Annual Report and Christmas Message from the Chairman
Well it is that time of year again, when I sit down to try to condense everything that we have achieved in the year into a format that doesn’t put you all to sleep before you get to the import bits. Hopefully you are now wondering if there are indeed any important bits and will humour me by reading to the end to find out.
I think it is fair to say that 2017 has been another strange and somewhat frustrating year. In the first half of the year our focus was very much on the continuing Wild Fisheries Reform work, on trying to find ways to deal with illegal fish removals from the canals, on preparations to host the Home International and of course on the formation of Angling Scotland Ltd. How does the saying go? ‘Plan Early Plan Twice!’ Well to be honest that certainly appears to be a good way to sum up what has happened in 2017!
Having, as usual, set ourselves ambitious targets in the Annual Business Plan, events outside our control have conspired this year to make achieving them even more challenging than normal. Pressure on public finances, the snap UK General Election and focus on BREXIT have seen the Wild Fisheries Reform process almost grind to a halt. While reduction in National Lottery Ticket sales have significantly impact on the amount of Lottery Funds being made available to sport, and in turn lead to a £70k reduction in the level of Investment coming into Scottish Angling when compared with 2016. During the year this has necessitated the cutting of the ADBoS Regional Development Officer and SFSA Administrator posts, the restructuring/reallocation of their workload and our plans being adjusted accordingly. I and the Presidents of the other two Angling SGBs, have continued to work on the formation of Angling Scotland Ltd, the new umbrella structure for the sport of angling in Scotland, supported by sportscotland who have allowed us to utilise some of the an underspend from 2016 to pay for expert resources and additional support to achieve our aims. The business has been registered with Companies House, the Articles of Association have been finalised and the Chairmen/Presidents of the three SGBs established as the Board of Directors. It has not all been plain sailing though. Having identified and appointed an Independent Chair to the Board, he has unfortunately found that he is unable to commit the time required to effectively drive the process forward as he would wish and has decided to resign. Part of the reason for this was a frustration with the fact that we have so far been unable to fill the newly created paid post of Senior Operations Officer. But coupled with this was a concern that there are simply not enough individuals/volunteers within the existing Governing Bodies to drive the creation of the structure required to effectively and sustainably grow the sport on a national level. Despite this, all three SGBs remain committed to the process of establishing Angling Scotland as the umbrella structure for Scottish Angling. In the light of potential further cuts to funding, the Board are in the process of reviewing the ‘Angling Scotland Strategic Plan 2017-21, and re-prioritising the targets within it in preparation for the sportscotland Investment Panel meeting which will take place early in the New Year. Once we receive notification from sportscotland of our indicative investment we will be able to make a decision about how best to proceed and what we can and can’t deliver. Clearly many of the Targets in the SFCA Annual Business Plan will be determined by the targets set within the Angling Scotland Annual Plan and its publication is therefore likely to also be delayed. I am however still hopeful that we will be in a position to get the draft SFCA Annual Business Plan published on the website for consultation by the middle of February in order to give Clubs and members a chance to comment before it is put to the AGM on 29th Mar 2018. Immediately after the Christmas break I will be working with the Angling Scotland Administrator to write all of the new Angling Scotland policies covering Corporate Governance, Child Protection, Diversity & Inclusion, Data Protection, Bribery & Anti-Corruption, Conflict of Interests, HR, Coaching & Development, Coach Licensing etc. All being well, we will be able to put a proposal to the AGMs of all three SGBs to adopt these Angling Scotland policies which are common to all three disciplines and for them to replace our existing ones. We will also be hoping to be able to pass certain roles, responsibilities and policy issues to the new organisation in to reduce duplication of effort and provide a more consistent and better service to the Scottish angling public. This move alone will significantly reduce the administrative burden on our volunteer Executive Committee members and allow us to spend more time focussing on the more important tasks of protecting and promoting coarse angling in Scotland and growing participation, particularly in competitive coarse angling.
Despite the on-going challenges with illegal fish removals, and subsequent lower stocking densities in certain areas, this year the trend of increasing use of the canals seems to have continued. Canal side Ranger, Linton McBurnie, has again reported an increase in the number of anglers fishing the canals when compared with the previous two years and an analysis of new membership applications has revealed a large number of applications from individuals, particularly lure anglers, who live close to the lowland canal network. Match attendances seem to have also remained relatively stable, although it is slightly concerning that there is a lack of new anglers coming into competitive match fishing. In 2018 we need to focus more effort into encouraging and supporting young anglers to enter competitions. The Executive Committee will clearly not be able to achieve this alone and we will be relying heavily on our volunteer coaches to build links with local clubs and fisheries to increase opportunity for young anglers.
