It was met with a big boo when it was announced before the results on Saturday! However, there were around twenty less teams fishing than two years before so it was on the down quite rapidly anyway. Incidentally, it was a good match on Saturady.

As for my opinion? Saturday was only my first national, although I’ve seen two on my local rivers Cam and the Ouse. Something just doesn’t sit right to me that the event will be on a commercial.

Maybe I’m stuck in the past but I just think that’s grim.

with our absents from division 1 this year will mean we will have to drop into div2 like one or two teams ,plus carp oriented teams will perhaps enter this national .i just wonder if the team size will still stay the same :confused:
its our fault that we are not fishing the div1 due to lack of interest from the members plus we are trying to build a team again
but as most of the angling is going this way [commercials its worth a try] it will help the angling trust i’d of thought
my main concern would be if the response is not good from teams will that be the end of division 2 as i couldn’t see it going back to natural venues
it is a pity we couldn’t get a team this year as i have probably fished my last national looking back through the archive on the angling trust website going back ten years i had some great times 22 points being the worse day of my life on my own river but that day i fished for Quorn and we managed 3rd in the national a couple of section wins in division 1 on the nene and trent good memories of the nationals
i hope it works out 😉 😉 😉 😉

geepster your not stuck in the past ,you’ve just realised how good the past was 😀 😀 😀
natural venues are the key to nationals but its the long walks now-er days that put anglers off
in my eye’s canals are the best venues as most of the waters have good towpaths and good access where rivers often have long walks and lots of fences if only the angling trust could work on the access or even park behind your pegs :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
evesham newark dyke are still getting brilliant turn outs because of this
lindholme is a great commerical but i can’t see me getting in the team 🙁

Hmm, been on the cards this one for a few years. Just to think there used to be 5 divisions with good ‘full’ team turn outs at each.

Didn’t the old ‘All England’ have 140 teams turn out once? 12 men a team too. I didn’t fish it then I was only a youngster but I remember me dad saying he’d never seen so many anglers. He also got pegged in the same section as Ivan Marks and I remember them talking at the end of the match, Ivan gave me a float, great memories.

It is a shame it has come to this, my team have struggled to get a team together for this years Div 1 in fact we’ve merged with another team due to lack of numbers interested in this years event.

The Angling Trust need to have a long serious long look at a lot of things here including themselves, I think they have gone for the easy option as a knee jerk reaction to something which has needed sorting out for a long time.

Team fishing in this country is in dire need of a revamp somehow (and I don’t know what the answer is personally) but sticking a National Div 2 or a national of any sorts (I know the individuals moved that way a few years back, hence I no longer fish them) onto commercialized artificially stocked fisheries is a nail in the coffin.

As for boos if I’d been there I’d have shoved my AT membership card up there hooter.

34 teams for division two is a sad state of affairs and this was a matter of time imo.

From what i’ve heard this year’s div 1 has struggled to get over 50 teams (not sure of the latest count) but having seen some of the banks of the Bristol Avon (and some of the likely walks) you can’t really blame some people for not wanting to fish these matches given today’s ‘commercial fisheries culture’

I only started fishing Nationals in 2004 (i’m too young to have been around earlier) and have loved the challenge of them ever since. However, the decline had already started long before then though. Less and less teams, 12 men to 10 in 2006 etc.

To think there were five divisions of approximately 90 teams and a makeshift division six in their heyday…

Hope the Angling Trust have a re-think on this one!

Where’s next year’s division 1 by the way? thanks in advance if anyone knows

div.1 next year is on the trent and misery canal. 🙂 🙂 🙂

That said, I do wonder if some of the boo’s were from the southern teams having to travel “oop narth” again :rolleyes:

thinking about it this move if it gets more interest from commercial teams and it takes off what will happen if say the top 8 teams get promoted and the division 1 is still on natural venues .the commercial teams wouldn’t want that for sure 😉 so doe’s this mean in the long run division 1 will be on commercials with smaller teams 😮 😮 food for thought 😉

I have no interest in the Nationals any more as when Waveney AC couldn’t raise a team for ‘yet another match on the Leeds L’pool canal’ about the 3rd time in 8 years through different divisions, we were dropped from Div 1 to Div 5. That was the same year that Essex County had Pete Clapperton fishing as their only competitor. They only got dropped to Div 2. The thought of starting again to get to the top tier after all the efforts of the previous 8 years to get from Div 5 through to Div 1 effectively finished our teams interest in the Nationals.

