Why should I join the angling trust

[Anonymous]

Please can some body why I should join A.T.
I only fish local run club matches and on commercials (prob wrong spelling)
I begrudge having to buy a rod licence’ and don’t know what I get for that,
In Leicester there is little or no free fishing, and I once had a word with a fisheries owner who had a problem with low oxygen in his lakes and he said nobody would help, back then it was the E.A, but the local fire brigade came and put there hoses on to help. If all his fish had died would he get help restoking from E.A or A.T,
But if you can let me know how I or my local club would benefit I would join

[TF_AnthonywatersParticipant]

You dont !!! You dont have to join I havent.

[TF_boss baitParticipant]

you get to apply for fisho tickets not that you will get one unless you are a name some get 10 others get none

[TF_FBlues]

1/ The EA is nothing to do with the Angling Trust. The EA is a government body to whom all freshwater anglers pay a tax, called a rod licence, to preserve and improve fisheries. The Angling Trust is a unified group of the former representative bodies of angling recognised by the Government at representing our sport.

2/ If your mate with the commercial fishery said the EA refused to come and help him I wonder who he asked because it is their job.

3/ AS it is their job, if he’d been in the Angling Trust, their Fish Legal department would have had a case against them and he could have sued for new stock and loss of amenity whilst the lake was out of use – as can any club. Check http://www.anglingtrust.net and see for yourself.

4/ The Angling Trust needs individual members to underwrite cases like they would have had against the EA if your mate had been a member.

5/There are also benefits to membership such as discounts from various companies including Angling Direct.

[TF_FBlues]

boss bait: How many ‘names’ including England Internationals would you like that also don’t get the Fish’O’Mania tickets they want. You could try asking them, Darren Cox for example. Give me some evidence. I won’t hold my breath.

[Anonymous]

Fblues the gentleman with the fisherys problem was about 10 years ago so think it was the A.C.A but I might be wrong.
All I want to know dose the A.T help people like me, if there was a good reason to I would, in this day and age with no win no fee lawyers around or to get a bit of discount from a Internet fishing shop doesn’t give me a good reason to join (I would rather support my locale tackle shop to keep them going).
Just 1 more question before A.T took over the running of matches like fisho did you have to pay the extra £25 it now charges.
I don’t want to criticise A.T
As for the rod licence though out the school holidays if a parent want to take his 12 year old out to try fishing, then it’s £5 for child and about £4 for parent on licences before the day ticket price. Yet my lad can go to a local car boot and buy a golf club and ball for pennies and they can pay in the garden on local park for free maybe this is what the A.T could lookin to sorting

[TF_the big fella]

hi

There have been some valid points put on of what you get with the AT and your last post answers your own question doesnt it?

i.e you weighed it up and would prefer not to – AT is not a miracle magic wand that you pay £25.00 and get significant individual benefits its money that goes to a collective benefit.

For the record I dont join every year but have paid a few years when I chose to go into matches and being a member was a necessity.

However your first and last part of the post regarding how you have to pay XXX amount to take your lad fishing compared to a cheap golf club bought at a car boot and used in your garden……

LOL sorry but thats a load of “tosh” your talking different choices you can make.

You stated you only fish commercials thats “your choice” but you are bound to pay a daily fee to go on someones land and fish for their stock etc – comparing that to a knock about in the garden with your car boot bought golf club scenario?? :rolleyes:

A truer comparison would have been how much to take your lad for a game of golf for you and him to both play at a course? £13-20 a round for just 4 hours entertainment 😉

Why not get a seasons ticket to fish on the River Soar or the canal around Leicester, after that half a pint of maggots or even some worms and a bit of breadfor the day and you have one of the cheapest days out!!

Not many hobbies you can fish all day with about 1 or 2 quid of bait for 2 of you 😉 😉

Plenty of water apart from commercials around leicester where you can enjoy some bites.

