Mobile Bay Blog

I would like to be able to say that the future of fishing in Alabama is good, but I can't.

It's true that we have much to brag about. We have world-class freshwater and saltwater fisheries for species from bass to speckled trout to marlin. The Mobile area continues to be a preferred site for professional tournament stops where fishermen try to catch everything from bass to redfish to king mackerel.

Birmingham was voted America's Bass Capital through a nationwide vote on ESPN's Bass In-Sider Web site.

It's indisputable that Alabama, and Mobile especially, has everything a fisherman could want.

But the problem is that not nearly as many of us are actually going out and enjoying the resource or introducing what we have to others.

I know the fact that fishing participation has been decreasing for a long while isn't new. What I have a problem with are the people who try to put a positive spin on it by pointing out how much money fishermen spend to go fishing.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey figures for 2006 indicate the country's 29.9 million fishermen spent $41 billion on fishing. They spent another $11 billion on items used for both hunting and fishing. In Alabama, 808,000 fishing participants -- 600,000 residents and 208,000 non-residents -- spent $734.5 million, according to the survey.

Spending nationwide between 2001 (when the last USFWS survey was conducted) and 2006 increased 5 percent on equipment like rods and reels and 7 percent on fishing trips, but fell by 14 percent on things like special clothing and tents and 12 percent on big-ticket items like boats and trucks.

Those numbers tend to blind us to the fact that between 2001 and 2006, fishing participation nationwide fell 12 percent and 11 percent in Alabama, according to the USFWS.

Do some simple math using these latter figures and see what you come up with in "projected" fishermen numbers nationally and in Alabama by 2050. I know that assumes the rate of decline stays constant, but it still should make you think.

It also is not a big secret why these numbers continue to fall. There are not enough people being introduced to fishing to make up for the people who are giving it up for whatever reason.

The "take-a-kid-fishing" concept is great on paper but getting a kid, or anyone for that matter, to adopt a lifestyle is not simple. It involves much more work than just taking them to the water once or twice and expecting them to become a life-long angler.

They can't be beaten over the head with it either. A balance has to be found so eventually they want to go to the water.

I am not going to repeat the generalized sage advice handed out on how to accomplish this because what works for me may not work for you.

The point is to at least try, knowing full well the only magic involved may occur on the day your kid or neighbor or neighbor's kid walks up and asks, "Hey, when we going fishing again?"

Contact Outdoors Editor Jeff Dute at:

jdute@press-register.com

251-219-5667.

His column appears on Sundays in the Press-Register.