Firstly I am lady angler, a parent, a dog owner and work for the NHS. I am far from cruel as anyone who knows me will tell you.

How dare this reader tar all anglers with the same brush. Angling is this country's biggest hobby/pastime and the millions of us love the environment, the wildlife and the green space. They are among the reasons we pay our rod licence fee every year to the Environment Agency - to help maintain and support the areas by the waterside.

Unfortunately as in every walk of life there is always a minority who don't abide by the rules or have the same standards.

Maybe it's time the city council took a more stern view on littering in parks and green spaces or charge a fee to fish the park ponds and maybe - just maybe - it would help to stop the problem of old fishing line and waste being left on the bank side.

Your reader should go along to any of our local fisheries and see how the careful, responsible anglers care for the area around them and the wildlife in it.

The last thing they will see is cruelty in any shape or form.

Clare Normington-Colk, Sheffield

WHILE I hate to see the mindless discarding of fishing line, it brings into question the definition of 'angler'.

Few would argue that we have a 'moronic minority' in society, the only debate might be over the size of it. If someone buys a basic fishing kit surely it doesn't qualify them to be called an 'angler'? Not by a long way, and neither does it follow that they give a toss about nature.

True, they reflect badly on the sport and this is why the National Federation of Anglers and other bodies have taken great steps to get more and more beginners educated generally, and that includes teaching the countryside code.

If you were to visit another local park - Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet, and see the super job being done by Pete Gribbon and Andy Rogers and their 'education through angling' programme, you'd find a much happier scene. They not only teach the basics of angling, they teach biology, both in the classroom and on the bankside.

Like myself, they are passionate about the sport and respect for nature goes with the territory.

But because someone acts irresponsibly with a fishing rod in hand he's 'angling' and we collectively as a sport have to bail them out?

Well sorry, but this is a nonsense. I believe all potential anglers should be made to take a written test, like they do in Germany, .

Even then there'd still be the idiots and law-breakers, but study the wider picture and you'll find our great sport not only brings pleasure to millions it also fights for justice.

Jim Baxter, editor, Angling Star

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