EA magazine

I received a copy of the EA magazine this morning through the post. It has been sent to all those who owned a licence last year, so is it a good bit of publicity to remind anglers to renew, or is it a waste of money. I raise the last question, bearing in mind, how sensitive anglers are to price increases.
I've flicked through the mag and it looks quite informative. What do you all think?

I received a copy today, and as Stewart says it is informative. I take the point about good publicity to renew, but it also give the angler an insight into the work the EA does, and more importantly where their money goes.
One of the biggest moans from anglers is they pay their licence fee and see nothing for it.

The EA also put out a free quarterly mag "Catch" which is also quite good.

You can find out where every single penny goes if you look up the annual report on the EA website.

The Government's Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Review also had a detailed breakdown of its accounts.

It's really quite depressing when you realise how little money they have to play with, although fisheries work accounts for a tiny percentage of the EA's total budget.

The major issue is obtaining government funding for fisheries, because at the moment the EA can only spend what it gets in rod licences, so as the sport declines the figure goes down each year, while the cost of everything from staffing to stock fish goes up.

There have been some highly half-baked people shooting their mouths off about the EA in some of the angling press without bothering to cehck their facts first.

It doesn't spend all our money on salmon for a start.

Our local EA have held an annual get together/conference each year for the past four or five years which brought people from all the freshwater branches together.

The meetings took the form of talks by EA staff and invited guests with Q&A opportunities throughout.

Sadly this year's was cancelled as a result of funding cuts. Personally I have found the local EA to be very helpful - several water owners I know have had help with oxygenation problems and the loan of equipment all at no cost.

What we must remember however is that their staff are essentially scientists and not neccesarily anglers and thus we must occasionally and constructively put our views forward.

Nice little magazine,quite informative,free licence offer a nice touch.would like to see it sent out on a quarterly basis.

I agree, I quite liked the peice about breeding and stocking. I also think it should come out more often.

mmmmmm. so all the commercial fisheries that 'appear' to be self dependant and accommodate over half of the anglers in the UK, thast supply and look after thier own fish......where do they come in to it?
What does the EA do for them?-not knockinf of course......
Chub

What do the EA do for them? Just talk to one of the so called independant fishery owners and see how much the EA does for them, my local one is always in contact with the EA for stocking advice, food levels, fish availability and suitability. I know you wern't knocking them but the EA needs our support 100%. By the way i dont work for them....

I found the EA magazine an interesting read! And yes, I dare say it is a good idea to remind anglers to buy their licences. But, it leads me to ask a couple of questions: (a) How many anglers will actually read it, and (b) what benefits are to be gained from it?

(a) I would suggest the vast majority will skimp through it and then bin it! (b) None! (imho).

It would have obviously cost the EA a lot of money to produce the magazine, so why didn't they just send a letter of reminder to those who purchased a licence the previous year? Further to this, again imo, I'm sure better more cost-effective ways could have been found to publicise the good work they do!

Can someone let me know more details of the newsletter

Scott, it was sent to all those who had a licence last year. Contact the EA at..01454 624 400 (This is their head office number)

It would appear that those who knock the EA are all singing from the same songsheet.I would like to goive a couple of reasons why i think ?20.00 a year is good value.
Whenever i fish a new stretch of river i ring the local EA and request a copy of the last fish survey.It arrives a day later and gives me incredible detail of the rivers fish population and even general sizes.This is sent free.
I run a small lake for a landowner and a few friends.We have asked advice re stocking and a Crayfish problem.No pamphlets arrive but an official did armed with Cray nets , and one hour later we had arranged a sample netting and lots of advice.Again not a penny changed hands.
So do i think ?20.00 is too much ? Not likely.
Do i wish we could purchase one licence per rod at ?10.00 per rod ? yes i do , but i do not rubbish the EA as a whole because of one tiny aspect of the running of the agency.I am fed up of ignorant people bemoaning the equivelant of 8 pints of Guinness a year.
As for commercial run fisheries , i am sure if they did ask advice from the EA it would be fothcoming but it is the answers they would not like.For example stock densities and questions about Section 30's.

In addition to the Newsletter the Thames section of the EA have produced a Thames area book that lists hundreds of clubs and waters to fish.Price ----free.I got mine in Frames of Hendon and another in Oxhey Angling for a newcomer to the sport.