As we are all older now and couldn’t do the walks on a lot of the venues then perhaps moving to commercials could even see the revival of Waveney AC as a National team.

Drop it to teams of 6 or 8 and get it back on naturals but try and spread it around a bit – one National on the Basingstoke Canal every 4 years is hardly fair on the Southern teams and a reduction in team size would open up more venues !

@loda wrote:

div.1 next year is on the trent and misery canal. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Thanks Ioda, whereabouts on the canal, it’s quite a big one! 🙂

Thanks 😉

@Dodge wrote:

Some excellent posts / comments so far 😉 😎 😎

A second point which has been raised elsewhere in conversation ……

If a National was fished at a commercial venue the Angling Trust would surely lose its “authority” as the commercial staging the event would use its “own” rules ???? “own” bait rules???? also “police” the national because of “its own” rules thus potentially banning any number of competitors it likes if they think they are breaking the fisheries own rules????? In theory it’s no different to now as the AT rent waters from clubs for Nationals and local rules can be applied. Who would steward such an event ??? The same people as normal. will the standard national rules of the Angling Trust have no relevance if the commercials own rules are being used ????? Who is in charge of the pegging ????? The AT.How much money will the owner of the commercial fishery make ?????? Lots more than he would on a normal Saturday ! Lastly and most importantly where will the Angling Trust find the membership income from if and it is only an if at the minute the “old school” die hard match anglers who enjoy the challenges of natural venues and who have contributed to the Angling Trust / NFA year in year out withdraw their memberships ? 😉

That’s an unknown but the fact is more anglers fish commercials than natural venues nowadays so maybe there would be an increase in member numbers.

What gets me is the AT are actually admitting they can’t keep their numbers up by using commercials [which can’t cope with anything more than 30 teams of 10 anglers] and how many of even the biggest commercials could cope with 300+ cars, because doubling-up will be a thing of the past with all the gear you have to take to cover your options on commies ?

@steve r wrote:

That’s an unknown but the fact is more anglers fish commercials than natural venues nowadays so maybe there would be an increase in member numbers.

There are more individual anglers fishing commercials might be closer to the truth. The Angling Trust might find (to their cost) that this doesn’t automatically translate into more teams

As you went on to say in the rest of your post, because of the size of the larger commercial fisheries out there, any future divisions will definitely have to be limited in terms of the number of teams.

There simply aren’t any venues with the infrastructure to cope with the logistics involved with more than 30-35 teams of 10. Not enough to offer an adequate rotation of similar venues. Should that not happen, I’m of the view that we’ll see the emergence of short-term teams, setup specifically to fish a certain type of venue. If they win promotion and the venue isn’t to their liking or suits their skillset, they’ll wind-up & start again on a venue they want to fish.

In my view it’s completely counter-productive and is destroying the heritage & history that has been built up around the ethos of the Nationals. The competitiveness will dry up, with teams popping-up and disappearing again, with no continuity through the years.

Perhaps this is the rest of the Angling Trust’s strategy? I cannot believe that switching the venue to a commercial is the only thing they’ve been thinking about – there has to be some sort of reform strategy in place, of which this is the first step. If you think about it, the previous structure of affiliated Associations has been dropped like a red-hot poker; the Angling Trust mustn’t be getting enough cash from it.

The end of an era. Angling trust have signaled their intent, to turn the only major competition left on natural waters for anglers who prefer these type of venues. And switch them over to carp puddles. You can see the experts who fish these waters rubbing their hands at the thought of putting a team in on Lindholme . Sadly it will almost signal an end to my days fishing nationals. Angling trust or fishing safe in their hands my A**e

You have to feel sorry for the Angling Trust given the narrow minded responses of the previous 3 posters. They face an uphill battle against such inability to recognise any form of necessary change.

