Fishing for Good

The strategic plan for the Angling Trust 2023 – 2028

The Angling Trust has launched its vision for fishing and the environment in its five-year strategic plan, Fishing for Good 2023-28.

Through the pillars of campaigning, participation, competitions and supporting grass roots clubs and fisheries, the report outlines how the Angling Trust will play a leading role in achieving key goals that will enrich and benefit fishing including:

• Increasing recognition for the sport and promoting the joy that fishing brings and its proven benefits for participants and the environment.
• Combating pollution, over-predation, abstraction, and other threats to fishing and the environment.
• Promoting the mental health and wellbeing benefits of angling to the wider community.
• Improving angling access and creating new opportunities for people to enjoy fishing.
• Protecting the legal right to go fishing and challenging recreational and commercial over-exploitation of fish and the environment.
• Supporting efforts to combat illegal fishing and fish theft.
• Increasing the diversity of participants and ensuring our sport is welcoming to all.
• Creating opportunities for all to take part in competitions from grassroots to elite participation.
• Ensuring good governance and safeguarding, so that everyone can enjoy our sport in a safe environment.
• Establishing role models and pathways to participate though coaches, volunteers, and community leaders, both locally and nationally.

Jamie Cook, Angling Trust CEO, said:

“Anglers have a unique connection to the environment. Our ability to participate is dependent on access to healthy aquatic environments with strong ecosystems of wildlife. As a result, anglers have done more for conservation and preservation of the environment than almost any other independent stakeholder.

“Despite this, angling faces threats, as do the environments we depend upon and the fish we dream about. The community requires a voice on big issues and our collective scale is not reflected in our level of influence as anglers – Fishing for Good seeks to change that.

“Fishing for Good lays out a plan for angling and the community. It is designed to provide clarity of the role and priorities of the Angling Trust and how we are focused on delivering against the core pillars which define our pastime and will support growth, representation, and visibility at all levels.

“This is not a journey we are on alone and this plan lays out how, by working together, anglers, clubs, fisheries, coaches, volunteers, partners and investors can collaborate and deliver greater impact. Ultimately, this is a vision for all within angling, whether it is in saltwater or freshwater, game or coarse, for competition or pleasure.”

The Plan can be downloaded below