The Towpath Angler
Our monthly look at the angling scene
AFTER writing my previous article for Towpath Talk the weather became much more settled and, as a consequence, sport began to improve. I had heard of some quite impressive results from both canals and stillwaters all boding well for spring.
Even the rivers had shed much of their extra water which they had carried for months and actually started to look really good (we have all been here before!). A few river anglers managed to get just a couple of sessions in by the dreaded March 14 – the last day of fishing on rivers and canals classed as riverine ahead of the 93-day statutory closed season.
I do not intend to open the debate on the closed season other than to say that any decisions taken must be based on sound science. I guess that since time began, fish have never consistently used the period from mid-March to mid-June to spawn.
It goes without saying that different conditions dictate that the ‘breeding season’ will vary. Also some say that the closed season allows the flora and fauna, generally, to get a rest and to re-establish.
Actually I believe there may be an element of truth in this but a closed season will only work if it is applied across the board to all activities which have any form of impact on the flora and fauna and not just angling. In fact an independent survey not so many years ago showed angling does not even make the top six of these activities.
However all of that is, at this time, pretty irrelevant.
Lone sport
Until a week or so ago (at the time of writing) there was still some fishing although matches in many areas had been stopped simply because of the difficulty in maintaining social distancing, particularly at the start of proceedings where anglers gather to draw their pegs etc.
That said, on the Saturday prior to the introduction of the strict lockdown I ran a small match and, I am pleased to say, the measures I introduced worked really well.
All concerned dutifully followed my advice which included travelling to the venue alone and not sharing a car.
However with the increased emphasis on only travelling for absolute essentials such as shopping, work and medical emergencies, fishing clearly had to stop.
It is actually quite ironic because angling is, for the most part, a lone sport so once you are on the bank it is arguably the safest environment anyone could be in.
Green shoots
Of course none of us knows just how long the lockdown will last. Recent announcements have suggested while the lockdown so far may just be showing some proverbial green shoots it could, in reality, be six months before any sort of normality is restored.
Clearly this depends on how effective the lockdown is going forward.
Not surprisingly there is already plenty of speculation about the potential impacts on the economy and, indeed, on life as we know it.
Sadly it seems an odds-on certainty that many small and some not-so-small businesses could suffer enormously. Experts on the news this morning suggested that as many as 800,000 businesses could go to the wall.
Club worries
As someone who has spent most of his life fishing and working for the sport this is what particularly worries me. However we look at it, most angling clubs are micro to medium-sized businesses. At the higher end there is a handful of extremely successful clubs which have an impressive portfolio of waters which helps them retain good membership numbers and, therefore, a healthy bank balance. All of this has come from hard work and good management.
The majority of angling clubs though are micro businesses at best and generally struggle to make any sort of surplus.
Those that do usually plough the surplus straight back into the club and so often have very little ‘spare’ resource to facilitate growth, despite careful management.
Lockdown fears
It goes without saying, therefore, that if the lockdown continues into the late summer or even the autumn i.e. the best part of the year, some of these clubs may be in serious trouble, not least to the point where they cannot pay their way.
Many anglers, especially those who have been out of work during the lockdown, will probably not have the available cash to pay club fees or even day tickets and will certainly have to prioritise what cash they do have.
Sadly these same difficulties will, of course, affect boaters’ organisations, rambling clubs, in fact, pretty much the whole spectrum of the Canal & River Trust’s users.
The trust itself will, without doubt, have to make some significant decisions about its priorities too.
However I feel sure that providing we can all keep working together we should come through this nightmare situation, albeit with a few adjustments and compromises.
Tight lines is not appropriate right now so stay safe everyone.