Amazed at the attitude of some match anglers who seem to suggest that fishing commercials is below them. Maybe they dont have the skill set needed to catch and compete when there are a few fish to be caught from all pegs!

Nationals on commercials makes total sense to me. Quality safe venues with very good facilities. More than enough pegs on local to each other venues in many different parts of the county. Quality fishing instead of struggling or even blanking anglers. Less peggy venues so a much fairer match for both team and individual honours!

The list of reasons is massive for why Nationals should be fished on commercials and no sensible arguments for keeping Nationals only on natural venues, other than tradition.

When did canals become natural? All of our rivers and canals are managed and nothing natural about them! Biggest difference between so called natural venues and commercials is the standard of sport and the facilities available!

Not seen one sensible argument against nationals on commercials!

I am however reading some posts that suggest that some anglers are worried that they might not get in a team on a commercial venue.

trueblue i can’t agree with your opening sentence,no match anglers that i know would ever suggest commercial fishing is below them .each and every match angler has a choice were they want to compete and at what level club,opens or internationals .there are very skillful commercial anglers out here that are brilliant at what they do.i think the same goes for natural anglers on rivers and canals [when have canals been natural venues come on they are not fill with carp and F1s]
personally i think its worth a try ,but why use a national to try it .the angling trust are trying new ways to encourage more people to fish and i think everyone should be a member of the angling trust, but a little bit more thought before announcing it in front of those competitors at the second division national would of perhaps stopped alot of anglers jumping the gun
why not have a commercial national for commercial anglers ,my only doubt i have is commercial anglers are individual anglers with a calender full of big money matches would it work as a team event would they have the time to practice
nationals do hold a heritage yes numbers have fallen partly because of the boom years of commercials but more so with our current economical climate of anglers having less money
there is a choice and always should be
one national on naturals and one on commercials keep them separate

roll on evesham

one little point if commercials are much fairer venues why is it most matches don’t use every peg or they use every other peg .if you put a national on a commercial could you cater for that i don’t think so. its just a point i’m not getting at anyone just the matches i’ve fished if every peg goes in there is uproar by the commercial anglers 😉

I can see both sides of the argument here.I agree with Joff regarding pegs being left out. On many commys around here with every peg in it would be a nightmare for some.
I hate to generalise but the lads who have stuck to the nationals love their canal and river fishing. Some commercial anglers have dropped fishing nationals in general and tend to stick to limited still water venues hence the drop in attendance on nationals. We could go on all day about the merits of each but nothing will change. I can see why this announcement was booed by the anglers present as it represents a big change, and perhaps is an admission that decent venues where anglers can expect a few fish are becoming harder to find.
I have been reading today about the funds different sports have attracted from government and lottery and even table tennis got £1.6m. Angling desparately needs its Wembley where national events could be held. We have no suitable venue to host the world champs either, which is a disgrace given the teams results.
Holme Pierpoint was ideal but we saw it devastated by cormorants and seemed powerless to stop it. The rowing course at Eaton from the olympics too looks good but bet we never get near it. Politically our national body should be screaming for funds to develop the facilitities our sport needs, in the post olympic environment lets hope someone can make it happen.
Moving the nationals onto commys will just accelerate their decline IMO.

well someone has listened or looked at the websites as i’ve recived a email from the angling trust today
a swift responce is what is needed and i thank the angling trust, all 23 teams plus the teams that have not fished the division one national will be sent a email or letter asking them to vote on a venue for 2013
A CANAL
B RIVER
C COMMERCIAL
you can’t ask fairer than that, 😉 😉 😉
but you will have to get your finger out replys must be in by 13th

regardless of the outcome there will still be a stillwater National run at lindholme on saturday 17th august 2013 😉

If moving the nationals on to commercials accelerates the decline then they’ll be no bugger fishing them soon! There were twenty teams less at this years division 2 than two years previous 😮

Something has to be done to stop that decline. At the very least, moving it is an attempt to try. Will it work? Well, my local club said they doubt they’ll put a team in, but they’re all dyed in the wool river/drain anglers. I suspect they may if it were closer (which is the reason they struggled for numbers this year, many didn’t want ANOTHER trek up north) Lindholme is further again.

