The money spent on the pastime is thought to put around £3billion into the economy and we are not short of celebrity anglers either. Think of ex-cricketer Ian Botham, rock stars Eric Clapton and Roger Daltrey and such celebrities as Vinnie Jones, Jeremy Paxman and Joanna Lumley.
According to Ingrid Tarrant, her former husband, the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? host Chris Tarrant, would even bring his hobby back into the bedroom. “He would literally jump in next to me reeking of carp, bream and pike,” she once noted.
What then is the great lure of the pastime which accords fish like Two Tone legendary status? “It’s everything about it,” says Alan Barnes, 47, an angling journalist from Lancashire who says he cannot go for more than seven days without heading to the riverbank. “It’s the peace, the tranquillity and the solitude.
You can have a million problems in the world and then you go fishing and everything melts away and it’s just you and your environment. I’m just your average guy who’ll buy a couple of pints of maggots at the tackle shop and go and fish for five hours.
Last night I didn’t get on to the river bank until five in the afternoon and I packed up at eight, and I’d caught about 80 fish. There’s something indescribable about man catching a fish. It’s a cliché but once you’ve caught one, you are usually hooked for life.”
And it’s not just about getting that bite. “You also see a large amount of wildlife,” says Barnes. “For instance yesterday I was fishing on the River Ribble in Preston and I saw a young male roe deer leap into the river and swim across to the other bank. I watched him get to the other side, give himself a shake like a dog would, and then gingerly launch himself up the steep bank and back into the wood. That’s what it’s all about.”
For Werner, what sets angling apart from other pastimes is that you participate on an even playing field. “Young or old, male or female, able bodied or not – all anglers fish on equal terms and just taking part encourages relationships that have huge benefits for communities, families and the environment,” she says.
Anglers can be split into those who fish in the sea or in freshwater. In freshwater, there is gaming angling (for fish such as salmon and trout) and coarse fishing (for the likes of carp, roach, perch and bream). Coarse fishing is the more popular variety and carp (like Two Tone) has recently replaced roach as the angler’s favourite fish.
Not that the fishermen tend to take them home. Virtually all coarse angling is “catch and release” where the fish is put back into its natural environment.
“With a big carp you could do a lot of damage if you hauled it on to a gravel bank and let it flap around,” says Dave Nelson, 53, a professional angling coach from Suffolk. “Carp fishermen tend to be very careful so they do the minimum of damage. They’ll weigh the fish and photograph them and then put them back in the river to be caught another day when they might have grown even bigger.”
According to Nelson, fishing is a very personal experience. “People have all kinds of different motivations,” he says. “Some people do it for relaxation but for others it’s an incredibly competitive thing, especially for people who are motivated to catch big fish like Two Tone and who want to become British record holders. They’ll fish for days on end just to catch one particular fish.
There are also lots of anglers who are really keen on conservation. It is often the fishermen, for instance, who’ll notice if something is wrong with the riverbed and report it.”
Nelson specialises in working with people with disabilities and believes in the therapeutic effects of fishing because it “provides an opportunity to achieve something, to become at one with the environment”. Both he and Barnes caught the fishing bug early.
Nelson was five when his grandfather, an East Coast bargeman, took him out while Barnes recalls being “a boy of four with a jam jar and a fishing net just trying to catch minnows and tiddlers in the side of the river. That’s where the fascination stems from.”
He is currently trying to pass down his love for angling to his 11-year-old niece (fewer than 10 per cent of anglers are women). “Two weeks ago I took her sea fishing near Morecambe and we got absolutely drenched with 40mph horizontal rain coming off the Irish Sea but we managed to catch five plaice and my niece caught two of them herself,” he says.
“I’ve got a picture of her holding one up and she’s absolutely thrilled. If you can grab someone’s imagination by getting them to catch fish early on, they rarely forget the experience.”
There are, however, rules governing the pastime. In UK freshwaters, the rights to fish in a particular river, lake, pond or canal are owned privately. To fish legally all anglers must hold a valid rod licence and hold permission to fish, usually by joining an angling club or paying for a day or season’s fishing. Fishing in the sea, meanwhile, is a public right and is free. But what of the stereotypical reputation of anglers?
“I know a lot of anglers are viewed as weirdos and cranks by some of the great British public,” says Barnes, “but these people are usually townies who have no idea of setting foot in the countryside.”
Jeremy Paxman, meanwhile, has previously observed that: “The millions of us who fish don’t care about the sneers of those who think our pleasure is boring.”
For all those who have never slung their hook, Werner suggests trying it. “The types of fishing are so diverse, there will be one you enjoy,” she says. “You can battle the elements while sea fishing, appreciate the history and traditions of game fishing, enjoy a stress free afternoon while coarse fishing on a peaceful river or plan a campaign to catch a monster like Two Tone. Four million people can’t all have got it wrong!”
