angling times

#41

very good post choppie

the end is coming

i take it from this post lloydy and lee are trying to get a A/T winter league off the ground on a non B/J venues

why the sudden change about B/J venues
has your W/L folded or something if so you can only blame yourselves you could see the writing on the wall when we practiced on the Ashby canal there was really no need to fish B/J on that venue and loads were moaning and a team refused to fish it on the day

lee will hankat have the north west lads next year i'm sure mark addy has realised that having two halves of the team in the final will be hard to juggle where if they were all together he'd of had a real chance of winning it

do you think by trying to organise another league theses anglers are going to come back just because its not B/J i don't think so i would say they are happier doing what they have done in the past
i can see this happing in our winter league this year its been on the cards now for a few years ,yet we all have turned a blind eye to it
the river has fished brilliantly over the last few years but its the walks and like choppie said the average age is not getting any younger
for the last couple of years we have had teams wanting to fish and ideally half on the river and half on the canal as you could split the older boys off onto the canal or just pick who went where,this would then cut down the amount of travaling and walking and bait down.but we have never had a proper AGM for the last few years and theses teams have either moved on or any fish individually

again our fault for not picking up the signs

the biggest problem with team fishing now is nobody can be bothered team captains struggle to get anglers on the bank and if the semis are miles away you have bob hope of getting a team that can compete against the handful of top teams .this is the same situation happening at the grass roots in every winter league teams just don't want to compete against the top teams of each league anymore

#42

Joff, the w/l aim for our team is to get to semis and finals. In the last 2 years I've lost 4 of my best joker anglers which means we now can't compete in a 6 match series so we either need to set up a squatt league or move into a league which gives us a chance of getting through

#43

i understand mate

so really your league will fold as it stands
what will shakespeare do follow you or look else wear

the problem being the same teams will qualify ,when you have a league of just 5 teams the writing is often on the wall you can't make a mistake we struggled on ours the draw wasn't as kind last year and every point counted from start to finish
if you had a league of ten it would be so different but i can't see that happening in the near future

#44

League wont fold mate, think Trabucco going back in and heard another team going in. Trouble is the the teams going in consist of anglers who fished for other teams last year ie 3 of trabucco's fished for hankat. It's a great league Joff but it's about qualifying

#45

what about going in with the starlets at castle ashby

#46

Joff i am the organiser of the Warwickshire league and it will not fold due to Tipton leaving there will still be 5 teams from last year plus 1-3 more teams showing interest. regarding the ashby/Moira canal i think they will be two matches voted in on this and they will be probably one round without bloodworm the first one.

#47

what about going in with the starlets at castle ashby

That league was mentioned at meeting but the shropshire or tunnel barn were preferred by the lads

#48

Food for thought.

I have fished in no less than three Staffordshire Winter Leagues in the past and they have all folded through one reason or another.

I am probably chucking a bloody big spanner in the works here but in our day, (mid 80s) we wanted to fish in the very strongest WL. We fished in the Upper Trent one that was a mix of canals and the river and had all the top anglers of the day.

We never ever dreamt of winning one of these Leagues we entered because we wanted to fish in the best company angling can provide and as captain that was my way of improving the team. There were twelve teams in that League and every one of them could win any of the rounds at any time.

To enter a team with a sole view of getting through to a semi final is alien to me but this is one part of teamfishing that has changed, maybe it is for the best maybe not. If our performance was not good enough there was always the next round.

How times have changed; glad I was about in those far flung days when enjoyment and fun seemed to be more prevelant than it is today.

I always used to consider there was a lot of imaginary lines that you would not cross and always kept that view. We started life as purely a club side and improved to win all sorts of different things.
In later days we had all sorts of top anglers joining us. OKthat 'club' feel went a bit but we really enjoyed fishing leagues and any other match, win or loose.

Believe me it does sadden me to see whole leagues disappear but things are just not the same with the ATWL as they used to be. I hope it continues and it probably will but more League may disappear in time.

#49

Joff i am the organiser of the Warwickshire league and it will not fold due to Tipton leaving there will still be 5 teams from last year plus 1-3 more teams showing interest. regarding the ashby/Moira canal i think they will be two matches voted in on this and they will be probably one round without bloodworm the first one.

thats good news

what about going in with the starlets at castle ashby

That league was mentioned at meeting but the shropshire or tunnel barn were preferred by the lads

blimey lloydy TBF rather than castle ashby

#50

its all BOLLO#KSlook after No1 roll on the summer league

#51

Bill, when tipton left the shroppie for the warwickshire we had won shroppie for the last few years and Russell and a few more left because they said we were making a mistake. We just wanted to fish a canal league because that's what we liked and had a strong squad, since that day I've seen tipton as a squad dwindle in numbers and lose some amazing anglers. To a large degree I feel a lot of responsibility for that

#52

Thoroughly sympathise with you matey, I know only too well what you are trying to do.

