Welcome...

THANKS for purchasing this issue of IYCF. It makes me feel old every time I say it, but I really can’t believe how quickly the year has gone. In fact, they seem to go quicker every 12 months. It doesn’t seem that long ago since I was writing my welcome piece for the last issue of 2020, hoping for a more uneventful and conventional 2021. Yet, here we are again wrapping up another year.

If the Covid- 19 pandemic has shown us anything, it’s how unpredictable life can be. Just when things seem to getting back to some sort of normality, along comes another variant casting a shadow of doubt over all of us again.

So, maybe it was a tad unfair of us to ask a selection of experts from our sport for their predictions for 2022. With this being the final issue of the year, however, it was the ideal time to pick the brains of industry insiders to find out what they think angling has in store over the next 12 months. Head to page 66 to find out.

Personally, while I think we’ve all accepted that Covid isn’t going anywhere soon, I hope we can continue to take steps back to some sort of normality in 2022. It would be wonderful to see a return of shows such as The Big One, especially with so many newcomers taking up fishing over the last couple of years who have yet to have the opportunity to attend one of these events.

Whatever happens, though, I hope we can all can continue to appreciate the benefits our amazing sport offers us, no matter what discipline or branch of angling we enjoy.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support over the last year and I hope you all have an amazing Christmas and a happy 2022.

See you next year.