Simple Match Fishing Forum

With dwindling attendances what can be done to get more teams involved?

Our Drennan this year has 5 squads involved. Each round will be fished by 8 anglers per team. All squads have to name 25 anglers to fish the league before the first round.

My suggestion would be to restrict each squad to 12 anglers only.

The reasons behind this are:

1. It would give the smaller squads a better chance of doing well because other teams at the moment have specialised river, canal and pool teams so can put in more time to practice at different venues.

2. Bigger squads could put in more than 1 team.

3. Teams would not really have the option to bring in 1 venue specialists to "guest" for them without losing an all rounders place.

Do you think this could work?

its 20 i think
lee your right what your saying my summer league is full but one of the new teams have tryed to sort anglers to venues with in the league after quite a few phone calls i had to remind them that they only have a team list of ten anglers to choose from this stops any sort of fixing within the league and the teams that are just in it for the individual side are happy

if you cut the numbers down in teams i bet a fair few would move to other teams mate i don't see half the starlets anymore and if you did it would be a 50 pegger

Some good points there fellas

My biff is that a few of the "TOP" teams have huge squads, and half their squad ( top quality anglers btw) dont fish leagues or arent prepared to travel to a lot of venues !! So what do these said teams then do if they have under achieved in a league or a competition ??? Yepp they go and nick another teams best angler !!! So their bulging squad is now even bigger while the other team has been left relativley uncompetitive ......... people say team fishing is struggling i wonder why !!!!

If new measures arent introduced soon team fishing will be a lost cause and there will only be the few ELITE teams left to fish amongst themselves........


I am running for cover

dodge no one wants to fish the ELITE now thats why barnsley have got to travel to our super league i really feel for these guys as they are possable the only team that dorking really get worried about nower days and no one wants them up north with fuel prices and extra costs its going to have a effect on even the ELITE

I think Shakespeare are getting close to the teams you mentioned Joff , i fancy them big time for the A.T. Final on the Nene in peterborough
Seen and fished against them last couple of seasons and they have improved as a team superbly in that time

Things dont start to get serious until july for our lads when we will be back on the road up and down the country no matter what......gonna be busy for sure !!! So until then i am going to continue racking up the brownie points with the Mrs

Getting anglers interested in team fishing seems to be getting harder every year, even some lads who have always been mad for it seem to be losing interest. No one seems to want to travel or put thereselves out anymore i think there are worrying times ahead.

Getting anglers interested in team fishing seems to be getting harder every year, even some lads who have always been mad for it seem to be losing interest.  No one seems to want to travel or put thereselves out anymore i think there are worrying times ahead.  

Totally agree Dave

Is team fishing becoming boring?

I think in most 10 men team leagues now you can predict the final outcome before the first round has been fished.

Most leagues are striving for fairer venues and playing into the hands of the bigger/better sides, the better the team the more attractive it is to join them so they can pick and choose who fishes for them meaning they always have the strongest teams.

The stronger the better team is the less chance anyone else has of competing so the lesser team refuse to fish against them.

It's a vicious circle that without addressing could start the end of bigger team matches.

Who would have predicted 10 years ago that the Lancs AT winter league would have folded due to lack of teams!

this subject come up alot on sites but can someone suggested the next move or the next idea as i'm sure there is a format just around the corner and where we all say why did'nt i think of that i have listened to this sort of topic for a least two years my problem is it would be easier to sort the midlands out than the north or south as the midlands seams to have a lot of big venues and weather its river lakes canals or commercials
i would love to run a super league for the elite on a central venue somewhere like holme pierrepont where the options are more or less the same but i could only do this on sundays and the biggest problem we have as match organizers is the fact nowadays is every angler wants to catch at least 25lb from every peg and if this dos'nt happen we get the brunt of it al ready this year i've had anglers moaning about the venues we have choosen for the summer league and thats not started yet

I think a limit on squad size should be introduced as soon as possible.The Angling times have the power to do that with their winter league....its their rules we fish too so surely they can change them, it would be to there benefit aswell as matchfishing. I think this would lead to more teams participating in the big events and more match anglers on the banks !!
I think a squad should be limited to 20 anglers per team, a few well known teams are operating with 30 to 40 anglers.....its ridiculous !! greed if you like..... and it is killing our sport as we speak.

Maybe some of the angling media and bigger companies involved in the angling industry could help out match organisers with more sponsorship !! invest and promote........ makes sense to me

I think a limit on squad size should be introduced as soon as possible.The Angling times have the power to do that with their winter league....its their rules we fish too so surely they can change them, it would be to there benefit aswell as matchfishing. I think this would lead to more teams participating in the big events and more match anglers on the banks !!
I think a squad should be limited to 20 anglers per team, a few well known teams are operating with 30 to 40 anglers.....its ridiculous !! greed if you like..... and it is killing our sport as we speak.

Maybe some of the angling media and bigger companies involved in the angling industry could help out match organisers with more sponsorship !!   invest and promote........ makes sense to me  

There is a 22 man limit of named anglers in AT and super league Dodge, the problem is some anglers are quite happy to be part of a winning team even if they dont fish also a lot of anglers released by a big team seem to disappear off the scene instead of moving on, cant understand it myself

Id be interested to know which teams are operating on 30/40 anglers. I think we're on about 20 plus a couple of hangers on that hardly if ever fish...

Been up half the night flamin Man Utd fans ::)

British Lions, the All Blacks , the Wallabies, Springboks , Mark Downes lot at Starlets, Mark Addys lot at Drennan, Barnsley ??.........dont know about Harlequins Dorking ??

Some Rugby squads there tho

the other side of team fishing is how many teams now turn up to team matches in any old clothing not the rightful sponsors clothing even dorking are bad for this when you see team photos nowadays its hard to see who is there sponsers it all got to change team fishing has to move into the 21st century and become move professional in the way they look

am sure if sky ran a league every team would do as it was told wear all the same clothing its just getting it kick started




but if carlsberg ran a league it would probably the best league in the world

Id be interested to know which teams are operating on 30/40 anglers. I think we're on about 20 plus a couple of hangers on that hardly if ever fish...

I think we are down to 16 or 17 Jon

We are down to 16, 3 of which are young lads learning the ropes , 1 newcomer and 1 is an alchoholic !!!
Along with the AT Lancashire winter league folding last year the Drennan super league also folded,thats why the north west had no representitives at this years final !! Things are looking very bleak up here......it used to be very competitive team wise but apart from Wigan lads its all gone to the wall.......the writing is very much on the wall i am sorry to say  :( :(

I think we have 24 but we will be fishing two AT winter leagues this year, Tunnel barn and the Warkshire.

1 is an alchoholic !!!

sounds promising!