I know I promised last time to write about something more positive, but the theme this time is about another negative aspect of sea angling, although more of a cultural one, rather than a practical one. So please bear with me whilst I rattle through this and I promise next time I will write about something more upbeat. As some of you may or may not know, I’ve started writing pieces for Total Sea Fishing magazine. I was approached by them to do this and I decided that it would be a good thing for me, both from the perspective that I could make up monetarily for some of my fishing excesses and that it would be fun for me to think of and write stories that people would find interesting. My first article appeared in the December issue and I aim to continue to submit pieces every month for the foreseeable future. This first piece was all about a trip to the spot where I caught the 22lb blonde in 2016. I deliberately tried to keep any identifying scenery out of the shots and I didn’t even identify which area of Cornwall the mark is located in. There are a few details about the physical nature of the place, but they would only ring bells with people that had already been there. All in all, I handled it as well as I could, given the sensitive nature of the area and the particular mark.
I did wonder if I might get some sort of backlash from the Cornish sea angling community, but nothing really came my way until I received this message the other day:
My first thoughts were that, from what they are saying, this person obviously doesn’t know me very well, and they have also decided not to leave any way for me to reply to them. Obviously they are not interested in what I have to say in return. So I thought I would answer this message on here in public, as there may be others that have a similar opinion and I could address them all in one sitting.
You were obviously told about the mark, as you’d never have discovered it on your own
The first thing to say is that, yes, I was told about the mark on quite a few occasions before I even went to look at it for the first time four years ago. Up until fairly recently, there was even open information about it on a Facebook page. It’s true that I wouldn’t have discovered it on my own as it’s some way out of my local area but then, there are very few good places to fish in Cornwall that weren’t discovered and named long before I started fishing. Unless you yourself discovered the mark or were the first to fish it or whatever, I don’t see why you feel like this is even a relevant point.
Now, you have seen fit to broadcast it to the world, for a few quid
I don’t agree that I have broadcast the mark to the world. There is nothing identifying in any of my pictures and I haven’t remotely pointed to which area of Cornwall the spot is located in. Another point is that I have kept very quiet about this spot myself; I’ve talked about it with one person who may not have already known about it, as they were a competent angler who was interested in doing more ray fishing. In truth, very few people have even asked me where either these fish or others I’ve had from there previously were caught… because they already know. When my friend Mark caught his 27lb blonde from there in 2015, an angler from Plymouth congratulated him and guessed straight away where he’d caught it. It’s not as if Cornwall is over-burdened with marks where you can catch big blonde rays from the shore. The day after Mark caught his ray, he went back to fish there again and there were nine other top Cornish anglers all rubbing shoulders on there.
It’s true that I’ve earnt a few quid from writing the article, but after three years of writing continuously on here for absolutely nothing, I think I’m entitled to make a tiny proportion of the money I’ve spent on my fishing back. Also, knowing that I can recoup some of my costs will enable me to make more exciting trips further afield in the future.
Like the other idiots who have started turning up at this once quiet venue, you’re just a fish chaser, who lacks the skills to find your own fish
Maybe the venue was quiet once but I think it is unlikely that it will be for the foreseeable future. An unfortunate fact about Cornish sea angling in general is that the number of marks that are capable of producing really good fish are dwindling. As once-amazing spots fall into decline, there will be increased pressure on those marks that are still blowing hot. Unless the situation with our fish stocks (and their food supplies) inshore changes, it is unlikely that this trend will reverse.
As far as being a fish chaser goes, if you mean that I try to go where the fish are, you’re absolutely right! I do have ideas of what I want to catch, whether they are particular species, or fish of a certain size, and I absolutely will go where I think they might be. If what you’re trying to call me is a ‘shadow chaser’, then I’ll admit, I do a bit of that (virtually all anglers do, even if they like to pour scorn on others for doing it), but I don’t think this occasion qualifies. The whole theme of the piece is about the spot having been unfishable for ages and me spotting a gap for a session and going there. Up until that point, I had heard of no fish from there since August, and no blondes at that. I don’t think I lack the skills to find my own fish either. I routinely find my own giltheads on the north coast every spring. Finding marks in Cornwall where you can catch blondes from the shore is a different thing altogether.
I hope the next time you go there, you’ll suffer the gang (your Facebook mates) who’ll ignore the fact that there are already anglers there fishing and set up their three(!!) rods and proceed to cast over you.
The ignorant lot also turn up at 6am and park on the farm, waking the guests in his holiday cottages.
People who are on my ‘friends’ list on Facebook are not necessarily my ‘friends’ or even people I actually know. I would estimate about 80% of the anglers who I’m friends with on Facebook, I’ve never met. This seems bizarre but it is the nature of social media and I’m happy to go along with it. In real life, I only routinely fish with two or three people and it is rare for me to fish with anyone else. Probably 70-80% of my fishing is done on my own. I don’t know who the people are that you’re referring to but they almost certainly have nothing to do with me and they certainly wouldn’t have heard about the mark from me.