[Anonymous]

Hi big fella
The comparison was not for me it was a general question was maybe to get more people in to fishing was the cost of trying fishing for the 1st time
Maybe the A.T could sort out some kind of licence of say a pound for a parent could take there child to try out sport in my local said parent comes in and buys 1 or 2 whips for them self and child to use and the has another £9 on top without the day ticket price be it lake river or cannal to try put sport

[TF_bobby-joParticipant]

not sure what you are on about here, neither you or your son need to join angling trust to go fishing, you do however need a rod licence with is a totally different thing altogether

[TF_FBlues]

Anyone who wants to try fishing for the first time with their children has virtually the whole of the school holidays to do so, via National Fishing Month. It’s free wherever you go and there are thousands of events. If you like it, then if the child is 12 before April 1st a licence is £5 for a whole year. If the child is 12 AFTER April 1st they don’t have to pay until the next year. If the accompanying person doesn’t want to fish they don’t have to have a licence. If they do then they have to buy one.

That one case 10 years ago must have stuck with you. It’s an apocryphal story I hear year-in, year out. Last week I had 2 different clubs telling me their waters have been saved by the EA; one where the tench all started to die and the other where oxygen crashed. That’s now, and true.

The Angling Trust is what the ACA was once in its Fish legal department. It’s also the National Federation of Anglers, NF of SEA Anglers and various out bodies all unified to fight for and defend our sport. It needs paying for. That’s £25 a year and voluntary. If your conscience tells you it’s not necessary, that’s fine; don’t join.

The Rod Licence is a legal requirement before you go fishing. If you dig a pond in your garden over a certain size, fill it with rainwater, stock it with fish that you buy and then want to catch them on a rod and line, you will need a licence. It’s necessary because as soon as that pond becomes a fishery, the EA are responsible in some part to it, in the same way as you are to the EA.

Fishing is as cheap or as dear as you want to make it but no one that can afford to buy a rod, reel, line etc can’t afford a rod licence or, come to that, membership of the Angling Trust.

[TF_Swimfeeder]

Why should you join the Angling Trust? …………. to save money of course! as Keith has already pointed out Angling Direct give all members of A.T. 10% off all purchases ( unless it is a special discounted item or items), although I am a member for other reasons, I can tell you that since I have returned to fishing the open matches on my beloved river Yare I have saved the £25 membership fee over and over again for feeders ,bait,ground bait ,line,hooks etc, I know for a fact many of the local Carp boys are members just to save money, think about it, purchase a good Carp set-up and you would be quids in, ditto match gear, my mate Kagger has recently purchased a new seat box, if he had been a member he would have got his £25 back and some!

It is a no-brainer, although it is true to say many anglers do not possess an abundance of grey matter,………. hence the small membership numbers. :rolleyes:

[TF_Kagger TNB]

Sorry Bob.

Looking at the AT stance on Otters I swore I’d rather eat my own eye balls than join.

Then the chaps in AD said “you’ll get 10% off”.

I’m a very easily bought, unreliable, shallow sort of a bloke 😀

[TF_Swimfeeder]

😀 😀 😀

[Anonymous]

It sounds like the only advantage to for us to join is to get a 10% discount from a few shop probably a 100 miles from were I live.
Do the A.T not want our local shops to stay. in Leicester we only have 1 shop and a few in the local towns
I wouldn’t mind joining but can not see an advantage to my area.
Is there anyone from the trust that come on this sight to explain the benefits,

[diddly-squattParticipant]

I generally think that the majority of anglers are short sighted when it comes to joining the angling trust. We as anglers need our own body to fight our corner.The more that join the better. I’ll tell you now that if we don’t the antis, rspb etc will crap on us from a great height. The more powerful we are the greater the benefits for all anglers. I think Keith said if only 10% of the 1 million or so anglers in this country joined the money generated would considerably strengthen our cause. Just join don’t question it, it’s a no brainer. Wake up!

[TF_Sluicer]

I’m an individual member, but I’m beginning to wonder why. I’m a member of three angling associations – all of which are affiliated to the Angling Trust. Given that I didn’t take part in any Nationals this year & refuse to enter the individual national while it’s on a crap-hole, what’s the point of being an individual member??

The situation with the AT winter league seems to have highlighted a rather conspicuous hole in their plans. In our neck of the woods, the organisers of the Angling Times are an Association who are affiliated to the Angling Trust (Wigan & District AA). Last year it was the biggest in the UK with 14 teams taking part. One of the locally-agreed rules is that all competitors are W&DAA members. This means the competitors are automatically in receipt of the affiliated benefits from the Angling Trust. Given that, why the hell must the competitors then pay an additional £25 to become individual members? The split between AT members & non-members is probably 50:50, so (as I said on the other thread) this may be a league killer if it becomes mandatory & non-members refuse to join. Unless anglers, who are members of affiliated associations, are focussed on fishing Nationals or Fish O Mania what real (tangible) reason is there for becoming an individual member? I just cannot see one.

