We represent the interests of riparian owners, fishery managers and keepers, club and syndicate tenants, and an increasing number of individual anglers. All of these come together to support our work, knowing that the future of these wonderful waters cannot be taken for granted, and that the fishing we all value so highly could all too easily decline unless an organisation existed to ensure by every possible means that this does not happen. We provide an effective and respected voice for our members, and indeed for all who love these rivers, but the more members we have the greater our ability to ensure that the very real threats that exist are kept at bay.

The rivers we fish are very special, but they are the result of centuries of modification and management, not just to provide fishing, but also to drive industries via mills, enhance agriculture, and provide domestic water supplies. The evidence of this management is still visible – hatches, sluices and side channels, carriers and weirs to name but the most obvious. Whilst many of these historic modified structures are now managed more sympathetically towards helping improve river ecology as well as fishing, the current threats to our rivers are of a different order. The greatest single pressure is the abstraction of water from the underlying aquifers to supply industrial and expanding domestic needs. Most anglers will know that flows, especially in summer, have diminished in their lifetimes, reflecting this. Couple this with the increasing risk of pollution from a variety of sources, the cost of maintaining banks and bridges and the continual pursuit of habitat improvements, and add in the uncertainty of how the rivers will react to climate change, and the need for concern becomes clear.

Please join us now; we want to ensure that your views are properly heard