As I sit here this morning writing this Christmas message, we have 1005 individual members which includes 208 Juniors. Encouragingly this is up on this point in 2016. Sadly there are still 427 individuals on the system who joined in 2016 who have not re-joined in 2017 and a further 903 who haven’t joined for the past two years. That said, 329 of these are juniors who have attended our coaching programmes over the past couple of years and many of these will simply have drifted away from the sport for one reason or another. There are also a significant number, over 300, anglers from other European countries who have not re-joined. This may be due to the fact that many migrant workers move addresses as their work changes and, if their email addresses have changed we may simply have lost contact. What I would like to ask however, is that all members of the SFCA continue to help us to promote membership of the SFCA by encouraging all of the anglers they know to join the Federation. A large, growing and dynamic membership will ensure that we are able to keep coarse angling and coarse angling interests high on the agenda of both Angling Scotland and of sportscotland and Scottish Government. As stated last year, we have consulted on the topic of membership fees and 70% of those who have replied have said that they wouldn’t have any objection to an increase in fees, with many stating that it is long overdue. That said, I am also cognisant of the fact the as an Executive Committee we did make a commitment to delay any decisions on increasing membership fees until Angling Scotland Ltd is in place and firmly established. As this is not yet the case, the fees for 2018/19 will remain unchanged for the 10th consecutive year and all SFCA individual members will again receive free ‘Public Liability’ insurance cover for all of their fishing activities whether engaged in SFCA events or fishing on their own anywhere in the world. This on its own is worth more than six times the cost of the £5.00 annual membership fee and represents a significant benefit for our members. In a bid to encourage some of the 1330 individuals who didn’t join this year to renew their membership, anyone who joins between now and 31st March 2018 will receive a membership running right through to 31st March 2019. We are also going to run a membership prize draw on 31st January 2017. Full details will be published early in the New Year. The draw will be open to all individuals who are paid up Individual Members on 31st January 2017. The name of the lucky winner will be published on 1st February 2017. Remember, you have to be an Individual Member to be included in the draw so if you have not yet joined get your application done today. If you are experiencing any problems with the application process please either email or call me on 07812 241816 and I will guide you through it.
As I mentioned earlier, this has been a frustrating year in many ways - none more so than in relation to the Wild Fisheries Reform programme. Soon after the New Year we were surprised and disappointed to hear that the Scottish Government had decided against pursuing almost all of the measures proposed by the 2014 Wild Fisheries Review, and in particular that there would be no radical reform of management structures or introduction of new revenue streams to fund the management of non-migratory species.
Nevertheless, our Policy Officer Ron Woods and I have continued to represent the interests of coarse fish and coarse angling as vigorously as possible in the Stakeholder Reference Group (http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Salmon-Trout-Coarse/fishreform/refgroup) and other dialogue with Scottish Government and key stakeholders. Among other things we have secured the agreement of Scottish Government officials to establish a cross sectional working group looking at the operation of Protection Orders and, most important, to draw up proposals for legislative changes to protect coarse fish, especially pike, from pot hunting and other forms of exploitation. For various reasons, not least staffing issues in Marine Scotland, progress on these issues has been painfully slow in the second half of the year but we have maintained constant pressure to ensure that our interests do not slip off the agenda.
On the competitive side, 2017 again saw a continuation of the growth in popularity of fishery leagues/fixtures and across the country a very busy match calendar. This presented the match committee, and particularly Match Secretary Brian Docherty, with the usual challenge of de-conflicting the national matches with all of the other fixtures to afford as many anglers as possible the opportunity to participate. Brian again deserves a big vote of thanks for taking on the thankless task of pulling together the Match Calendar and keeping the Facebook page up to date, as does James Jones for maintaining the Match Angler of the Year table. I think it is fair to say that the Committee and the Clubs are still trying to find a balance to meet the aspirations of everyone and the International Team Manager and Match Secretary recently held an on line Match Committee Meeting to discuss options and the Calendar for 2018. I would also like to take this opportunity to again congratulate all those who enjoyed success in 2017 and in particular:
- Jim Anderson for winning the Broom Open.
