match fishing down the pan?

[Baramundi Bob]

Our club fishes for Pennies, much to the dismay of many, but I quite enjoy that. I would pay in more if asked to and would happily go with the flow but think there is something about fishing to beat the others rather than to win some money. I guess were all different.

[Bassyken]

Think it must be a very small majority who actually make any profit out of sea match fishing isn't it? Even with a club match win, by the time you take into consideration bait, tackle losses, fuel you'ld surely be lucky to break even, and with the large opens the odds must be stacked against even the top anglers arent they?

[Maxie]

Think i got carried away there :embarrass:in an open match i mean.
Club anglings a different kettle of fish.im in one myself and even though we dont fish club matches now,still miss them and enjoyed nearly all of them.anyone who doesnt go the club match route is missing out big style imo.

[Ramrod]

anyone who doesnt go the club match route is missing out big style imo.

Could,nt agree more Maxie. I think the open match scene is a natural progression for the more competative anglers. That said, there are some club anglers around this area who are equally as good as the match anglers but choose not to fish any or very few of the opens.

[GJW]

I have had this discussion before, i think match anglers are at the top of there game putting a lot of time effort and money into there fishing, and for most of them its the competitive side of match angling that makes them tick... you will find them same people would be very successful in whatever there chosen passtime was, if it was golf, snooker they would strive to get to the top because its in there blood.. I wouldn't class myself as very competitive angler its not what really makes me tick, it would be easy to use that as an excuse for not doing very well in competions.... but no seriously i respect top match angler's for the time and effort they put into there fishing, but for me it never was about striveing to reach the top and trying to get as many penn points, I have done my fair share of homework regarding fishing marks but not really to win competions just really to get the best from my fishing, i have dabbled on the club and open match circuit and have had a fair amount of success in both but it was never about money at all just enjoying myself catching fish, but i dont think i carry the competitive edge that is needed to be a true top match angler, but i do still enter the odd open and club match and when fishing it i try to get the best bait and and try to put it in a spot were i think will throw up a few fish on that day to the best of my knowledge..
For me it is getting out travelling to and finding new spots and trying for different species and working out how certain venues fish, that i get most enjoyment from..

[Dav]

To be honest im no were near a successfull match or open angler , i joined a fishing club mainly due to the fact i was fishing on my own for a long time and thought it was about time i needed to put what ide learned to the test and also to learn new things and how other anglers go about there fishing ,i must say sinse joining the club and this forum , ive met alot of very good anglers and freinds , and would not turn back .......regarding the opens , again i dont fish all of them and think i dont put half as much effort into them as alot of people i know , but to be able to fish for 5 hres and have the chance to win  500 quid  . .......opens for me are a way of trying to put everything you have learned about a particular area through club fishing , together ........To win one would be a unreal..........
 Penn points again if i was successful , i would certainly fish for penn points ,why not ,,,,,isnt it for the best of the best so to speak ?

[Spawney Bass]

I suppose its obvious why some people don't fish these events, most sports are divided up in terms of ability & skill. Golf has a handicap system, and in Football for obvious reasons Man utd & Whitby town play in different leagues. But with angling Man utd (the elite anglers) are in direct competition with the novice who thinks he may get lucky. We all know he wont & and so i can understand the reluctance of some people to compete.
from my own perspective, i definitely fall into the novice category & have no real interest in the match scene, but do enter a few to donate my fiver to Ramrods & co's swag bags & enjoy seeing how good the top lads are, and meeting them in the pub after.
I suppose i just might get lucky one day 

[quint]

I suppose the "elite anglers" get an extra 10 minutes fishing then Dave, or as long as it takes for them to win   

[Maxie]

gjw mentions the competitive personality im a bit laid back in most things but try a bit harder in a match,sometimes i fish with a lad who is to me too competitive,if i pleasure fish with him its like a competition and he wouldnt hesitate to cast over me or steal a spot i have showed him even running down the shore to beat me to it,he also hates to be beat........................i think i need to fish more often with him

[wec]

i would say  ,a biggest fish match slightly handicaps the elite, new dave, big fish matchs tend to be a bit more popular imo ,as any one really can win, with a bit of luck.  but a balance of both usally pleases most.
                   
         

[Baramundi Bob]

Think I was being a bit negative earlier and I have been thinking of my memories of open matches. I remember Malc Pitman (seaspray skipper) winning the Stiddy Open a few years ago now. He was a big underdog but his special baits came up trumps on that day, so I guess occasionally the underdog can even win the heaviest bag matches. Every dog has his day

[Patterdale]

Hi all

Interesting discussion and some very good points made by people.
It seems that this problem is not only in this sport but most participating sports i feel.
I have just come back into sea fishing after a 25 year lay off.

