Sweetwater Fishing Forums

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Scott Mitchell on September 08, 2011, 07:47:34 AM

Title: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: Scott Mitchell on September 08, 2011, 07:47:34 AM
Some recent discussions on fisheries management have prompted me to run a few polls to try and gauge how to best reach the majority of recreational anglers when needed.

Thanks for your input - Scotto
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: Binder on September 08, 2011, 07:13:07 PM
Answered on the other site, could pick multiple answers there!

Seriously members of lots of clubs and stocking groups. I'm a fishing tart.
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: takrat on September 08, 2011, 07:53:43 PM
G'day Scott,
I was a member of a fishing club but left because I got sick and tired of trying to drag them into the 21st Century (long story) I believe in the idea of clubs however and mainly because it may well be the only way that rec fisho's can present a united voice to management and those who would undermine our future. The problem is always the same though; we are all individualists, and that makes it tough trying to present a united front. I would have thought that the concept of having all clubs affilliated with a State then National body would be a good thing. It works for the 4 wheel drive clubs and it should work for us.
Cheers,
John
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: Scott Mitchell on September 09, 2011, 07:51:46 AM
Thanks John - It was discussed at a Sunfish meeting recently that past surveys have shown that approx 5% to 7% are in clubs & 10% to 13 % are club "trained"  anglers . These anglers are the group that create 90% of the effort & are the most organised . The statewide "clubs" are the major Sunfish strength with the Government as they are sporting groups.

Sunfish Branches are important  for a different reason as they provide regional input on local issues. I question this & believe that Internet forums like this one have reduced general club memberships - due to "less" politics etc as Pinhead indicated. I also believe Internet forums like this one should be used more pro-actively / professionally in future by our decision makers based on this ....

Thanks Scotto
 
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: NormGood on September 12, 2011, 09:35:27 AM
We have a "loose" group of fishers that we call a club, but due to insurance purposes we cannot call ourselves a club. Would love to affiliate with ANSAQld but their fees are too high for a start.  As we only need insurance the extra costs are not worth our while.  A bit off topic, but it means ANSA doesn't have another club in their list to bargain with when dealing with pollies etc.

Norm

(Brisbane Fly Fishing.......)
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: Binder on September 13, 2011, 04:50:15 AM
Normgood, Dunno about ANSA but QAFCA is only $14 a year per member and that covers your insurance. Pretty sure ANSA is a similar but dont quote me. Cheap as chips. Dont understand clubs that dont affiliate and then pay through the nose for their own insurance. Fishing club I am in pays $1000 for liability insurance, they only have 20 members, affiliation with QAFCA (and hence liability insurance) would only be about $300. But as Normrat says, its hard to drag some clubs in to the 21st century.

However you dont need insurance as a club unless you lease land or to undertake some fund raising activities (EG a certain hardware that lets clubs do sausage sizzles outside their joint on weekends requires proof of insurance - why I have no idea, they are still the liable party if someone trips over in their parking lot buying a sausage).
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: NormGood on September 13, 2011, 08:27:34 AM
Hey Binder.

You need insurance if you plan to organise club trips, which is mainly what we would need it for.

Not sure about QAFCA, I'll look into it.

Cheers
Norm
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: Sweetwater on September 13, 2011, 10:07:42 AM
I'm in a few fish stocking groups, most of whom are affiliated with FFSAQ &/or QAFCA. And have my own QAFCA membership.

Ah someone said the magic word..... politics. There's obviously some agenda behind the question and I'm happy to give me thoughts.
.
.
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I'm not a member of, nor do I really wish to be a member of any group who is affiliated with ANSA, IGFA or Sunfish any longer, the latter IMHO is a toothless tiger that does sweet bugger all for me.
In regard to freshwater, I have done and will continue to encourage FFSAQ to become a genuine peak body for sweetwater stuff in Qld, not a group hanging from mum's (sunfish) apron strings & then take a look at other models such as NSWCoFA.  :OffTopic)


To directly answer the original question...
I'm not a member of any incorporated fishing club, rather am a member of a website community who share information, create friendships and organise trips with each other as they see fit and it's all free.

Cheers,

fitz..
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: Bert on September 13, 2011, 10:59:12 PM
I'm not a member of, nor do I really wish to be a member of any group who is affiliated with ANSA, IGFA or Sunfish

Not a lot different to joining the ALP, LNP or any other political party.
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: Scott Mitchell on September 18, 2011, 07:41:05 AM


Ah someone said the magic word..... politics. There's obviously some agenda behind the question and I'm happy to give me thoughts.

