Fishing is doomed

[Wildfisher]

This is the age distribution of views on my Youtube channel and I'd put money on it that other fishing channels are little different. The same pattern is seen on forums, in angling clubs  etc. Not a lot of up and coming youngsters.

[attachimg=1]

[Bobfly]

How would you accurately know the ages of viewers ? That said, there are certainly not many youngsters on the water and even some golf clubs have no waiting lists.

[Robbie]

I would guess that some of those statistics are misleading for a number of reasons.

There could well be a a fair pools of youngsters under 18, like my son, who are keen fishers but rely on guidance of adults when learning the ropes.

Do we think that the majority of fishing you tube channels are going to appeal to younger anglers? I doubt it, to be brutally honest i doubt most are not engaging enough or well produced enough to attract younger anglers who probably expect far better quality than most of us who grew up with very little access to fishing media and are thankful for just about anything.

Having said this I do think there is more that could be done to increase the number of younger anglers. But in this day and age it may be a difficult trick to pull off.

[Wildfisher]

I'm not convinced the stats are wrong. These stats back up my own experiences, chiefly it's rare to see youngsters fishing these days and it has been like that for at least 20 years. Clubs struggle to recruit members, especially youngsters. The ADAA had a 6 year waiting list now you can get in straight away, or at least that was the case a few years back. When I was a kid all my mates fished. Families are much smaller these days with fewer kids to go round the various attractions and pastimes.  That may be the main issue.

[Bobfly]

The Scottish popln stats last week showed a declining popln with deaths exceeding births and an increasing older profile. One of our two local primaries has recently closed due to low numbers.

[Wildfisher]

Higher band earners are leaving Scotland in droves due to punitive taxation. It's one reason we cannot attract doctors who are nationally in short supply for GP practises, never mind fly fishers!  Our local health centre had to close this year after being unable to hire doctors after struggling for 2 full years. It has been a disaster for the community but is the price you pay for spiteful, envy driven taxes.  Kinda puts trivia like angling club shrinking memberships  into perspective.

[Guest_8]

Has fly fishing ever really been popular with youngsters?.

'Higher band earners are leaving Scotland in droves due to punitive taxation'

Have you got stats on this? I've never seen this actually backed up by any facts.

'It's one reason we cannot attract doctors who are nationally in short supply for GP practises'

Is it? Someone coming here from abroad will have far more expendable income than moving down south, that's a fact. I'd imagine Brexit has had far more effect on this than a couple of pence tax. You'll also advance through the bandings in the NHS in England way, way quicker than in Scotland, as there's a huge turnover in staff. That attracts people for sure.

I'd happily pay more tax to maintain our public services, the reckless tax cuts from our latest idiot in chief are quite mind-boggling.

Though I've no idea what the effects of all that are on youngsters chucking feathers! 😆

[Wildfisher]

Heard a doctor being interviewed recently who claimed an experienced GP would pay £8K more in tax here than in other parts of the UK. Would not imagine he was lying and it's hardly an incentive  to move here from down south.  As far as youngsters go - yes far more used to fish, as I said when we were kids all my mates fished.

[Guest_8]

GP's situation is quite odd, more like buying into a franchise than being employed by an employer. That said, if a GP is paid 100k, where is that 8k coming from? I'd like to see that docs workings on that, as it's not income tax. My point was that even at 8k, comparing like with like, they'd still be better off up here, the rental costs of Edinburgh v London would soon swallow that 8k.

I see they are saying that it's predicted 42% of GP's in England are expected to leave in the next few years, 33% in Scotland. Maybe that 9% will come here :-)

[Wildfisher]

Can't see them coming here, especially if the reduction to 40% sticks down south. That makes the difference even greater. Our local practise tried to recruit for 2 years and failed. As one of the 3,500 who suddenly found themselves without a GP on 1/6/2022 I can tell you it's not a great ad for punitive income tax. Of course as one who worked in the 1970s I'd seen the failure of high taxes before so when Scotland decided too go down the high taxation route it came as no surprise to me.