting, all six of these supposed misfits had divested themselves of trainers and socks, rolled up their trousers and were wading around, patiently waiting their turn with the net. They were completely transformed and John’s problem was tearing them away from the river at the end of the course. History does not relate whether they went back to their lives of crime afterwards, but for the time they spent in the aquatic environment, they were in another world, one they had no idea had existing to that point.

Another of my colleagues, our Head of Science, Janina Gray, is in the process of setting up a project to teach children in schools about conservation. Not just fish and water bugs, but about the wider issues of why we must look after the planet; its natural resources, diverse habitats and all their dependent species. Children instinctively pick up the issues if they are inspired to do so and, after all, they are the future decision makers who, by and large, will determine whether the mess we have made of it so far is finally turned round or whether, as some people predict, we continue into terminal decline.

I took my son, Archie, bass fishing recently. We fished a whole tide up – THE time at that particular spot - and never saw a bass, let alone caught one. However, well before the end of the session, he was quite reconciled to the fact that we would go fishless, but was perfectly happy practicing casting both plug and fly, and watching the way the seascape changed dramatically over the period of a flooding spring tide. There were loads of birds flying around as their feeding grounds were swamped, and it became a natural history master-class as much as a fishing trip. Then, right on top of the tide, a bass took his plug when it shouldn’t have been anywhere near that area, and you have never seen such an ear-splitting grin in all your life as appeared on Archie’s face. He is often glued at home to the computer, but he will never pass over the chance to go fishing again; or just walk the beach or the riverbank.

It is very easy in my job to become cynical with the attitude of politicians and civil servants towards the environment. Through short termism, they completely miss the fact that we have, as a species, to reconnect with the natural world and its resources if we are to have a chance of keeping the planet in anything like its present state – or preferably improve it. Children get it, though, once it’s explained to them and, even better, when they experience it for themselves. We can only hope that they will not lose their resolve to protect the natural world as they get older.

I have lost much of my faith in grownup decision makers, but if we can inspire enough of the young to keep the faith, there might just be a chance for mother earth, her plants, animals and, of course, her fish!

Archive

June 2009 - NASCO
April 2009 - Paul Knight
February 2009 - Attitudes
January 2009 - Moral Dilemmas