What happening with the Angling times

[TF_AnthonywatersParticipant]

Get One copy on a Wed subscription then the following weeks copy arrives 2 days later !!!!! Its happened a few times now I thought it was a One off occurence are they doing this all the time ? And the 2nd weeks copy has less match info

[TF_herbie]

bought one tuesday. read what keefy ad to say then chucked it into the bin. absolute trash 😡

[TF_red_angler]

Some wks the match report section is rubbish to say the least, like this wk, if you remove the adverts from the match report pages it just about makes 2 pages of results & not even seperated by regions.
I thought the Anglers Mail was bad enough but the Times are going down the same road!!

Please dont tell me its publishing deadlines, we’ve heard all that before.

If Steve Ringer didnt have an article in there i dont think id carry on buying it.

[TF_fishermansteve]

Totaly agree with the above, have mine on subscription but this is being cancelled pronto.

[TF_stav]

since the new editior took over they have completely gone away from the match area of our sport. i.e. got rid of team champs and they haven’t published the monthly match mag for age’s I stopped buying it 6 months ago and don’t know anybody that does, my local newsagent told me he used to sell 20 copies a week 12 months ago now he might sell 1. don’t think they know what they are doing

[TF_MarkT]

Also whats happened to the monthly match pullout?

[TF_fadd1st]

Its not a recent thing with AT; I stopped buying it in the early 90s as it had lost the plot then. I suppose there is only so many ways to write about the same things and keep interest going.

In its early days it had some excellent feature writers such as Walker and FJT why not re run some of this stuff. Certainly more interesting than some so called features.

No even good enough to wrap your chips in!

[TF_macca63]

I used to buy both the Angling Times and Anglers Mail religiously every week from the early 70’s but stopped in the early 90’s. I have started to buy the AT again about a month ago and don’t think its that bad a read however this weeks edition is pretty poor to be honest especially the match reports.

[TF_MarcRodger]

I still look forward to buying Angling Times every week and i have since i young lad, think of all the hard work they had done for the sport (past & present) particularly county champs, avertising is essential for the paper to survive financially it keeps us in touch with our sport.

[Anonymous]

The last few copies that ive had are rubbish.
I honestly cant see why im buying it.
I can go through its contents in half an hour.
£1.80 a copy each week FAR FAR more expensive than pole or matchfishing magazine and nowhere near as informal…
😡

[TF_wildinguk]

Agree the AT is a pile of poo now. Mr Ringers article is about the only thing worth reading in them, and I can do that in a brief trip to smiths if I feel the need. It’s all dragon carp ads for naff tackle, next to no match fishing, and a load of rubbish. Alot of my local places seem to have stopped stocking it all together, and since they stopped giving away the uk match mag I have stopped buying. Can’t see me ever buying it again. The mail is no better. Maybe its time for another decent monthly on top of match fishing and pole fishing.

[TF_joffmiester]

the match section is rubbish because no one runs desent matches anymore 😉 most of the match reports are smaller than club matches 🙁 🙁 plus most don’t phone the results through 😉
the angling times is and always was for the pleasure anglers paper and know carp oriented we still sell out every week and i can say none of the anglers that pick it up are match anglers anda big plus they don’t moan about like match anglers 😀 😀
so what would you do
its a shame the match mag has stopped as i did like that 🙁

[TF_Dodge]

Couldnt agree more with all the above posts!

Angling Times is in dissaray just like our sport !!!! Its flagship county champs comp replicates the current state of our sport whereby “full” time anglers who fish 3 or 4 times a week on the same puddle get rewarded …….. wtf is all that about ??? winner take all culture has brought our sport into massive decline!.Team fishing at an all time low ……. Maybe open match anglers should join the club scene…….. ooops most have ! what a ******* mess !!!!!!!
Moan ? i havent started yet !!!!!!! 😉 😎

[TF_AnthonywatersParticipant]

I know its not all about match fishing but thats the only part of Angling times I read, nothing against Martin Bowler or simlar articles but im just not interested in that stuff,why dont they do something different, stick him on an open match and cover that story, the articles are always about fishing for big perch on worm ! I yawn and turn over and look for something else. Steve Ringers articles are the highlight and the uk match magazine was good.

[TF_moto46]

In my view Angling Times have completely gone downhill. I don’t subscribe but every now and then have a quick flick through, but 9 times out of 10 pop it back on the shelf. My suggestion is that there just isnt enough news or decent articles to justify it being published each week I suggested to AT every 2 weeks may work on the facebook page but unsurprisingly this was ignored. I appreciate this change could effect jobs but it could affect them even more with a decrease in buyers.

