An opportunity presented itself
The Latvian Fishing Sports Federation represents Latvian athletes on a large scale, both internationally and by organizing local level competitions in various types of fishing – ice fishing, spinning from a boat, spinning from the shore, spinning in ponds, carp fishing, float or feeder fishing, fly fishing and fishing in the urban environment.
“We have members, they are both fishing clubs and also societies related to [makšķerēšanu], for example, which manages the Alūksnes lake. Currently, there are more than 30 active members, they are foundations or associations, respectively, legal entities. Accordingly, these members form the Latvian Fishing Sports Federation, which in turn, as an organization, already belongs to the Council of Latvian Sports Federations, which includes all non-Olympic sports,” explained Bremze.
Also, the Latvian Fishing Sports Federation is a member of the International Fishing Federation, which allows anglers from Latvia to participate in world championships, European championships and other international competitions. The championships are organized for both men and women, children and youth, and seniors.
In addition, this year the world championship in spinning will be held in Latvia.
“There was an opportunity this year because the USA refused to host the World Championship for reasons unknown to us and awarded the right to host it to us last December. It would have been at least six years in the queue, but based on the reports and coverage of our competition, the International Fishing Federation did not need much convincing .
They trusted us because they see what we are doing here, and without thinking they granted the right to hold the world championship in Riga,” said Kotāns.
For three days, from October 5 to 7, in Riga, the best anglers from all over the world will compete in the mastery of spinning. Two boats from each country may compete in it. Around 20 countries are expected to participate. The angler’s start will be in the very center, near the Vanšu bridge.
In recent years, carp fishing has also been particularly developing in Latvia. Last year, the Latvian women’s team won bronze medals at the world championship in carp fishing, and in September of this year, Latvian fishermen will also go to Burgundy in France, where they will compete in the world championship for three days.
“I think that the preparation of feed itself has developed, including the preparation of bait, all the nuances have developed.
It is in this discipline that very careful attention is paid to handling the fish with care, so that it is traumatized as little as possible, so that it returns to its usual environment and after a while maybe forgets that it has been pulled to the shore,” said Bremze.
Concerns about the amount of fish
In sport fishing, all fish are released regardless of discipline. The only exception is ice fishing in winter, when the fish caught are mostly taken to the zoo.
Likewise, the fishing federation, taking care of the amount of fish, wants to take a more active stand in the future to ensure that industrial fishing does not take place in the internal waters of Latvia.
“Currently, the situation is that fish that live in inland waters are used for food, people eat them – it has been like this for years and years and centuries. Plus, of course, they are caught using gillnets. From the point of view of the sport of fishing, however, we advocate so that these fish are not removed from inland waters and eaten as much as possible.In our opinion, however, it would be much more valuable for the economy if we as a society kept the fish in these water bodies, rivers, lakes.
Then, probably, many more people would come to us and spend money to catch fish and release them, similar to how many anglers go to Scandinavia now,” explained Bremze.
He admitted that this issue is not simple and quick to solve, but in his opinion, such changes would only be good in the long run.
“Similarly, it was in Scandinavia, the same Sweden and Finland, where in the 70s of the last century there were quite scum with fish and many of them were taken out of water bodies. Little by little, the situation changed, and now we go there to catch trophy fish, big fish, a lot of fish, just because there aren’t so many of them in our water bodies anymore,” said Bremze.
More about fishing
Typo?
Highlight the text and press Ctrl+Enter to send the corrected text fragment to the editor!
Highlight the text and press the Report an error button to send the corrected text fragment to the editor!
Report a bug