Who (individuals I’m talking about) has ever had cause to call upon the AT to help them? I’m not dismissing the services they offer, but I don’t know a single person who’s used them, so can someone enlighten us?

[TF_Serious Sam]

It’s a bit chicken and egg . . .

People don’t want to pay to join the Angling Trust as it currently has no teeth lacking the membership and finances to be a major voice in lobbying the government, in comparison to the likes of the RSPB they’re small fry.

However if more people took the plunge and signed up THEN they WOULD have teeth and would be able to more successfully lobby for anglers just like the RSPB does for it’s members.

Personally I paid my dues last year and am currently still a member but with the Trust not succeeding in signing major numbers I’m wondering if I’ve wasted my money and am 50/50 on renewing when it’s due 🙁

Good to see they’re now solvent though and they do seem to now be seen as the body by the newpapers and TV to go to for a quote for anything fishing related which is a giant step.

If all anglers would back the trust it could be a very powerful force for anglers but without this support it’ll wither and die. Would be a damn shame but I’m in the position myself now of not knowing if It’s worth renewing.

Getting 10% off t a shop that charges 10% more than anyone else to start with is not a major inducement 😉

[TF_Stewart]

In my opinion £25 per year is a small price to pay for a body that in essence is there to protect our sport. We need a unified voice to speak on our behalf; it doesn’t mean a jot what we say on forums, down the pub or on fisheries. We should really stop asking what do I personally get out of it and try to look at the bigger picture. We need a voice and the AT is the voice of angling, that voice would be all the more powerful with a massive membership. We as individuals may not agree on every statement that our organisation makes, but personally I am happy to contribute financially to assist them, as I know they will allow me and my children’s children to participate in fishing for many years to come.
There are individual benefits to be had as a member, I do not take them all up but they are there should I wish to use them. I prefer to use local tackle shops rather than obtain a discount on line, that’s my choice. Coaching is a fantastic benefit and the AT is fighting hard to make this possible, bringing into schools, it will not happen overnight but its happening. The national fishing month where anybody can get tuition from coaches and well known anglers in the summer school holidays. Possible the best individual benefit is public liability insurance, in this age of no win no fee lawyers I am glad I have this behind me.

[TF_joffmiester]

@Stewart wrote:

In my opinion £25 per year is a small price to pay for a body that in essence is there to protect our sport. We need a unified voice to speak on our behalf; it doesn’t mean a jot what we say on forums, down the pub or on fisheries. We should really stop asking what do I personally get out of it and try to look at the bigger picture. We need a voice and the AT is the voice of angling, that voice would be all the more powerful with a massive membership. We as individuals may not agree on every statement that our organisation makes, but personally I am happy to contribute financially to assist them, as I know they will allow me and my children’s children to participate in fishing for many years to come.
There are individual benefits to be had as a member, I do not take them all up but they are there should I wish to use them. I prefer to use local tackle shops rather than obtain a discount on line, that’s my choice. Coaching is a fantastic benefit and the AT is fighting hard to make this possible, bringing into schools, it will not happen overnight but its happening. The national fishing month where anybody can get tuition from coaches and well known anglers in the summer school holidays. Possible the best individual benefit is public liability insurance, in this age of no win no fee lawyers I am glad I have this behind me.

CORRECT and very well put not forgetting the discount card you get for being a member you can soon get your money back
its the same old story as car tax a percentage prefer not to pay for it and can’t see why the same goes for a rod license please read the small print before you make a judgement instead of listening to others

[TF_FBlues]

Kagger: What is the Angling Trust’s stance on otters? I’m asking because I honestly don’t know but will endeavour to find out.

[TF_FBlues]

Right, I’ve looked and this is the ‘Statement’ below. Can you tell me what you don’t like about it? The only thing I can assume is that you’d like some form of cull proposed? I will GUARANTEE that if you surveyed all anglers via the rod licence, less than 10% would support such a move: I have done my own research on the matter that indicates as much.

