Lure Anglers Society troubles

[peteren]

Sad reading on their forum.
The LAS Forum and society was a great place for friendship, advice, fishing and chat ten years back, but seems to have lost its way.

[davelumb]

What's happening?

[peteren]

Evidently committee fallout with Chair and several resigning.
Lurefair in May is in doubt.

[davelumb]

Ta.

[Chico 48 PAC]

It will sort itself out or it won't. Don't panic.

[paintman]

Lurefair in May is in doubt.

Be a shame if it doesn't go ahead.
With 'The Big One' a little too far for a sensible day out Lurefair made up for it a bit.
I'd hoped TBO might alternate, south one year, midlands/north the next but this will be the 2nd year it's only down south.

[Monts]

Twas never the same after they bunged Team England a grand and Crookys 'Talent Pathways '.


Talent pathways still makes me cringe..

[davelumb]

Twas never the same after they bunged Team England a grand and Crookys 'Talent Pathways '.


Talent pathways still makes me cringe..

It was never the same since it went all competitions, tiny lures, and willy waving about gaudy Japanese rods and reels. But that seemed to keep the membership happy so good luck to them.

[Monts]

Twas never the same after they bunged Team England a grand and Crookys 'Talent Pathways '.


Talent pathways still makes me cringe..

It was never the same since it went all competitions, tiny lures, and willy waving about gaudy Japanese rods and reels. But that seemed to keep the membership happy so good luck to them.

There was a few remarks about the LAS being seen as a group of our of touch old men. And those fossils throwing hard baits etc.

It was some time ago, still I did meet some great characters in the past. Time waits for no man though, hence the era of 'Dudes, Bruh, Sick, Epic" and hats back to front, with your costas on your head.

I'll not mention Tim Kelly's favourite 'Savage Beards '.

[davelumb]

Twas never the same after they bunged Team England a grand and Crookys 'Talent Pathways '.


Talent pathways still makes me cringe..

It was never the same since it went all competitions, tiny lures, and willy waving about gaudy Japanese rods and reels. But that seemed to keep the membership happy so good luck to them.

There was a few remarks about the LAS being seen as a group of our of touch old men. And those fossils throwing hard baits etc.

It was some time ago, still I did meet some great characters in the past. Time waits for no man though, hence the era of 'Dudes, Bruh, Sick, Epic" and hats back to front, with your costas on your head.

I'll not mention Tim Kelly's favourite 'Savage Beards '.

[peteren]

Twas never the same after they bunged Team England a grand and Crookys 'Talent Pathways '.


Talent pathways still makes me cringe..

Totally agree.
The serious lure comps never interested me; I think I was typical of the (maybe too-) "silent majority" who simply enjoyed the friendship, advice and chat. Worth travelling from Kent to Gloucester and Warwick for very enjoyable meet-ups and fish-ins - Gary Palmer and John Cheynes' inputs were superb - but not seriously competitive,

[Mark_Houghton]

Twas never the same after they bunged Team England a grand and Crookys 'Talent Pathways '.


Talent pathways still makes me cringe..

That sounds cringeworthy without even knowing what it was

What was that all about then Jason?

[Monts]

Twas never the same after they bunged Team England a grand and Crookys 'Talent Pathways '.


Talent pathways still makes me cringe..

That sounds cringeworthy even not knowing what it was

What was that all about then Jason?

Talent pathways, well Crooky said the LAS was seen as a bunch of old guys, irrelevant to more modern day lure fishing.

He wanted to make it more dynamic, appeal to a younger audience. So he suggested 'Talent Pathways' that would nurture younger lure anglers and get them into comps and possibly represent Team England. Its a few years ago now, but it has always stuck in my head.

It's like something Alan Partridge would come up with. Dear old Crooky ment well, I just find it funny and cringe.

[Steve Dennington]

It was never the same since it went all competitions, tiny lures, and willy waving about gaudy Japanese rods and reels. But that seemed to keep the membership happy so good luck to them.

