An interesting column by Andrew Flitcroft regarding the changes (for the worst) in competitions and rules... totally agree with him, hence the drastic falling numbers in eliminators etc.....

Good. RIP the slaughter.

Good old days , 16 fish limit no time bonus. The comp organisers and fisheries invented 8 fish and time bonus....i wonder why.
New idea....each boat has 16 fish limit no time bonus ....score in boat eg 12-4 15-1. A lot of the lads want a full days fishing after travelling so far. If i ask anyone to travel 8 hrs there and back for a couple of hours fishing , you would think i was mad..... Personally the initial feeling of finishing Quick is great , then the bordam sets in , sitting on your hands for the next 6 hours or so.....I rest my case

Paul

PS yes i am mad

__________________

Perhaps people are finally beginning to see comp fishing for what it really is, a sad parody of our noble art.

Totally agree Muddler. The sooner competitive fly fishing is banned, the better.

If an angler cannot get satisfaction out of a day's fishing without the need to try a win a silly piece of electro plated nickel silver, then he must be bloody sad!

Full credit to you Paul and the organisers of Davie's comp @ Rutland. I understand there was no time bonus, allowing everyone to take advantage of a full days fishing.... I'm becoming a fan of no time bonus... your idea of 16 to the boat is interesting... I think we all agree that its time for change

If competitive fly fishing were banned what would happen to the venues? Do you really think Rutland, Grafham and Chew, to name a few, could still be viable?


I no longer fish competitively by the way.

[QUOTE=Ron Clay;721540]Totally agree Muddler. The sooner competitive fly fishing is banned, the better.

/QUOTE]

Ron

That's Utter tosh...

Most large fisheries now rely on comps to survive. Not the big comps, but the small club competitions or club days out - they put losts of bums on boat seats week in and week out. These are mainly freindly days out but If these comps were also banned, as they are 'competitive', then the fisheries and fishing will suffer all together.. you can't really remove one without the other.

Captain - can you enlighten us a bit, with a brief, on the article? I do not have T&S so do not know what was written.

One thing would agree with is a full day out... maybe it's time to split the day into two 3 hr comps. With a points system. the overall winner sould then be decided on the result of the 2 comps. Run one from 10 til 1 and then 2:30 to 5:30. 2 fish bags and then C&R. This means no big fish kills and you get to fish with 2 different partners in a day... (The half time team talks would also make things ineresting too)

Merv

Well here goes
First of all I do think in these days of the Anti fishing bregade that someone in Mr Flitcroft's position should not be publishing such an article. Dont get me wrong I also dont agree with time bonus and that is why the Ospreys decided to not have it in Davie's match.
All the time we have people knocking Competition fishing, now if you dont like them well dont fish them, but there are a lot of us who enjoy them so just leave us fish them without criticising us.
Years ago fishing the nymph was critisised but no river angler would be without a box of them now.
At no time do I see people writing about the good side of competition where in the morning you meet a stranger and after 8 hours in a boat you have made a friend for life.
Also a lot of competitive teams do a lot for Charity, take Change Fly Fishers who are a great club and a great bunch of lads who won the Angling Water last year and all the money they win is always given to charity and this figure goes into thousands of pounds" Well done Change".
At the end of the day we are all fisherman each of us make choices and should not be DAMED for doing so- In the current climate lets all go fishing and enjoy ourselves whatever type of fishing you want to do.
Tight Lines to All

Hywel

Sounds very interesting Buzzerman

__________________