This Friday is the Llangadog Fishing Club AGM and I wonder if at last the opportunity for change is a slight possibility?
The river has been in decline ever since I joined over 25 years ago and in recent years has been in danger of being lost forever! Despite many discussions by all stakeholders, loads of meetings, EA doing nothing, token gestures of sorting the river out yet nothing has been done and WE ARE ALL GUILTY of this - every one of us!
The fact remains that the River Towy is on the verge of being lost! Abandoned! Our children or grandchildren are unlikely to ever experience the pleasures that many of us have over the years - the thrill of catching a sewn on a fly at night! It may be that we are leaving the river to them, in the pathetic hope that they will eventually take the initiative to do something and rebuild or restock the river for the future, by protecting its environment and caring for what could be an amazing attribute of the area both financially and environmentally. Unfortunately no one seems to be able to do it alone and non of us are able or willing to join together to turn it around! No one seems to care enough!
Despite living 100 miles away from the river I do hold a fond passion for the river and its fish and have expressed my concern, like many others, for many years but sadly, from what I can see, the local population and anglers alike along the whole length of the river have allowed its decline to just flow them by without a care! I and my angling pals are just observers - visitors. We have no say really. We pay our dues, much more than locals, but thats as far as it goes. I personally have tried hard to help and assist in my small way to make the river better but I don't think that my simple and small efforts have in any way been replicated by the real owners of this river - the local anglers, most of whom appear to have no real love for the river or care about its future! Isn't this a very typical human trait - often people can't see what's obviously happening under there nose's - until its too late? I think it is very sad!
Again I intend to attend the AGM and I will be interested to see if there are any new initiatives on the table. I am prepared to support any initiatives that are proposed and to continue my support for the club. I will be there on the work party day even if the locals aren't but I think that the change of heart needed to turn this river around is immense and I fear that in reality the local anglers and the visitors will sadly fail to rise to the occasion as they have in the past! I sincerely hope that I am proved wrong!