Did it keep the membership happy? The tumbleweeds rolling across the arid wasteland that is the forum would suggest that perhaps the membership weren't so keen on the drive toward competitive angling that the LAS was taking. It was about the time when the focus was all about Team England that everything seemed to go to pot. Coincidence?

[John Milford]

Twas never the same after they bunged Team England a grand and Crookys 'Talent Pathways '.


Talent pathways still makes me cringe..

It was never the same since it went all competitions, tiny lures, and willy waving about gaudy Japanese rods and reels. But that seemed to keep the membership happy so good luck to them.

There was a few remarks about the LAS being seen as a group of our of touch old men. And those fossils throwing hard baits etc.

It was some time ago, still I did meet some great characters in the past. Time waits for no man though, hence the era of 'Dudes, Bruh, Sick, Epic" and hats back to front, with your costas on your head.

I'll not mention Tim Kelly's favourite 'Savage Beards '.

I quite enjoyed being a young fool, but not as much as the Nirvana-like bliss of being an out of touch old man!

[Mark_Houghton]

Twas never the same after they bunged Team England a grand and Crookys 'Talent Pathways '.


Talent pathways still makes me cringe..

That sounds cringeworthy even not knowing what it was

What was that all about then Jason?

Talent pathways, well Crooky said the LAS was seen as a bunch of old guys, irrelevant to more modern day lure fishing.

He wanted to make it more dynamic, appeal to a younger audience. So he suggested 'Talent Pathways' that would nurture younger lure anglers and get them into comps and possibly represent Team England. Its a few years ago now, but it has always stuck in my head.

It's like something Alan Partridge would come up with. Dear old Crooky ment well, I just find it funny and cringe.

Ta, I thought it would be something like that

[Mark_Houghton]

It was never the same since it went all competitions, tiny lures, and willy waving about gaudy Japanese rods and reels. But that seemed to keep the membership happy so good luck to them.

Did it keep the membership happy? The tumbleweeds rolling across the arid wasteland that is the forum would suggest that perhaps the membership weren't so keen on the drive toward competitive angling that the LAS was taking. It was about the time when the focus was all about Team England that everything seemed to go to pot. Coincidence?

The beginning of the end for that forum was when they started closing forums left right and centre to non members. The forum was basically the clubs "shop window" and they effectively rolled the shutters down so no one could see inside....

[davelumb]

It was never the same since it went all competitions, tiny lures, and willy waving about gaudy Japanese rods and reels. But that seemed to keep the membership happy so good luck to them.

Did it keep the membership happy? The tumbleweeds rolling across the arid wasteland that is the forum would suggest that perhaps the membership weren't so keen on the drive toward competitive angling that the LAS was taking. It was about the time when the focus was all about Team England that everything seemed to go to pot. Coincidence?

The mag always seemed to be full of that kind of stuff so I guessed that was what people wanted.

I haven't been on the forum for donkey's years after some change to it when I couldn't log in.

[Monts]

I've not long been sent this.

Screenshot_20240213-125852~2.png

Old vs New, nothing seems to change. It is a shame as it was a good crack years back.

[Steve Dennington]

It was never the same since it went all competitions, tiny lures, and willy waving about gaudy Japanese rods and reels. But that seemed to keep the membership happy so good luck to them.

Did it keep the membership happy? The tumbleweeds rolling across the arid wasteland that is the forum would suggest that perhaps the membership weren't so keen on the drive toward competitive angling that the LAS was taking. It was about the time when the focus was all about Team England that everything seemed to go to pot. Coincidence?

The mag always seemed to be full of that kind of stuff so I guessed that was what people wanted.

I haven't been on the forum for donkey's years after some change to it when I couldn't log in.

