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Club water etiquette, a Saturday morning rant.	3,207 views
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Canalcarper71

Posts: 1375

#29 6 Aug 2026 at 2.40pm

In reply to Post #28
Another incident I remember a few years back,I was on my favourite public lake not fished it for long when a guy fishing a few swims down from me came round and said”oh do you mind not spiodding anything out due to disturbance”(there was only me and him and he was at least 3 swims away(not many on there anyway)I hadn’t got anything resembling a spotd rod with me and I thought well he wouldn’t be spodding/spinning out anyway if he wants to keep the disturbance to a minimum,he then came round and asked if I’d seen a spod/spomb as he lost his after thrashing the life out the swim.
I now just ignore what anyone tells me what or not to do and do my own thing.

kells

Posts: 5996

#28 6 Aug 2026 at 12.02pm

In reply to Post #22
And a " Syndicate " in truest sense of the word. Would mean that the annual fees incurred by the Sydicate leader would be shared equally between the members. A none profit organisation as it were.

These days most " Syndicates " are just glorified clubs with even less say in how they are run. And at a premium.

essesxandy

Posts: 3158

#27 4 Aug 2026 at 11.45am

In reply to Post #22
You are absolutely correct on the dictionary meaning of syndicate, but the two earliest fishing syndicates that knew of were Redmire and Ashlea Pool. Both of those had one man's name on the lease, he made the rules and chose the other members. Certainly in the case of Redmire the guy running the syndicate could fish twice as often as any of the other members.

wandle1

Posts: 7464

#26 4 Aug 2026 at 10.23am

1% places they do exist trouble is when you've fished some of them like I've done for many yrs ,in one case 40 yrs plus,and you've caught the fish watched them grow, get predated,regenerate and fade away ,where do you go, from paradise to reality..

nickyp

Posts: 429

#25 4 Aug 2026 at 8.51am

In reply to Post #23
@singlebleep - Yeah that 1% is magical. I rarely fish the uk nowadays but i've kept one particular ticket for the last 12 years now. I may get there once or twice a year but its absolute bliss. A true syndicate in every sense. They are out there, but like rocking horse **** to try and find. I count myself as very fortunate.

MrNuvawun

Posts: 2410

#24 3 Aug 2026 at 7.10pm

I knew there was a reason I fish a 300 acre reservoir where it’s not uncommon to have the whole place to myself 😁

Singlebleep

Posts: 2360

Site deviant...

#23 3 Aug 2026 at 6.40pm

Ahhhh ….but the 1% that are………..sheer heaven 😎👍

And as per my post 9 they are still out there if you put the time and effort to find and cherish them…………which was the whole point of my post. I could have named 3 I’ve been involved with ( which would get me banned) and you’d never have heard of them.

nickyp

Posts: 429

#22 3 Aug 2026 at 3.30pm

In reply to Post #11
It still baffles me why we call privately owned lakes "syndicates" when 99% of them are anything but. Instead they are just glorified day ticket waters.

In the strict, traditional sense, a syndicate is a collective arrangement where members have some degree of shared ownership, governance, or influence over how the resource is managed. Historically, that would often involve a committee, member meetings, voting on rules, agreeing stocking plans, setting budgets, and making decisions collectively.

However, in modern angling, the term "syndicate" has become much broader. It is often used for any fishery that operates on a membership basis with restricted numbers, even when it is privately owned and controlled by a single individual or company.

So if:

The owner sets all the rules,
Members have no voting rights,
Members have no financial stake in the fishery,
Management decisions are made unilaterally,

then from a purist perspective it is arguably not a true syndicate, but rather a private members' fishery or exclusive subscription water.

silverfish

Posts: 2639

#21 3 Aug 2026 at 11.45am

In reply to Post #20
I'm the same, 16 acres - one other angler I'm not going to put my baits in aposition to cut him off.
Unlike the van clan making laps waiting for one fish to show I'll walk the bank and chat.
Can learn more in half an hour than jumping into a swim and sitting over silent alarms for six.

