Dads Fishing Legacy

On the 4th of February 2020 my father lost his battle with brain cancer, aged 80. While writing his eulogy I had the opportunity to reflect on the passion we shared for fishing, where this came from and this common thread that linked so many of our family and friends.

We frequently read about the dwindling numbers of people fishing and the need for the sport to engage young people to secure the next generation. The national angling survey (EA, 2012) reported that of the 27000 anglers who participated in the survey 87% of anglers began fishing between the ages of 4 and 16 with nearly 74% starting between 5 and 12. Over 38% of anglers were introduced to fishing by a parent, 19% by another family member and 26.6% by a friend. 

Dad started harbour and beach fishing at around the age of 7 or 8 being taught by his brothers. Fishing was a favourite past-time which dad shared with his brothers, father-in-law, brothers-in-law and life-long friend he met in the air force. Dad in some sense did it all, beach fishing for salmon and shad, shark fishing, sardine netting, kite fishing, ski-boat fishing, dam fishing for bass, fly fishing for trout on rivers, lakes and reservoirs and tiger fishing on lake Kariba amongst others.

He also taught and nurtured the next generation teaching his 3 children, daugther-in-law, son-in-law, 8 grand-children and even great-grand-children to fish. While the opportunity to do this wasn’t always there given all his children moved and lived abroad along with all the grand-children he still made the time when we did manage to get-together for a few weeks. While the fishing bug has not bitten all those who he taught he did his part in passing on his passion and love for nature to all those around him who showed an interest. They say a picture is worth a thousand words so below is a short pictorial summary of his fishing legacy.

Hope the fish, wherever you are are very obliging, tight lines dad.

Love you always,

Greg