P.A.C. Are you a member?

The P.A.C. is the primary organisation for pike anglers in Great Britain. Are you or have you ever been a member?

Andy

Nobody else gives a jot about Pike angling in this country. It is a no brainer, if you care about pike and pike angling and want to protect it join.

Chico wrote:Nobody else gives a jot about Pike angling in this country. It is a no brainer, if you care about pike and pike angling and want to protect it join.

If I was closer to a operating region I'd join yesterday, The closest meeting for me is the Cheshire PAC which is run by Mr Mark Leatherwood, I would'nt be surprised if you are friends with Mark Chico, he as been heavily involved with predator angling for nearly twenty years, It's a hundred mile round trip for me to attend the meetings, I am planning some days over to the PAC's Cheshire region, but it is just too far for me to make the fish-in's and meetings on a regular basis. I find it hard to digest the fact that there is no active PAC region in Wales, am I right in thinking that the UK Pike record was landed on a welsh water???

I reckon being close to a region is just a bonus.

I was in the PAC for around 4 years and wasn't interested in the regions/convention etc then forgot to renew one year and suddenly I realised I had let it lapse for 2 years. I rejoined and was still very solitaryfor a few years but then my local group started up and I popped along, much to my surprise I enjoyed it. A year later it was going to fold as the RO was off to pastures new and I was convinced to take it over.

I had nothing to do with the regions for years and there are hundreds of PAC members who are nowhere near one, they do see quite clearly that pike anglers need a voice, having that voice is going to become even more important in the near future. The only voice out there fighting for our causes is the PAC.

For most pike anglers the only tangible return for £22.50 is a (glossy) magazine.

There are, of course, many intangible benefits. As you say, Chico, the protection of pike being the main one. The change in attitudes to pike over the past thirty years are testament to the long-term dedication, commitment and unselfish effort by the various PAC committee's, Liaison Officers, Regional Organisers and ordinary members.

Access to special events aside, the rest of the benefits are actually open to non-members as well as members and do not provide much incentive to join. The convention, regional meetings, shop and website (forum aside) are rightly open to all.

So for those who need an incentive to join, they probably look at the magazine first and second and everything else comes last.

Andy

one hand in the air for two years or more

both main pac and region 31

Well let's see. Other than a magazine, why would I join? I was a member of PAAS and there was enough members and ex-members from PAC to put anyone off. That's just for starters.

Also, coarse fishing in Scotland is a wildly different affair than it is in England. Game fishing takes precedence first and foremost. It's worth something like 800 million quid a year to the Scottish economy. How much does pike fishing, which bear in mind is essentially free, provide? You could argue that it must bring something from tourism and the odd permits here and there but I would set that against the amount of crap and damage that pikers who by the way, see adverts for PAC and taking your litter home, every time they buy a packet of Baitbox frozen mackerel but never bother....so let's face it. 'Pikers' up here anyway don't give a flying feck about PAC, PAAS or anyone who tries to do anything positive for the sport.

How well did PAAS and PAC do at keeping livebaiting alive in Scotland? Well, they didn't do a bloody thing of any value. One Alistair McPhee went to the see the deciding committee on his todd and was basically shown the door. Pikers telling the Game industry what they can and cannot do with 'the Laird's guid watter'.....you're having a laugh. Until recently, using banksticks was deemed a using a 'fixed engine'. That's how behind we are. You were also only supposed to use one rod, in hand, no less. We just about get away with using banksticks and multiple rod setups now. Pushing the boat out, as it were, might be asking an awful lot for the meantime. Those with the power to do so, can take it away just as quickly and who are PAC anyway? A bunch of noisy upstarts who can't even even agree with each other, change committees like their underpants, lose members faster than the Liberal Democrats and do little but give each other abuse on the main site of their choosing. That's Pike and Predators by the way. I don't have to explain what sort of image that conjures up.

You basically have to break the law to fish for pike in Scotland. There are a handful of venues here and there that allow it but for the most-part, you're taking a chance 'guesting' on just about every bit of water in the country.

Pike fishing is and probably will be, as long as I'm alive, the minority as far as those with the power are concerned and it won't matter how many people actually take part, sign petitions or give even the slightest damn about pike in Scotland.

If I thought my 22 quid would make any difference, you could have it. Since I simply cannot see any benefit whatsoever, I'd be as well spending it on something else. I'll spend it on um....chewy sweeties.

Sorry but once I thought it would be the right thing to do. I would have to see some serious changes in the sport for me to see piking as anything other than a pasttime for the lowest classes and those who aspire to be. That's how it's perceived isn't it? Fishing for neds, scumbags, Eastern Europeans, vandals, arsonists, poachers and yokels.

never been a member and doubt i,de ever be

pac and non pac ?

anyone for pikelines

so kell when the bait bans turn up near you who from the forums will help, you may get info of the forums but when push comes to shove thats about the highpoint..
and thats p[roviding you get decent advice in the first place tha amount of crap ive read on forums akes me question that point

and what on earth has chris tarrent got to do with anything
it works out just over six quid a mag add to that the reviews are by memebers not always the same thing as you get in the monthlies where they are encouraged to endorse product x

just out of interest did you contact anyone within the pac or your closest region about the pike being destroyed?

im not taking andy up on this one as i know not a great deal about what went on up there. so id rather not comment

When I first joined the PAC Doncaster angling assoc had a rule that pike up to 7 lb were to be killed. The Regional Organiser at the time worked hard to have it changed to all pike to be returned. This happened at clubs across the country. Without the PAC this would not have happened.

Nearly 20 years ago Chris Leibbrandt, PAC Secretary, wrote to 150 or so trout reservoir managers in an attempt to convince them of the value of pike and opening the fishing to piking. Would Chew be doing pike days now if he had not done this? I don't know, but they were unheard of in the seventies.

pac and non pac ?

been a PAC member since 1980's when the mag was B&W stapled together and you had to pass it round region. and yes i still have every copy.

esoxjeff wrote:been a PAC member since 1980's when the mag was B&W stapled together and you had to pass it round region. and yes i still have every copy.

are you selling them jeff give me first dibbs mate

stubbo wrote:

esoxjeff wrote:been a PAC member since 1980's when the mag was B&W stapled together and you had to pass it round region. and yes i still have every copy.

are you selling them jeff give me first dibbs mate

sorry mate i still read them to learn about piking

It aint perfect but it far and away the best chance my grandson has of catching a pike. I’m too bloody bone idle to try to change much these days, but if the guys at PAC towers are prepared to get stuck in then as long as they don’t waste my money in in the land of the porridgenoshers I will keep paying.