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| KT, My logic is explained in the numbers I have posted above so that is why I don't really see it as a problem. Your thinking might be towards why the sport isn't "growing" or then again maybe not? LOTW is a destination location and tourism in general is down, more and more are moving to the burbs, and the rural folks are becoming less and less while we continue to sell a consistant number of licenses. What can we do to improve these things and grow?
While Stackers thoughts of taking kids and families out in boats is comendable and a great idea (even profitable for a boat dealer hehe) it doesn't encourage a family that can't afford a boat to get into the sport. In addition to the things mentioned we need to concentrate on access points, and not expensive boat landings, but access to a good piece of water, or good pieces of water created with quality fishing opportunities. These real estate locations have been swallowed up by million dollar homes or expensive highway projects. I once did an article on shorline fishing in the Fox Valley and around the Winnebago system, and would you believe with all this water there really aren't very many places to fish from shore...."legally"!
Involving oranizations like Big Brothers, Big Sisters, 4H, Boy Scouts, and fishing activities in our school systems are all positive things. I know my sons all chose outdoors and wildlife over organized after school sporting activities, while those events promote the "teamwork" approach they often rely on others for success. A great CEO once told me that in order to achieve success and happiness you must acquire individuality, a good skill set, a positive attitude and the ability to communicate with confidence. If you've spent any time fishing at all, you know you have learned these things very well.
Good Luck
Tyee |
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Location: Fremont, Wisconsin | side note, I did say that we go IN THERE BOAT not ours. I think they would learn more in there own boat. I agree withthe shoreline spotsthat we had when we were growing up. |
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| The shoreline availability was brought up in another thread and is prudent to the issue, I agree with you tyee. Growing up in the valley there were many places to fish from shore. Today there are very few, even the Corp of Engineers has fenced in much land in Appleton that I used to go for small mouth. The greatest share of fishermen do not have boats and the opportunity for anyone to walk up to the shoreline and fish is dwindling away. |
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| Stacker, Tyee, RNT and all readers - first off it's great that we care enough to use our valuable free time to type responses and care and second of all I think all the differing views get to the heart of the matter on how sophisticated changing the future and evolution can be..... Just happens that we care about the great sport of angling and want to make sure it's well preserved and represented in the future for loved ones or those that forgot how great it is to be trolling out of the harbor with the sun rise in your face, about 65 degrees F, and the swells of the water and earth waifing thru your every nerve....... Or sitting on the bank tossing out that first cast and the bobber hardly hits the water and it's gone..... 9.5 inch pumpkin seed gill....
Then you get that first thump on the wrist......
Ah..... life don't get much better..... until you bite into that first filet........
What a wonderful sport to discuss, debate and try our best to make a difference....
Get the net, it's a big one....... |
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| Here is some food for thought on the subject. Hunting and fishing are declining in the country as a whole and in all honestly it is the industry’s fault. They have lost the ability to promote the activity of fishing in most main stream mediums. Everyone has been pushing fishing as a “sport” and not an activity. I deal with a lot of magazines and newspapers and what I find is fishing, along with hunting, are scarce to find in the modern outdoors magazines and newspapers. You have the hunting/fishing magazines that usually the hardcore fishermen and hunters read but not the everyday person. Outdoor magazines and newspapers now days focus on kayaking, hiking, camping, RVing, biking and so on but not hunting and fishing.
It does not help when you have old dinosaurs in the industry that are set in their ways and unable to adapt much less step aside and let some new blood with the enthusiasm to pursue the correct paths for the modern times. You have outdoor writers that have been writing for 40 years and for the most part they do not mentor any younger writers in the field and purposely making it harder for some to break into the field. The elders have used the mediums they have for so long they don’t have the ability or don’t have the drive to bring fishing back to the staple it once was.
If the industry cannot find a way to get the activity of fishing back in the American fabric of life I feel there will be a consistent down turn in numbers.
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| RedNT - while your point seems valid I'm missing your suggestions on how to correct this obvious gap in keeping up with the times when it comes to media....
Any ideas come to mind? Just curious as most of the time I find someone with your style of observation to also have the ability to identify some down right good ideas on how to rectify the wrong..... if ya know what I mean..... Not sure of the details but it'd be fun to learn how Mr. Tony Dean might have mentored or assisted Mr. Jason Mitchell's career. Only being 6 hours from Pierre I tend to see their shows on FSN. I enjoy their on-the-water fishing discussions and the bodies of water they fish. Maybe it was simply a business transaction but has the potential to be an interesting story... It maybe enlightening and motivational to someone sitting on the fence......
Sure wish I was fishing thru the ice...... Kurt |
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| To be quite honest the only way to correct the trend are to have people who are willing to put the time and effort (which is a lot) into nudging out the dead wood. TV programs are not the problem though, they are educational. I see the biggest problem with the print media side of it. Magazines and newspapers are loaded up with ridged writers and editors that over a three year period rehash the same old "information". The greatest share of people fish for the relaxation and fun...not for competition. You have the OWAA that keeps new blood out of the main stream, sort of an old boy's network. Instead of having club rules that state one must make the majority of their living from writing outdoor articles, let the part-timers join even if they do not make a large percentage of income from their writing. The industry is so afraid of competition and someone better might come in and replace them it ends up stagnating the industry.