I also think this is the case for the monthly magazines, wheres the quality gone? it’s all advertising (can this not be in a seperate booklet?) I remember the days of Match Angling Plus, quality anglers on natural venues and commercials and it was always good value and a good read. Now for best part of £4 you get bottom of the barrell news, articles on easy to fish commercials with the same methods and tactics and 70% advertising. Such a pity.

[TF_moto46]

Oh and I did enjoy the UK Match supplement but they stopped this and refer you to a rubbish on line site trying to sell you more gear.

[TF_allyParticipant]

I suspect that sales of AT went down when they had the match suppliment so like any business they have to respond to what their readers actually want. Like it or not match fishing has suffered a huge decline over the last 10 years or so and although we may be interested in what has gone on, most are not.

[TF_geepsterParticipant]

I’m afraid that’s true IMO – match fishing is at its lowest ebb in my lifetime.

[TF_Cutnut]

This weeks paper had already gone to press when I phoned in my match report on Sunday. A modest 34 pegger, which I’m promised will be in next weeks paper, probably lost amongst the 12 peggers from Tunnel Barn and the likes. I wait to be amazed. 🙂

The reason the paper had gone to press early was the freebie, box or fake bait offer.

The angling times tries to appeal to a broader audience and in so doing cannot satisfy everyone every week, a bit like tight lines on Sky. Well put together but not always of interest.

The Sea Angling mags have greater readership than Match Fishing and Pole fishing put together allegedly.

Match fishing is not really at a low, the people that put up with the weekly crap from the ‘I could do it better crew’ are either dying off or had enough of it. And the Gobbyones are not doing what they say they could but go off to some other venue to be the tormentors of some other poor sod. :p

[Anonymous]

never mind how crap the paper is, the people who fished the AT County Champs Individual Final and finished in the top 4 still havent been paid out and are still awaiting cheques in the post since the 2nd Oct (that old chestnut)……….now that REALLY takes the p*ss !!!!

[TF_Kagger TNB]

On my local circuit there’s more than a few, myself included that have returned to the match fishing fold over the last year or two. Team fishing is pretty limited admittedly, but the opens on the Yare are well supported and there’s any number of carp matches to fish every week.

I think the problem with AT, the other mags, and fishing in general is the lack of ‘mystery’.

When I was a kid and buying the Times and the Mail (going back to when the Mail was a broadsheet) record breaking fish popped up from waters i’d never heard of. Writers produced inspiring articles. They painted pictures with words.

Legends as we call them now, Ivan Marks, Kevin Ashurst were, to my young mind gods.

When I fished with my homemade, flouro orange tipped wagglers, sitting against the reflections of a reedbed, and the float slid under, it could have been a record tench, perch or carp. It never was but it could have been.

When my grandad rang me up to arrange a pick up time for us going down the beach I dreamed of big bags of codling.
Where’s the mystery now? I like the Yare because you never know what the next bite might bring or which peg might win, but on the lakes, you’re fishing for fish that you more or less know the average stamp of. Specimen anglers (I’ve done a bit) are mostly fishing for known fish. Writers appear to be either trying to sell you their sponsors gear, or telling you something you already know.

Where’s the next great innovation coming from? The change in tackle and tactics from when I started has been incredible. Today, innovation appears to be a pole that weighs 50g less than last years model and will cost you £3k to buy (is that alright Mrs?)

The mystery has gone, at least for me, and it’ll never return, The writers of yesteryear are mostly now gone, and we’ll probably never see their like again. How could we?

How can we expect AT or any other publication to be as good as it was when there’s no mystery any more, just marketing men behind the scenes trying to sell you something?

[TF_rocketFeeder]

I actually thought the edition out on the 1st of Nov was the best I’d read in a long time. Not focussed on Carp, lots of Bream related articles and a decent match results section. Haven’t read this weeks yet though, still haven’t picked it up. Regarding delivery, is that not an issue to raise with the Postal Service rather than Angling Times :confused:

[TF_Johnny Mac]

Great post Kagger TNB, ever thought of becoming an angling journo? 😉

[TF_Kagger TNB]

@Johnny Mac wrote:

Great post Kagger TNB, ever thought of becoming an angling journo? 😉

🙂

I couldn’t afford to take the pay cut 😀

[TF_AnthonywatersParticipant]

In my opinion match angling isnt in decline, correct me if im wrong I just think its been saturated theres thousands of fisheries now

[TF_One Out of the Frame]

Anthonywaters: I think that angling in general is in decline.

I posted a few years back that at my children’s schools only ONE child fished at Princethorpe College (and he fished for carp) and there were about four or so that fished at the junior/primary school that the little ones were at. When I was at school (I’m 46) that was probably the number of people that DIDN’T fish!

There are more waters to have a go at but less of us doing it.