- Colin Hart for winning the Federation Cup
- Eamon O’Brien for winning the All of Scotland Rab Crossan Memorial
- Tommy Lauriston for becoming Scottish Veteran’s Champion
- David Corcoran and James Woodrow for becoming Scottish Pairs Champions
- Steven McCaveny for winning the CIPS League
- Steven McAuley for becoming Scottish U19 Champion
- Carly Brady for becoming Scottish U14 Junior Champion
- Margaret Rae for becoming Scottish Ladies Champion
- Chris Scott for winning the Harvey Maule Memorial
- Dave Minard for becoming Scottish National Champion
- James McGradie for winning the Magiscroft Open.
- John Parkinson for becoming the Scottish Feeder Champion
On the International front we fielded teams in all of the usual senior competitions. This year returned to doing the World Championships rather than the European Championships as we had done in 2016. Disappointingly however we were unable to field a Junior team at all. This continues to be a real concern as is the lack of juniors coming into the competitive side of match fishing. We introduced hundreds of new children to the sport each year but, with no clubs for them to join and develop in, they seem to simply drift away. If we are to secure the long term future and sustainability of the sport, and of course the senior squad, we must find a way to resolve this issue. One of our priorities of 2018 will be to engage with fisheries and clubs to try to address this problem.
In March we participated in the annual Sensas Challenge on the Gloucester Canal. The event was well attended again and attracted some of the top UK and French teams as well and Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The venue was very inconsistent over the two days and over the various sections that made up the match length. This is only to be expected at this time of the year and, as in 2016, if you didn’t draw on an area where the fish were you had to scratch around for bites fighting for positions in the bottom half of the section. The event does however provide a really useful opportunity to introduce new blood to the International Team and fishing under CIPS rules in a slightly more relaxed and friendly match. This year Derek Brady and Scott McGhee made their senior debuts at the match and both learned a great deal from the experience.
September saw the Senior Scotland squad travel to Ronquieres in the Belgium for the World Championships. I won’t pretend that the event wasn’t a huge disappointment because it was. If I’m honest the squad had to deal with an immensely technical venue that we never really got to grips with. You will no doubt have seen the report on Facebook so I will not go back over everything again, save to say that after the high in 2016 we came down to earth with a bump and now need to focus on 2018 in Portugal when the event returns to the same rowing course we fished in 2006.
2017 has been another hugely positive year in the development of the Scottish Carp Squad and there has been a lot of interest from anglers wanting to get involved. One of the challenges facing the team management has been the lack of suitable waters in Scotland providing the right conditions and opportunities to allow anglers to really show their potential on an even footing. For this reason trials have had to be run on venues down in England. Whilst not ideal, this has helped to get the squad more familiar with some of the venues that are used regularly for Home International events. Following on from the trial at Clearwater in late October 2016 two more trials we run at Barston in early 2017 to select a squad for this year’s events. In July 2017 Scotland hosted the Annual Celtic Cup against Wales at Bartson. Wales again clinched the title by a narrow margin but the Team Scotland gained more useful experience to use in future years. The venue fished really well with over 8000lb of carp caught between the teams (2 x 6 man teams) over the 48hrs and pushing Wales so close on a prolific water clearly demonstrated how much the team has come on in just one year. Then in October the team took part in the inaugural Home Nations against England and Wales at the famous Linear complex on Brasenose 2. For the first 24 hrs the team were defying the odds by leading the match, but after a late charge by Wales the two teams ended joint first on points with England third. Wales ultimately took the title on weight so Scotland had to settle for a Silver medal but had definitely announced their arrival on the Carp Match scene in style. Looking ahead, the squad will be holding 2 more trials in early 2018 and already have 4 new potential anglers to look at. In June 2018 we will be fielding a team in a friendly match with Wales against the Royal Navy at Drayton and this will be the final match prior to selecting a squad for, hopefully, the team’s first overseas International venture to the World Championships in Serbia. Then late October/ early November they will be involved in another Home Nations hosted by Wales. As with the match squad, Carp Team Scotland is totally self-funded by the anglers and management team, although they have managed to attract a wide selection of sponsorship/support in kind that has helped to reduce the cost of trials and fielding teams in events. Cost of participation is still very high and one of the main challenges going forward is to find ways to ensure that the costs involved do not become a barrier to selecting the best anglers to represent Scotland.
In October the SFCA was due to host the Home International on Loch Ken. Unfortunately, due to a combination of the withdrawal of the Welsh team and an extremely busy International calendar, it was decided to cancel the event for 2017. As I write, Scotland has retained the right to host the Home International in 2018 and Chris Paton will be engaging with the other International Team managers on January to see whether there is an appetite for this fixture to continue