I have, however, over the years been a massive pro-ponent of ‘The Farmers’ Defence’ applying to fish farms and fisheries, where individuals can take whatever action necessary to protect their stocks from any creature that directly affects their livelihood, in the act of doing so. Unfortunately fisheries are not seen as an essential a part of our environment as farms, despite generating millions for the government, keeping people off the streets, teaching them about environmental matters and not costing a single bean in funding through grants.

The thing is, if the ‘general public’ were given the choice of otters or anglers, we’d be gone in an eye-blink. The Mail on Sunday had a little piece the other day about the Californian sea otter population being endangered. It started with the line: “Possibly one of the World’s cutest and most cuddly animals…”. Like it isn’t a big, fish-eating rat!

The joint statement put out recently by the Angling Trust, Natural England and the Environment Agency was the product of the first of many meetings about otters and fisheries. It was based on the information available at the meeting.

Since then, anglers have contacted us reporting problems on other waters. The Trust has been set up to represent the views of all anglers, based on good quality information, and we have therefore produced a questionnaire for anglers to let us know what is going on in the rivers and stillwaters they know best. (click here for more details)

We need to understand more about what and where the problems are before we can find, and fight for solutions.

Funding for Fencing

On stillwaters, small clubs and fisheries cannot afford to install fencing to keep otters out. The Angling Trust is working with the Environment Agency to identify funds which could help these small businesses protect their fish. We will be issuing detailed guidance on how to apply for funding, fence design and recommended contractors to all our member clubs and fisheries so that they can take action.

On rivers, potential solutions are more complex. Fencing is not an option. Calling for a cull of otters would be political suicide and would create an army of enemies of angling. Anyway, the law does not allow any interference with otters or their habitat. Otters are here to stay. On a number of rivers, otters co-exist with excellent fisheries. We therefore need to address the factors which make otter predation a problem for anglers.

In rivers which are affected by low flows, pollution and habitat damage, fish populations cannot withstand an effective predator such as the otter. The return of otters to unnatural and unhealthy fisheries is disastrous, because the fishery is not generating replacements for their prey.

Potential for Restocking

A temporary solution is re-stocking, and the EA has offered to help with this, but we demand rapid action on rivers which are polluted and over-abstracted. We will fight for widespread restoration of spawning and nursery habitats and cover. Low flows make predation much easier. Pollution kills and prevents the creation of tens of millions of fish each year. Dredged and canalised rivers have no spawning or nursery habitat, or hiding places for fish. Cormorants are decimating whole year classes of future specimen fish.

All these battles we can and will fight ferociously, and with the support of enough anglers we will win. It would be madness however to fight battles we are sure to lose and which could destroy angling.

[TF_Kagger TNB]

FB, the last time I looked, and i’m paraphrasing here 🙂 , it was, ‘we’ll try and find sources of funding to help lake owners fence off their fisheries, and we give up on the rivers’.

We all know the only sources of funding will be fishery owners own pockets, and how many owners/ controllers can afford proper fencing?

As for the rivers, it’s a crying shame what’s happened to my local river Wensum. It’s been decimated. I was going to put up a link to a NACA site, but it’s down at the moment, so this will have to do. You’ll get the gyst, it’s taken from the other site anyway.

http://www.onlinefishing.tv/forum/560/1/otters/

Please bear in mind that the pics are only of the fish that have been found. How many have been dragged into the reeds, and just left to rot?

Stretches where I used to be able to catch chub are now devoid…

I’m not saying I know the answer (or telling you what I think is the answer) to the problem, but the AT should be fighting to protect angling, not trying to avoid upsetting a load of leather elbow clad, green cord wearing tree huggers.

[TF_Kagger TNB]

FB. Didn’t see your latest post before I posted, but a full scale cull? No, it’d never happen.

The “farmers defence”. Is that too much to ask for?

Is it too much to ask that fishery owners can protect old and valuable fish from predation?

Is it too much to ask that the AT would support such a stance? Would that be political suicide?

How things are in the Wensum valley, and if that is replicated across the country, and having in mind that specimen angling is the biggest branch of our sport, doing nothing with be suicidal.