Trueblue i have just re read the posts and i cannot find one that says commercial anglers are less skillful, As i said in my post i choose not to fish those type of waters not because of a lack of skill i just don’t enjoy that style of fishing. Lastly once again how many carp lakes can hold 300 plus anglers. Let alone the parking.

ps would like to thank all the stewards on stainforth and keaby national for their good work. The guys on h section did a fantastic job.

I’m not a national angler but i was raised on the rivers and canals and i have to say that i think a lot of the resistance to commercials is the fact that not everybody wants to become a carp angler. Before anybody says oh but commercials are not all about carp,lets be honest 95% of the time they are. The fish are getting bigger as there is nowhere to put them and increasingly you need to use more and more specimen tactics and tackle to get them out.
Using 12lb line is not as absurd as it would have been just a few years ago, and yet again this is becoming more and more necessary.

Where does that leave the anglers who enjoy the natural venues??

I’m also very sceptical of the angling trust and it appears to me that they are just going where the money is.

This situation has finally come to a head. Over the past 10 – 20 years with the decline of both rivers and canals the number of national teams has declined in parallel. I, like most, don’t think moving them to commercials will solve the problem. We don’t have any evidence yet that they won’t be a success so it would be worth a try.
It would have been better to have chosen a venue in the center of England instead of one in the far north east. This would have at least made it easier for more people to travel.

One thing that is least considered about Nationals is the majority of teams will never get anywhere. So they need an incentive to fish them. All talk is about the top teams being able to practice and perfect the best methods etc. Being sponsored they can afford to do this, most of the other teams just get by.
One thing about a commercial is that you know there are fish there and the backing weights will be better than on a natural venue. At least you will ”mostly” catch something. You wait to see the weights from the 1st div on the Bristol Avon.

A venue could be stocked to increase the fish levels of either silvers or carp.

Lets give it a go and see, you never know it might surprise all of us. At least we’ll know one way or the other.

I never said or suggested that commercial anglers are less skillful than natural water match anglers. In fact, many of the commercial match anglers started out fishing on natural venues and did very well. Some of the posts i,ve read seem to suggest that fishing on commercials is below them. Certainly, where fishing Nationals is concerned. Got the same feeling over the Winter league semi,s that have been fished on commercials.

I,ve been around match fishing for more than 30 years. I,ve done the winter, spring, supper leaues and Nationals and got a few medals. Enjoyed much of my time on natural venues. My first love is still putting a stick float down a river. However, the move for me to commercials venues about 15 years ago gave me a new skill set. I catch plenty of fish in quality, safe, dog crap free conditions. I, ve not had a blank day in more than 10 years. Something that most NW natural venue match anglers are unlikely to be able to say if they get out in all conditions and quite a few difficult venues. Fishing at any level has to be enjoyable or you move on to somethig else. The reason for the decline in the Nationals and other team events on natural venues imho is mainy because they are not as enjoyable as spending your fishing days catching quality match sized fish on commercials.

Joff, it might be just in the NW but there are lots of growing team events on commercial venues and yes those anglers practice. Not quite at National sizes yet but as big as many winter leagues around the cuntry that use to be fished on natural venues.

