I am an old man, 60 seasons have come and gone since I was stocked into the fishery that is this world of ours and I like to think that I may have picked up a little wisdom during all that time. Very little of this was free, indeed I paid quite heavily for a lot of it but I will pass one particular gem on to you for nothing.

All you anglers (and many non anglers) are worriers and are always ready to complain about what ever it is that worries you. Get a couple of anglers together and the complaints will start - the immigrants/cormorants/crayfish are eating all our fish, there are too many/not enough silver fish or carp, or the carp in such and such place are dying from some disease or other. The list is endless.

I was once told by a man I respected greatly, in an organisation whose initials are AA and has nothing to do with motoring, that worries should be dealt with in the following way. He said,“There are two categories of things that people worry about: things that they can do nothing about, in which case, why worry about them and things they can do something about, in which case, stop worrying about them and do something to solve the problem.” I have tried to follow this axim over the last few years and whilst it has not stopped me worrying it has given me a measure of “peace of mind”.

It is a difficult way to live, it is so much easier to complain about the way things are and how someone should do something rather than get your bum off your seatbox and actually do something or empower someone who has the required skills to force some change or other.

I pointed out to my readers their chance to take such action in my post on the 18th January about the formation of the new Angling Trust and I said all anglers needed to join this organisation to give us a combined voice to protect the future of our sport.

Well, the majority of the apathetic anglers in this country didn’t bother to put their hands in their pockets and join because someone else would do it and everything would be alright! Now we are in danger of losing our last chance, we have burned our boats by combining all the failing angling groups into one and that is about to fail too. Not because of political pressure or the difficulty of the task but purely because Joe Angling Public could not be bothered and didn’t care enough about the future of his/her sport. Neither did the tackle trade or the clubs or the Angling Press, every one just thought they didn’t need to get involved someone else would do it for them.

Perhaps I am being unfair, maybe the launch of the Angling Trust and its purpose and value to the sport was not well publicised but in a number of my tirades in tackle shops and on the river bank (yes I am a bit of an Angling Trust evangelist) I have been told, after my argument in favour of joining proved too strong, “I’ll wait and see how it goes before I join”. The fact that I haven’t slapped anyone is only because of my advancing years and the fact that most of them are bigger than me!

As you may have seen in the angling press the Angling Trust is in trouble due to the shortage of members.

Angling Trust announces restructuring

The Angling Trust has announced a number of cuts to its central operations in Nottingham and Leominster. Despite widespread publicity and the distribution of half a million membership leaflets, the level of recruitment has to date, fallen below expectations. This shortfall, along with higher than expected costs, is threatening the viability of the Trust.

Membership shortfall
Of 4 million anglers less than 1% have joined the Trust – many more were expected to have signed up and, despite thousands of further members of former organisations due to renew in the remaining months of the year, the Board was not confident the organisation could continue to provide sufficient service to members without making savings.

This shortfall, added to difficulties created by the merger, presented a difficult situation which could only be rectified by reducing the overheads of the organisation. Consequently deep cuts have been made and a number of staff have been made redundant.

“Angling needs the Angling Trust” - Chairman

“These measures are necessary to balance the Angling Trust’s books. It is difficult to conceal the board’s disappointment in the response we have had from anglers. However, we expect to be able to continue at a satisfactory level of service.” said Dr Stephen Marsh-Smith, the Trust’s chairman.

“More than ever before, angling needs representation at national level to continue the fight against pollution, inadequate legislation, illegal canoeing, poaching, predation and all the other threats facing angling today.

Angling needs to have a strong body to promote our unique sport, increase participation and ensure that the whole business flourishes. For only £20 per angler, this can easily be done, but we need every individual angler to join as a member themselves, as well as their clubs and sponsorship from all those who benefit from the £3billion angling business.

Anyone can join the Trust today and ensure the sport is represented at a national and international level by completing an application form, visiting www.anglingtrust.net or calling 0844 7700616.” he continued.

Chief Executive Mark Lloyd stated:
“Anglers need to imagine what the future might look like without a national body to represent their needs, and join the Angling Trust now. We have worked very hard before and after the merger to develop the national body but it seems that too many anglers think that others will support the cause for them. Anglers have to realise that having a central body representing their interests, protecting their angling and campaigning to ensure we can all go fishing tomorrow does require a commitment from everyone today.”

Latest development

The following letter has just been sent to the Trust and gives us a glimmer of hope:

OPEN LETTER DATED AUGUST 10th 2009
ADDRESSED TO BOARD OF THE ANGLING TRUST

Dear Sirs

It is with deepest concern that we contact you regarding the development of the Angling Trust.
For far too long, anglers have needed a professionally run, representative body, and the launch of the Angling Trust in January 2009 was a major step forward towards greater unity in angling.

We believe the Angling Trust has provided an initial framework to the path of true representation and the merging board has created a valuable structure, but news of overspending combined with a failing business plan is extremely worrying although not that surprising.

Our concerns at this stage arise primarily from the continuing lack of engagement with AT members, and the angling community as a whole, particularly on sensitive issues. There is a wealth of first hand angling, industry and media experience that appears to have been largely ignored by the current board. Therefore, it is with this in mind, that we all offer our support services, without charge, to the Angling Trust as a “collective” advisory board. The absence of individuals that anglers recognise, trust and respect is clearly apparent at all levels of the Angling Trust.

In addition, there is obviously and immediate need to review the failing business plan currently in place. Once again, where applicable, we would like to offer our experience in business development, marketing and finance at no cost, to help secure the immediate continuation and sustainable development of the Angling Trust in the future.

We trust that the current AT board will be addressing these concerns and await your earliest response.

Signed by:
John Wilson, Keith Arthur, Danny Fairbrass, Martin Bowler, Ruth Lockwood, John Everard, Tim Norman

Well there you have it, a challenge. If you have bothered to read this far then you care about our sport and presumably already belong to the Trust but there is more you can do. Convince other anglers to join too, ask your local tackle shop, club and fishery if they are members and if not, ask them why, if they depend on the sport for their income, they have not joined.

The reason I have not posted here since the middle of July is that, along with a number of other Angling Trust registered coaches all over the country, I have been working hard to introduce more people to our sport on various functions. These efforts and those of years gone by, along with all the other hard work done by the Angling Trust board members and their predecessors, will all be wasted if our sport goes into decline, as it will, without our voices being heard in the corridors of power.

Anglers out there happily pay £10 for a day on their chosen commercial fishery, two days would buy them an Angling Trust membership and safeguard the future of their sport.

If our sport is to decline all anglers need to do is NOTHING!

Let’s show we care about our sport.

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