master angler 2010 well done alan

In the current climate i think Pauls suggestion is pretty fair, its a compromise between those who want the fish off pool system, and those who want top 5 in masters making the team. and lets face it, do many poor anglers ever make the top 3 in the masters??? everyone of them will be fit to hold their own at world level is given the correct coaching, something which the federation is continually working on as far as i know.. then also 2 guys from the fish off pool, yet again, will be good anglers.
Indeed with things happening the way they did at the weekend i would be of the opinion that both top 2 anglers should be on the team.

Club memberships are dropping, some clubs folding, due to the economic climate. When things are like this should we even be sending a team to world championships? Its quite a cost to anglers by the time they fish there club all year, fish the masters if they qualify, then another similar weekend at fish offs, then they have to shell out a small fortune to travel with the team if they are lucky enough to make it.
Every year the majority of motions at agm are related to major championships in the federation, can everyone keep in mind that the federation is not just about match angling, it should be about all aspects of our sport equally, and catering for every members needs and giving everyone of them a fair crack, indeed those who are unemployed etc.If we want to attract more new anglers, some old ones back, we need to get back to our grassroots and rebuild properly. Things like a new specimen awards system being developed, master club championship, most species awards may help?
Sorry, i realise that this is all going off topic, the place for it all is IFSA AGM.

A lot of points raised here, some good, some bad, but mostly all constructive.

I would like to hear from the lads who ran the masters, just to find out if they would be willing to run it again.

Its a pity members of the central council will be too rigid to take any of the opinions raised unless brought to their attention in the form of notices of motion.

Personally i think there should be sub committees made to handle boat and shore teams separately, with the sub committees comprising anglers who have previously competed at international level liaising with the current team. The central council setting out the guide lines and the sub committee getting on with it. This would be for both the shore and boat master angler competitions, the fish offs and when representing Ireland internationally. They would liaise with the clubs running the master angler over the details, be responsible for running the fish offs ( taking the onus off any club ), run practice sessions with the team a few months before any big competitions at suitable venues ( if you are fishing a beach in daylight while on international duty, why not practice on a similar beach a couple of times before leaving the country ), and be responsible for picking the team management - preferably someone who has fished internationally before.

But unless some of the lads who are really interested ( in the masters or making the international team ) put themselves forward, and get clubs in their area to send representatives to the agm there will not be any change.

Cheers Pete,

What do you and others think of this

That the 1st three places in the Masters automatically go on the team.

What point is there in presenting Silver and Bronze Medals , make them worth something.

Your opinions please

I think this would be a step backwards.
The pool is certainly starting to work. We should be looking to increase the size of the Irish International Squad and not be trying to lessen its value.

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i think while there is alot of non anglers on both provincial and central councils this is not the problem per say. the problem is the disconnect between anglers and anglers' viewpoints and the 'heirarchy' and how they go about things.

in fairness organisation representation and all the other work the councils do is both an arduous and oftentimes thankless task one which most match anglers be they grass roots or top notch eleite couldn't find the time or inclination to get involved in.

these council members are however our elected representatives and we have every right to voice our opinions or complaints as the case may be. the frustration evident here i believe is more down to the fact that most (certainley not all) of them seem to be involved for their own personal gain or to fuel the many political battles and power struggles going on between various factions within the councils.

alot of anglers also feel frustrated at not being listened to and not having a forum to voice their opinions or views within the ifsa. i say let the 'suits' have their positions if thats what they want but they must take heed that anglers found the basis of the federation and the less anglers the weaker the federation is.


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This THEM and US attitude from some of the council members must change.They are supposed to be the anglers representitives yet when changes are proposed they fight tooth and nail to stop change.

There are a few in the council that actually listen to anglers but they are a rare breed.

Tom
I was part of the organising group and there would be no problem with our club running the event again, as far as I know we will be running the fishoff's in January. We learnt some things over the weekend and hope to improve on them for the fishoff's.

Adam
Courtown Harbour SAA

A lot of points raised here, some good, some bad, but mostly all constructive.

