BOTH SIDES OF THE FENCE

I would like to make a confession to all my fellow members of the OCA.

I am a murderer! In fact I am a mass murderer and I have been committing murder for years. But you will all be relieved to know that I don’t murder people just fish! Yes, I am a game angler and according to John Fenna that makes me and others like me guilty of murder.

I find it a great shame that such deep divisions still exist between angling and canoeing (boating in general). As both an angler and a paddler I consider myself to be very fortunate. I can see both sides of the argument with absolute clarity. However inconsiderate people from both sides still wind me up!

I was an angler long before I started paddling. As a boy I fished my home river the Medway at Tonbridge in Kent. The members of the local canoe club (of which I am now the Touring Secretary) used to wind me right up as they thrashed through my swim in their K1s!! My partner Beverley got me paddling three years ago. She'd spent three years competitive coastal rowing for Hastings and wanted to try canoeing. So I spent six months falling out of kayaks and just about scraped my 'One Star'. Three years ago Beverley and I were on holiday in the Dourdogne and decided to hire a canoe and take a trip down the river. We had such a fantastic time that we booked to go again the next day! We've both been addicted to 'Open Canadians' ever since.

When we joined Tonbridge Canoe Club they had one Coleman which rarely got paddled. Now in less than two years the club has seven open boats stored in its boat house and single bladed paddling is the fastest growing aspect of the club. But I still to love to fish!

So why can’t you do both? Do you have to give up one in order to do the other?

It’s an attitude that certainly does not exist in Canada and the US. In both these country's fishing and canoeing have grown up together. Fishing out of a canoe is common place and is a perfectly natural thing to do.

In his recent article for the winter journal John Fenna expressed his wish for fishing to be banned shortly after fox hunting. John describes fishing as 'Destructive'. Well lets look at the facts. There are only two true guardians of our rivers and lakes in this country - anglers and canoeists. There are currently 3.4 million anglers and approx 1.5 million paddlers (BCU figures). Other sectors of the community pay lip service to the ideal but basically no one else gives a toss! It’s only anglers and paddlers that care about water quality. In 1971 a factory at Tonbridge polluted the Medway and killed thousands upon thousands of fish in a mile long stretch. It was so bad they had to drain the river from the town lock down to the next. This left the bed of the river full of dead fish. It was Tonbridge Angling Society that cleared those dead fish away. I was there eleven years of age shovelling dead fish into dustbins and crying my eyes out.

Fishing can be a very expensive sport. It currently contributes millions of pounds to the UK economy.

So what it they do ban angling and 3.5 million of our river guardians disappear! That leaves the task to 1.5 million paddlers. I don’t like the odds and would really fear for the safety of our rivers. It’s worth mentioning that the rivers we paddle are fed by thousands of smaller streams. Too small to paddle but crucial for water quality. It’s anglers who care for many of these small tributaries.

Is angling destructive as John claims? To the environment, clearly not - it’s as environmentally friendly as canoeing and it pays its way! It’s sad to say that some wildlife does suffer due to the carelessness of some anglers but these are in the minority. Its worth pointing out though that thousands of fish eggs can be destroyed by people dragging boats across their spawning grounds. Game fish (i.e. salmon and trout) are killed by anglers once they have been caught and taken home, in order to be eaten. Numbers of fish taken are strictly controlled. Anglers see the game fish in our rivers as a valuable resource and in turn harvest that resource. The numbers of salmon and trout that run our rivers are dwindling. This has nothing to do with angling. In fact rivers like the Spey, the Dee and the Tay still have healthy runs of fish because anglers spend time and money to safeguard the welfare of fish stocks. The main reasons for the decline of salmon and trout stocks are poor water quality and too many fish being netted at sea.

So what of the future? Is it possible to bridge the gap between the two sports?

Ironically the two sports have a lot in common. For a start most people can't understand what the hell we're doing out there in the freezing cold and pouring rain! We both love rivers, being close to nature and enjoy just being there. Field craft and knowledge of rivers are crucial to both our sports. A lot of clothing designed for anglers crosses over very successfully. A lot of it is superb quality and excellent value for money. Some equipment also crosses over. Boat anglers use Drogues. Some of you may have seen a lot of Kelly Kettle's(Volcano Kettle)in use at OCA events. This fantastic water boiler/cooker was invented years ago by fisherman on the west coast of Ireland so that they could make tea under any conditions- Who introduced it to the OCA? Well as far as I know it was an angler!



Canoeing and fishing share a legacy that stretches back millions of years. It would be great if we could find away to face the future together.

Well John, I shall be paddling the Spey myself in May and guess what? I shall be taking my fishing rod!