The Fishing Coach

It’s been a busy Spring of coaching for me and I haven’t had a day’s fishing for myself since before the end of the river fishing season. On Monday night last week I had a last minute phone call cancelling the next day’s coaching, so I reorganised my tackle and set off early next morning for Marsh Farm, hoping for some more crucian carp and perhaps some tench.

I knew that caution was the order of the day as far as feeding was concerned because the weather had not been wonderful and the water would not have warmed up enough for the fish to be feeding in earnest. A few tiny betaine pellets, a little hemp and a few casters were the initial feed and I thought the chilly wind would let me get away with a 2gm pole float fished on my 15ft spliced tip Harrison GTi. The centrepin (of course) was loaded with 2.6lb line with a 2lb hook length and an 18 hook. Tiny baits were most likely to get the bites so I started off with a single caster which was shelled on the first cast with no indication on the float. The same happened to the second bait and I stepped up to double caster- no bites at all!

I suspected little rudd taking the bait on the drop so I switched to a 4mm soft tuna flavoured jelly hooker pellet - still no bites. I cut the next pellet in half and missed the next bite as the wind had picked up and I misssed the float tip not reappearing between waves. I hit the second bite about twenty minutes later and was soon involved in a very recognisable fight, my first crucian of the year.

The fish weighed three pounds four ounces and was in perfect condition.

The swim went quiet and fearing that the tench were moving in I switched to a heavier rig with a small lob worm. The float slid away and I was grateful for the six pound main line as the culprit was a five and a half pound tench.

By this time the wind was blowing a mild gale and the pole float was invisible in the choppy waves so I changed to a more robust waggler but the bites were still very hard to see. I switched back to the heavy rig and caught two more tench about four pounds on whole shelled prawns. Had it not been for the wind I am sure I could have caught some more crucians, but you have to play with the hand the weather deals you.

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I have always been a champion of the BBC and the whole TV licensing system and have argued their case on a number of occasions. My argument has always been that the output of the Natural History Unit in Bristol is worth the license fee alone and that their other programmes are way ahead in quality compared to anything broadcast by the other channels.

This argument has been reinforced by the latest programme about angling, Extreme Fishing with Robson Green, shown on channel 5. This is obviously aimed at the lager lout element in our sport and the few episodes I have seen say little about the sport that I recognise. The presenter shows few angling skills and does most of his communicating screaming at the top of his voice. There is little to learn from this programme as it does not seem to wish to educate, merely to shock.

However Mr Green, being a minor TV celebrity, has been chosen to front this series over someone with real angling knowledge and talent and neither he nor the content do our sport any favours.

We have seen how our sport can be favourably portrayed in “A Passion For Angling” made by Hugh Miles, but the television companies are seeming to ignore his new series, “Catching the Impossible”.

Now insult has been added to injury by the BBC of all people. They invited Mr Green onto their Breakfast programme and during the interview he stated that that he saw no point in “pulling a fish out beyond recovery” and he said that that in such an instance, the fish would die 9 times out of 10. This as any coarse angler knows is absolute rubbish - commercial fisheries would close overnight due to lack of stock, the record fish list would be made up of much smaller specimens and the carp guys would not be able to give their quarry pet names. It is often used as an excuse by those elements amongst both game and sea anglers who choose to slaughter everything they catch.

Once again Mr Green has damaged our sport, this time by allowing his arrogance as a “celebrity” to take the place of any knowledge of the subject about which he spoke. The public who think that his ability to play Robson Green in a number of different roles makes him special will believe his statement.

Weller of the Yard drew my attention to this as I was coaching on the day it was broadcast but he wrote a letter of complaint to the BBC, here is the trite reply he recieved:

Thanks for your email about Robson Green’s appearance on ‘Breakfast’.

He was invited onto the programme as an actor and television presenter, to talk about his enthusiasm for fishing and the programme he’d made about it.

Most of the interview was chatty and anecdotal - but he was asked one question about the issue of throwing fish back after catching them. He was never invited to give anything other than a personal opinion: our presenters put to him “People have differing views… What’s yours?”

He prefaced his statement with “I don’t want to impose my view” and then explained that he saw no point in “pulling a fish out beyond recovery”, implying that it would be out of the water for an extended time. Then rather confusingly he added that in such an instance, the fish would die in 9 times out of 10. We think he must have been using “9 times out of 10″ in a casual sense, because if the fish were literally “beyond recovery” it would presumably die 10 times out of 10!

Later in the same answer he emphasised there were “different views, different practices” and again emphasised his personal objection to “pulling a fish in beyond recovery”. In the TV clips he was shown twice catching fish, and - quite happily - throwing them back. We’re sure there is a complex debate about the optimum time to keep a fish out of water but it seems that Robson Green was trying to sidestep this in repeatedly stressing “beyond recovery”.

We’ve reviewed his contribution and it seems he held absolutely to his intention not to impose his view, though we agree that, if taken in isolation,
the phrase “9 times out of 10″ could have been misleading. But whatever interpretation might be put on one phrase, the overall impact of the
item was very pro-angling: it seems perverse to suggest it was damaging to the interests of the sport. Both in the TV clips, and in his interview with us, Robson Green was passionate about fishing and lyrical in his description of the experience, and what he called the “primeval feeling”. It was an extremely positive view of the sport and very likely to encourage interest.

Nevertheless, we’re sorry if you were concerned and appreciate the time you’ve taken to get in touch.

Regards

BBC Complaints
____________________________
www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

The BBC should have broadcast a retraction of this misinformed statement and they have gone down in my estimation for failing to do so.

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