I would like to hear from the lads who ran the masters, just to find out if they would be willing to run it again.

Its a pity members of the central council will be too rigid to take any of the opinions raised unless brought to their attention in the form of notices of motion.

Personally i think there should be sub committees made to handle boat and shore teams separately, with the sub committees comprising anglers who have previously competed at international level liaising with the current team. The central council setting out the guide lines and the sub committee getting on with it. This would be for both the shore and boat master angler competitions, the fish offs and when representing Ireland internationally. They would liaise with the clubs running the master angler over the details, be responsible for running the fish offs ( taking the onus off any club ), run practice sessions with the team a few months before any big competitions at suitable venues ( if you are fishing a beach in daylight while on international duty, why not practice on a similar beach a couple of times before leaving the country ), and be responsible for picking the team management - preferably someone who has fished internationally before.

But unless some of the lads who are really interested ( in the masters or making the international team ) put themselves forward, and get clubs in their area to send representatives to the agm there will not be any change.

as i read through the posts a common theme emerged one of discontent with the anglers towards the ifsa which in my opinon is not unfounded people have viewed their opinions on the whole issue of these guys not been upto date with the current shore scene which i believe is a major issue the lack of commitment from the provincal councils to properly represent their anglers at central council is another issue also i too noticed the lack of uniform at provincal leevel and at the weekend this goes on to prove there is a lack of commitment to the anglers. there is a ifsa agm approaching and i hope that the anglers will voice their disapproval of the way the federation is been run at the moment thing need to happen its a time for change the provinces are bleeding anglers.clubs are dying a death the match scene is dying a death bring back the prestige to the major events on another matter congratulations to courtown angling on the best run mastersi have attended a superb effort from the stewards and all the organisers at club level

" its time for change" If change comes will it be for the good of all anglers big pockets or small i personaly think changing the selection prosess for the international an home inter team is not needed what irish teams need is proper coaching an the big one is sponcership .Most people who ask for change are unhappy themselves / groups with our current boards an commitee s are all shore anglers in the country unhappy or is it a select few maybe a pole might help.congrads to alan on the win

imho the fish offs is the way to go.if a angler is good enough to fish for his country he should be capable to compete at this level a problem in my opinon is the selection of managers maybe the anglers should have a voice on this issue

just on the point that was raised of say sub committees running shore and boat teams for the worlds, should the world teams also be self financing? personally dont know if this is the case at the minute or not.(ie no money from general ifsa funds, only from the likes of master angler entry fees, sponsorship etc) if you get what im trying to say, those that have an interest in making world teams cover the costs, rather than all members of the federation? as some anglers have the thing in their head....' i have no interest in making a world team, so why should i have to contribute towards sending one'.
perhaps there should be a competition similar to the masters, where ANYONE who is an IFSA member with an interest in making a world team can enter, irregardless if you win your club or not, as many clubs have quite a few anglers in them more than capable but dont presently qualify to go to the masters. have a reasonably high entry fee or similar to current masters entry fee, that way you should have plenty of money for sending a team away without those who make it having to delve further into there on pockets once they make it? it could end up being the single biggest competition in the country.
from speaking to some of the lads here in ulster that fished the masters, id like to pass on my congratulations to the organising club, nothing but praise for them im hearing on a job well done.

The International panel has been in place for a number of years and lets be honest the team performance at World Championships is still poor to say the least. There are plenty of excellent match anglers out there with years of International experience and where are these anglers each year ?? Ok some will make the team but not all of them. My opinion for what its worth is that we need an experienced team year in year out. The International panel has sertainly contributed to making ours a better team, but it is taking far to long to impact on results at Championship level.

There are far too many anglers out there that class themselves as 'top match anglers' more a case of big fish in a small pool.

My opinion for what its worth is that we need an experienced team year in year out.

to be experienced you have to start some were, so just experienced lads in team would be very unfair.there are lots of good young anglers coming through and they need to start out wit no experance.
but the team captain should be an experienced match angler say ex team???

