The cost of your fishing.

[seth49]

Just seen on Facebook that the club I joined this year has increased pensioners subs by fifty percent, its now thirty pounds a year, still not bad but they do seem to be charging pensioners more, some clubs charge the same as ordinary members, mind you during the week most of those fishing are over sixty five.

 

[rayner]

Bloody predictive tablet,lol....couldn't predict a cold,every time I post chub,it wants to put chug,WTF!!!I

When I posted 'post' it put lost,grrrr,so what starts as a quick scan through FM ends up taking ages checking what cock ups my tablet has conjured up,there were four in this paragraph.

Welcome to my world.
I don't have predictive text, my problem is my noggin. A bleed on my brain causes me to forget even the simplest of words, I then struggle to correct errors even though I know they are not right.
On my old computer I had a spell checker, on this new lap top I don't. This post in particular as taken 7 minutes to get to where it's ready to post. I timed it.

Just seen on Facebook that the club I joined this year has increased pensioners subs by fifty percent, its now thirty pounds a year, still not bad but they do seem to be charging pensioners more, some clubs charge the same as ordinary members, mind you during the week most of those fishing are over sixty five.

I have never had a fishing concession, that is apart from my fishing licence. I suppose there could be concessions at some of the venues I have fished, I never thought to ask. Mind you how much of a concession would you get from a fiver, that's the most I have ever paid for a day ticket.
I did get a concession on year permits but never a day ticket.
The venue I fish now does do concessions on year permits, I won't buy one for the simple fact that the chap who leases the water doesn't do the season permits, to get a permit you have to contact British Waterways, the monies are kept by BW.
The lease owner gets nothing from permits, only day tickets.
The tackle shop who gets all my custom is the fishery lease holder.

 

[sam vimes]

Just seen on Facebook that the club I joined this year has increased pensioners subs by fifty percent, its now thirty pounds a year, still not bad but they do seem to be charging pensioners more, some clubs charge the same as ordinary members, mind you during the week most of those fishing are over sixty five.

Being directly involved with the running of a club, I've come to believe that it's inevitable that concessionary rates at angling clubs will end up being a thing of the past. In most clubs, the number of people paying full price is diminishing year on year. Plenty of those paying full price are not as wealthy as many of those getting concessions, which almost definitely wouldn't have been the case 30-40+ years ago. Plenty of those paying full price don't have anywhere near as much time to go fishing. All that conspires towards pushing may into day ticket fishing, which makes the issue even worse. The end result could be a club full of concessionary ticket holders. That's fine, provided the resulting income covers all outgoings. If it doesn't, something has to change. If there are fewer (or none) paying full price, then it's pretty much inevitable that concessionary prices will have to rise. If the income gap is wide enough those rises may end up being significant.

 

[mikench]

I don't qualify for any concessions with either of my clubs but I understand and accept why. I'll just have to get out more often.

 

[Mark Wintle]

One of my smaller local clubs used to give those over 65 a free permit provided they'd been a full member for two years but with half the membership over 65 (very different from when I first joined when it was less than 10%) a fee that is two thirds of full membership now applies.

I'm in the same area as Bracket but currently have 5 memberships, probably more than I need but it gives me choice though this season has seen my fishing restricted more than before due to my wife's problems, fortunately things have improved of late though the conditions yet to get much better. That said I got on the river the first time in a month today and had a nice catch of roach in a couple of hours fitted in before the ineviotable rain.

 

[Keith M]

One of my smaller local clubs used to give those over 65 a free permit provided they'd been a full member for two years but with half the membership over 65 (very different from when I first joined when it was less than 10%) a fee that is two thirds of full membership now applies.

Mark, unfortunately this thing seems to be becoming more common these days as memberships get older and older.

One of my clubs who have leased a beautiful remote and private estate lake in Hertfordshire for well over 80 years; has recently decided to stop doing any reduced price pensioner memberships; because so many of the members have reached a ripe old age and the lease will still need paying every few years together with any restockings that are needed plus the fishery upkeep costs; and the number of members is strictly limited.

Fortunately for me; about 14 or 15 years ago when I was in my 50s I was awarded a lifetimes free membership to this club for services that I rendered to the club while I served on the committee for almost 30 years; so this doesn’t really affect me; although I do still voluntarily contribute a few quid towards the clubs restocking fund.

Keith

 

[seth49]

To be honest it’s only twenty pounds less than full membership now, if they stopped day tickets, I’d happily pay that, and the fish would be better treated as well, in my opinion judging from what I’ve seen.

 

[108831]

I've been to Bedford this morning,£3.50 for a pint of red maggots(I bought 2pts),£8.50 for a match pack of dendras,luckily that will last a couple of sessions at least,otherwise I'd get a slapped wrist,not.....

 

[edsurf]

My annual club ticket is £170 and winter grayling ticket a further £45 so not cheap, but I do get to fish some very nice rivers. most are only half hour drive so not to bad.

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

I pay for three club tickets; £60 for Newlands in Standlake, £20ish quid for North Oxford AA and £20ish quid for Kidlington Angling club (which also gives me membership of ODAA and gets me miles of the rive thames).

That all seems pretty good value, however having recently been on a weekend trip around the Ringwood/ fordingbridge area where me and some mates had Christchurch Angling Club tickets, it did make me realise that some clubs have a much more multi-dimensional aspect. It's frustrating in Oxfordshire just how little still water fishing there is (unless you want to pitch up for days on end and catch carp). And whilst there's lots of fish in the thames, it's not a spot of a river that really moves like the wye or the avon.

So for me - at the bottom of the "cost" list - would be a club water I pay approx. 38p a week to fish, where i'll go chub fishing for a few hours with a 50p loaf of liquidised bread for feed and keep a few slices for hookbait. I might go on my push bike, so it really is costing me less than a quid to go.

At the other end of the scale, i'll go down to the wye with a couple of mates for a weekend away..... Wye and Usk day tickets are £25 a day, accommodation will be in the region of £50 each per night and food and wine/ ale will easily top £30 a night so I'm looking at the other side of £100 for a "day's" fishing. However, I would actually say that the latter gives me better value for money as I look forward to it more and get a lot more out of it (those trips are just as important for more from the social perspective as for the fishing).

And then there's probably a number of scenarios inbetween. An interesting recent development on this is my 12 year old lad becoming very interested (obsessed even!) with angling over the last year or so. So now I need to figure in his bait, tickets, gear etc. Do I begrudge that? Not at all! I'm investing in a future where the onus will be on him to take his old man and get him out of the house!