FISH in Borneo are keen to come to the phone. The high-pitched scream emitted
by telephone handsets when dangled in the water and connected to high-powered
batteries is something they find hard to resist.
The use of this unconventional technique by Bornean anglers only came to
light when the Malaysian state of Sabah recently reported a 13-fold increase in
the number of handsets stolen from public telephone boxes. More than a quarter
of the state鈥檚 3500 payphones had to be replaced last year.
As the coarse fishing season opens in England and Wales this Sunday, anglers
in the developed world may feel some empathy with their counterparts in Borneo.
Though poles apart in their methods and motivation鈥攐ne group fishes for
sport, the other to stay alive鈥攖hey now share a common interest in
technology. In Europe and the US coarse anglers, whose quarry is any freshwater
fish not belonging to the salmon family, are using increasingly elaborate
equipment to improve the number and sizes of the fish they catch.
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Fishing enthusiasts now have access to a wide range of electronic
accessories, from sonar 鈥渇ish finders鈥� to bite alarms. Even the standard tools
of the sport such as rods, reels and lines are nowadays made with high-tech
materials and designs borrowed from the arms and space industries.
The telephone is one of the few devices that European and American anglers
have yet to try. While some may applaud the Borneans for harnessing technology
to increase their livelihoods, many argue that technical innovation is making
the task of the sporting angler too easy. It is turning fishing from a sport
into a science, they complain.
鈥淎 lot of people have lost sight of the purpose of the exercise,鈥� says Chris
Yates, a writer on fishing well known for his traditionalist view of the sport.
鈥淭hey are doing it for the technology of fishing, rather than to catch fish.
Lots of manufacturers are aware of this trend and noting it with glee. It is fun
from a merchandising point of view, but it is losing the soul of the sport.鈥�
There are about 2.6 million coarse anglers in Britain, according to the
Environment Agency, the government body responsible for regulating recreational
fishing. Anglers in England and Wales spend around 拢2.4 billion every year
on the sport, an average of over 拢1000 each. It is widely recognised as
the country鈥檚 most popular participant sport.
Next week, as the season opens, the battle between the traditionalists and
the modernists will resume. The high priests of progress are the carp anglers.
The specialist magazine Carpscene acknowledges that 鈥渢he technology
involved in the tackle and the research behind the bait development are the
flagship of modern carp fishing鈥�.
Sporting zealots
Because of this, carp anglers attract most of the criticism of the
traditionalists. 鈥淭o [the carp anglers], this is not a sport but a religion,鈥�
wrote Tom Fort, fishing correspondent for the Financial Times. 鈥淭hey do
not nip out for a couple of hours fishing. They camp beside their chosen lakes,
whose locations are kept as secret as the headquarters of the Aum cult, for days
and nights at a time.鈥�
The latest and most controversial addition to the carp angler鈥檚 arsenal is
the electronic fish finder. It consists of a sonar scanner, fixed underwater at
the back of a boat, a liquid crystal display screen and a battery pack. The
scanner emits sound signals and converts their reflections into electrical
impulses which are displayed on the screen. The angler is provided with a
profile of the water and river bottom beneath the boat, and the location of any
fish that happen to be there.
Carpscene refers to the fish finder, which costs between 拢100
and 拢400, as 鈥渁nother part of our armoury just like a rod and a reel鈥�. But
Fort believes that those who use it are not playing the game. 鈥淲hat if the fish
had an angler-finder?鈥� he wondered. 鈥淭he sport would be finished.鈥�
An older device, and one more widely used, is the bite alarm. It warns
anglers with loud sounds and flashing lights whenever fish take the bait. It
works by picking up slight vibrations on the line, and is commonly used by those
fishing with more than one rod. Some alarms have built-in transmitters, allowing
anglers to wander off and leave their lines. A hand-held receiver will inform
them when a fish bites.
There is now a huge market for fishing tackle and equipment. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not about
catching fish, it鈥檚 about catching people,鈥� says a spokesman from Farlow鈥檚, a
long-established fishing shop in London鈥檚 Pall Mall. 鈥淧eople will buy equipment
just because it鈥檚 new, or produced by a big name. Ninety per cent of it will not
help you catch a fish.鈥�
Fox International, a fishing tackle manufacturer, rejects such scepticism.