When I first started fishing or fishing seriously, in a club and then the open circuit, I probably only fished against 10% of the field whereas now EVERYONE is capable of winning and that is what, in business terms, would be called a ‘barrier to entry.’

Coombe Abbey was the Wembley of the day when I was a kid. Well worth the five mile trek on a Raliegh Chopper to see Ken Giles, Ivan Marks and the rest of the angling elite fishing the Gladding Masters.

When the big matches were on and baring in mind that club bookings were at least two years in advance, if you were not there for 0800hrs at the weekend you did not get a peg and I think there were about 130!

Frankton was an exceptionally expensive fishery in the 1970’s with around 60 pegs and that one was full by daybreak!

When was the last time anyone ever went to a fishery and couldn’t get on?

I think Kagger TNB has hit on a lot of the problems and I don’t particularly want to add to my previously aired views but I will quote Keith Arthur who once said, “Would catching a one pound roach every chuck be fishing Heaven or fishing Hell?”

Having sat next to people bemoaning ‘only’ catching 40lb on commercials that previously would have ran to Winter Leagues on the Warwickshire Avon if that was what was available I think he may be right.

My Dad was the Match Secretary for the Standard Triumph Angling Club in Coventry and he thought that if everyone had caught a pound of fish then they had had a good day: I think he was right and he ENJOYED his fishing right up until dying earlier this year whereas I’ve sometimes struggled to get something out of it even during some reasonable successful seasons.

[Anonymous]

The number of rod liecences sold suggests that there are more anglers fishing these days

[TF_Stewart]

This is an interesting topic and good to see that there is some interest out there! The major problem with Angling Times at the moment, in my view is that they do not seem to know what they are. They obviously want to be an angling paper but they also want to be a fishing tackle retailer and the retail side in my view is taking precedence. Bauer media seem to be in league with major advertisers that import tackle direct from China and sell to the angling public direct. There is an awful lot of space given to offers with vastly inflated RRP and seemingly given away for the cost of inflated post and packing. As an example recently I saw a hat and pair of gloves quoted at around £25 at RRP yours for only £5.95 post and packing! These products can be bought down any high street for less than that. When their forum started up I initially joined and now get bombarded with offers from the Angling Times selling fishing tackle at vastly reduced prices, I could unsubscribe but out of interest I don’t. I really wonder what damage this is doing to the angling trade – the good old fashioned fishing shop, who just cannot match these ultra low prices. Will they stop? I doubt it; no doubt the revenue generated by advertisers is far more than the income from selling the paper.

On the plus side they have some good writers and I enjoy reading the articles, I personally only really like match fishing, but generally read most as there are bits that we all can learn from different disciplines. The problem with writing articles in my view is that there is not something new, or a new miracle method that can be written about every week. This is especially true if the reader has been fishing, and reading about fishing on a regular basis for a number of years. That person’s knowledge is already vast. To the casual angler or beginner there is a load to learn from the AT or other such publications.
Quite often I read people moaning about the writer plugging their sponsor’s products in articles, it is mentioned somewhere in this thread. What is wrong with that? Surely the knowledge that the author is putting over is the important part of the article not what they are using.

[TF_AnthonywatersParticipant]

@TrueBlue wrote:

The number of rod liecences sold suggests that there are more anglers fishing these days

Thats what im thinking rod licence numbers are up and fisheries have increased Ten fold how are things on a decline ? I have to agree with the comment about no one in schools going fishing these days my daughters 12 and she dont know any one at school who goes fishing

[TF_Dodge]

Continuing with the theme of this thread there are several other threads on forums at the moment where lots of “die hard” quality anglers are disillusioned with where match angling is right now …… most are sponsored team anglers ….. they cant all be wrong can they ?

[TF_AnthonywatersParticipant]

I know match angling is in a small minority compared to general coarse fishing but look at this forum its coarse fishing and most discussed topics on here evolve around match fishing its interesting stuff Angling Times need more match fishing coverage get somebody round big commercials do reports and interviews have more collums like Steve Ringers.

[TF_wildinguk]

I think, if we’re talking match fishing as a whole, more needs to be done to get beginners into it. Match fishing is a fairly closed world, team fishing even moreso. If teams want to attract new members they have to make it attractive, not be so much of a closed ranks thing (my experiences here in the east anyway).

[TF_wezzy]

as part of last years xmas prezzies off me daughter she got me a years subs to the above,shant be renewing it its crap seems to be getting more and more adverts in it every week more ads then content,very indiffrent posting times late one week early the next…just got next weeks edition yesterday its dated the 08/11/11 its a joke….and the monthlys are getting just as bad ie match fishing/pole fishing they will be getting the bullet as well when thre subs are up

oh and subs peeps dont get any cover freebies ! not that they are any good but its the principle of the thing

p.s this is cut and pasted from another forum so timings are out

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