I have raced racing bikes for 18 years for my club Stockton Wheelers CC and done very well.
We always had some lad who was better than others, sometimes on the day in a particular race or
sometimes on a regular basis. It did not put the others off from racing as they were trying to beat
their own personal times for a given distance.

Yes we had lads who were good and would swap clubs on a regular basis for the promise of some
gear or a road shirt or shorts etc, and to those we wished them luck, but the majority of us
 remained faithful to our hometown clubs.

There  is always going to be some anglers who are obviously better than others in a club,
and I for one would like to fish with them and share their sucess if possible, and pick up any tips etc.

We have just started Tacle box SAC at Billingham, joined the NFSA and obtained Insurance etc, we have approximately 25 members now
and I would say there is no one who excels, we are all about the same ability some slightly better at times.

We have been fishing all our matches not as a pegged event all the time but on the same stretch of beach, pier etc.

I think most lads like the craic of fishing together in matches and dont expect to get rich from it,
 leave that to the top matchmen who spend loads of money on bait, travel etc,
If they put the effort in they deserve the rewards in my opinion.

Doug

[Baramundi Bob]

sometimes i fish with a lad who is to me too competitive,if i pleasure fish with him its like a competition and he wouldnt hesitate to cast over me or steal a spot i have showed him even running down the shore to beat me to it,he also hates to be beat........................i think i need to fish more often with him

Yes we had one of them, he left though, think the pressure was a bit much for him. Used to hide his cliff pole in the long grass and would only get it out if he got a decent fish, whilst watching others struggle with big fish in the hope they would loose them off. Complaining if people fished a venue the night before a match. Complaining if you fished next to him and only ever going in the pub after the match if he caught a fish, otherwise he went home. Its sad but all true. We all like to win but to be able to win you must be able to loose, and to loose gracefully with a shake of the hand and a well done comment (whilst thinking in your head - Ill have you next time ya bugger !!! ).

[dabcatcher]

Yes that certainly is true. I was going to mention the situation you mentioned Dav. Fishing evolves and the best anglers dont stay at the top forever. As Ramrod said once - "The king is dead long live the king". There was a time when A member of our club was possibly the best on the coast, this person was Dennis Thompson, then came the Scarborough boys and knocked off his crown. Scaify, mart wilding, Andy Crowe, Steve Ianson, Jeremy Robsinson all took the knowledge and put the bar higher. Then came Ray who at times looks invincible. Who will take the next step ?

Also Dabcatcher makes a great point. Its always the ones who put in least effort who knock the top rods. Our club is exactly the same. In a bid to knock me off the top their have been many suggestions - Ban whitings, change the boundaries etc etc etc. Im now at the point I darent tell anyone where I fished incase they try to make the venue out of bounds. One lad in our club AGM suggested that if I wanted to fish at Saltburn I should join Saltburn club, the proposed a boundary change to Skinnigrove. He failed to see the ironary of the fact he left Filey Brigg in bounds - a place further away but one he liked to fish. My perspective is throw the rules out the window along with boundaries and let the best man win so long as you fish within the laws of the land 

all the local clubs i have been involved in have had meetings to alter the rules to try and even the odds.

there have been fish increased in size or reduced in size. number limits. venue restrictions. over the years it has gone on and on. i get asked to leave and join an [elite] club.

one club decided to alter all fish sizes to go metric, except dabs which had to stay at 10in. they were frightened it would reduce the size slightly after they had increased it to slow me down [dabcatcher].

at these meetings i always explain that by putting more restrictions on they are only making it harder for the "less knowlegable" anglers to actually make a weigh in. it doesnt matter to the better anglers because they will only go away and alter and adapt there tactics to suit the new rules. others cant do this so suffer the new rules.

at all meetings i now dont vote on anything and let them do what they want. this way i am fishing to there rules and cant be seen to alter things for myself.

we certainly arnt fishing for the money in our club because on a good day the winner is only getting £20. so after £5 entry, 4 hours bait collecting and petrol. your making nothing. the points system will mean i would get a small trophy [which i dont really want] and if theres enough money in the funds, a small prize.

i get my enjoyment from meeting a group of freinds and pitting my skills to try to beat them on the day.

i have proven on many occasions that if they come with me, use the rig i give them, bait it up the way i show them and cast where i tell them. they will weigh in. on most matches theres no reason why someone should blank because with a little knowledge there will always be a fish to catch that will make size. lots though wont use less than a 4/0 and complain when your weighing in dabs. actually quite a few left one club purely for that reason.

well thats my rant over.   

