Should we ban the CA as a topic on AN?

[Peter Waller]

But angling IS hunting! Shooting IS hunting! Fox hunting is ritualistic killing, so that doesn't count! Graham, you know my feeling for the CA, but even I can't deny that angling is hunting. To do so would be burying my head in the sand, right up to my arse!

[chesters1]

'course there related as the hunt only goes on for the morning the hunters could take a selection of guns and rods in a cart they pull with their horsey if it gets a bit boring they could blam away at rabbits or ducks and get a few trout on the way back ,havent you ever been hunting

[Sportsman]

Maybe angling only counts as hunting if you ever catch anything!

[Peter Waller]

I'll take the hooks off!

 

Granted many anglers are trappers, so where does that leave us?

[Sportsman]

you mean you use hooks! Isn't that cheating?

No wonder everyone catches more than me

[Bruno Broughton]

Peter Waller:

But angling IS hunting! Shooting IS hunting!

Ah, Peter, but so IS bird-watching ('twitching'), train-spotting, metal-detecting, shopping in the sales, collecting antiques and star-gazing.

 

In some respects, the most satisfactory parallel between angling and other sports, pastimes & forms of recreation is with golf, believe it or not: it's you against the course.

 

I find this analogy really good in arguments.

 

Q: "Why do you fish if you 'throw' them back?"

 

A: "Well, I don't; I return a fish carefully and unharmed once I have satisfied my desire to outwit and trick it into taking my bait".

 

Q: "But why don't you eat the fish?"

 

A: "I always mean to, but as I unhook the fish and ask it if it would rather be killed or returned, I swear it always tells me to release it. I could eat it, of course, but I choose not to because I am such a nice person. If you think that is odd, what is golf all about? Even if you wanted to, you cannot eat a golf ball".

 

Personally, I think twitchers are bird-exploiting scum, and my thoughts on golfers are unprintable, especially as golf balls include animal-derived constituents.

[Vagabond]

 

Bruno

My wife and I fish and watch birds and other wildlife in various habitats all round the world - the two pastimes complement each other (eg we got good close-up views of a family of manatees whilst fishing for snook in a mangrove lagoon in Belize recently)

 

We share much of your feelings re twitchers - my definition of a twitcher is

 

"Sort of halfway between a train-spotter and a football hooligan"

 

I suppose you could liken match fishing to twitching...... Oh dear, what HAVE I said?

Norma, where are our safety helmets?

[Wordbender]

Graham. X:

...angling will only be damaged by association with those anachronistic dinosaur knuckle-scrapers.

As a lifelong shooter, I find that sweeping verdict as sad as it is innaccurate, Graham. And if you imagine for one minute that fishing isn't a form of hunting - you're that decendent of those dinosaurs, the ostrich.

 

Maintain your stance by all means, mate, but do try not to be so disparaging when others do the same, eh?

 

All the best.

[Peter Waller]

Don't you mean lifetime Yogger, Terry?

[Wordbender]

Peter, have you noticed that we have an AN member with the name 'Yog'?

 

We may need our own forum, soon.