I recently visited the Go Fishing show in Birmingham a show that attracts thousands of anglers it was a fantastic show with hundreds of stands and demonstrations. I am told by official statistics that 1 in 8 people in England go fishing more than go rambling or most other sports. So why oh why do I see The England Ladies Fly fishing team selling raffle tickets to try and go to the World Championships. I am happy to see England win Gold Medals in the Olympics but like most I have not participated in Athletics since being forced to at school. I love art and other good causes the Government and Lotto people put money into but here we have a National Team that consistently do well struggling to raise air fares.

I also had the great pleasure to meet another hero of mine, who I and many others see as the father of modern fishing John Wilson his programmes have been inspirational to myself and others for decades. I have seen John at many shows over the years and must say he makes time for everyone old or young nothing is too much trouble for him to make the experience of someone meeting him special. He was voted recently the best Fisherman of all time. This I do not know but would say that his Go Fishing series articles and Books have been the inspiration for me to go and try different forms of fishing. His TV series also made me want to go abroad and follow his footsteps his recent TV series John Wilsons Fishing Safaris is probably one of the best fishing TV series of all Time. So I was stunned to hear from him that at this time he is unable to get funding for another series.

Why Fishing is not on TV is more because TV companies do not think the public are interested in fishing isn’t that what the BBC said about Dr Who and Come Dancing their two most popular programmes. TV is into reality programmes now so why do they not see the reality is that people go fishing and want to see it on TV.

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