There are some fantastic items in several categories - guided fishing trips with high profile anglers, coarse and game fishing all over the UK, coarse and game tackle, art and literature. Much of the fishing on offer is on private rivers and lakes giving you the chance to fish waters that would not be available otherwise. Guide prices range from £10 to £900 so there should be something for everyone. Please remember this auction is to raise funds to help us to continue to fight those who damage our fishing, it’s not a bargain hunt!

The auction operates on a sealed bid basis, ending July 16th. If you see something from the catalogue of lots that interests you, you can bid the maximum you would be prepared to pay for that lot. If your bid is the highest on the closing date (July 16th) you win that lot but you only have to pay £5 more than the next highest bid, rather than the full amount of your original bid.  If two maximum bids are the same, the first bidder wins, so get in quick! You can make bids directly through the form on the website or by posting the form from the Annual Report back to us.

Almost 30 of the country’s most important angling representatives – from angling clubs, associations and websites - met on February 23rd to discuss the formation of an official angling body.

And a working group has been set up to create the legal paperwork for the association. The working party includes Alberto Reis (Association Wild Water, APPA and Commission for the Defence of Recreational Fishing and Marine Resources); António L. Lemos (Commission for the Defence of Recreational Fishing and Marine Resources); Dinis Ermida (Mundo da Pesca), Élvio Mendonça (EFSA Portugal and Commission for the Defence of Recreational Fishing and Marine Resources); Fernando Corvelo (Associação Água Selvagem); Jó Pinto (Zuca); João Borges (Commission for the Defence of Recreational Fishing and Marine Resources); Luís Nabais; Paulo Santos and Ramiro Santos (www.pescador.com.pt).

The decision to form the all powerful association comes a year after the Portuguese government introduced a compulsory sea angling licence, which has had a disastrous impact on fishing tackle sales in the country.

There was very little consultation with anglers about the plan and lobbying is continuing to try and reverse the decision.

It also comes two months after the six main angling organisations in the UK - the Anglers’ Conservation Association; National Association of Fisheries and Angling Consultatives; National Federation of Anglers; National Federation of Sea Anglers; Salmon and Trout Association; and Specialist Anglers’ Alliance – all agreed to the formation of a single body there.

Ministers have repeatedly made it very clear that the Government does not and will not support unfettered access to rivers and canals.

For example, the Environment Minister Jonathan Shaw made a statement in the House of Commons on 6 February 2008: “The Government share canoeists’, and other user groups’, aspirations for more and better access to inland water and have been working, through our agencies, to deliver this over a number of years. The Government’s view is that a statutory right of access to inland waterways is not appropriate. The evidence indicates that the demand for access would more effectively be met by a targeted approach, which involves identifying where access is needed, and then creating access agreements with the landowner and other interested parties.”

While the BCU continues to maintain a dogmatic position demanding access to all areas, at all times, free of charge, the reality on the river bank is that local joint access agreements are working and proliferating. New agreements have recently been signed on the Dee, Wye and Usk, and webcams installed to make it clear when canoeing is allowed. Anglers and riparian owners are very keen to work with local canoe clubs to draw up these agreements, but this positive work is being damaged by the BCU’s stance, which is generating misunderstanding and ill feeling.

Unregulated canoe access could be very damaging to local economies reliant on income from angling, which is worth £3bn each year to the UK economy. It would also impact on the riparian rights of angling clubs and landowners and could damage delicate ecosystems which need to be protected at particular times. Each river has a unique flow regime, array of sensitive habitats and faces particular local issues. To legislate nationally for such a local issue would be quite wrong.

Anglers spend hundreds of millions of pounds each year maintaining and improving rivers to protect fish and other wildlife. They pay £21m in rod licences to contribute to the Environment Agency’s work protecting fisheries. Angling clubs and riparian owners have spent billions buying the angling and access rights to rivers.

Jim Glasspool, Chairman of Fisheries and Angling Conservation Trust, said: “The BCU’s demand for unregulated, free access, without making any contribution to the maintenance or improvement of the resource is unrealistic. It is an organisation that seems to be increasingly out of touch with its membership and we urge them to focus instead on supporting locally-agreed joint access agreements”

FACT is asking anglers and riparian owners to write to their local MP re-stressing the need for local managed agreements for access to rivers and to seek support for the EDM amendment put forward by Mr Martin Salter MP. An outline letter is available here:

Draft letter to MP (EDM No.1331) Canoe access

and MP contact details can be obtained from websites

http://www.writetothem.com/ or http://www.parliament.uk/directories/hciolists/alms.cfm.

