ANGLING UNITY, IS IT POSSIBLE ?

[Guest John S]

As the 200th poster to this discussion, I hereby claim my prize of a free pint of Guinness from everyone who's contributed

[Guest waterman1013]

So here I am trying to finish work, load the car, buy bait and food and you want an artical as well!!!

 

Elton for you above all else it will be a pleasure. I am just loading my pens and laptop so that I cna scribe while fishing, not that I expect to catch anything other than hopefully some more members for SACG and BS. I am ever the optimist and expect to come away on Sunday with unity that much nearer, a dry net and a wet bivvie.

 

I'll try and cover the main events for you and ask others to do the same, 'cos I want to see the little fella rolling meat and that means I might miss some of the talks.

 

Whatever you do this weekend - enjoy

 

Mike

[Guest waterman1013]

Sorry John I reckon the dark stuff should go to Steve Pope for starting such an interesting thread.

 

Mike

[Guest Elton]

Originally posted by waterman1013:

Sorry John I reckon the dark stuff should go to Steve Pope for starting such an interesting thread.    

 

Mike

 

Mike,

 

You're a gentleman and a wossname

 

Many thanks,

 

Elton

 

 

 

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Elton Murphy

Anglers' Net

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk

[Guest Graham E]

Mike (Waterman) if you don't get too hung up on Barbel after the rolling Ray bit you could try for some nice roach.

I think it is the RDA stretch at Burghfield.

Turning left at the Cunning Man pub towards the Lakes, and along the towpath, you will see that the water overflows into the River Kennet Weir.

Fish in front of the overflow with hemp/tares and you may find a nice few fish.

Let the float come right up to the sill/ 3/4 depth. If you fish the lake try a lump of flake over mashed bread for the greeny things

 

Good angling

 

G

[Guest Steve Randles]

Elton...I'd be happy to oblige with a few snipets of info, given to someone that could make best use of it, in making an article.

I'm looking forward to meeting all at this "event" and feel sure I wont be dissapointed!

 

Steve Randles

[Guest G. Reaper]

Well, that's Burghfield I've missed as well as Steve's recent Wingham get-together due to family ups and downs but I suppose I can, at least, add a bit to this discussion - (I'd prefer to be fishing though!)

Right then - everyone thinks angling unity is the way to go - and it is!! No doubt about that.

Most are giving credit (quite rightly) to SACG for having had the guts, in the last few years, to push this barrel of dynamite into the public arena. It had to, because all the other bodies had vested interests that they thought would be compromised if they went for unity with the other governing bodies and groups.

(This includes the weeklies who will only do the idea justice if they can get all the credit.)

Now we're on another road to unity - how far have we got, where does it leave us?

It leaves us with all the controlling bodies fighting to be top dog and digging their heels in if they even get a whiff of losing anything on the way.

Situation understandable and normal - why?

Because instead of unity, we get a power struggle between the groups and between individuals. All the time someone has got to be top dog for their own personal esteem - angling fails to dig its way out of its self-inflicted mire - even to the extent of digging its way further in.

I have serious misgivings over what's happening at the moment, with the way all the bodies are 'trying?' to unite and this includes the SACG's current acceptance that this is the way to go.

SACG getting a seat on the NFA means that instead of SACG being able to talk with the voices of all of its member groups - it can only talk for those clubs, with those clubs' interests being diluted to one voice among the others at the NFA committee table. This is only on the NFA table - no SACG business would get heard at the envisaged Angling Council unless the rest of the NFA committee agree to pass it through - the SACG won't be at the Angling Council.

At some point NFA 'joins' with the S&TA and others - how much more dilution for EVERYONE then.

Match anglers should have their voices clearly heard, along with the sea fishers, the game angling fraternity, the pleasure brigade and the speci hunters. NO voice should be diminished for what has been termed as 'The Greater Good'. Whatever the unifying council turns out to be, it must be fed from the grass roots - from angling itself and from each branch of the sport.

Angling can only be unified by each branch accepting others' differences - not by trying to make out that they do not exist or that they can be 'beaten' out of the sport. Real unity can only come about through reality and not someone's dream of building empires. Why should years of angling practice and custom - (the very reason why people go angling - because they enjoy it that way) - be sacrificed for a quick fix that will blow apart sooner than later because it has ignored the fundamentals of various branches of the sport. The current push will result in a quango-like monolith paying no heed to anglers - just the grand plan.

The bodies that are - NFA, NFSA, S&TA, SACG etc. should remain independent and 'feed' into a council elected from those member bodies.

The NFA will say 'We can't do that! … WE must have the power!!' The NFSA and S&TA will probably say the same. The SACG will say 'We must be represented so let's sacrifice what we stand for and get in with NFA'. What ******** ! It's a cop-out and letting the sauropodian vested interests straight in to suck up to government (because Sport England is now pulling the stings) and bow their heads to the whim of every politician! If that's the way angling unity goes - we've lost angling - think about it!

