Bucking The Trend at Petersfield

Like many clubs across the country, Petersfield & District Angling Club has faced the challenge of dwindling numbers. But after some strategic thinking, the adoption of successful strategies used in other sports and some raw, hard graft, the club has more than doubled its overall membership and seen its junior section increase by over 700%.

—

Petersfield & District A.C. is committed to a development plan which promotes angling to the local and regional community and it’s a strategy that has paid off handsomely. A path towards a status of exclusive self-interest has been firmly rejected and the reward for the communal approach is a seemingly secure future.

For the last six years, the club has regularly hosted Get Fishing events and effected outreach campaigns which have had a massive impact on their local visibility. Sharing and promoting what they have and what they can offer has been key and since the whole programme started, junior numbers have risen from 12 to over 100 and overall membership has more than doubled.

Arrival

“There was a collective appetite to do something,” said PDAC Secretary, Shaun Ireland. “The programme is headed by four senior club members and we have around 20 volunteers. Every person within that group plays a vital part. At each event, we have qualified Event Support Volunteers (ESVs) at least 3 Level Two qualified coaches while a welfare officer is always present. It’s a big logistical undertaking but the format allows us to have around 80 to 100 people in on the day. We have a ‘meet and greet’ service, registration, bank runners, a post-event team and everyone involved is integral to any success.”

Part of the strategy was to form a sub-committee which immediately adopted an idea that had worked in other leisure areas. They had seen local football and rugby clubs working on a bottom-to-top recruitment programme and unashamedly copied the approach. By starting at grassroots level, the other sports clubs had created foundations and built successfully from there. Petersfield worked with those principles to create a range of annual outreach campaigns aimed at youth participation and recruitment. Originally, they applied a local geographical restriction on their activities but were quickly able to increase their catchment area to promote both the club and free angling events supported by the Angling Trust and the Environment Agency. Part of that support has come from the Get Fishing Fund.

The fund is administered by the Angling Trust and uses income from Environment Agency rod licence sales to support angling-based participation projects. A successful applicant can use the money to assist in the purchase of equipment and resources to run fishing events and activities that offer people an opportunity to get into fishing. PADC has been one such beneficiary with the fund allocating £2,500 from the EA’s rod licence income to support the project.

Petersfield’s Get Fishing events promote angling as a social event to be enjoyed together

“The funding we’ve received has enabled us to have the correct resources to meet the demand,” said Sean. “The money is spent on equipment. Because we provide everything, there’s a financial outlay and we’ve received funding. But we think we’re now in a position to be more independent because we’ve gone down other avenues to raise funds. We’ve had car boot sales and received donations so hopefully, we’ll be able to stand on our two feet.”

Each year, a series of well publicised annual events has brought in new and returning faces to their waters. On top of their basic creation, these events are carefully managed to ensure the day runs smoothly and appropriately. When an event is staged, PDAC runs a booking system to ensure the number of participants is held at a level that’s commensurate with the number of coaches and volunteers they have available.

The booking format allows for short sessions that appeal to the attention span of youngsters who are encouraged on a water offering the likelihood of almost a fish every cast.  To further commend the process, the planning and management enables the club to accommodate 100+ visitors in a single day.  Part of the fun is ensuring that Mums, Dads, Nans, Grandads or any guardian can take part too. Petersfield say such interaction is a vital part of the programme.

You might think that a booking system would put people off but Petersfield’s experience is very different. So far, every Get Fishing event they’ve hosted has been oversubscribed and they’ve even operated waiting lists for singular events in the summer months.

The PDAC Development Programme doesn’t end with free taster events. There is a further commitment to follow up sessions to support – and further – the original levels of interest.

“We found that the short sessions of about 50 minutes are the best way forward on venues where it’s one-a-chuck,” said Shaun. “Then we find there are people who want to move on to the next level. And that’s where the development programme comes into effect. In the summer months, we have free workshops and tuition sessions every month. These are longer sessions of about two hours but what we tend to do in general is educate the adults so they can better pass on the information to the youngsters. It then gets them involved too. These sessions include things like watercraft, mixing baits, tying hooks and importantly, fish welfare.”

“Let’s put it straight back…”

Junior Open events are now on the calendar and recent winners have included young anglers who attended the Get Fishing events and had experienced fishing for the first time with Petersfield.

In turn these club events have extended club competition into inter-club junior matches, and in 2023, Petersfield won two events with a team formed of Get Fishing first timers.

“These youngsters are now asking us for more events!” said Shaun.

The whole programme appears to have prompted additional benefits too. While the events and the club follow-ups have been great platforms to introduce families to angling, they appear to have encouraged children to engage with other young anglers. The club says they’ve noticed discernibly greater levels of general communication skills and self-confidence.

Events are not a pre-cursor to an outright money-grab either. It will cost nothing for an under-eleven to join, those between eleven and sixteen will pay a nominal, one-off joining fee and parents or guardians can join as free, non-fishing associates to accompany their children. It’s not unusual for an adult to initially sign up as an associate and very quickly upgrade to full membership.

Petersfield takes its outreach programme on the road too. The club can regularly be seen at village festivals on the high street and at the annual Southdowns Show, an event which annually attracts over 7,000 attendees. The club takes a pitch to promote the events and offer a bit of fun at the stall with participation games such as magnetic fishing.

Magnets attract…

“As a club, we’ve been going since 1932, but some people come to see us at the shows and events and say they didn’t know there was a fishing club there,” said Shaun. “We come across anglers from different clubs and some join us as well because they want something a bit different. We’ve seen a lot more seniors coming back from years ago too.”

Visibility and recruitment on the high street

Such has been the impact around the regional community, the club now has a great relationship with the local radio station to further boost its status as a responsible, caring and engaging contributor to both angling and the local community.

Undoubtedly, it’s been hard work, but it’s clear the club has made it enjoyable for both the organisers and the participants.

And it works.

The Get Fishing Fund was launched in December 2020 and is funded from Environment Agency rod licence sales. Grants of up to £2,500 are available to benefit angling-based participation projects. More details are available here.

PDAC Secretary Shaun Ireland is available to speak with any club wishing to discuss development ideas further. His contact details can be found on the club’s website at: https://www.thepdac.co.uk

*Images courtesy of Petersfield & District Angling Club