Fishing Decline

Hard as it is to believe, outdoor recreation – fishing and hunting particularly - is on the decline. And has been for quite some time.

For instance, right now there are 12.5-million hunters in the United States. Yet, only about fifteen years ago that number was close to 20-million.

Between the loss of habitat (the number one cash-crop in America remains sub-divisions and shopping malls), the attention given to anti-gun and anti-hunting organizations by the media, and restrictive gun laws, you might conclude it’s an understandable loss. And you might be partially right, because there has been, in that time frame, a slight increase in the number of target shooters; particularly those playing clay-bird busting games.

What isn’t quite as understandable is the fall-off in fishing. There are roughly 45-million anglers in the United States. Sounds like a bunch. Until you consider that this represents a drop of 15-million since the early 1990s.

What you might not know is that for about 20 years, all through the ‘70s and ‘80s, the number of fishermen stayed stable at 60-million. The number of people who left the sport were exactly balanced by new ones, primarily youngsters, coming in.

In fact, I used to get a bit testy with fishing tackle manufacturers who would sit around at trade meetings bemoaning the fact that the market wasn’t growing. They couldn’t understand that lack of apparent growth was not stagnancy. “How,” I challenged a major lure maker, “would you like to have one of your baits in just ten percent of those tackle boxes? Nothing small about that market.” Something many tackle makers, indeed, what their own trade association failed to recognize was that the market wasn’t only not stagnant, but also that the spending habits of angler had changed. Today’s fishermen spend more money on their hobby than did their forebears.

My grandfather, for instance, had a small wooden tackle box he’d built himself that held 12 lures. Not 12 models in various colors and sizes. A total of a dozen plugs. Nowadays, many anglers carry at least 12 each of their favorite baits. And the number of baits they carry can easily number in the hundreds.

The real point, though, is that new anglers are not entering the ranks. And the timing of this fall-off seems to coincide with the growth of home computers and the information superhighway. Kids are spending their free time on the internet, rather than outdoors.

Thus, I was pleasantly surprised early last summer to discover that Josh Nunley had, on his own, taken up flyfishing. What’s more, he was teaching himself to tie flies.

To be sure, Josh did fish before that. Not surprising, as his father is not only an avid---and successful---tournament angler, he’s also the owner of Wilgreen Lake Marina, in central Kentucky.

So, from time to time, Josh would pick up a rod. Maybe even grab a buddy, and take one of the marina’s boats, and spend some time on the water. Mostly, though, he fished from the dock, killing time while he was helping out at the marina.

But by no stretch of the imagination could you call him a passionate fisherman.

Now, out of the blue, he’d discovered an interest that took him away from on-line games, and which would get him out in the green world. Providing, of course, that he didn’t get too frustrated trying to learn the intricacies of flyfishing and fly tying on his own.

I could relate to what he was going through. Although I was older at the time (Josh had just graduated high school), I pretty much learned those sports by myself. I had been given basic flyfishing instruction while attending college in the Adirondack Mountains. But, once I moved from there, it was several years before I even met another fly fisherman. And I didn’t know anyone who actually tied flies.

There’s something to be said for being self-taught. And a lot to be said against it. Tasks that are actually simple become quite complex when there’s nobody to teach you the tricks of the trade. Techniques that experienced tyers take for granted---such as the whip finish used to create smooth heads on a fly---seem to require occult knowledge. Even figuring out the logical sequence in which materials should be lashed to the hook is often unnecessarily confusing.

It doesn’t have to be something as complex as tying flies, either. If there’s nobody to show you differently, even learning to cast a spinning outfit can be difficult. How many times, for instance, have you seen people who had the reel mounted incorrectly? If adults have trouble with a simple task, imagine what it’s like for a kid.

It’s easy for a youngster to give up in frustration. And, after all, the internet is always waiting like a crack dealer who knows there’s no such thing as an ex-customer.

So, what do you do when you run into a youngster who wants to get involved? Do you shrug it off, telling yourself, “heck, he’s not my son or daughter?” Or do you take the kid under your wing, and help him along the way?

For me the answer is a no brainer. When a kid wants to learn something that I’m passionate about myself, I help him out.

Sure, we all have other draws on our time. Other concerns, and other responsibilities. And, let’s face it, we have limited free time ourselves. But, if you care at all about reversing that downward trend in the number of fisherman, you find a way to make the time.

So Josh and I spent a lot of time at the tying vise last summer. And as soon as both our schedules jibe, I’ll be taking him fishing on some of my favorite creeks. I can’t speak for him, but I can hardly wait to see him catch a trout on a fly he’s tied himself. The fish will take the fly, but it’s Josh who’ll get hooked.

That’ll make it 45-million and one. And that makes the time I invested more than worthwhile.