Mag content is very much driven by what the editor gets sent and being unpaid contributions, I'm told that there isn't usually a very big pile to choose from. A lot of mag content is written by sponsored anglers, with the expected name dropping and product placement, rather than the musings of the membership at large, which I believe was the original intention for the mag?

[davelumb]

It was never the same since it went all competitions, tiny lures, and willy waving about gaudy Japanese rods and reels. But that seemed to keep the membership happy so good luck to them.

Did it keep the membership happy? The tumbleweeds rolling across the arid wasteland that is the forum would suggest that perhaps the membership weren't so keen on the drive toward competitive angling that the LAS was taking. It was about the time when the focus was all about Team England that everything seemed to go to pot. Coincidence?

The mag always seemed to be full of that kind of stuff so I guessed that was what people wanted.

I haven't been on the forum for donkey's years after some change to it when I couldn't log in.

Mag content is very much driven by what the editor gets sent and being unpaid contributions, I'm told that there isn't usually a very big pile to choose from. A lot of mag content is written by sponsored anglers, with the expected name dropping and product placement, rather than the musings of the membership at large, which I believe was the original intention for the mag?

It's always a struggle to get contributions to club magazines.I'd noticed the increase in sponsored angler content. When it started the hope was that there'd be a variety of content to encourage 'cross fertilisation' between different branches of lure angling - salt/fresh, coarse/game and so on. But you always seem to end up with whatever you can get sent or prize out of people!

[Daniel]

The LAS was buggered the minute they decided it needed to focus on stuff the majority of it's members didn't give a s**t about and then focussed on boat days on ressies and did away with with the bank day fish ins which were more about having a look and a play with each others set ups and having a chat and a catch up.

The ressie days brought in new members, but only because they wanted to fish the venue in the hope of a giant, they made absolutely no contribution to the forum itself.

[Will Smith]

Sad days and troubled times for the LAS, I still post on the forum whenever I can, but sadly it is what it is a dying forum, I will continue to do so in the hope that it rejuvenates and becomes more active in the future.
Not really aware or the turmoil within the committee as nothing has been posted on the forum to explain to the members who still use it, I think most of their information now comes from their FB page.

Will.

[Will Smith]

Twas never the same after they bunged Team England a grand and Crookys 'Talent Pathways '.


Talent pathways still makes me cringe..

It was never the same since it went all competitions, tiny lures, and willy waving about gaudy Japanese rods and reels. But that seemed to keep the membership happy so good luck to them.

There was a few remarks about the LAS being seen as a group of our of touch old men. And those fossils throwing hard baits etc.

It was some time ago, still I did meet some great characters in the past. Time waits for no man though, hence the era of 'Dudes, Bruh, Sick, Epic" and hats back to front, with your costas on your head.

I'll not mention Tim Kelly's favourite 'Savage Beards '.

I quite enjoyed being a young fool, but not as much as the Nirvana-like bliss of being an out of touch old man!

Ha ha John, I love it, "The Out of Touch Old Mens Club" I would join that and feel very qualified to be a member .

Will.

[Ian Crook]

In my defence from the 5 years I committed to the committee, fully committed, I always said the Society needed to be inclusive of all branches of lure angling and all species.
I probably did share the comment of floppy hats because that was the feedback I was repeatedly getting from the lure angling community, at a time where membership was dropping substantially year on year.
I don’t think the way fishing in general has gone in recent years has helped them, with people wanting to write elsewhere to simply promote themselves and acquire sponsors, with the exception of a few good guys who fulfilled both and provide magazine content.
The chapters have been dying for years, lack of people wanting to get involved, fewer wanting to get of their arses and organise anything.
The apparent shift to more competition boat fishing is simply a result of people from that section of the sport being happy and willing to organise events, the bank events I tried to push for years but no one with the exception of Mike Stephen was prepared to organise anything!! We even tried to get chapters to organise bank events but they didn’t want to share their fishing with the national unwashed populous!!

