Angling is a sport that fits in well with many other activities and, as anglers, we have a degree of responsibility to share our passion.  In this article I take the opportunity to present the sport of angling to the boating community via the Inland waterways publication ‘Waterways’.

This research paper looks at the intricacies of self-representation in virtual space by examining meme sharing in the Angling Community in the UK and the self-opinion of 34 anglers who answered a gender-focused questionnaire. Angling has long been generally accepted by many to be a sport whose participants must have a high masculine opinion of self, dominated, as it is, by males in the main. However, the results suggest that most anglers would consider themselves far more neutral in terms of masculinity and this raises the question “Why do anglers represent themselves as highly masculine and sexist online”. In closing, I ask if disinhibition effect has contributed to the creation of two distinct types of angler.

Recently, a startling downturn in fishing license sales has been reported of up to 14.7% with the number of anglers also down by 132,847 (Angling International, 2018). In the same article, representatives from the Angling industry referred to the situation as ‘very disappointing’. They point towards the hard work of the Angling Trust and other Organizations who are doing ‘all they can’ to attract new, young, anglers but with varying levels of success. There is a call for trade organizations and, more widely, anglers in general to ‘Join’ various organizations yet there is little indication of how such membership will benefit or aid in the growth of Angling in the UK. Social media is acknowledged as a valuable relationship marketing tool by several researchers (e.g. Eagleman, 2013. Williams & Chinn, 2010) and there is often a nod towards the potential of social media from within the angling community, but little suggestion is given as to the question of the tools which might be applied to the use of social media in the context of promoting the angling hobby in the UK within the confines of the acknowledged limitations of budget. This conceptual presentation will examine the possible limits to the approaches usually applied to promote angling. We will look at the current situation and explore the ways in which social media might be employed to reach new, untapped, audiences. To do this, we will apply the ‘Automated Alternative Text’ tool developed by Facebook in an innovative way to enable us to translate the ‘Visual Language’ of new groups. As importantly, through the lens of emerging angling techniques, we will look at what we might present to these new audiences in the light of changing attitudes towards angling. The aim of this presentation is not to give hard, unchangeable, facts or answers. It is to create a starting point in the discussion about the ways in which angling might reinvent and present itself to new audiences in a rapidly changing digital world. Furthermore, I hope to offer the potential of new tools to those charged with the future promotion of Angling.