John Paul

THE UNSPOKEN TRUTH ABOUT POLLUTION AND ANGLING Despite the endless films that show turds, tampons, toilet paper etc., sailing down our rivers, there are sceptics about the effects of pollution in the angling community. 🫨When I write about pollution, I often get replies saying ‘the fishing on my river is the best it has ever been.’ 😖Another typical reply is ‘I only fish for barbel so I don’t care about trout and salmon.’ I can’t help the people with the latter mindset but I’ll address the issue of why we can still enjoy good fishing in a few tightly defined places in a network of rivers and streams ravaged by pollution. 👉Most anglers these days fish for big fish, the absence of smaller fish just makes the survivors grow bigger. There are some big fish around in our waters especially in the heavily baited/fished waterways. 👉Some species of fish, especially coarse fish,will tolerate some forms of pollution better than others, namely game fish such as trout and grayling. 👍The collapse of the food chain, caused by pollution, will kill the smaller fish first and concentrate the remaining big fish into areas where anglers feed them bait regularly. 👉The influence of predators, such as seals, otters and cormorants concentrates fish populations into winter sanctuary areas. 👉Like a dying star, rivers will show flashes of brilliance when beneath the surface, they are collapsing. We should not allow that to fool us into not caring or joining this fight 🎣💪 #fishing #pollution #rivers #streams