As far as I’m aware, using three rods is not a crime, I do it myself all the time when I have the space. Casting over other people’s lines, however, is a behaviour that I do not endorse and do my best to avoid. I have, in the past, squeezed in on marks but these days, if I somewhere is fully occupied, I’ll fish somewhere else. I doubt anyone is whiter than white when it comes to etiquette on fishing marks, but I certainly try not to mess with anyone else’s fishing and I will sometimes make myself move to accommodate other anglers in the spirit of goodwill.
Ultimately, I am not responsible for other peoples’ behaviour, especially those that are almost certainly nothing to do with me. Some anglers have no qualms about jostling for space and even bullying other anglers off marks, but that is not my game at all and I prefer peace and solitude. Both times I’ve fished that mark this year I have been entirely on my own. Might I suggest that if you want the place to yourself that you get more creative about when you time your session? There are very few good marks in Cornwall that will be deserted on a Saturday afternoon under ideal conditions. As far as 6am goes, I have heard of people turning up and/or leaving at far crazier hours than that with apparently no trouble. I think as long as people are as quiet as they can be when entering and leaving the field, things should be fine. It is a working farm after all.
In conclusion, I think you are blaming the wrong person for your frustration. The people you encountered would not have been mates of mine and would not have heard about the mark from me. True, the fact that I publicised my catches hasn’t helped and I do accept some responsibility for that. This is something that I decided that I had to do to get myself out there more. For the last three years, I’ve run this blog quietly hoping that things would get going organically. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened and I’ve had to make a bit more noise to get on the path to where I want to be. One thing that I want to make clear is that I will keep trying to make the right judgment calls as regards how much and how little info I put in all my writing, magazine or otherwise. I realise that Cornwall is a sensitive region, with a lot of dangerous marks that are vulnerable to overcrowding. My writing for the magazine is aimed more at the ‘adventure’ aspect of shore angling and trying a different spin on things than it is about highlighting marks and specific information.
……………….
As a footnote, I hope this message and my reply to it clarifies a few things for a few people. I’m not trying to sell-out all Cornwall’s shore angling juiciest secrets in a national magazine, I’m interested more in trying to craft gripping stories that get people thinking and excited to go fishing. I do appreciate that some anglers’ are obsessed with secrecy and that any attention is to be discouraged. I expect this attitude is born out of bitter experience and I do respect it as a viewpoint, but I do not think that it is helpful to the sport as a whole (which is not in a good state, as far as newcomers and young people coming in is concerned). My experience of anglers in Cornwall is that most experienced ones are a lot more moderate and, once they see that someone is keen and serious, are happy to share at least some moderately useful information to help encourage youngsters or the less experienced. Those with the attitude that shore angling in Cornwall is just for them are firmly in the minority. I’m not sure if the person that sent me this message is one of these diehard types, but their attitude certainly reflects this outlook.
This will be the last time I defend myself publicly on this issue, as I think I’ve said everything that I need to say here and more. Of course, if someone has a grievance, they are more than welcome to send me a message, but please include a contact email or something that I can reply to. If I receive any more off-key outbursts with no return contact details, I will not read them and delete them immediately.
I did wonder if I might get some sort of backlash from the Cornish sea angling community, but nothing really came my way until I received this message the other day:
My first thoughts were that, from what they are saying, this person obviously doesn’t know me very well, and they have also decided not to leave any way for me to reply to them. Obviously they are not interested in what I have to say in return. So I thought I would answer this message on here in public, as there may be others that have a similar opinion and I could address them all in one sitting.
You were obviously told about the mark, as you’d never have discovered it on your own
The first thing to say is that, yes, I was told about the mark on quite a few occasions before I even went to look at it for the first time four years ago. Up until fairly recently, there was even open information about it on a Facebook page. It’s true that I wouldn’t have discovered it on my own as it’s some way out of my local area but then, there are very few good places to fish in Cornwall that weren’t discovered and named long before I started fishing. Unless you yourself discovered the mark or were the first to fish it or whatever, I don’t see why you feel like this is even a relevant point.
Now, you have seen fit to broadcast it to the world, for a few quid
I don’t agree that I have broadcast the mark to the world. There is nothing identifying in any of my pictures and I haven’t remotely pointed to which area of Cornwall the spot is located in. Another point is that I have kept very quiet about this spot myself; I’ve talked about it with one person who may not have already known about it, as they were a competent angler who was interested in doing more ray fishing. In truth, very few people have even asked me where either these fish or others I’ve had from there previously were caught… because they already know. When my friend Mark caught his 27lb blonde from there in 2015, an angler from Plymouth congratulated him and guessed straight away where he’d caught it. It’s not as if Cornwall is over-burdened with marks where you can catch big blonde rays from the shore. The day after Mark caught his ray, he went back to fish there again and there were nine other top Cornish anglers all rubbing shoulders on there.
It’s true that I’ve earnt a few quid from writing the article, but after three years of writing continuously on here for absolutely nothing, I think I’m entitled to make a tiny proportion of the money I’ve spent on my fishing back. Also, knowing that I can recoup some of my costs will enable me to make more exciting trips further afield in the future.