The overwhelming concern of the new NFSA board when it started work a year ago was that while we were growing, we were not doing so fast enough to guarantee long-term survival. An organisation at a standstill is doomed and it was the same at the other angling organisations. A gloomy picture.

Sea angling role
Under the auspices of FACT, four freshwater organisations had started talks on merging. The NFSA was invited to join in with the promise that it would provide the sea angling arm ofthe new body.

The Specialist Anglers’ Alliance was also invited and accepted.

At the time we were grappling with sudden financial problems.

We promised a decision in the New Year. Meanwhile, the other partners kept us fully informed of their progress. The solution quickly became clear; a straightforward amalgamation throwing back in the water the waste and cost of the services and development we were all duplicating.

The six angling bodies have nine common activities from membership services, communications and legal advice to websites, training and accountancy.

Each of us is devoting a huge effort to lobby the government on behalf of six lots of angling interests. Ministers and civil servants are understandably confused and at times frustrated by this disparate lobby.

Directors support it
After unanimous support from the NFSA board and standing committee I signed a letter of intent early in March which emphasised our belief that a six-way merger of the angling bodies would work. It was the same as the one signed by the other bodies. Each organisation also put in £10,000 to fund the start up of the new body, under the working title of Angling Unity.

Your directors agreed that our £10,000 should be drawn from the NFSA reserves then standing at £50,000. Now we must make sure that Angling Unity (or whatever name is finally chosen for it) works as we all want it to work. There is much to be done between now and the middle of the year when it is planned to launch the new company.

Members will decide it
There will be a vote at our AGM on July 19 to decide whether the NFSA fully commits to the new company or stands outside and struggles along on its own. Before that vote there will be a full report on the exact stage of the negotiations and the results from several joint working groups already set up.

It will be a nostalgic moment because going fully into Angling Unity will mean winding up the old NFSA after 104 illustrious years.

That nostalgia is outweighed by the needs of the present day and the challenging natureand potentially big rewards of a joint project.

Your NFSA directors and myself are convinced it is the right way to continue and expandthe good work of the NFSA and of the other partners, to herald in a strong voice for all angling and to have a financially robust body representing all our interests and addressing all our concerns.

Historically, angling has become segmented into several different groups, even within the three main disciplines of coarse, game and sea. This fragmentation has meant that for too long the huge influence that should be exercised by the sheer numbers of anglers has not been realised.

In today’s world the current situation is not sustainable. Anglers face many threats, which could significantly affect how we fish, where we can fish, and even if we might fish at all. Over abstraction, pollution from ever-more complex chemicals (such as gender-bending endocrine disruptors), foreign diseases, fish theft, the serious decline in sea fish stocks through persistent commercial over fishing, and competition from other better-organised and resourced sports for new recruits are all issues which need concerted action backed by all anglers.

After very careful consideration of all these factors, angling’s leaders realised that the existing uncoordinated and fragmented approach, no matter how well meaning, was not going to provide an answer. Modern problems needed modern solutions.

As a result, discussions began regarding the formation of a single body that could resolve the problems of too much duplication of effort, too much unnecessary cost, and too many organisations still competing for the same membership market. It was a brave step but, possibly for the first time ever, there was a commitment from the leading organisations to success. More importantly, ordinary anglers were also seeking the same goal.

In 2007 the five major bodies, the Anglers’ Conservation Association, the National Association of Fisheries and Angling Consultatives, the National Federation of Anglers, the National Federation of Sea Anglers and the Salmon and Trout Association began discussions to agree a way forward which would see each give up its own identity and establish a single body for the common good. Latterly, the Specialist Anglers’ Alliance has also joined the group.

The task now is to design a structure that meets the above requirements whilst retaining all the positive aspects of the existing organisations. A Unity Implementation Group, with a representative from each of the founding organisations, has been established. Researchers and advisors in corporate restructuring have been engaged and are in the process of conducting a series of focus-group interviews. The feedback from these interviews will help the Group to design the structure of the new organisation. It is too early to predict exactly what this structure will look like, although there is general consensus that there should be a strong regional structure that allows individual anglers, clubs and other groups to exert real authority on what happens in their region and also to influence what happens at a national and even international level.