The LAS became a no win situation, whatever anyone in the committee tried to do, it was always wrong and the likes of Jason, who had thankfully put in many years of his time on the committee, never chipped in with anything better.

No club can survive without new blood, with Alex, Dave and one or two others there was real potential but they were quickly ground down too.

When you give up so much of your own time for free you HAVE to enjoy it, not do as your told by people with nothing to offer.

Let’s hope you guys with better ideas step in and save the LAS

[Monts]

In my defence from the 5 years I committed to the committee, fully committed, I always said the Society needed to be inclusive of all branches of lure angling and all species.
I probably did share the comment of floppy hats because that was the feedback I was repeatedly getting from the lure angling community, at a time where membership was dropping substantially year on year.
I don’t think the way fishing in general has gone in recent years has helped them, with people wanting to write elsewhere to simply promote themselves and acquire sponsors, with the exception of a few good guys who fulfilled both and provide magazine content.
The chapters have been dying for years, lack of people wanting to get involved, fewer wanting to get of their arses and organise anything.
The apparent shift to more competition boat fishing is simply a result of people from that section of the sport being happy and willing to organise events, the bank events I tried to push for years but no one with the exception of Mike Stephen was prepared to organise anything!! We even tried to get chapters to organise bank events but they didn’t want to share their fishing with the national unwashed populous!!

The LAS became a no win situation, whatever anyone in the committee tried to do, it was always wrong and the likes of Jason, who had thankfully put in many years of his time on the committee, never chipped in with anything better.

No club can survive without new blood, with Alex, Dave and one or two others there was real potential but they were quickly ground down too.

When you give up so much of your own time for free you HAVE to enjoy it, not do as your told by people with nothing to offer.

Let’s hope you guys with better ideas step in and save the LAS

I ran the South East Chapter for a few years, and it was fun. What sickened me was the underhand way the money was given to Team England without consultation, very poor. The apologies after the event seemed half arsed. Submitted articles for the mag and helped run the second hand stall, hardly offering nothing.

Yep having served on club committees, and back on one now it can be a royal pain in the a**e. But I'd like to think being honest with the club membership helps.

Would I rejoin the LAS again? No, not after what happened. But even you must admit ' Talent Pathways ' should have the p**s taken out of it?

[Ian Crook]

In my defence from the 5 years I committed to the committee, fully committed, I always said the Society needed to be inclusive of all branches of lure angling and all species.
I probably did share the comment of floppy hats because that was the feedback I was repeatedly getting from the lure angling community, at a time where membership was dropping substantially year on year.
I don’t think the way fishing in general has gone in recent years has helped them, with people wanting to write elsewhere to simply promote themselves and acquire sponsors, with the exception of a few good guys who fulfilled both and provide magazine content.
The chapters have been dying for years, lack of people wanting to get involved, fewer wanting to get of their arses and organise anything.
The apparent shift to more competition boat fishing is simply a result of people from that section of the sport being happy and willing to organise events, the bank events I tried to push for years but no one with the exception of Mike Stephen was prepared to organise anything!! We even tried to get chapters to organise bank events but they didn’t want to share their fishing with the national unwashed populous!!

The LAS became a no win situation, whatever anyone in the committee tried to do, it was always wrong and the likes of Jason, who had thankfully put in many years of his time on the committee, never chipped in with anything better.

No club can survive without new blood, with Alex, Dave and one or two others there was real potential but they were quickly ground down too.

When you give up so much of your own time for free you HAVE to enjoy it, not do as your told by people with nothing to offer.

Let’s hope you guys with better ideas step in and save the LAS

I ran the South East Chapter for a few years, and it was fun. What sickened me was the underhand way the money was given to Team England without consultation, very poor. The apologies after the event seemed half arsed. Submitted articles for the mag and helped run the second hand stall, hardly offering nothing.

Yep having served on club committees, and back on one now it can be a royal pain in the a**e. But I'd like to think being honest with the club membership helps.

