ANGLING

RIVER angling may be back underway for the year, but local fishers are fearing for the sport's future.

Monday marked the traditional beginning of the new angling season, with June 16 a date which is the highlight of any keen angler's diary.

In years gone by it would have been two months since they last picked up a rod, but these days commercial lakes mean anglers have access to the sport throughout the calendar year.

And Tim Stevens, who works at the House of Angling, in Commercial Road, believes the constant nature of angling in some of its forms is having an adverse affect on the river scene.

He revealed: "The new season traditionally starts on the 16th, and it was always something that you really looked forward to because you had gone two months without anything.

"But now the close season is only for the rivers - most of the commercial lakes are fished on all year. The river angling scene is dwindling, which is a real shame, and I don't know how it will recover.

"The problem is that everyone wants to go out and catch carp, and you can go to a commercial lake and bag up with 100lbs of carp.

"Also, young anglers don't have to go through the learning of the water craft. We had to go and look at the river and work out where the fish would be, but that doesn't happen these days because it's so easy to get catches."

Stevens has been fishing for 35 years, and admits that he still gets the same buzz out of landing a catch as he did when he first started out.

"I got my first rod as a kid and, like most anglers, I went out a lot and came back with nothing," he said.

"But once you get your first catch you're hooked, and it's the same for everyone. The sport has got a really strong pull and you can't help yourself but keep going back.

"That's the beauty of it, and why so many people love it."