Do you pay to fish / are you a member?

[saladdodger]

As title says really.

Just been looking about at many other places around the country (avon mainly) to fish but most are run by angling associations and for me to expensive for the membership.

Just wondered who prefers free casual/pay for a day ticket/pay an annual membership.

Obviously income dictates for most people.

Just curious really

cheers

[Dubbed Squirrel]

Used to fish 3 rivers up here as a member of each, but found I was fishing the most expensive one (£120) the least, so dropped it this season. My favourite is the cheapest ( £30.00 a season C&R), lots of tree lined runs, some several miles long, views and wildlife in abundance. The only downside, being a spate river, after three days heavy rain, it can be out of action for a few days after.

[chazyboi]

members only rivers can be overrated i had a baa card for years but they book up all the best water on sat and sundays for matches was a joke if your at work

[saladdodger]

one of the clubs wa 150 quid a year, very clean, nice river fishing, awesome fish but that cost once a year seems crazy IMO

[muddy_boots]

I am a member of a local fishing association because this means I can go to a number of lakes and rivers and canal whenever I want without having to worry about can I afford it this month or is it worth paying a few £ for at most a couple of hours.

Of course, my preference would be free fishing at a specimen lake with exclusive membership of me.

[saladdodger]

Thats fair enough, but it seems fairly stressful to find free fishing over the country as i dont want to go to the same place over and over. Well, saying that, the places ive seen are members only or £15+ a day.

[Maceo]

Beaches, forests and rivers ought to be open for everyone to enjoy. I've always found the concept of someone 'owning' one of these a bit odd - like saying you own the sky or the wind.

A popular law someone could bring in would be to make day tickets compulsory. That is, there would be no 'exclusive' private waters belonging to anyone - they would be required to make available at least a few day tickets each day.

The rates for joining clubs are often excessive, when they say 'no day tickets' that means you can't even try it out to see what it's like before spending so much. I'd really like to visit some other river locations, but I'm obviously not going to pay £70 or whatever to fish a water 50 miles away once only.

[saladdodger]

Thats exactly my point, i never knew that rivers are owned by [whoever], seems absolutley bonkers to me, as you say, cant even try it before you buy it, even on a day ticket. Seriously unfair, some of the spots ive visited are terrible with shopping trollies in the water and rubbish in the water (windsor), id be pretty if i payed to fish that.

[chris.oldgit]

if you pay £3 a day ticket, 52 weeks a year = £156 a year =52 days
£150 pounds a year at 365 days = 00.41p per day =365 days
which is cheaper ?

its just finding the yearly subs in one go

[BoldBear]

I belong to two clubs,

The first is Verulum AC which has over 20 well kept waters including still and running waters containing record sized fish of most species and all for £73 per annum for an adult membership (plus a joining fee the first year)
It has some of the best fishing in the area and has various social events where top anglers give talks etc. and has coaching days, a junior section and a trout section a specialist section, and a Match section. plus every year they aim to aquire a new water or two.

I get the wife to pay for my yearly subscription for my Birthday present each year and being disabled it only costs me £40.

The second club I belong to is a private estate lake club that has just one lake; a superb beautiful estate lake full of Tench,Crucians Rudd and Carp, where you can have the lake to yourself midweek because it has a limited number of invited members,and I have a free life membership for services rendered to the club over the years.

The last time I fished a day ticket water was when I was away on holiday.