Pegging on commercials is generally decided by the number of anglers fishing in a match and the number of pegs available. I,ve seen plenty of matches on commercials where every peg is used and those pegs are closer than the average space between the pegging on the average traditional canal or river. Ask any club angler about pegging and they will tell you that they dont often get an empty peg between each angler. However, those club anglers still catch plenty of fish ad enjoy there fishing. I do agree that many open match anglers get spoilt with generous pegging. However, with hundreds of commercial venues and many of these venues very close to each other. Nothing to stop Nationals being fished on 2, 3, 4 or even as many as 10 different venues all within a few miles of each other. Before its asked about how do you practice for 10 different venues. Thats no different to attempting to practice for the 12 man, 96 team National held on two seperate venues that i fished. I did win my section in that National and for a long time after that match. It was thought that i had won the National. 26 pegs in a row stopped that who all caught 20lb+ of bream, lol. That medal is my pride and joy. Every time i look at that medal. It brings back so many great memories of that weekend.

Only difference between most traditional canal type venue and a commercial type venue is the stock and stocking level of fish. They are still fish at the end of the day. Generally, there are more fish to be caught in more pegs and those fish for one reason or another. Tend to feed more often and in more difficult conditions. I can think of many traditonal canal type venues stuffed full of carp or tench in the past (Leeds/Liverpool and Bridgewater canals). So, nothing new about different types of fish other than roach, skimmers, perch and gonks!

Not such a bad idea about a National on commercials. To be honest. A National on the 4 main types of venues would be a very good idea and would offer something to all.

Not sure how many pegs Lyndholme has to host this event but if they are all in the bag some will have a nightmare as the pegging is tight. We had a clubbie there a few years back and Neil gave us extra pegs but my lot still complained it was too cramped.
One thing you cannot knock is the investment there, I dont go often but there is always something new.
.

Rather than divisions maybe the Nationals could be run on a regional basis to keep travel costs down, with qualifying teams fishing off in a national final.

John H,
‘Rather than divisions maybe the Nationals could be run on a regional basis to keep travel costs down, with qualifying teams fishing off in a national final.’

Totally agree, we’ve often thought of putting in a National team, but living on the IOW travel costs have prevented us- despite being a relatively large club numerically. We have a Supercup team precisely because that’s initially affordable.Ok – we are an extreme case perhaps, but other mainland teams in outlying regions must also feel the pinch.
Travel cost and distance must surely remain a major factor to many prospective teams entering.- as well as making even one practice trip prohibitive at this increasingly difficult economic time.

I think the biggest problem, is not a venue for the match, but a venue for the HQ !! We here at Collingham and my colleagues in Lincoln and Rotherham, have always offered the Tidal Trent, and also the Non Tidal around Newark is avaialble. The problem is the cost of the HQ. The AT used to use the Newark Showground but the prices have spiralled out of control.

trueblue some good points there and it just outlines the the whole problem,there is such a split in our sport now and is probably too hard to bridge now between commercial and natural anglers
just another little point[again i’m only thinking allowed]
plain and simple commercials are private business you have to keep up with facilities maintenance, health and safety food hygiene and fish stocks plus many more to keep up with the top fisheries lindholme is one of the top fisheries it already has loads of big matches throughout the year in fact its always busy and fair-play to Neil
the fishery also has a great following of local and not so local anglers who support the fishery day in day out week in week out that’s there choice nothing at tall wrong with that.
what will happen when 300 extra anglers start to turn up to practice for the national,these anglers can’t be turned away and the locals that support the fishery all week can’t be turned away either i think that could be a headache
commercial anglers do pay a lot more for there fishing and everything is in line for the sport to grow

natural venues our fault full stop!!! clubs haven’t or can’t get the man power to cut and maintain pegs again anglers fault, access is very hard to obtain we would all like to park behind our pegs again how many anglers have tried to communicate with land owners and basic communications between the A/T and anglers again anglers fault
we need investment to bring natural venues back to what they where 20 years ago ,evesham prime example investment into the water has made this the only prime time event for natural anglers newark dyke lads again easy access to pegs lots of canals easy access everything is there but what it needs is a single group of organisers and work with the A/T

Almost all the problems you talk about re natural venues are already solved with commercials. The fact that the fishing is much better just makes moving or at least trying a few commercial venues for Nationals and other big team events even more appealing. If you want the Nationals to grow. Then, the likes of myself need to be atracted bak in to team events. That is only going to happen if the facilities and standard of sport is improved. Gone are the days of catching less than 1lb of bits for a section win or at least very good team points when i can fish in relative ease and comfort and in particular catch plenty of fish on most occations. If the carp don feed. Almost all commercial venues are stuffed full of traditional, quality silver fish giving good team points.