[Baramundi Bob]

Your bang on about the rules changing DC and they dont realise that it serves no purpose to do that. At the start of this season our club voted to put up the whiting size limit to try and stop people targeting them. So on a night where I may have gone whiting fishing (relatively calm sea on a small flooding tide) on the beach or end of south gare I made the decision to target cod. Got to the mark and found I was sharing it with 4 others. The mark isnt like most where you can spread out, if theres 4 of you there than you all fish from an area about 20 foot across and all cast onto the same ground. Anyway I had no choice but to stay as I knew it was the only place you would catch enough to win on that night. Needless to say I cleaned up - 4 cod for 12 pounds, the others never had a sniff. The language was foul at the weigh inn. Apparently I should never have fished there because there was already 3 people on the mark. What they failed to see was that they were the people who made it impossible for me to target whiting and had they not done that I would have been 30 mile up the coast and out of their way. It was a nice feeling to show them whatever rules they make you can still show them the way its done  Like you say Bill the people with more experience will adapt faster than the rest.

another rant over !!!

[Patterdale]

Sounds like this match fishing lark can get quite heated.

If people dont fancy their chances in matches with a 'star' fishing

then they should not fish them.

I dont mind the challenge personally, and look forward

to entering some this year.

[fishergirl]

i dont mind clubs changing the rules i.e. changing size limit of whiting, if it means helping with the conservation of a fish, but what is the point of changing the rules to try and stop better anglers from kicking arse all the time? and as many have pointed out, that backfires half the time, making things worse for the less knowledgable anglers. keeping various species with minimum sizes helps to keep angling varied, and gives all anglers a chance (in summer club matches, i prefer spinning for mackerel and pollack as its much more fun than sitting around waiting for that lone codling)

[big cliff]

i believe if more anglers looked more carefully at what really matters ie  venue, stage of tide, the very best bait, remembering that lugworm will outfish crab baits from time to time, keep an open mind, and the rod and reel that you use comes well down the pecking order in the list of priorities, after all an edgar sealey rod and a intrepid sea streak in the right place will still outfish the latest outfit to come off the production line in the wrong place ----- and just out of curiosioty why would i want to know if a rockling is breathing on my bait at 120 yds out ?

[GJW]

i believe if more anglers looked more carefully at what really matters ie  venue, stage of tide, the very best bait, remembering that lugworm will outfish crab baits from time to time, keep an open mind, and the rod and reel that you use comes well down the pecking order in the list of priorities, after all an edgar sealey rod and a intrepid sea streak in the right place will still outfish the latest outfit to come off the production line in the wrong place ----- and just out of curiosioty why would i want to know if a rockling is breathing on my bait at 120 yds out ?

I agree that attention to detail, bait, and venue choice all play a big part in a match anglers preparations, and the rod and reel choice is not so important as long as it gets your bait out to were you want it and gets the fish on the end back to the shore, but some people might want a rod that shows a rockling breathing on there bait at 120yrds if thats what they are fishing for at that given time.. 

[big cliff]

i believe if more anglers looked more carefully at what really matters ie  venue, stage of tide, the very best bait, remembering that lugworm will outfish crab baits from time to time, keep an open mind, and the rod and reel that you use comes well down the pecking order in the list of priorities, after all an edgar sealey rod and a intrepid sea streak in the right place will still outfish the latest outfit to come off the production line in the wrong place ----- and just out of curiosioty why would i want to know if a rockling is breathing on my bait at 120 yds out ?

I agree that attention to detail, bait, and venue choice all play a big part in a match anglers preparations, and the rod and reel choice is not so important as long as it gets your bait out to were you want it and gets the fish on the end back to the shore, but some people might want a rod that shows a rockling breathing on there bait at 120yrds if thats what they are fishing for at that given time.. 

now gjw you are nitpicking you know what i was talking about, as we have talked about many times in the past

[Tags:]

Jump to: Please select a destination: ----------------------------- SEA ANGLING ----------------------------- => Sea Fishing => Sea Fishing WebSite Reviews And Links => Charter Boats & Tackle Shops. => Sea Angling Pictures ===> Whitby Angling Supplies - Heaviest Fish Competitions ===> Photography Competitions - Spotty Dog Tackle ===> MWWs Pics ===> CPS Pictures ===> Mackys Pictures ===> Lobbers Pictures ===> Glenns Pictures ===> Paul Kilpatricks Sea Otter 2 Pictures ===> Pictures By Ramrod ===> Smokeys Pictures ===> Jelly Worms Pics ===> New Daves Photos ===> Snaps From GJW ----------------------------- NORTH EAST FRESH WATER FISHING ----------------------------- => North East Fresh Water Fishing => Fresh Water Fishing Website Reviews And Links ----------------------------- GENERAL ANGLING BOARDS ----------------------------- => Classified Ads