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Ticket price increase.

Used to fish certain reservoir ,was a fantastic venue for roach and Bream with a good number double figure
Pike , and a number of 20+ up to a Reservoir record of 39 lb. The season ticket was less than £100 ,and you could
Also get Day tickets.
The fishery has been turned into a CARP fishery with a lot of stocked Carp being introduced to a water that never had any Carp at all. The Syndicate ticket isnow a massive £750 per season😳
 
I'm in the same club, and it's a jump yes, but I'll pay anyway. To be honest £100 is a drop in the ocean compared to what i spend on fishing in a year. I have commented on the BAA site a few times that I'd pay £100 for that if they got rid of this silly 'hour after sunset' rule, at £40, that club is the bargain of the century.
 
John Care said:
I'm in the same club, and it's a jump yes, but I'll pay anyway. To be honest £100 is a drop in the ocean compared to what i spend on fishing in a year. I have commented on the BAA site a few times that I'd pay £100 for that if they got rid of this silly 'hour after sunset' rule, at £40, that club is the bargain of the century.
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£30 for old uns Johnny
 
When I served on the committee of a large angling club and new waters were taken on, a trend started to arise where the water owner, would have it written in the lease that the rent would increase annually, based on the higher rate of either CPI or RPI inflation. Therefore if you are a member of a club, which has actively taken on new waters over the last few years, don’t be surprised if subs start to rise.
 
Adam Wylie said:
Used to fish certain reservoir ,was a fantastic venue for roach and Bream with a good number double figure
Pike , and a number of 20+ up to a Reservoir record of 39 lb. The season ticket was less than £100 ,and you could
Also get Day tickets.
The fishery has been turned into a CARP fishery with a lot of stocked Carp being introduced to a water that never had any Carp at all. The Syndicate ticket isnow a massive £750 per season😳
Click to expand...

That’s not even massive for a Carp lake these days. Some charge £100 just to go on a waiting list!

I can see clubs with stretches of river increasing their prices regularly, simply due to demand. Look at the Trent. As day tickets stretches get more sparse, clubs have ever longer waiting lists. When I put my name down for Ashfield just over 2 years ago I was number 1,000 or so, now there are 3,000 on the list.

£100 for a season is cheap, when I do a bit of Carp fishing it’s generally £30 a night. A weekend at Bobs Island will cost you £42 and some wouldn’t go there if they were given £42. (personally I like it, had 7 different species last time I went).
 
Simon Archer said:
One of the two clubs I'm a member of have just increased their ticket price by nearly 25% to £100. Whether the price is still good value isn't the debate, but is a 25% increase a little steep ?? I was in two minds as to whether to re join again this season anyway, so may not bother this coming season. I didn't attend the AGM, so have no argument to bare.

I'm just wondering what peoples opinions are on clubs increasing their prices, and by how much they think is acceptable ??
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That all depends if your fishing warrants the increase?
If your catching regularly, & it's a lovely place to visit, and it ticks all of your boxes... Then it's a very small price to pay. 😊
 
As a now cured golfer and a returning angler after in excess of twenty years absence I have to say that unlike golf angling fees seem in the main to have remained reasonable. At the end of the day we each as individuals have to decide what we can afford and also and probably more importantly what that gives us in terms of satisfaction including value for money. Personally I am a member of two clubs which represent excellent value for the money, nice surroundings, good fishing and seemingly a good group of fellow members. Equally I paid far more for a week on the Wye but the extra expense bought a degree of exclusivity in a landscape that frankly is priceless.
Value is in the eye of the beholder and regardless of how cheap a ticket may be it is not value if you’re not enjoying the experience that you’re getting.
 
I wasn't sure whether I ought to put the new price of our club's ticket in my OP when I typed it, for fear of people saying "it's still cheap" "It's only X amount a week" "it's still good value for money" and lo and behold, that is exactly what's happened. Nowhere in any of my posts on this thread have I said £100 is too much for this ticket, or it's not value for money. My issue is the rise of nearly 25% in one go, and if other members on here, thought it excessive.

The ticket price hasn't gone up for a year or two now, so a rise was due. Perhaps a better option was for a smaller rise every year, rather than one big one in one go. I feel an increase of 25% in anything is too much (Except wages of course) and I'm sure we all complained when food, fuel and energy bills went through the roof.

I wasn't sure if I'd re join this coming season even before the increase, I'm still not sure. But the fact that the price to join is now £100 will have nothing to do with my decision.
 
For me there are several ways of looking at it. I can only speak from my experience of my local waters/clubs (mainly Thames tributaries).
In general over the last few seasons the quality of fishing has declined rapidly. This season in probably 80 hours fishing on one of my club waters, I've had 2 bites.......yes seriously.
I'm just wondering how clubs are going to be able to pass on the rising lease costs to the members when fishing is so bad.
My generation is quite happy to pay for good parking and solitude but how many young anglers are going to continue to pay increasing costs for decreasing quality of fishing?
No wonder they are turning to the commercials........
Not for me thanks.
 
Evening Simon,

Sent you a PM on MD about this. I won't be renewing this year, not down to the the price hike, made the decision on the basis that I have two other club memberships that gives me access to plenty of waters that are closer and easier to get to for me.

Will say that although I can see the club wanting to keep fees unchanged for two years, but it has slightly backfired with having to increase by 25% especially at the difficult times we are in. Given the rise in popularity of fishing during the last two years due to the Covid effect, it's not surprising that Riparian rights owners are seeking a higher return in rents.
 