I am only stating what I see as facts. In my days of running matches, running teams and through my job, I can only see the way forward (in this current climate anyway) is for cheaper mathes with a good spread of payouts. Although I fished them I can't believe in this day and age anglers fish matches without balance sheets and fish team matches without team payouts. These are two things that I have always banged the drum for.

I do hope you succeed with your quest though and I am the first to offer any of our waters for use if you need them. Note they will be a proper fee costs net inflated costs.

I can not ever remember running any sort of team match without paying teams out. I know I am growling on a bit but that is a complete nonsence.

#53

Tbh chaps i agree with both of you. as a captain myself i know that my job, so to speak, is to get my team to a semi final and hopefully a final as well to gain maximum exposure for our sponsor.unfortunately anglers are a selfish lot in general and don't want to put themselves out but ALWAYS expect something for free from said sponsor/s or are always whingeing that they don't get anything. What they continually fail to see is that they need to give something to the sponsor in return i.e, names in the press or promoting products etc. we fish the tunnel barn A/T winter league because it gives us a good chance of progressing to a semi final seeing as our commie anglers are stronger than our canal anglers. The problems arise when we end up on a semi final on a canal....we struggle to get 10 cut anglers on the bank, as joff has already stated in an earlier post...you get cheesed off trying to cajole anglers to fish the matches they have agreed to fish when you enter the bloody leagues THEY want in the first place( i'm getting angry just thinking about it)
on to nationals....they are way too expensive to fish imo.
for a team like ours to fish that ONE match.....it costs us, as a team, 250 quid to enter and 45 quid a man in pools if you enter all the pools....that's 700 quid for one match!...no wonder the divisions have shrunk to nothing these days.....and don't get me on the cost of travel, practices and the like...i reckon it has cost me around 1500 quid in the last 2 years to fish and practice for the nationals.
something needs to be done on costs to enter, travel,( maybe a regional national again with a top 30 teams to fish THE national champs later in the year)
which brings me on to payouts on team events....i believe that the top 2 teams on the day and top 3 in sections should be paid out, not an individual top however many, it's a team match, reward the anglers who have scratched about in their respective sections for good team points rather that the anglers "lucky" enough to draw on some fish.
i believe there is room for a west mids canal summer league, maybe 4 rounds ,teams of 6/8 max run along the lines i have already stated but with a squad of maybe 12/15 with peg fees paid up front so organisers are not left out of pocket.

i would love a return to a drennan style summer league again but i can't see it happening. Bill, if my memory serves me right, it cost us around 300 quid to enter the drennan superleague and it was for veue/peg fees up front. that works out at an average of £6.25 per man per match. then i think it was 15 quid a man on the day so not really that cheap either imo.

that's it, i have had my little say on the subject...

spectron16m · #54

How come you struggle to get 10 blokes for a cut match Mark? Not so long ago won the National on a cut.

#55

How come you struggle to get 10 blokes for a cut match Mark? Not so long ago won the National on a cut.

Not too long ago dams and lock, browning central, trabucco vde(lifestyle),essex,trentmen and tipton could all put strong 10 man canal squads out but no more, yet wolves aa water last week was nearly all booked and they have miles. So maybe club or local matches is the way anglers want to go.

#56

With respect to all (I stand to be corrected) it is £190 to enter a team in a National Championships.

For all them that think it is £250 I wouldn't mind the £60 difference

#57

sorry bill, i was including the angling trust membership fees as well in that £250 quid mate. you are right though, it is £190 to fish the actual match plus all pools.

#58

they would rather be sat on a puddle than a cut these days mike

#59

Less than two years ago over 1,700 fished the ten practise matches for the Div One National.

The canal anglers are certainly out there

#60

where

club anglers are fishing the canal last week we had a club booking of 24 i said they could spread themselves out a long the stretch
no was the answer we always fish every peg 18lb of skimmers won the match 11lb perch was second and this is on the pillings section where open match anglers think its sh#t lloydys right thats the way anglers are going again what goes around comes around and they fish for trophies