What should a club offer its members?

[Guest IanG]

What I mean is over and above the obvious of enjoyable, litter and hastle free surroundings with a resonable chance of catching a fish or too and the occasional biggy!

Should we be striving to be all things to all men(or women ). Should we try and satisfy the matchman, the pleasure and the specimen anglers in the club to keep membership. Should we focus on bringing youngsters in and provide tuition.Should we be providing tuition to all. Should we be ACTIVE in promoting the sport. Should we be looking to cater for the family with all this implicates.

 

What would your Ideal Club provide for you????

IanG

[Guest Davy]

You must remmember that clubs are run by a few people while the rest sit on their bums and expect things to happen? Instead of what can the club do for you what can you do for the club. It is high time anglers put a little back into the clubs. Fish stocking is needed in many of our waters, with a few big un's.

It also amazes me how many fishing clubs do not have an active junior section, and many that do again its left to a few or even one to run the junior section and why is this simple selfish club members who will complain about the club and its waters but do nothing. If you do not wont to help the club become a member of a private water, this way you can expect things to be right as its a bussiness. I hope this will spur some of you on to get down to the club and say how can we help and or can we help the junior section? Help the club and you will help yourself.

[Guest davidP]

Kids & tuition - most definitely. Not only is it immensely enjoyable but it's probably doing more for the future of angling than practically anything else you can do. (BUT check your insurance before you make it anything other than a casual thing!)

 

Families - tricky one this as I think to do this properly you're getting into the realms of toilet blocks and other facilities. In most places the cost of repairing the vandalism will make it totaly unviable ad you'd need a substantial wedge upfront to do it properly. You also open the way for factionalizing your anglers into those that hate having families (read 'screaming brats') around and those that don't mind (and the haters will scream loudest!). I think on the whole that if you make the venue into a pleasant angling environment then it will cater for families if they really want to go, but as for actively encouraging it then I'd be inclined to leave it for the big money commercial waters who can specifically afford to do it.

 

All things to all men - I don't think you'll ever achieve it. The most you can hope for is to be most things to most men. It doesn't matter what you do, someone will always hate it and shout loudly about how incompetant you are etc etc. It's a difficult balancing act because match and specimen don't really mix too well. The types of water they like are often different and there are too many on both sides who are only too willing to stir things up because they don't or won't understand the other group.

Pleasure and match can work together but be very carefull about the level of match bookings you take and make sure that they don't get concentrated where the pleasure anglers want to fish. From my own exerience you're quite likely to find letters in the angling press or complaints to the local Council landlord about waters 'always' being booked for matchs when what they actually mean is that the specific peg on a 100 peg water that they wanted to fish was booked a couple of times and they couldn't be bothered to try another even though there were 80 empty pegs! Unfortunately the damage is already done before you can give the facts.

 

Should we be ACTIVE in promoting the sport? The simple answer is of course 'yes', but it's never that simple is it. The more complex answer is to ask yourself how much time you can give and how much hassle you can take because unfortunately if you become really active then that's what you're likely to get. Sounds really negative doesn't it but the antis can pick up on you and the press just love printing stories about damaged swans without ever printing the good things that angling gives the community. Seeing all your good work ruined by one badly reported story can be extremely frustrating. To be honest you're starting from a difficult position anyway because the general public really has no idea what we're about and weather we like it or not in the minds of many we are irrevocably linked to blood sports like fox hunting and hare coursing, albeit as a fairly harmless branch. And trying to persuade these people that pulling a living creature out of its environment with a hook impaled through it lip is a good thing is fighting a losing battle before you start.

We've all seen the letters in the local press from the anti-anglers and the lies and semi-truths they contain. You can correct their lies, give the facts and be as positive as you like but at the end of the day they have the image of a fish danging on a hook and no amount of facts will persuade people that that isn't in some way cruel.

What we can do though is get involved in the community. Put stalls in local events, run workshops for kids, raise money for charity etc etc but make sure the local press are there to see it. Inviting councillors to open new facilities, inaugorate new improvements like footpaths, cleaned up waters etc is a good thing because councillors love publicity and being associated with green issues. Make sure all the positive things we do from fish rescues to making areas specifically for birds etc are reported. Free newspapers need local interest stories to fill them and if they don't have to spend money or do much work to get them then that suits them fine! By building up a positive image of who we are then we can fight the battle from a stronger footing. If people think of anglers in terms of the good they do for the community then we have a much stronger base from which to fight the battle that is to come, and I have little doubt that the attack will come. Once hunting with dogs is banned then I suspect shooting will be next and then angling after that so the sooner we get our image sorted the better!

I'm sorry if all this sounds really negative but I really believe that it's the way the future lies for our sport. At the moment the issue is fairly balanced because people don't really care about angling one way or the other but you'd be amazed at the damage a small group of highly motivated people can achieve so the more we can tip it in our balance now the better. And if you don't think it can happen then think back 20 years and look what people thought of fox hunting in those days!

 

Oh bugger, I did it again. I started answering a perfectly reasonable question and ended up in rant mode! Apologies Ian, but once I'm on a roll I like to finish. Anyway, I'm off to Paris for the weekend now - I'll look for a pair of flameproof trousers while I'm away

[Guest oliver g]

somewhere where kids,oap.s & normal human beings can catch fish is a good place to start!!! most rivers these days unfortunatly dont provide the results to encorage this type of angler,if only angling had a few £ to invest in its future,& if only a few more club & commitee members would get off there fat arses to get a few things done.

 

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oli

[Guest waterman1013]

Ollie

 

You must have had a bad experience of a club committee at some time.

 

All the guys I know that serve on clubs do their utmost for the members and the fish. That is why IanG started this string, we are seeking advice from other anglers so that we don't just promulgate our own view of the world.

 

The problem is that so few will get involved, that the few of that do find our time taken with admin and little left for fishing.

 

Please don't tar us all with the same brush.

 

Mike

[Guest RobStubbs]

Mike,

I can kind of see where Oli is coming from as I've known committees that appear to do very little and what they do is what suits them not the majority of members. That said the obvious answer is get off your own 'large behind' and affect changes from within the committee. It's been said before that committees are largely composed of older gentlemen but that's usually because young blood isn't coming through. IMO to get the best out of the club requires a flow of new committee members who are keen and have fresh ideas.

 

What was the thread about again <g> ?

 

To my mind a club should be able to offer at the minimum mixed fishing with clean, safe waters. The mixed fishery is deliberate so that anglers can choose if they want to specialise or just fish for general coarse fish. Also youngsters can learn the art and get a grounding before going after, for example, carp (which most seem to be choosing). Teach-ins, fish-ins and less so (IMO) matches should be part of the overall package.

 

A club water should not attempt to appeal to the whole family and have toilets etc. Most clubs run on relatively small fees and couldn't afford it (or the security to protect it). Now when I'm paying hundreds of pounds for my syndicate ticket then that's a different story.

 

Rob.