Not a quick job tho’. A slow lingering death…

[TF_FBlues]

Well, we can’t get the farmer’s defence for cormorants, despite having representation in the House of Commons directly, through Martin Salter. He got the next best thing though, with extra licences available. They didn’t all get taken up and those that were didn’t have returns, therefore the government can only assume there’s no problem. There have been otters in the Wensum Valley for years before they disappeared – look at the ‘holt’ suffixes: why were they not a problem then? I’ll tell you: it’s habitat degradation. If the Wensum had flow, meaning less silt, better spawning habitat and so on, there wouldn’t be a problem. There certainly were plenty of otters in the Bailey/Wilson big roach era. As for lakes losing valuable carp: if a 30lb carp is worth more than the fencing required then why isn’t it done? I know if I owned a fishery there wouldn’t be an otter problem and I wouldn’t need fences.

The rivers belong to everyone; it’s common ownership which is why taking fish from them has been made illegal. Anglers’ shares are no bigger than anyone else’s. Most everyone else thinks otters should be there so we can’t win that one, no matter what!

[TF_Bear361Participant]

I have joined as an individual without ever asking what they would do for me or for angling. I had been a member of the ACA for years before. Again I just joined. My reason is that I would sooner have a governing body that can help than not have any body at all. Trouble is you hear about rivers being polluted say small trout streams that are miles away from you so who cares? Its not on your door step so why bother to even read the story? One day, hopefully not though, something may just affect you personally, now for me, I care for the fish where ever they are, streams, canals, lakes and commy`s even if its 200 miles away. So I personally cough up £25 each year without questioning it.
I may well be wrong and this is just my point of view but if predation of one sort is bothering you, what can you do about it? Can you be bothered to start lobbying MP`s? Going to the papers? Most people haven`t the time or will, so if it affected me I would go to the AT and ask for their help or their advice. Maybe they can`t do alot at the moment because of lack of funds in their kitty, so to me the more people join the more revenue they have the more powerful they become and you never know one day you may even see an AT representative on country file instead of rspb officials. This is just my view and I know people see things differently, I pay up because I want to, if I was forced to join, it wouldn`t bother me like I don`t mind the rod licence. I don`t use the 10% off as I try to buy from my local shops and this year I didn`t enter Fisho or the BW Match`s, but next year I`ll still join.

[TF_Kagger TNB]

FB. I wouldn’t know how many otters there were in the Wilson/Bailey big roach era. Next time I see JW I’ll ask him.

When I moved to Norfolk 18 years ago I could go and catch lots of quality roach from a stretch of the Wensum between Drayton and Hellesdon. My route to work took me along the same stretch of river. I guess about 10-12 years ago, it just wasn’t worth fishing there anymore. The cormorants ate the lot. I’d see 10-20 birds drying their wings most mornings on my way to work. The wensum isn’t a big river along there and that amount of pressure was just unsustainable.

I don’t claim to know anything about flow patterns in the river, or the breeding of each species. What I do know is that the river hasn’t changed that much in the time i’ve lived here, to look at anyway. What has changed is the number of predators. Without adult fish, there wont be any breeding whatever the river is like.

Anyway, my honestly held opinion is that the AT should grow a pair.

Just as an aside, what about asking Chris Turnbull or John Wilson onto Tight Lines to discuss this?

[TF_Waveney One]

I wouldn’t mind betting that half of those who ‘Don’t believe in the Angling Trust’ DO believe in driving their own car, foreign holidays, the tooth fairy and man-made-carbon emissions cause global warming!

[TF_redarmy]

ive give up trying to convince the non believers richard they dont want to see the bigger picture unfortunately 🙁

[TF_Kagger TNB]

Interesting article by John Bailey in the Anglers Mail about Otters…

[TF_p2hl_p2hl]

Join now, if you dont, who will fight for angling… its not like angling dont have any enemies…

And do you trust the RSPCA, the friends of the otters and supporters of bird sanctuaries to play nice, when it comes to angling… they know an easy target when the see one…

Not to join is very short sighted and selfish (it wont happen to me, only someone else)

(edit spelling)

[TF_joffmiester]

reading through this topic and find its very easy to become disjointed or sit on the fence
we all have rod licences road tax car insurances yet we still numbers of people that can’t understand why they have to pay
i think the angling trust is looked at in the same way,but believe or not believe in the Angling trust its the only organisation that will fight your corner a lot of anglers look through rose tinted glasses and listen far too much to others instead of taking time out and finding out for themselves what the Angling trust really do for angling

[Author]

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