Watch out…. it’s the roaching rozzers! - Rob Hughes

March 4, 2021 Guest User

No, I’m not talking about Her Majesty’s finest constabulary, but ‘the fishing fuzz’. You know the sort – the ‘experts’ that clearly know everything about everything, and love to jump on a social media post to criticise, whinge or, worse still, make a sweeping comment without actually ascertaining the facts first.

Generally, the captor of anything decent these days usually has his or her collar felt for some alleged misdemeanor or other – no landing mat in the shot, the picture taken from too far away, the wrong bait being used. You get the point.

One typically enthusiastic ‘roaching rozzer’ had a few things to say about my recent catch shot that came after an incredible day’s roach fishing.

One went so far as to suggest that the fish had been killed so that I could get a shot of them all on the mat. Have a word… or, better still… don’t. Perhaps if they went fishing a little more, they’d understand a little more.

Sometimes it’s better to keep quiet and let people think you’re a fool, rather than open your mouth and prove that you are!

Loads of posts are ‘copping for it’ at the moment. We all know the pike police are a pretty serious outfit, but the mat mafia, keepnet cops and carp police are on fire too! Maybe we should start a special Blue Light award for particularly impressive ‘collars’.

‘More time on the bank, less at the keyboard’ should be the sentence handed down to these offenders.

**What is it with these keyboard cops who think they know it all?**

Elite Angling: A Sport or a Pastime? - Rob Hughes

March 1, 2021 Guest User

A rather grand title for this subject and no, I’m not talking about anglers who have egos bigger than their own fishy tales.

I’m looking at the issue of elite sport and, more precisely, what constitutes it.

A while ago I became embroiled in an argument with the presenter on Radio 5 who asked me “How could something that you wear a woolly jumper for be classed as a sport?”.

He was trying to provoke a laugh, but the reality is that a sport has to contain a number of ingredients or elements in order to be classed thus, and to my mind angling has them all: organisation, physicality and competition.

The Oxford Dictionary defines a sport as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or a team competes against another or others”.

Angling ticks that box. Online, it’s a similar story if you use Dictionary.com, which defines sport as “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess” and uses racing, tennis, golf, bowling and wrestling as examples.

Once again, we qualify. Any match angler out there will vouch for the competitive element of our sport.

Some may say that more people don’t compete than do, and I’d agree with that statement, but the same can be said for cycling, swimming, running and shooting…. and they’re always classed as sports!

So, my conclusion is this: if we’re a sport, then surely the best at our sport, especially those that are at professional or international level, must be classed as elite? It’s a no-brainer to me.

Can fishing be described as a sports the same as golf?

Carp Team England boss on a 'species hunt'

February 18, 2021 Guest User

Carp Team England manager Rob Hughes has paused his quest for huge carp and set his sights on smaller coarse fish.

“Pre-Christmas and pre-lockdown I decided to spend time over the holidays with my 14-year-old son, trying to catch different species on short sessions,” he says.

**A big dace, just one of the different species Rob has caught**

“We set a few targets, and even fishing just short sessions in the afternoon have been great fun. Trotting maggots on the stick float, maggots and worms on the waggler, drop shotting and jigging, wobbled lures, fly fishing for pike, plus boilies and bread feeders were just some of the tactics we used.
“Once the box was ticked there was no repeating it. It was on to the next challenge.”