Are we coarse anglers living in the past over prices?

[Dave H]

 

 

My son’s golf ticket is £1700 a year. A Chelsea season ticket £1000+. My daughters gym £600 a year.

It’s just examples of in general how much it costs to just go out and play your sport or practice your hobby.

Are we fisherman especially the older one’s expecting too much nowadays to still look at angling as cheap? I remember hearing many a famous angler such as john Wilson saying how cheap angling is compared to other sports.

Have we caught up now and yet still living in the Jurassic period with our thoughts?

Do we need to get real or some of us? Is the Carp angler syndicate prices in touch with time and us coarse anglers need to get realistic now?

We can't compare every syndicate and/or clubs but in the main are we expecting our cake and eating it as coarse anglers?

 

[Adam247]

It depends where you fish I think , I normally fish from counsel parks that are free , use as cheap a bait I can depending on what I plan for , worms from the back garden work wonders for everything I find not just perch -yes you do get inundated but free , few slices of bread that the mrs doesn't see - free , £1 if caught haha and maggots about £2 for a pint. I can't say about club prices as I find going to a local lake or pond in the middle of an estate can bring the cheapness back - shame the canal isn't where I live otherwise would have a good time on that too

[Dave H]

It depends where you fish I think , I normally fish from counsel parks that are free , use as cheap a bait I can depending on what I plan for , worms from the back garden work wonders for everything I find not just perch -yes you do get inundated but free , few slices of bread that the mrs doesn't see - free , £1 if caught haha and maggots about £2 for a pint. I can't say about club prices as I find going to a local lake or pond in the middle of an estate can bring the cheapness back - shame the canal isn't where I live otherwise would have a good time on that too

I think us old boys had that years back and that's what i mean are we still many of us set in that mind sight . I think Speciman barbel and roach and pike and Tench fishing are we still expecting that.

[RUDD]

For some the most expensive part is their licence whilst others will fish a commercial twice week at a tenner a time = 1040.00 a year not including bait or travel.

Others spend a couple of grand on a new pole whilst some only change their line twice a decade.

Coarse angling costs the amount you are prepared to pay as an individual.

[ayjay]

Yes, anglers in general are living in the past, particularly when it comes to paying for their fishing.

 

It's still a cheap sport - it can be as cheap as you want it to be - many club tickets are very low in price and there are huge ructions at AGM's when a price rise is proposed; for this reason anglers will never have a loud voice when push comes to shove and their fishing is in danger from other water users/property developers/new golf courses etc.

[Vagabond]

some only change their line twice a decade.

 

Blimey ! ..... as often as that

[Steve Walker]

I've just been fishing my nearest club water. It costs £25 per year. It's rented from the council and the public have access. Surrounded by kids and dogs and noisy teenagers and duck feeders. Compare with the tranquility of Wingham and it's clear that it isn't just the fishing you are paying for.

 

Angling isn't an inherently expensive sport, even a highly managed fishery is relatively low maintenance compared to sports needing more artificial facilities. What pushes up prices is demand, whether for limited angling places or from other land uses.

[Andy Macfarlane]

Golf clubs - caned, cut and maintained every day.

 

Chelsea's Ground - maintained to the same degree and then there's running costs, wages, fees and all the other gubbins they require money for to run their business.

 

Gym - Maintained, equipped, cleaned, staffed, personal training sessions, pools, sauna, classes, lockers, showers, heating, bills etc. etc. etc.

 

Coarse fisheries - Open to all and sundry, often ruined by 'visiting anglers', open to pollution from nobody knows where, used as rubbish tips, rarely maintained to the lowest level, rarely managed, rarely bailiffed and so on and so on and we never know where the Licence Fee goes or gets spent on, if at all. Nobody gets prosecuted even though the threat is banded about for all to see. The EA are never seen except on the choicest waters but everyone pays for what should be an equal share of their efforts. The fee is paid, or should be but nobody sees their fee being spent evenly as things are.

 

Put the fees up and the choice waters will become more choice and the waters that never see any attention will continue to see no attention.

 

People would gladly spend a few more quid on the licence if they imagined it was going to be spent on their local water as a result but it won't.

Edited May 26, 2013 by Andy Macfarlane

[Steve Walker]

It's interesting to compare the price of fishing in southern England and Scotland - round here, I'm paying maybe £25 a day for stocked stillwater trout fishing. I can get a bit of wild brown trout fishing on coarse club cards, but for anything pukka you're talking a lot more than I can afford. Last time I fly fished in Scotland, a stocked fishery was a tenner a day and I am informed that brownie fishing is virtually free.

[Phone]

All,

 

Fishing in America is for all practical purposes FREE! Once, rather recently, I had a better than average day and added up my fish on a cost per pound basis. You don't want to do that - you could buy the finest tuna steak in the world for the same money.

 

Put this in the photography section and ask how much it costs to take a picture of a bird. And, the best the bird will do is chit on your car.

 

Phone