On the point of practicing. I remember the practice matches on the Leeds/Liverpool canal. They where bigger matches but not so big that most commercials could not cope. Many have open matches almost every day as it stands.

You only need to look at the fisho final at Cudmore as an example of what a commercial venue can provide to realise that Nationals can and should be held on some commercials. Quite a few other commercial venues that are already able and probably willing to hold a National. If the Nationals grew to the sizes of the past. We have 10 major commercial fisheries within 15 miles of each other in the midlands and loads of potetial H/Qs for running the event on the day. There are more than a 1000 quality commercial pegs within a few miles of each other on half a dozen established fisheries between J14 and J16 of the M6 with great access. Great facilities and quality fishing. What more could any National match angler ask for? Im sure its not the dog crap!

Its only the lack of support from those anglers/teams who are still fishing Nationals that has stopped it from happening already. The big issue for Nationals is that many of the teams of the past have broken up and those angler are now spending there weekends fishing on commercials. Put a few Nationals on commercial venues for a few years and many of those lost National anglers/teams will return.

As i,ve said in an earlier post. There is not one good argument or reason for not holding Nationals on commercials other than tradition and fear of something new.

why couldnt both be used

All 4 types of venues should be used, sillysod. Large natural lakes/dams, canals, rivers and commercials should be used alternatively. Match fishing at team level should be a test of angling skills and team work for all the types of fish in our waters. At the moment, canals or slow moving rivers hold most of our nationals with the odd one on a proper running water.

I see no reason why a mix of all venues can’t work. Okay some teams wont like the commercial venues, but you aint never going to please everyone anyway! Get the same every year of “too far north”, “too far to travel” “we don’t fish fast rivers/canals/drains” etc etc, but lets be honest, even the most dyed in the wool river team could find a few “guests” (mates) to fish the years on the commercials if they don’t want to.

Bringing some decent fishing in to it is all it takes to bring anglers back (and perhaps some way of spreading the venues a bit so southern teams are not making long treks north three out of four years). I fished this years Div 2, and it was my first match away from carp dominated venues since May of ’06. I really enjoyed it because I had plenty of bites, no dog turd, not too far to walk (I leave my shuttle at my local venue!), hardly saw a boat and the towpath wasn’t busy, coupled with a nice level wooden stage to fish from! Give those that have moved on to commercials the same and they’ll fish! I don’t buy in to this people can only catch from one sort of fishery mullarky too much – a good angler will adapt and be able to catch a few fish anywhere, else they aint that good!

There must be some way’s of getting younger anglers in to it too (I’ll hold my hand up and say I’m not a great fan of team fishing, but for a once a year occasion it was good) – I’m 31 and I think I only saw one angler I’d say was younger than me at this years Div 2, either before or after the match at Scunthorpe’s football ground. Infact, I didn’t see too many that were within five years of my age 😮

Read Des Shipps piece last night on the Bristol Avon national later this month. Des reports that some anglers will have a 2 MILE walk to their peg. I could not manage that with my gear as I assume the walk will be on rough ground so trolleys etc will be more of a liability than help. Des advises to cut down on what to carry but then goes on to outline methods required which basically means you need to have all your gear with you along with approximately 20 kg of bait.
Our club has over 500 members and more than half of them could not manage it.
Surely eveyone can see the merit of smaller regional matches on a knockout basis?
Imagine Bolt running a 100m final with 60 running?
The days of one holdall one basket one keepnet and a pint of maggots and 3lb of groundbait have gone, so too long walks for me.

