Day tickets.......or not!

[barbus maximus]

Hi all,
I'm new on the forum, having resisted the temptation till now, but I get more good information on here than any magazine, so thanks.

Unfortunately, my first ever post is a winge........sorry.

I like to travel a bit to do my fishing, both Trout on the fly, and increasingly, Barbel and Chub on the lead/feeder, but can never get to some of the best rivers because the controlling clubs stipulate 'NO DAY TICKETS'.

Take my home river, the brilliant Ivel. Full of massive Barbel, Chub, Bream, Roach and Perch. Now because of work/family commitments, and traveling to other venues on occasion, I may only get to fish it 2-3 times a year. A day ticket would be perfect for me....but no, not on the Ivel. I cant afford upwards of £70 to fish 2 or 3 times a year, nor can many others. I wouldn't mind so much but two of the clubs in question are not even that local!
Further more....(nearly finished), it is the likes of myself who regularly walk's up and down the river, pulling rubbish and junk out that the chavs have thrown in for a laugh, and not the IPA, who apparently are the custodians of the river?
Day tickets would increase revenue for the clubs, and ultimately the river, and allow the fishermen from other parts of the country to experience these beautiful rivers of ours.

Thanks guys and gals, rant over.

Your thoughts please.

[scottish_and_mental]

Originally Posted by barbus maximus

Hi all,
I'm new on the forum, having resisted the temptation till now, but I get more good information on here than any magazine, so thanks.

£3.40 bill is on its way

welcome along fella

[peakoverload]

I remember as a kid living in London I was desperate to find places to fish but I couldn't afford to join any clubs and so relied almost entirely on day ticket waters or free fishing on the Thames. Years later I was able to join a club and can see both positive and negatives to it.

On the positive side the waters belonging to the various clubs I've been a member of have been so much better than the majority of day ticket waters I've fished with really only one exception. By better I don't just mean in the quality and quantity of the fish but also in the location, condition of the banks, wildlife and vegetation around the water and also to a certain extent in the other anglers. At the risk of sounding incredibly snobbish, unfortunately day ticket waters can sometimes attract those 'anglers' that don't really care about the fish or other anglers and cause noise, disturbance and injure fish. I'm not for a second suggesting that all anglers that fish day ticket waters behave like this, just that a minority do who spoil it for others. This is clearly down to economics, if you pay £80 you are more likely to care about the water and protect your investment than if you paid £8.

On the negative side, clubs can be very restrictive. A good club might charge around £80 per year and give you access to say 5-9 different waters but of those you may actually only want to fish or be able to get to 3-5. Because of your investment into your existing club you are perhaps less likely to join other clubs or fish many other day ticket waters because of the extra cost and so you can actually trap yourself a little.

As a kid I used to read in the angling press about all of these clubs and seeing photos of wonderful locations and stunning fish all of which were outside of London and impossible for a teenager to get to even if he could afford it. When I then moved out of London down to the South Coast I was suddenly able to join the types of clubs I'd only been able to read and dream about. Personally for me joining a club was the best thing I ever did fishing wise but each year when it comes to renew my membership I always find that I want to join 2 or 3 clubs just to have access to more waters but never do because it would be too expensive. In my local area there are only a handful of day ticket waters and most of them are not very good so it does seem that anglers these days don't really have much of a choice anymore and pretty much have to join a club.

The problem is that you will never get a club to allow day tickets as they either don't want their waters to have the problems that often come with day ticket waters and also want to retain more control over their waters. I do think though that clubs should offer day tickets as long as the non member fishes with the member and that it is the member that is responsible for the non member. So if the non member causes problems it is the member that will get into trouble with club. This would hopefully keep out any anglers who the club would want to keep away from their waters.

[barbus maximus]

I do see what you mean peakoverload, but the majority of the Ivel is on public land with walkways and paths, so gets more than its fair share of rubbish and misuse by the lesser people, (non-fishermen/women). In fact I personally know a number of guys who will no longer fish it due to the amount of abuse received, and snags on beer cans.........a very sad state of affairs indeed.

[barbus maximus]

Originally Posted by scottish_and_mental

£3.40 bill is on its way

welcome along fella

Thanks for the welcome.