Would I rejoin the LAS again? No, not after what happened. But even you must admit ' Talent Pathways ' should have the p**s taken out of it?

So, as you are aware, a committee is elected by the membership to run the club/society and ensure it is done in accordance with the constitution.

The first committee meeting I attended was face to face and a subject on the agenda was the upcoming Boat Lure Fishing World Championships, which for the first time ever was being held in England.

A few of the committee members, including myself, felt that the LAS would not be seen as “Promoting the Sport of Lure Fishing”, if it wasn’t some way involved with this one particular world championship.

Lurefair was also raised as it had been organised by Dave Mutton in Kettering and going through the costs and numbers it was set to lose around £2k. I offered to step in a take over and suggested we should offer some level of support to the England team, IF they helped out and put the LAS on their tops, water proofs, etc, which they did at their cost.

I put in over a hundred hours, just on the organisation of a great Lurefair with more stalls and a bigger participation than ever before, we actually made over £5k, and as had been agreed at committee level a contribution of the cost of entry for Team England of I think £1600 (memory might be out, but was in that region) was made.

The Society benefitted massively also to the tune of roughly £3.5k.

Simon apologising for not asking the membership first, was, in my opinion, pathetic, we simply did as a committee what we were put in place to do, ensured there was no loss, and donated part of the profit to what we believed a worthy cause to “ To promote the sport of lure fishing throughout all branches of angling – sea, coarse and game – in the British Isles, Europe and the rest of the world.” (Objective No. 1 of the Society’s constitution!!)

So bite me, you f*****g whinger

[Monts]

In my defence from the 5 years I committed to the committee, fully committed, I always said the Society needed to be inclusive of all branches of lure angling and all species.
I probably did share the comment of floppy hats because that was the feedback I was repeatedly getting from the lure angling community, at a time where membership was dropping substantially year on year.
I don’t think the way fishing in general has gone in recent years has helped them, with people wanting to write elsewhere to simply promote themselves and acquire sponsors, with the exception of a few good guys who fulfilled both and provide magazine content.
The chapters have been dying for years, lack of people wanting to get involved, fewer wanting to get of their arses and organise anything.
The apparent shift to more competition boat fishing is simply a result of people from that section of the sport being happy and willing to organise events, the bank events I tried to push for years but no one with the exception of Mike Stephen was prepared to organise anything!! We even tried to get chapters to organise bank events but they didn’t want to share their fishing with the national unwashed populous!!

The LAS became a no win situation, whatever anyone in the committee tried to do, it was always wrong and the likes of Jason, who had thankfully put in many years of his time on the committee, never chipped in with anything better.

No club can survive without new blood, with Alex, Dave and one or two others there was real potential but they were quickly ground down too.

When you give up so much of your own time for free you HAVE to enjoy it, not do as your told by people with nothing to offer.

Let’s hope you guys with better ideas step in and save the LAS

I ran the South East Chapter for a few years, and it was fun. What sickened me was the underhand way the money was given to Team England without consultation, very poor. The apologies after the event seemed half arsed. Submitted articles for the mag and helped run the second hand stall, hardly offering nothing.

Yep having served on club committees, and back on one now it can be a royal pain in the a**e. But I'd like to think being honest with the club membership helps.

Would I rejoin the LAS again? No, not after what happened. But even you must admit ' Talent Pathways ' should have the p**s taken out of it?

So, as you are aware, a committee is elected by the membership to run the club/society and ensure it is done in accordance with the constitution.

The first committee meeting I attended was face to face and a subject on the agenda was the upcoming Boat Lure Fishing World Championships, which for the first time ever was being held in England.

A few of the committee members, including myself, felt that the LAS would not be seen as “Promoting the Sport of Lure Fishing”, if it wasn’t some way involved with this one particular world championship.

