Has match fishing improved in 30 years.

[TF_yamma]

Firstly tackle innovation has improved 10 fold to help us catch these cunning creatures, but has it really improved the basics to catch fish, heres a bit of info to wet your lips.Englands match finishes.

1980/89: 2 3rds 4 2nds 3 1sts
1990/99: 1 3rd 3 2nds 3 1sts
2000/09 0 3rd 2 2nds 3 1sts

Thats 21 placeings out of 30 totally awesome and a host of individual champs.

[TF_Jon W]

I dont know about ‘improved’ but it has certainly developed/evolved.

J

[Anonymous]

It was improving until 10-12 years ago before the magazines started doing commercial articles instead of canal/Stillwater and river features. Any natural venue articles now appear every other month but no improved tactics like there was progressing before carp commercials.

I’ve read articles in very old ‘let’s go coarse fishing’ and ‘match angling plus’ from 1996 and they’re better articles than are printed today.

Suppose what I’m trying to say is that tactics on natural venues have stayed the same over the last decade while commercial fishing is developing every day.

[Anonymous]

I dont think match fishing has improved in 30 years. The top anglers 30 years ago would still be top anglers today and vice versa.

Match angling has become much more specialized in the type of venues, methods and baits used with most match anglers fishing only commercial venues. Some of todays top match anglers have never fished with B+J or fished on running water. However, even 30 years ago. There where a few match anglers who specialized on a few waters or methods and made the England team. World Champion, Dave Thomas being one that springs to mind.

At international level. This specialization in commercial match angling might result in the England team struggling in years to come because of the lack of top silver fish/running water/blood worn and joker experts.

30 years ago the England team could have been picked from several hundred top quality match anglers who where well suited to the styles of fishing and types of venues that the world Champs where often fished on. Today, there are probably less than 30 match anglers able to compete at international level in this country. Its not because they are not top quality match anglers in this country. Its because they dont have the experience of the types of venues and styles of fishing used for international matches.

However, if the World Champs where held on commercial venues. England could probably pick 50 different teams of anglers and any of those 50 teams would win the World Champs almost every year. Wales would also probably finish 2nd in most years!

[TF_Swimfeeder]

Overall, definitely not, it has diminished considerably, gone are the big winter leagues, gone too the Drennan leagues, and the Nationals are a poor imitation of what they once were, generally team fishing is dead in the water, except for a few places in England, young anglers coming through are a rare species indeed and when they do emerge, they are only any good on commercial venues, however, that is not their fault, it is just how match angling has evolved.

It holds almost nil interest for me these days, I used to fish every Saturday and Sunday travelling all over England, thousands of us did! now match angling is more localised and at times the matches are sad, incestuous, little knock-ups.

Ultimately, the senior England team will fall from it’s lofty position as the number one in the World as a result.

[TF_dirkdiggler]

@Jon W wrote:

I dont know about ‘improved’ but it has certainly developed/evolved.

J

i’d say thats not far off the mark.
in my own experience as a relative newcomer to match angling i absolutely can’t get enough of it.
after spending a regretable 25 years carp fishing ( camping ) i have to say match fishing ( catching fish ) is a real breath of fresh air.
however one of the things which worries me is whenever you pitch up for a match it is mostly men in the 25-65 age bracket with no juniors at all, unfortunately they seem to be going down the same camping,getting drunk/stoned non fish catching activity i did. ~think

[TF_togman]

I think match fishing is slowly dying,i wasnt a great river angler but i caught a few and was happy,then i turned to the commercial scene in the midlands and for a few years enjoyed it very much,then a 18 mths ago i just decided i had got fed with carp puddles and 10/15 peg open matches,price increases,you can only our pellets and all that,i had tubs of pellets from different fisheries every where in my shed,so i decided to pack it all in and i have nearly sold the lot,
and i have to say i dont miss it one bit.

[TF_AnthonywatersParticipant]

Match fishing has improved 100 % I have only been match fishing a few years but i have always fished, commercial lakes have inspired me into match fishing I have no interest at all in 200 peg canal/drain matches. I tried fishing a few opens years ago on the the River Wear and and for anybody to turn round and say commercials are peggy think again 1 or 2 pegs could dominate on a 50 pegger and no one else would get bites at least commercials give you a few bites normally even on duff pegs.

[TF_caster robParticipant]

In full agreement with Bob (swimfeeder) on this one.

It holds nil interest for me either.

The lack of truly great allrounders is noticeable these days. I think that’s the biggest change.

Even specialist canal anglers, back in the day, could perform well on a variety of canals, and they’re all different.

How many anglers can fish more than two methods on running water?

Holding a pole’s not the most demanding of techniques.