Cheers,

fitz..

No real "agenda" Fitzy - I am a member of Sunfish & believe that they are not reaching a LOT of teh wider angling community when needed - which is a shame as the government does see them as the leading advisory group on rec angling. I am just looking at ways the wider rec community may be able to better communicate on Fisheries related issues in future .....

Thanks Scotto
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: aussiebasser on September 18, 2011, 08:18:27 AM
I think most thinking recreational anglers discovered a long time ago that Sunfish simply sell themselves to the highest bidder,  and that is rarely in the best interest of the recreational angler.  If they are now considering charging more recreational anglers to join them so they can continue to bend us over the barrel I've got a feeling that they are sadly deluding themselves.
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: Sweetwater on September 18, 2011, 09:20:44 AM
No real "agenda" Fitzy - I am a member of Sunfish & believe that they are not reaching a LOT of teh wider angling community when needed - which is a shame as the government does see them as the leading advisory group on rec angling. I am just looking at ways the wider rec community may be able to better communicate on Fisheries related issues in future .....

Thanks Scotto

No problem Scotto.  :thumb then I can only wish you luck. It may help address some of the problem s/fish have needed to do for a looong time.  :tick

cheers,

fitz..
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: wicksey on September 18, 2011, 10:53:12 AM
In retirement i have found time for fishing again and working with LAFMA  on the wyaralong stocking project has been great  and should provide years of rewarding effort. I  have not joined any clubs as they are mostly orientated towards saltwater which i am not interested in.

 The need for a group/club?? to represent freshwater anglers in queensland appears obvious to me but that is another issue for another time.  Whilst i am a donor member to FFSAQ and support thier efforts,  it  only represents the many fish stocking groups and their members  in this state and not freshwater fishemen/women as we have no voting rights,  This issue was raised at the last AGM and debated vigorously but there is no move to indivudual member representation .

In my younger days SUNFISH  did not exist and i cant recall things being much different in the fishing scene then compared to now.  i know little about the reasons/ politics  behind the formation of SUNFISH but can only judge by what i see and hear today. At the recent boats showi I was given copies of the SUNFISH magazine , virtually nothing on freshwater  except a large photo in the June 2011 issue  has a young guy holding  a large carp with the caption  " a 69cm carp from the mcintyre river that pulled just as hard as the barra , but sadly not good eating."   Thie caption should have said that this is a declared noxious pest and given guidance on itys safe disposal rather than its lack of eating properties.   Clearly a problem here.

  Lots of money spent by SUNFISH on a glossy magazine .looks like a govermnment publication to me.  Any person receiving this magazine and trying to find where to make contact with a  freshwater body would need to be professor of  abreviations as the only listing is on the back page and that says"  FFSAQ MR Les Kowitz , po box etc etc "  .Having spoken to freshwater reps on SUNFISH committee i am told that freshwater issues are seldom raised by anybody , all concentration is on salt.  my question has to be,  is freshwater represented
   to the level it deserves?? is there a better way forward for freshwater fishing in queensland???

ian


 
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: rayke1938 on September 18, 2011, 01:59:54 PM
I am not a member of any clubs.
 I was a member of one just to gain access to the back of Somerset when NPD was closed dure to low water levels.
To put it politely I was amazed at their laid back attitude to current thinking and legistation.
 To my mind they were nice blokes but just  a band of meatos.
I am a member of 3 stocking group one of which is new and progressive, another wastes too much time with infighting and the other suffers from lack of membership.
I have attended meetings that another group has also attended and they appear too afraid to raise a hand in protest in case SEQ water tells them to bugger off the dam.
 Re ffsaq and sunfish they are all we have to raise a voice with our pollies so rather than bagging them we should be getting involved so that we can alter these organizations so that our interests are looked after and represented.
It is nothing that can be achieved overnight and will be a long and thankless battle.
Cheers
Ray

 
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: takrat on September 20, 2011, 08:38:54 PM
Some time back I posted a thread on the need for rec fisho's to become more organised; like trade unions if required. To enter negotiations with government organisations and put a viable argument in favour of preserving what we believe to be our rights we need to become political. It may be a bitter pill but as the funding for Recfish was withdrawn by Rudd, a peak body is required to take its place and to stand up for those rights. Whatever the name of that peak body is, be it Sunfish or whatever we need to stand behind it and be heard, otherwise we'll just coil up and fade away. We have a lot more threats to our recreation these days, but one of our greatest threats is from within. We suffer from too much apathy and a natural reluctance to contribute. Boat trailer convoys and bumper stickers are of little concern to the decision makers in Government.
John
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: Scott Mitchell on October 17, 2011, 07:25:29 AM
Thanks to every one who voted - I hope to see Sunfish communicating on our main forums more in future when suitable.