[BoldBear]

Hi Barbus and welcome to the forum.

I am a member of one of the clubs that you talk about who are members of the Ivel Protection Association
(Verulum AC) and for anglers who want a reduced rate the club does a separate Ivel & Ouse ticket for £49.
(Plus a one off initial joining fee of £24)

see here for a list of verulums other fisheries --> Verulam' AC waters

As well as the river Ivel the ticket also includes several excellent Barbel stretches of the upper Gt Ouse (which also allows night fishing) including Felmersham & Radwell.

You look like you are a very sensible and responsible angler but unfortunately there are a lot of other day ticket anglers who are not as responsible as yourself and it is these less responsible anglers who spoil it for anglers like yourself.

Although Verulum does allow it’s members to buy day tickets to take friends on most of it’s waters, the reasons why the club doesn’t allow the ordinary day ticket angler to fish on it’s waters is because day tickets are often bought by un-responsible casual anglers who tend to leave all sorts of litter and discarded lines, bottles, cans etc. on the bank when they leave; or the inexperienced anglers who haven’t a clue how to handle and return fish like barbel and other fish responsibly and couldn’t care less, and leave rods unattended while they talk to their mates etc.

If a member commits any of these cardinal sins he or she is soon put right or thrown out of the club, and inexperienced anglers are coached on how to handle fish and different methods of catching them if required from within the club.

Also club members have to attend yearly work parties where they repair banks, clear fallen trees, trim bankside vegetation and clear rubbish (most of which is left by the general public) etc. but the normal day ticket anglers would normally do non of this work.

So surely you can see the clubs point of view.

The club also has various events durng the year where anglers who want to learn how to catch Barbel or Carp or Tench or stickfloat fishing with a centrepin or other skills such as fly fishing etc. are shown by some top club anglers with guest experts from outside the club also showing how they do it. Plus various tackle displays and the odd tackle stall and these events are totally free except for the odd burger and beer at the barbeques held during the meets.

Anyway welcome to the forum again, I look forward to your posts, and look forward to meeting you on the banks of the Ivel and Gt Ouse in the near future.

Tight lines

Keith (BoldBear)

[barbus maximus]

Thanks for the welcome Keith,

I do see a lot of the benefits of club and association membership (Wild Trout Trust and Salmon and Trout Association member, soon to be Barbel Society), I just think that there must be a compromise to weed out the nare-do-wells, and give you and I more choice in our venues.
What are your thoughts on the IPA's custody of the Ivel? To be honest, I am not that impressed myself. (I understand if you don't wish to make a comment).

[Maddison_Twatter]

Originally Posted by barbus maximus

I do see what you mean peakoverload, but the majority of the Ivel is on public land with walkways and paths, so gets more than its fair share of rubbish and misuse by the lesser people, (non-fishermen/women). In fact I personally know a number of guys who will no longer fish it due to the amount of abuse received, and snags on beer cans.........a very sad state of affairs indeed.

Lesser people, non fisherman and women !
Ive seen plenty of fishing pegs filled with rubbish left by anglers.
Why do you class non anglers and women as "lesser people" ?

[barbus maximus]

I know there are members of our fraternity that are just as careless with rubbish, and how they treat the bank, but on the whole, in 29 years of course, game and sea fishing, it is non fishermen and women who have the least respect for the water.
Just an observation and not one that reduces the amount of respect that should be shown to the watery environment by ALL.

[BoldBear]

I agree with you about the general public and we can do very little to prevent them from dis-respecting the water environment other than perhaps trying to educate them where we can, and setting examples to them, and if that means keeping our less respectfull anglers off some of our waters that cant be too a bad thing can it?

I have been concentrating on the upper stretches of the Lea and the Gt Ouse at Radwell over the last few seasons and havent visited the Ivel for quite a while, but are there no day tickets stretches on the Ivel at Sandy or Biggleswade? I would also be a bit peeved if my club were not a member of the IPA.

I noticed in your profile that you are ex RAF, I spent 11 years in the Fleet Air Arm based on aircraft Carriers plus airfields around the UK. so we have something in common. anyway I'm off home now, talk to you soon

Keith (BoldBear)