A good deal of careful planning will be necessary if the objectives are to be met. However, it is recognised that if the process is turned into a long drawn out affair, the resulting uncertainties will not serve angling well. Therefore, the proposed timescale is for the management and governance structure to be determined by 1 July 2008 (Vesting Day), when all members of the existing organisations would automatically become members of the new organisation. Then as membership renewals fell due, individuals clubs and others would be invited to renew through the new unified organisation.

The website ‘www.anglingunity.co.uk’ has been established in order to provide opportunities for the Implementation Group to keep all anglers informed as progress.

Paul Knight, S&TA’s Director, declares, “This exciting news means that we are now the first angling lobbying organisation to enjoy charitable status – a hugely important milestone in our aim to place concerns about the health of our aquatic environment at the centre of all initiatives, governmental or otherwise, concerned with water management.”

He points out that the S&TA was established because of deep concern over the abysmal state of Britain’s salmon and trout rivers post-industrial revolution, since when it has always taken a leading role in lobbying and opinion-influencing on behalf of its angling members.

“The Charity Commissioners are satisfied that the work that we are involved with now has much wider implications which benefit the public as a whole,” Paul Knight points out. “This includes the conservation, protection and sustainable exploitation of salmon, trout and other fish stocks of United Kingdom origin, and the conservation and improvement of the aquatic environment and ecosystems necessary for them to thrive, as well as other key initiatives such as education, training and research.”

He adds, “It is especially significant that the work that anglers have been doing in managing the aquatic environment for generations is now recognised as having an importance that goes far beyond pure sporting considerations. We will continue to operate as we have always done, but our brief now encompasses all fish and all aquatic environments.”

He concludes: “Charitable status comes, of course, at a time when we are looking to unify with other organisations into one representative body for angling and fisheries. However, none of our work on charitable status will be lost, because a charitable arm of the unified body will be a vital part of its structure, and it is envisaged that the role of S&TA will slip seamlessly into this side of the new operation. “

‘We have agreed that the following bodies intend to wind up their organisations and form a single new organisation to represent all anglers. This will be subject to each organisation passing the necessary legal and financial checks – known as ‘due diligence’.

• Anglers’ Conservation Association
• National Association of Fisheries and Angling Consultatives
• National Federation of Anglers
• National Federation of Sea Anglers
• Salmon and Trout Association
• Specialist Anglers’ Alliance

The transition process is being managed by the Fisheries and Angling Conservation Trust, the umbrella body for fisheries and angling organisations. FACT has retained legal, financial and marketing professionals to advise on the formation of the new body.

Each of our organisations has contributed £10,000 to FACT to cover the new body’s start-up costs, a clear indication of our commitment. In addition to funding the essential due diligence much work is needed to improve marketing and our services to members.

The target date for incorporation of the new body, ie legal registration as a company, is early July with full operation by January 2009. Before then each organisation will seek approval to proceed at a general meeting - NAFAC has already done so.

As Chairmen of long-established organisations with loyal members we have not taken this step lightly. However we all believe that a single new organisation is needed to fight for the interests of all anglers and the fisheries they enjoy. We have already received many messages of support for the move and look forward to a bright future.’

Stephen Marsh-Smith, Chairman ACA
Martin Read, Chairman NAFAC
Terry Fell, Chairman NFA
Richard Ferre, Chairman NFSA
James Carr, Chairman STA
Chris Evans, Chairman SAA

No further statements are likely while the detailed due diligence and other preparatory work continues.

Estimates of the numbers of anglers in the U.K. vary from something between 1 and 4 million people. And yet, despite these numbers and the fact that angling is the largest participant sport in the U.K., contributing a reported £3.5 billion pounds into the economy, the sport itself remains generally unrecognised in the corridors of power and influence. Anyone looking at this from outside, would, I’m sure, find it difficult to imagine why, while many on the inside never even give it a thought. Others possibly even wonder if it is important, after all angling for many is a somewhat solitary sport and is seen by the public at large as such, and in many circles promoted in the same manner.

So why do we find ourselves in this situation, and is it important?
Historically angling enthusiasts fell almost naturally into three main categories, those that fished in the sea, those that by privilege fished for game fish and the rest who fished for whatever they could find. As a result they organised themselves into representative groups, the outcome being the formation of today’s three governing bodies the National Federation of Sea Anglers, NFSA, the Salmon and Trout Association, S&TA, and the National Federation of Anglers, NFA.
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