Do you consider angling a field sport?

[Sportsman]

I did explain proper us course anglers are coarse whilst the game anglers are truly part of the field sports fraternity, and sea anglers are probably on a level with coarse anglers but certainly not members of the field Sports Club.

Hang on a minute thats it.... if we include sea angling as Fishing then for the purpose of this poll, how can we include sea fishing as Field Sports, that would be daft . so fishing cannot be a Field Sport'.... case proved.

 

 

This type of "thinking" explains a lot

[chesters1]

most of the rivers and ponds around here are in fields and the sea is surrounded by fields of a sort ,but are we talking angling or fishing ,we go fishing but we're angling,fishermen catch fish to eat ,help i'm confused!

 

theres commercial fishermen that catch fish to eat via nets and commercial anglers who take others to catch fish for the pot or release ,confused you bet!

 

i sea fish ,i don't sea angle its getting worse

 

the "angle" bit is the hook so were anglers but commercial fishermen use long lines full of them hhhheeeeeellllp

 

we can angle but a lot of our fish are netted or retained in a net ,blimey its hard!

 

i think before we go further we should discuss the difference between an angler and a fisherman! or angling and fishing

Edited September 15, 2007 by chesters1

[corydoras]

To me it is not a sport unless it is competitive. Personally angling is something I do to pass some time with nature, so it's a pastime like stamp collecting or playing draughts.

[chesters1]

so match anglers are real or not real err anglers ,isnt besting you PB a form of competition? or competing using your whits over the fishes?

[barry luxton]

or pulling up a ruddy great conger eel, thats competitive, it's you or him. someone or something is gonna win.

[chesters1]

whats the difference between a stalker stalking a fine stag and an angler stalking a fine chub ,in both cases the end result could be the same ,a photo or food.

its hard to separate angling and hunting ,even fox hunting could be put on the same level as ridding a trout fishery of pike ,30 hounds or 30 anglers "picking" on a predator who's end is up to the owner of the venue.if i pop of to my local river and have away a few trout for the plate do i become a hunter?

 

no doupt rabbit will come in with the emotive "ripping" something or other to death ,but hand on heart i have never seen a live X "ripped to death" only a dead one ,foxes get killed by the first hound to get to it its why they are powerfull dogs not beagles ,once the rest of the pack gets to it maybe its ripped apart if the whipper in allows it,hounds a very highly trained and still pack animals ,the lead dog is usually the pack leader so get priority in the kill he and the rest and can be called off a fox in an instant rarely do you hear of hounds encroaching on non hunt land and extremely occasionally killing anything not a fox but young hounds make mistakes as in everything else and with the amount of anti trouble its difficult to watch all the hounds because the anti's hope something nasty happens and lure the hounds away,now they don't know what a fox is close up perhaps more incidents will occur ,will mrs miggins poodle or cat be killed because hounds killing foxes is banned ? has banning hounds killing foxes made her pet more vunerable to attack because young hounds dont know what a running fox looks like at the moment its grabbed?

 

you only ever see the emotive vids or pictures of "ripped" foxes because in reality most foxes get away (and learn) and a kill by a single hound not so stirring to the uneducated masses than the foxes fate after its dead ,true occasionally i expect a fox will end its days in the teeth of the whole pack but its no doupt extremely rare and i have never seen it in all the hunts i have been to ,most escape into non hunt land or go to earth and are shot ,the body is then (if the hunt master wants) chucked to the pack to let them have their reward ,its those pictures you see!

to get a picture of a kill is extremely rare , do anti's cleverly know where it will happen down to the exact spot with their cameras shooting ,i don't think so ! the pictures are of a dead fox after the hounds and huntsmen have gathered

Edited September 15, 2007 by chesters1

[corydoras]

so match anglers are real or not real err anglers ,isnt besting you PB a form of competition? or competing using your whits over the fishes?

I don't have a problem with parallels between angling or hunting, but I do have problems with it being a 'sport'.

 

As to the fox hunting bit I am against hunting, but not for namby pampy 'save the fox' reasons. When the debate about whether to ban or not to ban hunting foxes with dogs was raging the pro-hunt side claimed that fox hunting was an efficient method of pest control. This is bollix, imo. A couple of guys could go out at night and lamp more foxes in a week or two than a hunt kills in a year. I still would not have banned it. Regular readers will know that i am anti-banning.

Edited September 15, 2007 by corydoras

[chesters1]

i agree its a pretty bad way to kill foxes (number wise) and have said so in earlier posts on the subject ,the difference is the land owner who owns the land the hunt hunts on allows foxes to exist on his land otherwise he would probably kill them via other methods.were in prime shooting country so if it wasent for the hunt going on these estates most foxes wouldn't exist there as they love game birds as food,the owner sacrifices game birds to enjoy hunting or entertaining the hunt ,hunting isnt just tally ho yoiks its a meeting place as well.

thinking about it the hunt probably protects more foxes than kills them ,sport maybe but both sides win ,fox hunting is no different to game shooting the quarry is protected until it dies.in both cases far more die on the road than to the hunter.

 

foxes are intelligent animals and learn from the past.we have a hunt that goes on on fields bordering the pond on more than one occasion i have seen a fox run for the ponds land or the golf course at the fist toot of the horn ,i have also seen foxes (maybe the same one) come to the pond for a drink panting (no doupt after being chased) then hang about waiting for the clamor to subside (even having spotted me on the other side) one even had a snooze in full view of me fishing then probably went to wave to the hounds as they went home

cubbing the first of the hunts tends to get a higher kill rate as the cubs havent learn whats what in the hunting circles those of them that survive gain a great advantage in future years.

"sport" means i expect all sides have a "sporting" chance ,the fox by its whits and knowledge of its patch has a "sporting" chance of escape even with the amount of hounds after it they only follow they cant predict the foxes movements ,not so much sport in shooting them from a distance because they rarely learn from the experience same for game birds.Fish have a sporting chance as well in their case the roles are reversed and the whits of the angler knowing the water makes the difference.

lining up foxes to be shot conveyor style wouldnt be sport just boring killing and catching hungry rudd one a chuck less than sporting as well just number crunching.

 

us anglers think were above all that killing but in reality its mostly because were paid wages that can afford to buy fish rather than kill it ourselves as in the past ,plus ofcourse the fact that stocking fish is expensive so "one for the pot" discouraged from most club members today.some in the past angled for fun but perhaps that just meant catching more fish than you could carry and returning the rest for another day.

i have had many "for the pot" in the past but now i buy them and go through the ritual for fun but i'm not discluding (sp?)killing in the future if times got hard again.

i just wish i knew of a way to get rid of the mud taste in pond fish otherwise i might have a freezer full now!

Edited September 15, 2007 by chesters1

[thurso angler]

at the moment double the amount of people beleive its is a field sport as opposed to not one, tells its own story really?

[Cranfield]

To me it is not a sport unless it is competitive. Personally angling is something I do to pass some time with nature, so it's a pastime like stamp collecting or playing draughts.

 

I had it explained to me once as follows;

 

Football, rugby, athletics, draughts, chess, etc are "games".

Hunting, shooting, fishing, etc are "sports".

 

I assume stamp collecting is a hobby, or pastime.

 

I go walking to, "pass time with nature", usually with my dog.