Article

YOUNG, GIFTED AND ABSENT.

Perhaps I should begin this article by regurgitating that well-known phrase: 'there's no time like the present.' Although the ancient term will never apply to everything, I'm sure most would agree that, with the species having become far more widespread and such vast amounts of collective knowledge on how to capture them now being so readily available, there's certainly never been a time quite like the present for any youngsters to take up Barbel fishing. Question is… where are they? Come to think of it, that very question fuels a whole barrel load of others, including: what happened to the irresistible bug that so used to intoxicate the youngsters to such an extent that they simply had to go fishing?

Right up to this day, although admittedly not as often as in my adolescence, I'm occasionally but completely overwhelmed by the excitement of actually going fishing. Moreover, once I captured my first 'whiskers' in 1984, having become intoxicated by the allure of the Barbel, from there on forsaking all other species, to say the very least, the affliction for going fishing greatly intensified. In fact, it's not so long ago that such were the levels of excitement that I was almost guaranteed a sleepless night, prior to a 'before dawn' early rise and yet another 65 mile journey to the middle Severn. Every effort to contain 'the bug' merely made things worse and, not that I've ever dabbled in narcotics, I reckon a most potent drug-induced high would have been flat in comparison to the 'buzz from the bug.' A dangerous thing it is too. More so for the fact that the bug simply exhausts us.

Often is the time that through a combination of a busy day's fishing and a lack of sleep from the previous evening, the late and long haul home via dimly lit roads has seen many driver-anglers momentarily fall asleep at the wheel. Not that I'm trying to dissuade any youngsters from taking up the most rewarding pastimes of Barbel angling or driving. I'm merely confirming what those women have been telling us for years - that often, inside what may appear to be an adult male - often a father figure - there actually lies a little boy. It's also highly likely that he's every bit as excitable as the day he was born - although it is also highly probable that fewer things actually excite him now he's older. That's probably why, having progressed from those 'tiddlers' such as roach and perch, or more boring species such as bream, chub or carp, he's taken to the far more exciting world of Barbel fishing.

Returning to a slightly more serious tone, just the other day I actually saw two lads (one around 15 the other I'd say about 12 years old) carrying some fishing gear. Both had rods and box seats, and it was obvious they were on their way home from a fishing trip to the local pond. A few years ago, such a sight wouldn't even have raised my eyebrows, but it's now almost as rare to see youngsters fishing - or in this case having been fishing - around this area as it is to see a cuckoo build a nest.

Really, has our favourite pastime genuinely become a hobby of the past - in so doing holding drastically reducing levels of interest to the very people to whom the future of angling matters most?

If the current situation on my local scene is at all accurately indicative of a nation-wide occurrence, then what some may choose to see only as a potential problem should perhaps already be considered a dilemma?

Youngsters are the future of angling - be their chosen quarry Barbel, bream or whatever. But, realistically, how do we go about encouraging them to take up a hobby that, to far too many who are addicted to computers, young ladies with developing figures, or maybe even marijuana, appears boring by comparison. After also considering that, nowadays, most kids view people who go fishing as boring sad cases, with a likelihood of any youngster who may show an interest being shackled by peer-pressure, we may have more of a problem than we initially considered.

There is, of course, no easy answer and, without a drastically needed injection of young blood, many will view the future of angling as being considerably less than rosy. Moreover, we appear almost powerless as we watch the slow death of an epidemic, perhaps the only type of which we would all gladly keep alive. I say almost powerless, because the fight is yet far from being over. And, providing we are able to encourage the merest few youngsters to cast a line, there is, indeed, a glimmer of hope - although just how we go about doing so is an entirely different matter.

If anyone can come up with any suggestions of how to encourage the youngsters back into fishing, and not necessarily for Barbel, perhaps they would kindly let me know via guest book or email. I will then gladly update this article with readers' views.

As for the youngsters themselves; they may well all be young; they may even be as intellectually gifted as any parent would wish. But, one thing's for sure, they are most definitely becoming increasingly absent from the waterside.