Regards Scotto
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: bondy99 on October 06, 2013, 10:47:04 AM
Wiksey and rayke is very much correct and I agree.

Wiksey is totally correct about "Sunfish publications" and the caption regarding carp should be "Noxious pest - do not release into water". Carp is vermin so why did sunfish not call a spade a spade and say it's a Noxious Pest.

Bondy
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: takrat on October 06, 2013, 09:22:39 PM
This discussion has clearly shown up the divisions  present in recreational fishing. It also shows that the focus is mainly on what happens in Queensland, rather than what is good for fishing on a National basis. Ok as the name implies Sunfish is Queensland based, and has some glaring faults. So what needs to be done is get the organisation infiltrated with some new ideas. There's no point in bagging an organisation if no one is prepared to do something about it. Then if that fails perhaps it's time to start something new. A lot of these things get driven by who makes the most noise, but the noise has to come from within rather than standing on the sidelines and throwing cr@p. I'm not in Queensland so I see no reason to join Sunfish but if there were a National body I'd have to reconsider. The Feds have a lot to say about where we can fish as does the State Gov but simply locking yourselves in to one state is not the answer. In saying that I'm assuming that most anglers like to travel outside their own state occasionally. We need a peak National body supported by State Associations.
JD 
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: queenfish on October 07, 2013, 05:02:51 PM
yes
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: Crackers on October 07, 2013, 10:54:14 PM
Rec fish aus had a crack at national representation. looks to have failed having to deal with cross border differences in rules / regs.

Qlders need a fair dinkum representative body. Sunfish look after the pilly pegging surf casters, fartsack fail to cover the fresh, nobody seems to give any decent representation the offshore or inshore. The whole lot need to get their heads together and sort their shite out.
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: takrat on October 10, 2013, 07:16:46 PM
My point exactly mate, the decision makers know that we are basically a deeply divided mob with everyone going their own way. If you want to represent any interest group to government bodies it has to be as united as possible. At the moment we have far too many different hands up in the air. I fail to see why there has not been more interest shown by the retail/wholesale/ manufacturing end of tackle and boating. After all they are the ones who will lose a lot of money if we lose a recreation.
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: Sweetwater on October 10, 2013, 11:11:32 PM
Another great example of a "self proclaimed state body" not getting off their butts..... In SE Qld the main water supplier SEQWater is doing a wide scale review of their recreational policy & access to 30 odd water bodies. To the best of my knowledge, nobody from Marine Qld has attended any of the public meetings to offer input. I knew this review was coming for a fair while & spoke to the CEO of Marine Qld a the 2012 Brisbane Boat Show AND emailed the President about the opportunity to have places like Wivenhoe opened to better boating access. Well my email was deleted by the president without being read (yes I put a tracker on the email) & the CEO said, that "Wivenhoe would never be opened due to the amount of standing trees in the water". Seriously WTF are these people on? Wivenhoe was was de-treed before it filled. The biggest structure out there are a few old fence posts, yet just upstream at Somerset there's a gazillion standing ironbarks to 6 foot wide at the base & you can boat as fast as you like there...... If they'd got off their ar$e and gone for a look they'd have half a clue.

Absolutely hopeless & false representation IMHO. A massive opportunity lost for them & their membership.

AFTA?

Canoeing Qld? 

Sinfush?

QAFCA?

ANSA?

Only rep group I've seen in from our sector was FFSAQ. 
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: bondy99 on October 11, 2013, 10:18:40 AM
@ Sweetwater,
I hear where your coming from and can relate to that.

It's very piss poor and lame of that group (Marine Qld)

Bondy

Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: takrat on October 12, 2013, 08:50:27 PM
Fitzy this is my point, (or one of them) that we cannot depend on qango's and the Sir Humphrey system to get anything of use up and running. More and more I believe that the boating and tackle industry, with the backing of recreational fishers that are non aligned to any particular fishing discipline to make it happen. Once again I further believe that it needs to be a national thing. I really don't care if it begins in Queensland or Tasmania for that matter, but ALL fishers need to be involved. Otherwise we are simply another fragmented mob that will get little recognition or credibility.
Title: Re: Are you a member of a fishing club ?
Post by: Pirate_Pete on October 19, 2013, 06:00:57 AM
I'm usually throwing line out Ipswich way. Anyone know of some clubs out there?  Lure fishing only!!


Pete :youbeauty