I winced at same Article regarding the 2 mile walks.
then you’ve got a fair number of extra no. 4 & no.5 pole sections and running water rods, stick/wag/bolo- just in case you don’t have a pole /feeder swim. And that’s before bait on top.
With average age of match anglers 50 odd with a fair percentage near 60 or over that must pose a problem.

several venues for a national would hard work ,perhaps anglers should try and run a big competition Ive run several big matches and also helped in a split national half river /half canal in fact it was a great success ! until you started reading some of the comments for some anglers that fished it
one that stuck me was, how can a canal compete with the river we’ve paid pools as individuals to win the national .as it happened i think it was won on the river and 2nd came off the canal as did many in the top 10
this would definitely come up with a number of commercial venues
trueblue it seams you are a passionate angler and a commercial angler again nothing wrong in that as i am a river and canal angler the good thing is we both agree that nationals need to stay
how you break this dividing line between both sets of anglers 😉

Joff, I was not suggesting one big match split over several venues. I advocate a series of regional qualifiers, say 120 pegs max on either natural or commy. I would estimate that there would be 8 or more of these and no one would have a 2 mile walk.
Top team (say) from each match qualify for final which could be fished on natural or commy. No need for a HQ ( see comment ref cost of paying for Newark showground).
No reason (thinking out loud) as to why we could not have both commy and natural venue series of matches. Clubs can then decide which one to fish or maybe even fish both.
If qualifying clubs dont want to fish a final then the next team finishing below them could qualify.
I suppose I am proposing a fishomania type format but for teams.
If we want to adress the decline in numbers I cannot think of any other way. If we carry on with what we have its just a question of time before they end as we know them.

ANY IDEAS ARE GOOD john
a couple of years back i ran a summer league it boasted 16 teams of six i had two rounds on a river two on a canal two on a lake this ran for 3 or four years most booked back on year after year the team sheets had to be made up of ten names and six fished each round
i tried to go one better the final year and add two commercial venues witch took place at barston and to help with this i made it float only.it fished its head off and everyone wanted to be on the next round
what happened after just amazed me the league with eight big matches collapsed as teams started to name regular commercial anglers into there teams just for the two rounds[it was so hard to police] , yet these anglers didn’t want to go on the canal or river matches and the competition went into free-fall. that league generated more money than the national with£10,000 across the league [spread out as well ]

now everyone has missed it as we have nothing around here at the minute
a point i’d make is big teams would do this if we varied venues as most have sets of anglers for different venues new teams wouldn’t think they could compete

keep thinking it will come sooner or later 😉 😉 😉 🙂

its often been said make teams smaller ,that can work both ways 🙁

As ever we are our own worst enemies. Maybe the teams have to be fixed ahead but to cater for the genuine absentee maybe only count the top 8 from 10 weights (or points).
No team is then disadvantaged by an absent member.
Whenever you have large amounts of money involved the rules will get bent to suit someone. Another argument I suppose to shrink the matches down and water down the impact of rule bending.

Glad you are looking forward to it and I hope you have a great match but you must see the problem. Attendances will keep falling unless something changes.

@Dodge wrote:

Im quite looking forward to fishing this years Div 1 National . There is always a romance with such a big event, . lots of different types of pegs on this years venue with good bits and poor bits . A few will draw on a load of fish somewhere as there is plenty of river to go at . Good old watercraft and old fashioned skills (to some) will play a major part in success or failure plus a lot of luck as always . What a fantastic challenge ! and we even get to keep fit with a bit of a walk ! 😎 😎 😀 I only had a 20 yard walk on last years Div 1 , all the best pegs were half a mile further up the canal ! :rolleyes: :rolleyes: 😀

nice to hear dodge and spot on, 😉 😉 good luck to everyone fishing the national 😉 😉

Yeah it is very interesting Commercial Venue options as I am also searching for new york venues as interested to organize one grand event over there so searching for venues and found many sites as very informative. Thanks

Well,
i’m sure many anglers will be flocking to Chicago for the next UK Division 2 national – having the option of having a wedding and being able to drive within 50′ of this proposed indoor commercial venue should certainly be mouthwatering prospects -with presumably sales stands and staff erected on floating platforms fitted in between pegs? :rolleyes:

Someone needs to tell these dodgy fake SEO people to do one !!