Up until now, 2024 has been rather lethargic when it comes to licence sales, consistently lagging behind 2023 by a margin of anything up to 8.75% and fuelling speculation of yet another drop in the Unique Angler Number (UAN) year on year.
With the UAN dropping year on year since 2010 and showing a positive only during Covid, the fact that licences sales are up and the UAN is ahead by almost five and a half percent is a welcome change.
The increase in licence sales also means sales revenue is up fractionally at this point compared to 2023 as opposed to a deficit. This means that the all-important income for stocking and improvement of waters is there. A vital element for the facilitation recreational angling.
Since the deficit peaked at 8.75% in May of this year, the gap slowly diminished improving along with the weather. Down to a mere 3.17% in July, hopes of parity in August were far exceeded with publication of the figures and the trend now a positive 5.4% ahead.
A steady increase in junior licences has been showing for a few months now, a fact that must be attributed in part to the many initiatives and recruitment events being run by the likes of ATA and its members, Angling Trust, Canal & River Trust and many more individual brands across the industry. With an increase of 20-30% plus over 2023, the task now is to retain and develop these new recruits into regular lifelong anglers.
Whilst we are potentially developing anglers for the future and seeing increases across both senior and disabled angling sectors, there are still glaring issues that manifest themselves in the same data sets.
Despite collective efforts, the key area of full adult licence sales still lags behind last year with two rod adult licences down over two percent and three rod licences down nearly six percent. These figures are better that the previous month but remain stubbornly short of expectations.
Work on the retention of anglers in this sector is now a key focus for ATA, as is the reduction in the annual churn of anglers leaving and reconnecting with the sport. Encouraging regular anglers to maintain the angling habit through the changes in their life is a major challenge for the trade and is something that will not be achieved through participation initiatives alone.
The worst hit sector, that of game fishing, is now a priority for ATA in terms of understanding the root causes and attempting to reverse that trend. This is a project that covers a wide range of factors from fish farming and pressure on natural fish stocks from commercial fishing to access to adequate numbers of game fisheries.
Looking ahead, we have learned to take the weather into account more than ever as weather patterns and trends change. More extremes are a significant factor in angling as flooded fisheries do not promote angling confidence. Below average temperatures and above average rainfall like we have seen this year are destined to be the norm with even the sun failing to reach its average during the summer.
ATA continues to work with all major stakeholders in terms of recruitment and plans are in place to dramatically increase the trade’s ability to promote and facilitate angling and angling methods that will fit with today’s hectic lifestyles.
The trade must continue to heavily invest both time and money in support of the work being done to ensure that any positive momentum generated during 2024 is built upon going forward.