Well done Mully, but gutted for Joe. Some lessons will have to be learned here. Maybe 2 groups of 3 collating the results independently, then reviewing for discrepancies. To err is human, I have made a few myself counting scores.
IFSA AGM is on November 6th.
http://www.ifsaleinster.com/forum/viewt ... p?f=1&t=98
Probably the best place to bring these things up.

BTW I'd post the various motions and nominations etc, but I haven't received a soft copy yet (my scanner is on the blink and I don't have time to type them all out)
JD

All shore angling teams should be managed an run by past shore internationls not boat anglers its like sending the ryder cup team out with a captain from kilkenny hurling team imagine a boat angler advising jp or alan mul on shore fishing

The International panel has been in place for a number of years and lets be honest the team performance at World Championships is still poor to say the least.

In my opinion the panel system is the way to have the best anglers in the country representing us year in year out ,I'm not saying that the fish offs system has not had its problems over the last 4 years,When the first fish off took place in wexford in 2007 it was fixed for January a time when the wexford beaches are full of fish.
Some how the January date became set in stone,this was never meant to happen the idea was to move the fish offs round the country and fish at the time of year that would produce the best fishing. The 2008 fish off took place in Galway a part of the country where January is a poor month for fishing,lots of blanks and very few fish and inappropriate size limits turned this event into a lucky dip ,if you were lucky you made the team,if you were lucky you stayed in the top 20 and if you were unlucky you went out .
For the panel system to work properly you need to remove the situation where 1 or 2 fish over 3 four hour sessions can put an angler on the Irish international team.
At the end of the day we need to put the anglers on the right venues and at the right time of year so that the best anglers will consistently come to the top and the weaker anglers will be eliminated,only then will we have consistent teams capable of bringing back medals form the big international events.

Well done to Alan on his win I know he wont let us down in Italy next year and I hope things go well for the current team in south Africa next month

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the panel system is definatley the way to go but i do think there is one major flaw in the system - access to the fish offs is only gained through reaching the top ten in the master angler championships. i think this limits the potential of the selection panel. alot of good anglers fish the masters every year and never reach the top ten and alot of great anglers dont even bother with the masters. the panel is potentially weaker due to the absense of these anglers. i also think there is the threat of some anglers who remain in the panel for a good few years running becoming complacent as they effectively only have to fish competitively one weekend a year do well and they're back again next year.

i also think none of this really matters much until the management structure is given a serious overhaul. ideally the irish managment needs not only to be more tuned into international match angling but also needs to be more tuned into the irish match angling scene and be more familiar with the wealth of talent we have in this country. they should have influence over how the fish offs are run and who gets into them. realistically we have to look across the pond and realise that a 'hand picked' selection process (while not to everybodys liking) does actually produce consistent results.


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the panel system is definatley the way to go but i do think there is one major flaw in the system - access to the fish offs is only gained through reaching the top ten in the master angler championships. i think this limits the potential of the selection panel. alot of good anglers fish the masters every year and never reach the top ten and alot of great anglers dont even bother with the masters. the panel is potentially weaker due to the absense of these anglers. i also think there is the threat of some anglers who remain in the panel for a good few years running becoming complacent as they effectively only have to fish competitively one weekend a year do well and they're back again next year.

i also think none of this really matters much until the management structure is given a serious overhaul. ideally the irish managment needs not only to be more tuned into international match angling but also needs to be more tuned into the irish match angling scene and be more familiar with the wealth of talent we have in this country. they should have influence over how the fish offs are run and who gets into them. realistically we have to look across the pond and realise that a 'hand picked' selection process (while not to everybodys liking) does actually produce consistent results.


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There are motions going into the national AGM this year to increase the size of the panel to 36 and include the winners of the All Ireland open shore and the winners of the provincial closed championships from next year on.This should make the fish offs even more competitive. Everyone should go to the AGM and have there say.
Looking at the squad for the 2011 fish offs you would have to say that the system is starting to work,Most of the top anglers in the country are now in there, although it is missing a few. That squad is a scary place. Anyone not well prepared will be get stung.