Beach Fishermen at Felixstowe

Stop press. We are not allowed fishermen any more. According to Radio 4 yesterday, in a programme that I was fortunate enough not to hear, people who fish are henceforth to be known as ‘fisher persons’. I’m not joking.
 
johnalison said:
Stop press. We are not allowed fishermen any more. According to Radio 4 yesterday, in a programme that I was fortunate enough not to hear, people who fish are henceforth to be known as ‘fisher persons’. I’m not joking.
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Nothing wrong with 'angler' for the recreational type - sanctified by Izaak himself. But perhaps the programme you missed was referring to professional fishermen. How times have changed, and one wonders what Ms Ballantine would say - born ca. 1890, she died in 1970:

'To top it all, the captor of the largest Atlantic salmon that will ever be caught in Britain could not become a member of the 'men only' 'Fly Fishers Club' - even though they displayed a beautiful watercolour of the fish and the cast at various times in their history. How ironic it was when the President had to explain to reporters, anglers and dignitaries that the record salmon was landed by a woman. ' Georgina Ballantine | Canal & River Trust
 
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Interesting to ponder whether Matthew 4:19 is politically incorrect.
"And he saith unto them, Follow me,and I will make you fishers of men. "

However, much to my surprise, it seems we are just catching up! Wikopedia says the translation "fishers of men" is well known and used by most authors, but not wholly accurate in a modern context inasmuch as the original Greek is gender neutral.

Well I never!!!
 
Hydrozoan said:
Nothing wrong with 'angler' for the recreational type - sanctified by Izaak himself. But perhaps the programme you missed was referring to professional fishermen. How times have changed, and one wonders what Ms Ballantine would say - born ca. 1890, she died in 1970:

'To top it all, the captor of the largest Atlantic salmon that will ever be caught in Britain could not become a member of the 'men only' 'Fly Fishers Club' - even though they displayed a beautiful watercolour of the fish and the cast at various times in their history. How ironic it was when the President had to explain to reporters, anglers and dignitaries that the record salmon was landed by a woman. ' Georgina Ballantine | Canal & River Trust
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Not being a fisherman, or even an angler, I don't feel threatened by the monstrous regiment. I had always assumed that women had more sense than to spend half their lives dangling ornaments in or over the water to catch salmon or trout, when deploying a net would do the same thing in a fraction of the time.
 
johnalison said:
Not being a fisherman, or even an angler, I don't feel threatened by the monstrous regiment. I had always assumed that women had more sense than to spend half their lives dangling ornaments in or over the water to catch salmon or trout, when deploying a net would do the same thing in a fraction of the time.
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I always though the same applies to football
 
johnalison said:
Not being a fisherman, or even an angler, I don't feel threatened by the monstrous regiment. I had always assumed that women had more sense than to spend half their lives dangling ornaments in or over the water to catch salmon or trout, when deploying a net would do the same thing in a fraction of the time.
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To the quicker reduction of wild Atlantic salmon stocks - threatened anyway by some salmon farming practices as an even more expeditious way of achieving the same end. I have known a few women (far fewer then men, I admit) who spent time 'dangling ornaments in or over the water to catch salmon or trout'. Whether or not they were in the same proportion as women to men sailors I do not know, but I suggest that the general direction of the ratios is likely to have been similar.

I fear that my gently-intended post may have been misinterpreted: I suspect that Ms Ballantine may have shared your, and my, dislike of the extremes of feminist nomenclature - but I hope we at least share a recognition that the regiment, however monstrous, has occasionally been treated rather poorly by men.

On a less contentious note, it has been suggested that catches of large specimen male fish by women may perhaps have been attributable to the presence of female hormones on the lure or bait.

PS I was taught by my father 60 years ago never to leave any monofilament line - or anything else for that matter - at the water's side; it is simply reprehensible.
 
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I must confess that I too am angler;-) I've flyfished for trout since a lad in Scotland, I've rarely met lady anglers except a couple of posh tarts sweeping the river for Salmon ;-) Flyfishing for salmon is not known for its high productivity cos salmon don't feed once they re-enter fresh water. I've this theory that crabbit fishermen are grumpy cos they are being territorial, Beach fishermen on their chosen bit of beach,Coarse fishermen on their peg, Salmon fishermen on a beat, harbour fishermen on a wall, lake fishermen in their area whereas us roving flyfishers working up a river have no such issues. ;-)
 
I have to admit to a certain grudging respect for anglers, who are willing to give up large parts of their lives in order to do not very much. My tendency to mock them comes from my own unwillingness to join them, unless in the pursuit of suicidal mackerel. The activity always seems to me to be at risk of being fetishised, with the protagonists paying more attention to the minutiae of their equipment than to the activity itself. I have only had a couple of adverse encounters with this breed. On one occasion an angler on the wall in Boulogne tried to land our boat as we passed, without success, and on the other occasion a lady fisherman managed to hook my wife on the harbour wall in Weymouth as we passed behind her. No harm was done but it could have taken her eye out.
 
I can't help reflecting on the Mike Peyton cartoon of a yacht passing a fishing boat in lively conditions with the common speech bubble "I wonder why they do it" or words to that effect :)
 
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