opens

[jamcod]

is this the slow death of our opens only 176 fished the sluice open and whitely bay only 192 poor turn out in my view i would hate to think of future seasons without a few opens to fish any thoughts on why the turn outs are so low is it the cost or the large area.s to fish or is it the prizes i.ve no complaints with any myself , cheers jamcod

[CHUKKA]

lot of people have lost their jobs mate. Its an expensive day to fish a match properly.

crab, blacks, whites, travel costs, entry free it all mounts up when times are hard!!

It doesnt help when the sea is flat and its sunny.

The biggest turnaouts seem to be for the £1000 prize money comps but its too big a gamble for too many clubs, luckily the Sluice club just about broke even.

The fishing is actually quite good at the moment as soon as the sea lifts there will be loads of good fish. Lots in the 3-5lb bracket being caught already.

[codman56]

I don’t think it’s the prizes or the money our club Bedlington used to pay £1000 first £500 h/f and we had a very good prize table but we still found it hard to get near the 250 entrees the less people who turn out it makes it harder to put a good prize table on it is our open in 2 weeks we have a good table so lets hope e have a good turn out

[GerryBerry]

Strongly agree that times are hard at the minute and this has affected turnout at matches, Seaham have a big match this weekend £1000 to the winner although I'm told that last years turnout was well down on previous years.

[Billzo]

not sure of y the whitley had bad turn out mayb have been the word spread around about it b-ing a poor table ect last year? i dont know as never fished it this year or last year as had something on those day's.
i did fish the sluice open this year & alot 2 do with the lack of anglers i think was because of the football, newcastle & sunderland matches. i do also think it has alot 2 do with the hard times aswell mind, the money is tight 4 many people.

[RossW]

Maybe people have more varied leisure pursuits now or maybe they are lazier and find easier pleasures than bait collecting, driving to fishing marks and wrestling with weather and tide for hours. It's a shame, though. I'm just getting into fishing Opens when job and family commitments allow, and they are cracking fun. Long may they continue, even if they attract smaller numbers. As my wife always says: "Size isn't everything."

[sk4]

Well on Sunday we had 2 Live football games on sky plus poor conditions and other clubs having matches on the same day and not supporting there local open's

[davidhayley1945]

is this the slow death of our opens only 176 fished the sluice open and whitely bay only 192 poor turn out in my view i would hate to think of future seasons without a few opens to fish any thoughts on why the turn outs are so low is it the cost or the large area.s to fish or is it the prizes i.ve no complaints with any myself , cheers jamcod

we had to give up the tynemouth open 6 years ago as the last one only broke even ,we still gave 200 pounds to local charity out of club funds ,we used to get 800 to 1200 attend and over the years gave over 28 thousand pounds to hospices and local charitys the trouble is none of the big firms want to sponsor you we sent out over 50 letters and only got a reply from barbour s/s centry ,greys coniflex were never bothered,only local tackle shops helped towards prize table ,we put up a 1000 pound first prize plus other cash prizes plus we spent 3000 pounds on prize table .by the time expenses are taken out you are looking at 500 to make it worh while ,plus all the hard work involved. davy

[jamcod]

codman56 looking forward to bedlington.s open hope the club gets a good turn out being a bedlington lad myself al be out what ever the weather fishing has to support itself because no one else will , cheers jamcod