Yeah well. dropped into a few p*ssy swims this year, not somewhere you'd want to be placing the mat for pictures. Whats the efffort in walking 10 yards to the tree line.
And the groundcare volunteers have come across a few more solid gifts when strimming,
Promises of permanent bans have been issued.

55s

Posts: 693

#20 3 Aug 2026 at 11.21am

Having learnt my fishing on club waters that my dad took me to, it has changed massively - the older boys would always help us out and I learnt so much, but now Carping is the entry point, and not a dart float and size 18 hook to nylon, ‘‘twas always going to be this way.

I still have a very valuable club ticket and fished yesterday afternoon, clubs and carp fishing means that Sunday afternoons are my biggest edge, once the bivvy boys pack up you can get a great pick of swims without too much worry about matey boy setting up next door, if they ain’t fishing by 3pm they probably aren’t coming. On yesterdays trip, there were 3 people on 20 odd acres. One was packing up - I spoke to him and was very pleasant and friendly and told me what he’d seen, caught etc. i carried on walking and there was a bivvy in the mouth of a bay, down the bottom of the bay, where the angler couldn’t have fished (and he had plenty of good water) is a day swim and I saw my first fish, a few just nosing about, nothing massive, I stood there thinking , if I was matey i would hate it if I went here, that I only had 4 hours to fish and had rocked up in the bay where he may have been intercepting fish from, so I walked on.

It turns out the guy was a bailiff and later came round to check my ticket and I told him the above, he was amazed that I’d even considered him and said it’s a swim, you saw fish, absolutely would have been ok with it - if I’d have really wanted to - I probably would have spoken to him before but I had 20 odd acres to go at. Clubs are the lifeblood of angling, and the problem with many are the cliques people try and create and the jealousy they breed, the best advice I could give is about having that conversation, if you get a sniffy response, walk away life is far to short. I learnt more chatting to the 3 anglers (including the bailiff) than I did from my 4 hours actual fishing. So yes club waters can be a circus, they often are, but there are ways to get enjoyment out of them.

The one thing that does wind me up more than it should is the stink of pss in some of the swims - take a short walk or throw a bucket of water over it, it’s like fishing in a friggin sewer.

silverfish

Posts: 2639

#19 3 Aug 2026 at 11.02am

In reply to Post #18
There's your problem, your using a stringer, different era now lol.

I know, the tape I'm using was purchased sometime before 2010 😂

scozza

Posts: 18405

#18 3 Aug 2026 at 7.41am

In reply to Post #1
There's your problem, your using a stringer, different era now lol.

Work on percentages, amongst the good guys there always a percentage of cock ends. No different to driving on the motorway every day, everyone lines up for the junction then some selfish ignorant **** cuts in, makes everyone jump on the brakes and nearly crash because they are late for work. The percentage is increasing though!

Fishing is a relaxing pastime. the thought of going and getting stressed is not an option for me. Find somewhere quite.

I could see this coming a long time ago and i said, it will be exclusive well managed syndicates that are the way forward dues to the popularity and cock ends that come with it.

silverfish

Posts: 2639

#17 2 Aug 2026 at 4.23pm

In reply to Post #14
To be honest I don't really know, I stopped carp fishing for 12 years.
Used to pick up a bit of to gossip but once I'd made that clean break none of it was really important.
So yeah kit went into the loft I'm just clearing the cobwebs and getting a bend in my rods without (etiquette aside) taking it too seriously.

wandle1

Posts: 7464

#16 2 Aug 2026 at 4.10pm

Carping has turned into a bit of a circus ..I joined a local water recently and its certainly opened my eyes for sure..its not just lack of etiquette, but a complete lack of angling ability, I was shocked to be honest ..

I normally fish fairly quiet places,but fancied a change ,when my tkt finishes I'll be back on those quieter places..

As for vans ,I mean the big jobbies which people use to fish out of instead of bivvying up Inext to the lake,that needs to be nipped in the bud ,it ruins it for others ,crunch ,,crunch ,light on,lights off ,the whiff of weed ,etc...its not fishing is it.....

nicky_napkins

Posts: 588

#15 2 Aug 2026 at 3.32pm

In reply to Post #13
My solar bedchair and my fox medium
bivvy need a van on their own.. Sadly 😢


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