Being ‘waterside’ for an hour or two is great for the mind. It gives us anglers our ‘blue fix’, and we feel better for it. Being there with purpose is even more rewarding.
The Angling Trust are promoting a few initiatives at the moment that are not only good to get involved with, they’re great for the environment too. Being ‘hands-on’ without being too strenuous, they provide a real sense of wellbeing.
The Great British Spring Clean is exactly what it says on the tin. Grab a bag and a litter picker, head out to a local waterway, and help clean it up. As anglers, we kop for the blame for a lot of lakeside or riverside rubbish, but it’s not always us – the general public are far often worse. So, clearing up is really rewarding, even for just an hour, and it shows that anglers are looking after the waterways.
Another is the Water Quality Monitoring Network, which is citizen science at its best. This one is for clubs, so it’s worth you checking in with yours as to whether they’re already doing it. The aim is to generate water quality data from rivers around the country, with the Angling Trust loaning monitoring equipment to representative clubs so they can sample their stretch regularly and feed their findings back. Fish Legal and AT can then use the data to bolster the legal fight against water companies and polluters, as it provides frontline evidence.
Check out the Angling Trust website for more info about how to get involved. If you want to fly solo, there’s nothing to stop you grabbing a litter picker and a bag and heading down to the local pond for an hour every now and again to give it a bit of a spring clean. I’ve done it a few times at our local park lake and was pleased not just with the result, but how personally rewarding it was!
