The Demise of the Fishing Club

THE DEMISE OF THE FISHING CLUB

I attended the AGM of a local fishing club and for the second time in just a week the issue of a quorum topped an agenda. The club had a ruling that at least 25% of its membership needs to be present to change any rules and have any valid voting. With a membership of over 450 the twenty one members attending  was well short of the requirements resulting in an email to all members seeking a rule change to reduce the quorum to twenty paid up members.

Can this be resolved?

The lack of participation in club events is a concern and as a long term member of an angling club committee I wonder how and if this can be resolved. I am Chairman of Combe Martin Sea Angling Club that was formed back in 1962. Much has changed over the decades since the formation of the club at the start of the sixties.

Health and Safety was very much a matter of common sense

Those were undoubtedly very different times with the fabric of society drastically changed in many ways. I joined the club way back in 1973 at the age of twelve. The old guys would take us out fishing on the rugged North Devon Coast. There were no CRB checks and Health and Safety was very much a matter of common sense. Fishing was popular amongst the boys in the village and we had a good number of Juniors taking part in the weekly competitions.

The AGM was generally attended by over half the club and the Dinner Dance and presentation night often attracted upwards of one hundred people from the village and surrounding communities. The club committee back then was a healthy mixture of more mature anglers and teenagers. The mature anglers were probably in their forties and sticklers for the rules and formalities. As youngsters we sometimes pushed for change and had occasional healthy debate with those who had formed the club over a decade before.

Two Old Stagers

Today the club struggles on with a small committee with the two old stagers at the helm, Club secretary Nick Phillips and myself. Over the years we have swapped roles but share much of the running of the club. The membership fluctuates each year but never comes close to its peak when it had close to one hundred members. We have combined the AGM and presentation night as few are interested in receiving their trophies and awards. Competitions typically attract half a dozen members a far cry from the twenty or so who would fish in those old days.

Many clubs are no more

This decline in club fortunes is not unique to our club. In North Devon I can list many clubs that are no more. The Ilfracombe & District Angling Club, Barnstaple Rod N Reeler’s, The Thatched Inn Specimen Hunters ( TISH) who later became the Bastille, The Waverley Club and Lynton Rod-benders. In North Devon there was an inter-club sea angling league that at one point had close to a dozen clubs competing. Some clubs even entered two teams of four. The weigh in would be hosted by each club at their club headquarters.

This reduction in team sport is mirrored across the local cricket league with many villages struggling to raise teams or reducing to one team where they once fielded a first and second team. This all of course has a significant impact on the local pubs who can longer rely on the clubs to bring them custom via meetings and competitions.

Those fishing clubs that still exist with a large membership are predominantly Coarse Fishing based that have an asset like a lake or stretch of river.

A world where we no longer meet at the water’s edge.

Whilst I find it easy to recall the names of fishing clubs that have ceased I struggle to name any that have recently started up. Unless of course you include Facebook groups and other social media groups that are abundant many of which I belong to. Some of these groups organise events for members to socialise and share information. Our own club has a Facebook membership of 793! Perhaps these online communities are the future? A world where we no longer meet at the water’s edge.

It is obvious that if club angling is to flourish then more young people need to be involved but how do we attract them into fishing? In those old days the old timers like Nick and I would be challenged by the young with their new ideas and ways of doing things.

Woeful considering

Anglings representative body the Angling Trust has an estimated 15,000 individual members and 2300 member clubs. This is woeful considering the oft quoted statement that angling is the UK's largest participant sport.

Everything has a cost

There has been a massive shift in the way that we live that has undoubtedly accelerated since the COVID epidemic. The growth of Social Media has resulted in a culture of isolation from actual face to face interaction. Zoom meetings and team meetings can be brilliant removing the need to travel to meetings on dark winter nights and reducing our carbon footprint. But everything has a cost and in this case it is the loss of face to face interaction.

How many young people would forgo a mobile phone to buy fishing kit?

The cost of living has an impact but this is to some extent more a case of a change in priorities. The vast majority of us have a mobile phone that we use to communicate with, bank with, take photographs, listen to music, shop and google with. How many young people would forgo a mobile phone to buy fishing kit?

We constantly hear of the benefits to mental health from being with nature, yet as a country we are experiencing an epidemic of obesity and mental health issues.

The future of angling and other country sports is uncertain and I do not profess to have the answers. Perhaps the changes I have commented upon are just the natural evolution of society and humankind.