There is a fabric that has been lost here and promoting tournaments is not going to bring it back. I really do not think there are enough people out there that would want to put in the work required to turn it around. The biggest thing I see is stop promoting fishing as a competitive sport, put the effort into promoting the activity of fishing. There is a place for competitive fishing and it is not for promoting fishing for recreation in general.
Having fishing as part of the fabric of growing up is gone.
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| Redneck,
Thank you sir. Your last 2 posts have my mind swimming in thought. |
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Location: Janesville | Well instead of whining about it , Lets do something. How many new or young people have you personally taken fishing? Its great to read about it but actually doing it would probably have a bigger effect than anything else. Every year I try and take somebody that doesn't fish much or at all out fishing. Our musky club last year for our Take a Kid Fishing day had well over 300 people fishing that day. What a sight. It's like anything else YOU have to make the time for it. Here is my boy with his biggest fish. Priceless
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| I don't think there's any whining going on, just people trying to figure out a trend that is disturbing. If I were to venture a guess I would say almost everyone here has done what they thought would help promote fishing. Taking younger people out fishing is great but I doubt it will reverse the trend. The fabric of fishing in the American lifestyle was not built from boats. There is a whole culture here that has been lost and as I said, very few people have what it takes to turn it around. |
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| I'm not willing to accept the idea we can't turn this around, but I think we all need to ask these kids what it will take to keep them interested in the "activity" of fishing? If everyone of us asked every young person we take out this year, and revisit this thread next year, I'd bet we'd all have some thoughts to share from those conversations.
Maybe, just maybe the start of the turn around is getting not just the kids, but their parents also, to talk about it?? |
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| You need to revive a whole culture. Bring back the scenes of fishermen out in a park at night after a rainstorm with a flashlight worming, bring back the 12 doz night crawlers for 50 cents on signs on every block of a neighborhood, bring back the family walking down to the park for a picnic and dropping the poles in the water for the day an d being happy with whatever they catch. This has all been replaced with getting quick results...it's not fishing unless you're catching lots of fish.
Bring back the culture and you bring back true fishing.
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| To some of you who have posted on this thread numerous times why dont you just start taking some kids out fishing that you know and make a personally impact.
There shouldnt have to be a reason such as the license are at low nationwide for you to think about it. If your a true fisherman you would be taking the time in your life and mentoring a child or young adult or any adult and share some of your prosperity. |
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| How in the world do you know who mentors and takes kids out fishing and who doesn't? Just because people do not sit and brag about it does not mean it doesn't happen. |
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Location: Oshkosh, Wisconsin | Leave it to me to be the wet blanket....
Personally, I don't buy that their are less people fishing. The wolf river in the spring is just as nuts today as it was 15 years ago. The Fox river in Depere has EASILY twice the traffic it did 15 years ago. Winnebago is stupid full of people when the bite is good and busy from May thru the end of August.
Perhaps license sales aren't the best way to guage fishing pressure??? Maybe the license sales are about the same but those of us that are buying them actually fish a LOT more?
I do believe that shoreline access to fishing locations has been reduced significantly, but there are still opportunities for shore anglers to wet a line if they want to. Increasing shore access will be a difficult, uphill battle because many of the people paying high property taxes on their water front homes won't want to share their view with a new fishing dock - much less tolerate the slight increase in traffic around their home.
I do believe hunting will continue to suffer. The ridiculously high prices some people are willing to pay to lease hunting land will continue to push more and more people to the already overcrowded tracts of public land. Combine that with the fact that most hunters don't share very well and your bound to push a few more to other activities. |
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| I don't think Wisconsin is being hit as hard. Texas license sales are down 17% from last year, Ohio is down 4%, North Carolina is down 40%, Oregon is down 20% and Vermont has dropped 20% over the last 20 years. Hunting sales have increased in Texas, Arkansas and Ohio. |
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| Some very good discussion on this topic... Indeed..... Fun to think about fishing while driving to work, trimming the trees, loading the woodbox..... In the shower.....
The biggest thing I take from these conversations is the emotions that avid anglers of any and all skill level ENJOY..... Really fun to have that tug at the other end of the line.... That's after the breathless, chuck full of memories in preparing to hit the shore or the landing..... And then the rod(reel, line, lure, etc) drives that incredible feeling into your wrists..... IT'S a good one, get then net.... Or that internal prayer you start telling yourself about how much you want to CPR this pig.....
In 2009 let's all of us avid anglers (with no regard to level of skill) try and transfer the "fun" experience we know as angling.... Everything in life ebbs and flows and perhaps fishings decline is just a chance to rally and help make America the proud country our ancestors worked so hard to create....
Rock on America and get the net! |
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