Lurefair was also raised as it had been organised by Dave Mutton in Kettering and going through the costs and numbers it was set to lose around £2k. I offered to step in a take over and suggested we should offer some level of support to the England team, IF they helped out and put the LAS on their tops, water proofs, etc, which they did at their cost.

I put in over a hundred hours, just on the organisation of a great Lurefair with more stalls and a bigger participation than ever before, we actually made over £5k, and as had been agreed at committee level a contribution of the cost of entry for Team England of I think £1600 (memory might be out, but was in that region) was made.

The Society benefitted massively also to the tune of roughly £3.5k.

Simon apologising for not asking the membership first, was, in my opinion, pathetic, we simply did as a committee what we were put in place to do, ensured there was no loss, and donated part of the profit to what we believed a worthy cause to “ To promote the sport of lure fishing throughout all branches of angling – sea, coarse and game – in the British Isles, Europe and the rest of the world.” (Objective No. 1 of the Society’s constitution!!)

So bite me, you f*****g whinger

When you ran Tywford it was a very good club, I've said that before. But the LAS did seem to loose there mind over the whole Team England affair, thus alienating a large trunch of the membership

You can't ever escape your talent pathways, you are the David Brent of the angling world over that, it's FAF.But your so self absorbed, you don't see it. People over a pint still laugh about it.

I'm not whinging, I enjoy winding you up always have done. But it won't detract from the fact the LAS was known as the 'Friendly Society ' at the time. And that changed rapidly.

[John Milford]

The whole 'Team England' thing completely passed me by. I was probably too out of touch by then, but I don't have any problem with club committees taking the initiative and fulfilling a club's constitutional objectives.

Controlling and running its own waters was a constitutional PAC objective, but we got into hot water from some quarters when we did it with Fox Pool. That was ultimately a huge success and the club went on to break all membership records the following year, despite the voiciferous nay sayers. You can't please all of the people all of the time.

Organised fishing events and competitions were always a feature of the LAS and I was involved in organising many of them, both for the LAS and PAC. The only rule I was adamant about was 'No money prizes', just tackle prizes and trophies. I'm glad that has continued to be a feature of the LAS.

Promoting multi species lure fishing was always another strong and proper LAS objective. I remember having a 'spirited' discussion with Martin Gay when the LAS was formed, after he said he didn't see the point as lures were just another way of pike fishing. I retorted that the point of the LAS was the method, not the species - and always wound him up thereafter by referring to the PAC as 'The Deadbait Society'.

I hope LAS weather's the current storm. I agree with Ian it has to be fun. Unlike the PAC, the LAS is not a crusade.

[Monts]

The whole 'Team England' thing completely passed me by. I was probably too out of touch by then, but I don't have any problem with club committees taking the initiative and fulfilling a club's constitutional objectives.

Controlling and running its own waters was a constitutional PAC objective, but we got into hot water from some quarters when we did it with Fox Pool. That was ultimately a huge success and the club went on to break all membership records the following year, despite the voiciferous nay sayers. You can't please all of the people all of the time.

Organised fishing events and competitions were always a feature of the LAS and I was involved in organising many of them, both for the LAS and PAC. The only rule I was adamant about was 'No money prizes', just tackle prizes and trophies. I'm glad that has continued to be a feature of the LAS.

Promoting multi species lure fishing was always another strong and proper LAS objective. I remember having a 'spirited' discussion with Martin Gay when the LAS was formed, after he said he didn't see the point as lures were just another way of pike fishing. I retorted that the point of the LAS was the method, not the species - and always wound him up thereafter by referring to the PAC as 'The Deadbait Society'.

I hope LAS weather's the current storm. I agree with Ian it has to be fun. Unlike the PAC, the LAS is not a crusade.

The events were good, the AW ressies always seemed to be in the most inclement of weather. The Sussex ressies were much more kind.

The chapter get togethers were good also. But something was lost, which is a shame.

I do like the Dead Bait Society, everyone knows bait fishing is for w*****s.