Like the other idiots who have started turning up at this once quiet venue, you’re just a fish chaser, who lacks the skills to find your own fish
Maybe the venue was quiet once but I think it is unlikely that it will be for the foreseeable future. An unfortunate fact about Cornish sea angling in general is that the number of marks that are capable of producing really good fish are dwindling. As once-amazing spots fall into decline, there will be increased pressure on those marks that are still blowing hot. Unless the situation with our fish stocks (and their food supplies) inshore changes, it is unlikely that this trend will reverse.
As far as being a fish chaser goes, if you mean that I try to go where the fish are, you’re absolutely right! I do have ideas of what I want to catch, whether they are particular species, or fish of a certain size, and I absolutely will go where I think they might be. If what you’re trying to call me is a ‘shadow chaser’, then I’ll admit, I do a bit of that (virtually all anglers do, even if they like to pour scorn on others for doing it), but I don’t think this occasion qualifies. The whole theme of the piece is about the spot having been unfishable for ages and me spotting a gap for a session and going there. Up until that point, I had heard of no fish from there since August, and no blondes at that. I don’t think I lack the skills to find my own fish either. I routinely find my own giltheads on the north coast every spring. Finding marks in Cornwall where you can catch blondes from the shore is a different thing altogether.
I hope the next time you go there, you’ll suffer the gang (your Facebook mates) who’ll ignore the fact that there are already anglers there fishing and set up their three(!!) rods and proceed to cast over you.
The ignorant lot also turn up at 6am and park on the farm, waking the guests in his holiday cottages.
People who are on my ‘friends’ list on Facebook are not necessarily my ‘friends’ or even people I actually know. I would estimate about 80% of the anglers who I’m friends with on Facebook, I’ve never met. This seems bizarre but it is the nature of social media and I’m happy to go along with it. In real life, I only routinely fish with two or three people and it is rare for me to fish with anyone else. Probably 70-80% of my fishing is done on my own. I don’t know who the people are that you’re referring to but they almost certainly have nothing to do with me and they certainly wouldn’t have heard about the mark from me.
As far as I’m aware, using three rods is not a crime, I do it myself all the time when I have the space. Casting over other people’s lines, however, is a behaviour that I do not endorse and do my best to avoid. I have, in the past, squeezed in on marks but these days, if I somewhere is fully occupied, I’ll fish somewhere else. I doubt anyone is whiter than white when it comes to etiquette on fishing marks, but I certainly try not to mess with anyone else’s fishing and I will sometimes make myself move to accommodate other anglers in the spirit of goodwill.
Ultimately, I am not responsible for other peoples’ behaviour, especially those that are almost certainly nothing to do with me. Some anglers have no qualms about jostling for space and even bullying other anglers off marks, but that is not my game at all and I prefer peace and solitude. Both times I’ve fished that mark this year I have been entirely on my own. Might I suggest that if you want the place to yourself that you get more creative about when you time your session? There are very few good marks in Cornwall that will be deserted on a Saturday afternoon under ideal conditions. As far as 6am goes, I have heard of people turning up and/or leaving at far crazier hours than that with apparently no trouble. I think as long as people are as quiet as they can be when entering and leaving the field, things should be fine. It is a working farm after all.
In conclusion, I think you are blaming the wrong person for your frustration. The people you encountered would not have been mates of mine and would not have heard about the mark from me. True, the fact that I publicised my catches hasn’t helped and I do accept some responsibility for that. This is something that I decided that I had to do to get myself out there more. For the last three years, I’ve run this blog quietly hoping that things would get going organically. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened and I’ve had to make a bit more noise to get on the path to where I want to be. One thing that I want to make clear is that I will keep trying to make the right judgment calls as regards how much and how little info I put in all my writing, magazine or otherwise. I realise that Cornwall is a sensitive region, with a lot of dangerous marks that are vulnerable to overcrowding. My writing for the magazine is aimed more at the ‘adventure’ aspect of shore angling and trying a different spin on things than it is about highlighting marks and specific information.
……………….
As a footnote, I hope this message and my reply to it clarifies a few things for a few people. I’m not trying to sell-out all Cornwall’s shore angling juiciest secrets in a national magazine, I’m interested more in trying to craft gripping stories that get people thinking and excited to go fishing. I do appreciate that some anglers’ are obsessed with secrecy and that any attention is to be discouraged. I expect this attitude is born out of bitter experience and I do respect it as a viewpoint, but I do not think that it is helpful to the sport as a whole (which is not in a good state, as far as newcomers and young people coming in is concerned). My experience of anglers in Cornwall is that most experienced ones are a lot more moderate and, once they see that someone is keen and serious, are happy to share at least some moderately useful information to help encourage youngsters or the less experienced. Those with the attitude that shore angling in Cornwall is just for them are firmly in the minority. I’m not sure if the person that sent me this message is one of these diehard types, but their attitude certainly reflects this outlook.
This will be the last time I defend myself publicly on this issue, as I think I’ve said everything that I need to say here and more. Of course, if someone has a grievance, they are more than welcome to send me a message, but please include a contact email or something that I can reply to. If I receive any more off-key outbursts with no return contact details, I will not read them and delete them immediately.