鈥淚t is not only fishing that gets criticised,鈥� says Max Cottis, the company鈥檚
sales manager. 鈥淚t is the same with most sports when technologies develop. But
at the end of the day, you still need an element of watercraft to catch a fish,
and you can鈥檛 sell that to anyone.鈥�
No limits
The traditionalists may lament the decline of sporting values in angling, but
because there are no signs that the new technologies are depleting fish stocks
there are as yet no laws to curb their use. The Environment Agency is more
concerned with the methods anglers use to kill their prey. The Salmon and
Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 bans guns, snares, spears, explosives and poisons,
and forbids the use of a torch or any other light to attract fish to a line or
net. There is nothing to restrict the way an angler finds or reaches fish.
However, the agency is reviewing several local bylaws, including one which
governs the number of rods an angler may use at once. While some regions
restrict anglers to two to four rods each, others have no limits. 鈥淎 carp angler
could have eight or nine lines out at once, and would claim to be in control of
all of them,鈥� says Stephen Gledhill of the Environment Agency. 鈥淥thers would
claim that if he catches two fish at once, he is not in full control of his gear
and could present a danger to one of the fish he has hooked.鈥�
Derek King, fisheries chairman of the National Federation of Anglers, is in
favour of limiting the number of rods that an angler can use at once. But he
does not see a need to restrict technology in other ways, pointing out that it
has helped manufacturers dramatically improve rods and reels.
In the late 1970s, the world of rod-making was revolutionised by the
introduction of carbon fibre. Today, most manufacturers use several types of
carbon fibre impregnated with resins. The Japanese company Daiwa, for example,
combines microscopic 鈥渨hiskers鈥� of silicon carbide with graphite fibres in an
epoxy resin, and surrounds it with a mesh of Kevlar, a strong, flexible fibre
used in police body armour, boat hulls and racing helmets. The result, the
company claims, has three times the tensile elasticity of graphite-based
rods.
Peter Brownlow, technical director of the fishing tackle company Drennan
International, which sponsors the English fishing team, says that much of the
new technology used in rod-making comes from other industries, including the
military, motor racing and the space industry. But there are still those who
prefer the original split-cane rods, made from strips of bamboo.
Chris Yates says that comparing a split-cane rod to one made of carbon fibre
is like comparing a fountain pen to a ballpoint. 鈥淏ut cane rods look 19th
century,鈥� he explains. 鈥淧eople today want to look modern, to look the part,
which they cannot do with a split-cane rod.鈥� He recalls how in 1980 he caught a
record 51-pound carp with a cane rod designed by the men who had set the
previous record for carp 28 years earlier.
Kim Milsom, a member of the England fishing team, says he can understand why
some people like using 鈥渘ostalgic鈥� tackle, but points out that a split-cane rod
would be a handicap in a competition. He believes it would be 鈥渟illy鈥� to ignore
new materials and technologies for fishing.
Some anglers argue that technology can add to the spirit of fishing as a
sport. Spiderwire, a new fishing line made from a strong nonstretch polyethylene
fibre called Spectra, is so sensitive that anglers can pick up the slightest
vibration at the end of their line. At the first touch of a fish they can
respond by lifting the rod to ensure that the fish is hooked in the lip or
mouth.
If the hooked fish is young, it can be returned to the water almost
unscathed. With less sensitive lines, a fish might take the hook into its gullet
before the angler realises he has a catch, reducing the chances of it surviving
if it is put back. Before Spectra was adopted by the fishing industry, it was
used in helicopters and cruise missiles. It has also been used as a 20-kilometre
tether to attach a satellite to the American space shuttle.
Such advances aside, Yates insists there is growing support for a return to
traditional fishing methods. Surprisingly, his perspective is shared by some
within the tackle industry. 鈥淲hat makes you a good angler is knowing about the
countryside, the air, the phases of the Moon,鈥� says Brownlow. 鈥淏ecause modern
tackle is easily available and affordable an angler can walk out of a shop with
all the best stuff. He can go and sit on the river bank and look the part. But
it is not going to make him a better angler.鈥