The World Fly Fishing Championship Comes to Scotland

 

In a major coupe the Scottish Anglers National Association (SANA) win the bid to host The Championship!

 

The teams at the opening ceremony of the World Fly Fishing Championship

 

It started last Friday, the World Fly Fishing Championship, who, did what did, eh! It's true, Scotland is the venue for a major international angling event organised by SANA, supported by Stirling Council, Events Scotland and VisitScotland and if Jim Boyd hadn't contacted me to ask if I knew about it I would have been short of a news item.

 

Based in Drymen and fishing on the Lake of Menteith, Loch Awe and the Carron Valley Reservoir as well as on rivers in Argyllshire and Perthshire, 177 anglers from 27 countries including Japan, USA, Australia, Canada (and off course the UK 4 nations) will compete for the world title.

 

The Championship is an opportunity to show case the best of angling in Scotland - some of the best in the world and aside from the population of Drymen no one knows about it. Why should we care?

 

Here's why we should care. Angling is the biggest participant sport in the UK with 1.1 million men, women and kids going fishing. 9% of the population of England went fishing in the last year, angling of all kinds was worth £4/6 billion per annum to the UK economy, that's a heck of a stack of cash.

 

In Scotland, figures vary about the contribution of angling to the Scottish economy, but lets start at the conservative £115 million pa quoted by VisitScotland.  A study by Glasgow Caledonia University estimated that recreational sea angling is worth £150 million pa alone. In one Scottish Parliament briefing report for the Salmon Conservation (Scotland) Bill (RP 00-17) salmon angling was estimated at £407 million which is more in proportion to the figure quoted for the UK. Why the the disparity in numbers?

 

It seems that the value of angling in Scotland is seriously under estimated by the very organisations (tourism, government, sponsors and sports funding bodies) that should be recognising angling as a major contributor to the economy. Consequently other sports such as golf, football, rugby and athletics are promoted at a disproportionately high level by comparison with angling.

 

To many quango's and the like angling is an irrelevance. Far from getting a champagne reception angling gets the equivalent of a curled up corned beef sandwich and a cup of tea. Off course it serves them well enough to under estimate the value of angling thus leaving them the freedom to spend more cash on televisual activities

 

The average spend per day by anglers on the Tweed is £189 and £140 in the Highlands which compares well with golf. Angling offers great health, social, behavioural and environmental benefits. Why is it just a footnote in the wider sporting picture? Or is it just not sound bite worthy to the runts of the marketing litter who haven't given it a thought until the boss was looking for someone to do the job?

 

Let me amble back to the World Fly Fishing Championship, why is it so understated, under supported, under sponsored (well done Glengoyne Distillery for putting your money where your mouth is by sponsoring this event). Any other sport with such a high profile and participation rate would be in the news, would have the First Minister pressing paws and receiving prime TV time exposure. Angling deserves better, deserves more recognition, needs more support for development, the preservation of stocks and the angling environment.

 

Is it that angling is an inconvenience to hydro electric and wind turbine development, to inshore fish farming, non PC because of the anti blood sport lobby? Would this be the reason that the powers that be starve the sport of the support and protection it needs?

 

Angling is a force for well being, a positive contributor to the  economy, tourism and jobs. Come on guys, break a little sweat next time we get an international angling event in Scotland. Acknowledge the importance of angling and by doing so act to protect this significant contributor to the Scottish economy and society as a whole.

 

Next time get the champers out and report something positive and expansive for a change

 

 

SEPA logo

 

 

Back to Top

 

©Spinfish 2008, All right reserved. SpinFish and the SpinFish logo © SpinFish 2007/8, all images and content is © of Spinfish unless otherwise stated