Fishing clubs

My experiences yesterday prompted me to ponder the value for money provided by most clubs and associations! The day ticket was £7.50 and I had 4 lakes to chose from. There was an ample car park but my chosen peg was 250 yards or so from the car and I had to make two trips to set up and two trips when packing up! I asked a chap if it was possible to bring the car through to the peg to unload and load and was advised that I could if i was disabled and had a blue badge or I held a season ticket! The latter cost £150 pa or £180 pa with closer parking and the "luxury" of loading and unloading close to your peg!

A prominent Cheshire commercial has a particular lake which is open to members at a cost of £250pa! I doubt I would be happy fishing a single venue again and again! On a £ per fish basis they may offer better value but to my mind the catching is just part of the overall experience! That would not have been my experience in any event based on my observations yesterday!

My two clubs offer excellent value for money on an annual basis once the joining fee has been paid and even with it in year one? I have over 250 varied waters to go to as often as I like for the combined price of the commercials referred to plus free parking close to the peg! I know which I prefer and the value for money they represent. On one card I have access to two dayticket waters which frequent use pays for membership twice over!

Clubs provide great value for money and plenty of varied fishing! I would join a couple more just for access to certain waters but I have enough of a problem deciding where to go now without adding to it!!!

I agree. Many people berate clubs but as you say the value offered is generally very good.

Clubs do offer good value but only if you have good clubs with waters and good access within a radius of home that the angler is prepared to travel.

In the area that I live there are none, there is a club with a water a few miles away that is where I first started fishing but now I am unable to access any more than the few car park swims, there are no disabled anglers swims on the water no reduction in price for only being able to fish a few swims (the water is 20 acres) so imo this club doesn't offer good value for money.

Agreed generally but how many of those waters are you likely to fish? I would suspect that most waters have a limited catchment area for regular
anglers. The cost of fuel puts many of the waters off limits for me for anything but the occasional visit. My personal view is that the bigger clubs
are spread to far and too thin. Altrincham Anglers have it about right for me. With the exception of a stretch of the Vrynwy in Melverley the furthest
is 15mls away and 6 of the seven stillwaters are within 10mls. I'll still maintain my Warrington Anglers ticket though despite only fishing two of
their waters regularly.

I've had great value over many years, and several house moves, from Northwich Anglers, Warrington Anglers, Bay Malton, Pride of Derby Angling and many others. One of my current cards, for a cost of £40, gives me several miles of prime river - variable, as many rivers are, but undoubtedly a beautiful place to fish,holding big fish of several species - and 8 other waters from ponds to a mill dam and canal, an estate lake and several large park lakes. The club is run by incredibly committed people whose work in development, maintenance and general PR on behalf of angling is second to none. Another gives me access, aside from a big stillwater complex, to miles of river fishing that can be out of this world, for what amounts to about 33p per day. I visit a lot of day ticket waters, because sometimes they are the best option. But good clubs deliver, for me, far better value and ownership than the pay per day model.

In my mind my fishing clubs offer outstanding value for money when compared to local day ticket waters. For £150 I can if I want fish 24/7 330 days a year. It depends on what you want from your fishing.
There are Syndicate waters that I know of charging over £2000 a year and the members in their eyes must be are getting value for money because there are waiting lists in force.

wetthrough said:

Agreed generally but how many of those waters are you likely to fish?

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Not many! However each of my cards give me at least 6 waters within 10 miles which offer a different environment and different options. If I include the river sections then this number doubles with in the same distance and triples if I am willing to travel up to 40 miles! I accept fully that on PA I will hardly use if at all 90% of their waters! They are available however! My post was prompted by the cost of annual membership of an average commercial as opposed to an angling club!

I have been offered a syndicate place but only carp are likely to be caught and that doesn't interest me at all! Now a syndicate dedicated to tench, roach and rudd would be a different story!

My most expensive water at £100 is my syndicate one. The advantage is a reasonable size water with rarely more than 2 anglers on it.
My best bargain is a stretch of river about one mile for the exorbitant (OAP) price of £10. Disgraceful :wh

mikench said:

I have been offered a syndicate place but only carp are likely to be caught and that doesn't interest me at all! Now a syndicate dedicated to tench, roach and rudd would be a different story!

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Are there none of those species in there Mike? if there are they are likely to be ignored by the carp anglers, all the syndicates I have belonged to have had other species in and I had some good fish by targeting them.

I'd expect the general angling demographic present on FM to be largely in favour of the club fishing model. Unfortunately, FM is not particularly representative of angling as a whole. There are vast swathes of anglers that have no inclination to join a club. There are many reasons for this, but the prime one is that many club waters are just not productive enough for some. For others, they simply don't give access to fish that are big enough for them. I know plenty of regular anglers that haven't been a member of a club for decades. I know quite a few that have never been part of an angling club.

I'm invariably a member of at least two clubs every year. I'm a member of a stillwater syndicate and a river syndicate. I join the stillwater syndicate for the chance of some specimen stillwater species. The fact that it's a rather lovely place that's only a couple of miles from home helps. The river syndicate is joined because it's as cheap as chips and also a nice quiet stretch. If I were a dedicated specimen hunter, or someone that wanted to catch the better part of 50lb+ every time out, I'd not be joining the local clubs for access to their stillwaters. The reality is that they are only really worthwhile for their river stretches. If you are not a river angler, as seems the case for the majority of anglers, there's probably little point in joining the majority of my local clubs.

