Conventional Angling has been around since I can remember in Southern Africa, with millions of people partaking in this facet be it social or competitive. In recent years we as South African Anglers have started practicing CAR ( Catch and Release) and fish care and every day anglers realize that this is the way to go. Now don't get me wrong, when we say CAR it is not meant to release every single fish you catch, but lets be reasonable. Don't take out what you are not going to use.

Lets take a Carp as an example here. We all know that our local waters are heavily stocked with this introduced species, and a lot of them are over stocked for that matter. Rule of thumb says that the average Carp grows at a rate of 1Kg per year, and under favorable conditions could gain up to 1.5-2Kg's per year. Now we know that with our water being so heavily stocked the average growth rate is only around 1Kg, so a Carp caught with a weight of 10Kg's is around 10Years old.



Recently more and more reports are received of anglers catching 8Kg and over Carp on conventional style. Now this makes one wonder if it has something to do with CAR. I think so, as it has been over the last 5 - 7 years that the majority of ethical anglers have actually started releasing there catches. Now this in it self is a great accomplishment, as 20 years back one would hardly ever hear of a Carp that was released.

So with this in mind lets look at what more we as conventional anglers can do to help with the preservation of fish found in our local waters to ensure that future generations will also be able to catch decent sized fish.

I have been involved in the water treatment industry since 1990 and it is scary to see the way our natural water resources are deteriorating, be it due to lack of infrastructure, mismanagement of existing treatment works or just plain incompetence. It has become common place to hear of raw sewage being spilled into our water catchment systems on almost a daily basis and due to this we as anglers have to start caring for the fish we catch in these systems.

Lets look at the social angler.



For most angling is a way of being close to nature and it is a sport the whole family can partake in. The social angler will get to the water maybe once every 8 - 10 weeks to partake in this well loved sport. He will catch an average of 6 -10 fish over a 24 hour period and in most instances he or she will release the fish directly after a photograph has been taken. Now some will place the fish in holding nets and this is where we have to look at improving fish care. Holding nets have come a long way since the days of the metal wire nets, but in most instances the nets are still not fish friendly. When a fish is placed in a net it will attempt to get back to the open water, this is after all it's natural environment. It will swim in circles in the net scraping its fins and mouth against the sides of the net. A lot of these fish will be released again after a day or two and this is where the problem then comes in. 20 years back our waters were not polluted and the wounds caused by the net would heal in a week or two. Today with all the bacteria caused by sewage spillages will attack these wounds and the fish are likely to die rather than heal. So even though the conventional angler do partake in CAR the damage he has caused by using a holding/keep net is huge. If you are going to use a keepnet, rather give the fish that was in them to someone who has no food, than releasing them again. Never place fish older than 6-8 years in a holding net, these are the ones our future generations also want to catch and they are also our breeding stocks, so take your picture and release it as s oon as possible.



Now the competitive angler.



Competitive angling in Southern Africa has grown tremendously over the last few years and hundreds of angling clubs are found all over the country. You can almost be assured that one out of every four anglers fishing belongs either to a social or an affiliated angling club. A lot of Springbok Anglers have been produced by these clubs, some better known that others, and these Springbok are the ones I feel should promote fish care even more than the rest of us.They are the anglers admired and respected by many anglers and as idols could do a great deal of good or harm through not just their words but their actions next to the waters.

Recently when fishing one of my favorite venues one of the local angling clubs in PTA had a club comp and this just once again showed me why we have to start fish care at this level. Kids from as young as 5 years old were fishing in the event and they look at their piers for guidance. It was proven again that these youngsters will look at what the older hands are doing and attempt to follow by their example. Came weigh in time all the keepnets were dragged to the weigh in point, that just happened to be right next to my swim. Fish were shaken out of the nets onto the ground and stones. The back fins would get caught up in the net and the fish would be jerked out of these net causing untold damage to the fish. Although 90% of all the fish were release again I found plenty have died by the following day. The currents took them to the opposite bank where we were dropping our lines, and scores of dead fish were found in between the reeds. I could see that these were fresh deaths and all had the scars of keepnets on them.

Coming back to the weigh in, two youngsters fishing next to me that also belonged to the club, were impressed by the size fish we were catching during the night and spent a lot of time in my camp. They were inquisitive and came weigh in I were impressed to see that they actually listened to some of what I had to say during the night. Although they did not catch a lot of fish when it was their turn to weigh in they came to borrow my unhooking mat, wet it and took the carp from their keepnet and packed them on the unhooking mat. This was awesome as the little boy of five were the first one to walk over to them and asked why they were using a mattress for the fish. They explained what they learned, and according to the boys the youngster went to his dad and said he also wants one of those mattresses so the fishies wont get hurt.

This just again shows that the youngsters will follow suite, and we as adults and parents are the ones that must set the example to follow. Those that belong to clubs, speak to the senior members about fish care. I know that we will never see keep nets removed from competitive angling, but lets get the clubs to start using fish friendly nets. Get the clubs to look at an unhooking pond at the weigh in station and to start weighing fish over 6Kg immediately so these fish can be released as soon as possible.

So in closing let us all that partake in this beloved sport do our bit in conservation and fish care and actively get involved rather that just sitting on the sides moaning and bitching because some uninformed or uneducated angler hurt a fish.

9.7 - 4 votes