Steve Sorrell said:
For me there are several ways of looking at it. I can only speak from my experience of my local waters/clubs (mainly Thames tributaries).
In general over the last few seasons the quality of fishing has declined rapidly. This season in probably 80 hours fishing on one of my club waters, I've had 2 bites.......yes seriously.
I'm just wondering how clubs are going to be able to pass on the rising lease costs to the members when fishing is so bad.
My generation is quite happy to pay for good parking and solitude but how many young anglers are going to continue to pay increasing costs for decreasing quality of fishing?
No wonder they are turning to the commercials........
Not for me thanks.
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I absolutely take your point regarding the poor fishing and equate it again to the golf subs scenario. £1000 per year and then unable/unwilling to play during the period October to March because the course is unfit due to water logging. For me I know that one of my club tickets will provide a very few opportunities to catch barbel based upon numbers, angling pressure and also severe predation. I wasn’t aware until I joined that it would be quite that difficult and on discovery joined a second club which is a little easier based purely on the numbers of fish in there. I enjoy both for different reason, neither are expensive but they’re very different.
I left match fishing many years ago when the move to commercials started though I fully understand that people who just want to catch fish and have limited time to do it will head towards those venues. Personally I love rivers, the landscapes through which they flow, the opportunity to use my albeit rusty watercraft and the fact that I’m never absolutely certain what may be in my swim. Long may that continue, however now in my mid sixties no doubt one day I will have to consider heading towards those flat, safe wooden pegs provided by commercials?
 
Neil Blood said:
When I served on the committee of a large angling club and new waters were taken on, a trend started to arise where the water owner, would have it written in the lease that the rent would increase annually, based on the higher rate of either CPI or RPI inflation. Therefore if you are a member of a club, which has actively taken on new waters over the last few years, don’t be surprised if subs start to rise.
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Very true Neil, although I think you’ll find that inflation linking of rents has been around got quite a while now. Demographics is another increasingly significant factor, as highlighted by Ian Sewter earlier. Club memberships are declining (apart from the pandemic period) and that means that there are less full members and more pensioner members. As most clubs offer reduced fees for their pensioner members, this means that subscription income declines every year, unless fees are increased. Add to that inflation linked increases in rents, which could currently be 10-15%, and it is easy to see why a club that held fees down during the pandemic may now have to increase them by 25%.

As others have said, we pay too little for our fishing - as readily evidenced by the cost of syndicates and commercials. Many clubs are not run on a professional basis and those that are will be the ones that are charging realistic fees for their book of waters and are also seeking to own rather than rent these. Sad to say that if things don’t change, more and more clubs will be forced to drop leased/rented waters to cut down outgoings so that many anglers will find they have less waters to fish or will have to pay more for the privilege.


Dave
 
Most Angling clubs / associations are run by a relatively small number of unpaid dedicated individuals ,'' the committee men '',sometimes backed up by volunteers who bailiff and run work parties . These good folks are often vilified by members particularly on social media ,however those same members rarely step up to help or even attend the AGM . The fact that these individuals run these organisations basically for free keeps prices low . How much does it cost to go out for a meal , a few drinks and a taxi home ? I bet its a lot more than most of us pay for our annual club membership . I would say that for the most part we are spoiled having a good choice of fishing for peanuts . Perhaps more worrying is that many of these clubs and associations are struggling with aged committee members and no new blood coming in . The syndicate is becoming more popular out bidding clubs for prime waters and then charging a premium to join , a premium that some may struggle to afford in these hard times . Lesson to learn? Support your local club and help them retain the waters that you love and currently enjoy at bargain prices
 
As a Fishing club committee member we are dammed if we do and dammed if we don't. Criticised by members who do not want to get involved, help at work parties or sit on the side lines and slag the club off. Simon, maybe you should get involved more so you can understand the issues. Thousands of us work for free for the benefit of a club and its members. Yes 25% is a big increase but do you want your club having to drop Venues if they only put the price up by a couple of quid. Decisions get made for a reason and if they state its to cover rent increases you need to accept it. If a decision is wrong then we are the ones who get blamed and have to deal with the consequences. If your club lost some of its prime stretches it would be disastrous, you can just change clubs to fish those venues. I suspect the club is BM, a club that has been around 140+ years and runs over 20 fisheries so they must be doing something right. Midland rents and club tickets have been cheap for many years and land owners / farmers looking for extra income have seen it. They have seen the increased numbers of anglers arriving on their waters. Quite probably they have been approached by a syndicate or another club for their rights and now see the real value. The days of dropping £50 and a bottle of Whiskey over to the Farmer at Christmas have gone. These days Clubs have to pay up or get off especially on The Trent where there will always be someone wanting to take it on.
 
Most leases increase every year by inflation and in order to keep the waters and the clubs solvent clubs have to increase prices. As far as I am aware all clubs are non profit making, the profits they make are banked to be in a position to lease/buy other waters that become available.
Here in the South our leases are eye watering hence the membership fees are high. But when you have access to river stretches such as the Royalty and Throop most members I am sure will be happy with what they get for their money.
 
I don't know why many farmers and landowners put up with the hassle of letting fisheries to clubs and syndicates for some of the sums they get.

An average sized dairy farm has a typically has a turnover of over £1 million, and your average beef farm over £500k. In the scheme of things the rents they often get for river fisheries is very small beer...less than the value of a single cow. And you have the hassle of wear and tear to farm tracks, gates etc. People coming and going at night, sometimes leaving gates open etc.
 
One of the reasons Joe is that they use us as eyes and ears, on one of our stretches we regularly inform the farmer about sheep in the river.
 
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