I accept that this may not ring quite as true in other parts of the country. There are decent specimen waters available on club books. However, despite the presence of bigger fish than I could dream of, they are usually a rung or two down on the quality of fish available elsewhere in the same region. There's good reason as to why some clubs are going down the road of attempting to recreating an out and out commie, or buying big, fast growing carp. When the average match type commie is £10 per day, and the average big carp commercial £20+ per 24hours, most clubs, and many syndicates, are solid value for money, provided you fish them enough and they provide the type of fish/fishing you desire.

thecrow said:

Are there none of those species in there Mike? if there are they are likely to be ignored by the carp anglers, all the syndicates I have belonged to have had other species in and I had some good fish by targeting them.

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I honestly don't know Graham and neither did the secretary I spoke to. He implied that the water had lost most if not all of its fish many years before and had been restocked
with carp only! At the time I wasn't too interested and had no idea if my interest in fishing was likely to be temporary or not!

If it's like my clubs Mike, it well get cheaper when you reach 65!

I'm not at that milestone til August but both my clubs have offered me OAP rates this year. Couple that with the £35per annum I pay to fish the estate, I'm doing rather well having a host of waters to choose from for just over £120 for the year.

mikench said:

My experiences yesterday prompted me to ponder the value for money provided by most clubs and associations! The day ticket was £7.50 and I had 4 lakes to chose from. There was an ample car park but my chosen peg was 250 yards or so from the car and I had to make two trips to set up and two trips when packing up! I asked a chap if it was possible to bring the car through to the peg to unload and load and was advised that I could if i was disabled and had a blue badge or I held a season ticket! The latter cost £150 pa or £180 pa with closer parking and the "luxury" of loading and unloading close to your peg!

A prominent Cheshire commercial has a particular lake which is open to members at a cost of £250pa! I doubt I would be happy fishing a single venue again and again! On a £ per fish basis they may offer better value but to my mind the catching is just part of the overall experience! That would not have been my experience in any event based on my observations yesterday!

My two clubs offer excellent value for money on an annual basis once the joining fee has been paid and even with it in year one? I have over 250 varied waters to go to as often as I like for the combined price of the commercials referred to plus free parking close to the peg! I know which I prefer and the value for money they represent. On one card I have access to two dayticket waters which frequent use pays for membership twice over!

Clubs provide great value for money and plenty of varied fishing! I would join a couple more just for access to certain waters but I have enough of a problem deciding where to go now without adding to it!!!

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Would the prominent Cheshire Commercial be in Culcheth ?
I used to be in 6 clubs, but now down to 3, WAA, Lymm and Wilderspool Anglers, The first two have an abundance of
waters, the latter has 3 farm style pools with tench crucians and in one of them a few F1,s.
I have been in WAA for 56 years, Lymm for 35+ and Wilderspool for 5, but I still fish commercials,
Clubs do give good value for money, but for a change of scenery and somewhere that has facilities such as safe parking, toilets, and at some places a café, plus numerous waters on site, commercials give good value as well.

It might be Mark! It rhymes with cartridge!!:wh

mikench said:

It might be Mark! It rhymes with cartridge!!:wh

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And the lake rhymes with a four letter brand of soap powder,

Surf!!!! Ah i know the one and you are correct! I feel that the annual fee for that is expensive! What are the Wilderspool waters like for access , parking and tench?

I deliberately chose a club at a cost of £20 pa (£30 first year) which gives me access to 3 ponds. These are natural features, not pellet raised although of course they do re-stock occasionally with roach etc. Big bags are out of the question, but it's a good place to learn your craft rather than one of these "fish a chuck" places which hold no interest for me at all (each to their own).
Also, being skint 90% of the time I get unlimited fishing for £30 at most. Can't go wrong with that.

mikench said:

Surf!!!! Ah i know the one and you are correct! I feel that the annual fee for that is expensive! What are the Wilderspool waters like for access , parking and tench?

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Wilderspool is a tenner a year, not sure if they put a tenner joining fee on this year, One of the pools you park on the road opposite, another you can park in the field next to the pool, if any spaces, if not park in layby about 25 yards from gate to the pool, the third again park in the lane near pool entrance,All waters have coded locks on the gates,and the tench fishing is good. Do you want me to pm you the secretarys number,
the pools are in Walton, Hatton and Antrobus, All about 15 minutes from Warrington.

Yes please Mark! I am in SK 9 so not far down the M56!

Redeemed said:

I deliberately chose a club at a cost of £20 pa (£30 first year) which gives me access to 3 ponds. These are natural features, not pellet raised although of course they do re-stock occasionally with roach etc. Big bags are out of the question, but it's a good place to learn your craft rather than one of these "fish a chuck" places which hold no interest for me at all (each to their own).
Also, being skint 90% of the time I get unlimited fishing for £30 at most. Can't go wrong with that.

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Me too, I get 2 marinas and 5 pegs on the Soar for £25 a year. Not easy fishing unless you’re after the usual kamikaze silver fish. Mixed fishery with a few double figure carp. Suits me, cheap and just 20 mins drive.
The cost of 1/2 a pint of maggots usually puts a grin on my face.