Fishing for Likes: Towards an Understanding of the Social Media Culture of Anglers

With the advent of social media, participation in online groups has become an essential and enjoyable aspect of the recreational activities of many individuals. Anglers are no exception to this and have eagerly embraced the online world to discuss and supplement their physical world activities. Online, anglers often form large groups that are highly specialised, requiring a depth of knowledge and understanding of the activity to effectively participate in the community. Whilst many leisure activities have been explored considering their social media activity, angling remains under-researched in this respect.
Following a period of decline in angling participation, with official Environment Agency figures showing a drop in licence sales of more than 180000 since 2010 (Government, 2020), the recent COVID-19 pandemic saw an increase in participation following the national lockdown (Environment Agency, 2020) which seems to have been triggered by online angling communication through social media during the lockdown.
This thesis answers the question: “How does angling knowledge facilitate participation within social media groups that form around recreational angling, and to what extent does actual physical angling participation matter in such groups?”. The opportunity to ask this question was only made possible by the circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant national lockdown, which saw recreational fishing effectively banned for the first time in more than 400 years of history.
This temporary cessation of physical world angling saw an upturn in angling interaction in online space, which exposed the mechanics of recreational activity online and demonstrated a recreational career amongst anglers enacted through virtual space and facilitated through online groups. The research demonstrates a transformation in physical world activities, which is essential for online participation. It finds that online world activities act as avatars of their physical world counterparts, becoming distinct recreational modalities in their own right.