Casting Shadows: Fish and Fishing in Britain by Tom Fort

Casting Shadows is a book primarily about freshwater fishing. However, anyone with an interest in any aspect of angling, conservation, nature or natural history will find this book both fascinating and informative.

The book is semi-chronological and written from a first-person perspective with Fort, an author and journalist who has written extensively about angling, combining his own perspective with a wider social history of fishing. Fort draws a distinction between angling for recreation and fishing for subsistence or profit. He states that angling for recreation can be traced back as far as 200 BC when ancient Macedonians used rods to catch fish as this gave them a sense of fulfilment and achievement which catching fish in large numbers using nets did not. While activities such as hunting and hawking during medieval times are well documented (hawking is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry) the same cannot be said when it comes to fishing for pleasure. While it is believed that the rich and powerful of Europe fished for pleasure from at least the late Middle Ages there are few historical sources to document this. The interplay between fishing for profit and recreational angling for pleasure is one of the key themes of the book and one Fort returns to repeatedly.

While there is little written history on recreational angling the same is not true of fishing for money or food or using fish which have been caught to display wealth or prestige. Fort explains that fish traps have been used since the 11th and 12th centuries to catch fish for food, and by the 1500s being able to eat fish was denoted high social status. Fort writes that bishops in 16th century England would make ostentatious displays of their wealth and power by having feasts where hundreds of pike and breams and tens of thousands of eels would be served (although Fort believes some of these figures to be exaggerated). During these times the very richest would have their own fish ponds to allow access to an ongoing supply of fish – such fish ponds were the ultimate status symbol Fort says, akin to owning a super-yacht or football club today. Fort considers whether or not Shakespeare was an angler, and theorises that he would not have mentioned fishing in his works unless it was a “familiar, popular pastime” during his life.

As Britain industrialised during the 1800s fishing for pleasure became extremely popular among the working classes in the major cities. However, this industrialisation also caused pollution and damage to rivers such as the Tyne, Mersey, Thames and Don. Concerns over fish stocks and the realisation that anglers had a part to play in protecting the fish they caught led to the introduction of catch-and-release fishing. Fort describes how fishing clubs exploded in popularity to cater for the new interest in angling, with Sheffield alone having around two hundred clubs. Many fishing clubs became associated with pubs, much to the chagrin of the temperance movement. This was because publicans saw anglers as less likely to fight or cause trouble than football fans or people who took part in less wholesome activities such as dog fighting and were keen to welcome anglers. The decline of industry saw a corresponding fall in working-class participation in freshwater fishing with Fort explaining that Sheffield now does not have any fishing clubs after the last one folded in 2011 after a meeting only attracted four people. This sense of loss is a recurring theme in the book. Fort explains how eel catching on the Fens of eastern England once provided a structure to the entire lives of the people who lived there but the loss of traditional eel catchers means this “way of life has gone and will never return.”

While this social history of fish and fishing is fascinating this is not a history book and Fort is interested in the way we view fish and fishing today. He is not afraid to challenge current thinking. He states that while there is a scientific consensus that eel stocks in Europe have reduced by around ninety per cent in recent decades we do not know for certain if this is true. Fort asserts that this figure is an extrapolation which may or may not be correct and scientists are “bad at catching” eels which means they cannot back up much of their predictions with hard evidence. Fort believes that a more accurate picture would have been provided by the traditional eel catches who had carried out this activity for generations and since they are no longer here we simply do not know the true picture of eel stocks in both the UK and Europe. Fort is speaking with some authority here, having written a book entirely about eels in 2002.

Izaak Walton
Izaak Walton

Similarly, Fort takes a revisionist view of historical figures, most notably Izak Walton. He retraces Walton’s journey along the River Lea and states that the fishing journey Walton undertook and chronicled in The Compleat Angler (first published in 1653) almost certainly never happened and that the book is “incoherent and disorganised.” Indeed, Fort believes that much of the book is plagiarised and Walton’s friend who accompanied him on the journey is likely the true author of much of the book. It is not, however, Fort’s aim to discredit Walton but rather to assert that Walton’s journey might not have actually happened but it instead provided a structure for Walton to express his thoughts on the joys and pleasure of angling. In this sense, Fort believes that Walton’s work remains unsurpassed in explaining why angling is such an attractive activity for many people.

Fort is also critical of current fishing policies when he feels this is necessary. He is scathing on the expansion of the Scottish fish farming industry stating that it has gone from the saviour of wild salmon in the 1980s to causing “untold damage” today. This is due to the pollution caused by fish farms, high levels of salmon mortality, extensive use of chemicals to combat parasites and escapes of farmed salmon which lead to interbreeding with wild stocks. Fort specifically blames Alex Salmond, the former leader of the Scottish National Party, for encouraging the Scottish fish farming industry to expand with little concern for the environmental impact it has had on the environment.

The question of what makes angling a sport or activity which people take part in for pleasure is considered throughout the book. Fort draws a distinction between anglers who use traditional methods to catch fish and modern carp anglers who have three or four identical rods lined up like an “artillery battery” and also have a bivvy (tent), a remote control bait boat and electronic bite alarms. Fort says “The rapid march of technological innovation took carp fishing far away from its origin as a contest between angler and fish in which the odds were generally stacked in favour of the fish.”

Carp Fishing
Fort is critical of the high levels of technology used by some anglers.

In the final chapters of the book, Fort expresses his personal views on angling, explaining that he has had a life-long love of angling despite never having been particularly good at the sport or made any notable catches of his own. He is brilliant at explaining what it is about angling which draws people in, and how difficult it is to explain the appeal of angling to those who are not interested in it. He does, however, avoid much of the purple prose which some angling writers have been guilty of indulging in, and criticises such writing.

The book ends with Fort welcoming positive developments such as British rivers which were heavily polluted in previous decades now being much cleaner due to the work of anglers, environmentalists and conservation groups. He believes that anglers can be the “police officers of our waters” but it is up to them to recognise that they have a role to play in the protection and sustainability of the environment which sustains their sport.

Casting Shadows is a fascinating and absorbing book. Despite focusing on freshwater fishing anyone with interest in any aspect of angling will find much to enjoy and sea anglers should not be put off from reading it. Fort has the ability to intertwine history, policy and his own thoughts into a highly informative and readable book.

Casting Shadows: Fish and Fishing in Britain by Tom Fort is available on Amazon by clicking here.