Another point to ponder on this is the ACA. The ACA is currently trying to ally with the groups so that it can be part of the monolith. Shouldn't ACA be totally independent of groups, EA, water authorities and government to do its job properly? It does an amazing job now but what will it be able to do when it is welded into the currently envisaged version of the Angling Council - wings clipped, or what?

Does it really matter if one branch of angling still moans about another? That's not disunity - that's human nature. Unity is when the REAL problems can be addressed - getting our message across, getting new generations coming in. Getting a good match river back, making a good pike water even better, helping to stop the plunder of our seas. Unity must cater for all angling, in all of its forms - not just 'The Greater Good' ideas of vested interests. If it gets fed from the bottom, it can feed back from the top. It could be the platform where differences get thrashed out, if possible and if that's what's needed.

The current ideas are putting the cart before the horse. They try to say that all differences must disappear before unity can be achieved. Surely angling can unite through its current bodies and through that unity, sort what needs to be sorted within a complete angling forum.

Unity must be for the grass roots and Unity must happen. But it must not just reflect angling, it must BE angling - every branch of angling and it must say so.

 

Ray Farrell

[Guest waterman1013]

Ray

 

I agree with a lot of what you say regarding representation.

 

The simple fact is that the Government will not recognise SACG, and the needs of specialist anglers, as a Governing Body. We are considered a representative body. The Government will only deal with Governing Bodies. The NFA is such a Governing Body along with S & TA and the NFSA.

 

SACG hope to get a seat on the NFA National Executive Committee and changes are taking place within NFA. The monolith may not always be so. SACG may help effect change and if we feel that the groups we represent are not getting a decent crack of the whip then there will certainly be pressure for our position to change. We don't want to be "top dog", we just want to represent the needs of specialists. If NFA cannot deliver that for us, or if the NEC seat becomes unworkable, no doubt we will go back to Government and say so.

 

Certainly Sport England needs to recognise the differences in the sport of angling. The way we all fish may be different, but the BIG questions affect us all; the quality of our rivers and river stocks, predation by seabirds, overfishing in British coastal waters, the economic value of rod and line caught fish against the economic value of commercial fisheries, the need to combat the antis in schools and youth clubs, the need to introduce yopungsters to our sport.

 

Any angler out there who does not think these things are important does his sport a great disservice. These are the subject of unity, not whether we fish for carp or pike, or matchfish, or use four rods or a single cane rod. That stuff is all detail and has no place in the unioty debate.

 

Unity is about the basic right to fish and have fish available in ALL British waters for British anglers to catch. That is why it is worth trying every avenue to get to unity. We may make some false moves, we may make some mistakes, but all of us involved in the debate and discussions think the aim of unity is the single most important thing for the future of anglers in this country.

 

The back covering by the sports "leaders" should only prove to the membership of the clubs and organisations which elect them the importance of ALL anglers getting involved in the fight for unity, because then we would have a much bigger pool of talent to choose from and unfortunately the history of angling organisations in the UK shows just how small that pool has been in the past.

 

Barrie Rickards was making just that point this weekend at Burghfield when he went over the history and progress of NASA.

 

By the way will you be at Manchester this year?

 

Mike Heylin

[Guest STEVE POPE]

I had a thought at the NASA do on Saturday.

If and it's a big if,we could unify socially, the political side would follow.

I don't mean that in a frivolous way,but if the umbrella organisation appreciated the value of taking it's product to the people, the more difficult aspects of our sport would be that much easier to deal with.

[Guest STEVE POPE]

I had a thought at the NASA do on Saturday.

If and it's a big IF,we could unify socially, the political side would follow.

I don't mean that in a frivolous way,but if the umbrella organisation appreciated the value of taking it's product to the people, the more difficult aspects of our sport would be that much easier to deal with.

Let me explain.

At shows like the NEC, it seems the various different disciplines almost delight in ignoring one another, almost a show of one upmanship.

We may talk, but I would suggest that it is at each other rather than to.

The responsibility and blame if you like, lies with us all.

But the way forward lies with an umbrella organisation with imagination, clout and support from everyone and remember I'm not just talking politics here.

You cannot look back to the past, those days are gone, consigned to history but unless we get new imaginative, intelligent and just as important a leadership that is in touch, we will forever stay as we are.

So I truly hope for the future of specialist angling and ultimately angling itself we can find this inspiration.

The NASA do was held at a great venue,the idea was right but the support for NASA from it's membership was abysmal.

That MUST be faced and put right.

Just imagine if all the groups had been heavily involved,all the many different disciplines could have been shown.

More sponsors, more people, more kids......

It is possible.

A big task but someone has got to take it on.

There is enough money in all the different organisations to help out, as I have said time and time again it is all about leadership.

Get that right and the rest will follow.

Bring everyone together in a spirit of friendship and angling brotherhood, and it just might happen.

 

Anybody listening..........