[TF_joffmiester]

reading this topic and the points of view are spot on i’m one of the lucky ones that did see the rise of match fishing. where ever you went rivers canals lakes and recently commercials when they first opened great turnouts at them all. and the match calander in the angling papers were always a full page and you could pick and choose and the fishing seamed to be better or was it the crack with all your mates joining up every week
me i love team fishing and i went into match organising because i didn’t want to fish 20 peg matches on what ever venue.its a hard job with no thanks whats so ever but my calander for this coming year will have 19 60plus peg matches[just sundays] on different venues to me thats the best calander around but unless you are prepared to work with everyone in your area it will like you say be dead in the grown before long

[TF_joffmiester]

the big problem that it is only in our area the biggest problem i had was the distance no one really wants to travel that far and because i only fish sundays now i’m drifting into that mode this year i have got help and after organising the dates i’m taking a back seat but still help with results

[TF_GLEBE1]

@joffmiester wrote:

the big problem that it is only in our area the biggest problem i had was the distance no one really wants to travel that far and because i only fish sundays now i’m drifting into that mode this year i have got help and after organising the dates i’m taking a back seat but still help with results

Joff the Glebes only 15mins from your house, theres between 40 and 50 there most weeks, comon you know it makes sense lol~clap

[TF_joffmiester]

I’ve also seen a lot of good anglers turn to commercials and made the grade but as more and more commercials have cropped up and turnouts have drops [or your not welcome at certain matches because your too good]they often can’t turn back to the natural venues whether its the walks or going back to 4or 5lb of fish i don’t know but a lot of them have turned to golf ~sick ~sick there is also the time issure with angling with the weather being so bad over the last few weeks i’ve been able to get hooks tied kit sorted all the jobs i used to do in the close season i feel ready again just hope a few fish feed this week ~sick ~sick

[TF_joffmiester]

~clap ~clap glebe1 ~naughty ~naughty not quite ready for that place but never say never mate~think

[TF_GLEBE1]

You’ll cave in sooner or later~shh

[TF_yamma]

Quite interesting comments so far it seems that commercials are a bit of a saviour of our sport and damageing in the long term concerning young blood comeing through, i have 3 young lads and i want them all to get involved in fishing and start down the local canal the same as i did and many of yourselves, i dont want them to start on a commercial fishery as there bound to catch bigger stamp fish and probably the odd munter as well, which in the long run will bore them as it will be a case of “oh its only another 5 pounder” thats why i want them to learn the basics first and theres no better place than the canal in my opinion especially as theres one on the doorstep, but at the end of the day its up to them as i wont force them to do it, they,ve got to want to.

[TF_Steve Lockett]

I think match fishing is a slowly declining part of our sport and is, actually, the specialised branch of angling. Carp fishing is probably the mass angling style of these times.

However, I also feel that the standard of match fishing is far better now than say 20 years ago. That improvement is down to better and more magazine articles and the rise of commercials.
I would hazard a guess that 20 years ago on a 100 peg river or canal match there were probably only around 10 anglers who had a serious chance of winning the match. There were probably at least 50 proper pools fodder who would turn up week in, week out in the hope of drawing the ‘bream hole’. They may never have won a bean in their whole match fishing lives.

Take the same 100 anglers now. OK, they will be fishing five 20 peggers, but there are probably only a dozen anglers in all those matches who stand no chance of framing.
You may have half of the field in every match who could win given a half decent peg.

The old pools fodder, many of whom were the mainstay of big club-run opens, have realised they cannot compete and now sit behind a pair of bite alarms themselves.
It is certainly that way down here. Looking back at when I was match secretary running 60-100 peg opens for a club, I still see plenty of those faces fishing, but most are fishing just for carp or other specimen fish.
The die-hard match men among us are probably half the amount they were, yet there are still just as many attending the various matches, just not all the same match.

And when I look at the younger anglers who are replacing the old pools fodder brigade, they are frighteningly good for their age. Certainly when compared to me trying out adult matches when I was a teenager 30 years ago.
I could name a dozen late teen to early twenty year old match anglers who would give anyone a run for their money on most venues. That wouldn’t have happened 20 years ago.

[pigslayer]

anglers today can become competative in a relatively short space of time fishing commercials,this is not the case on natural venues.give an angler 2 years on a river and then put him against john allerton,then do the same on a commie,i think the latter would be possible.

[TF_joffmiester]

steve you have some good points there~clap
the matches i run only work because you have to put the less-er angler first so you encourage them to improve and have a chance of winning something in our winter league we increased the section money by quite a lot so if you had drawn one of the unfavoured section you still had something to fish for.the summer league we often had 5 peg sections and it was always nice to see the under dog pick up that brown envelope its not all about money its the achievement of winning a 60 plus match you can’t say it feels the same as winning a 20 pegger[surely they are club matches]

[TF_yamma]

Good comments there joff match organiseing can be a thankless task and its hard to please all anglers but some of them dont help themselves to help increase attendances at some fisheries.
some of them will run “rover matches” and if you get a few new guys turn up at a fishery on spec to give it a try and it turns out to be a rover match you,ll have a situation of,
the locals “venue experts” will now were the fish want to be and live this time of year and will take these pegs first, leaveing the new guys a very minimal chance of catching or winning anything. going home and not going again.

[TF_AnthonywatersParticipant]

We all know it Anglings not the flavour of the month the past few decades, we have those baggy trousered ballet enthusiasts at the BBC giving us f&ck all recognition then peta want to stick their whore in and they often do ! We have to put up with some guy culling cormorants legally that gets Twatted why he didnt give that guy both barrels F£ck Knows because the flesh would have been blown from his skelleton had that been me.This is not a joke I dread the first time I encounter some Anus trying to Interfere with me on the bank in anyway there will be fatalities mydelf or them is a case of who dies first .

[Author]

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