WELCOME TO THE SALFORD FRIENDLY ANGLERS SOCIETY The Salford Friendly Anglers Society was instituted on the 2nd of April 1817, and is by some considerable margin the worlds oldest angling society. We would like to invite you to join us via our free membership option, to join what has become the River Irwell and its tributaries largest environmental lobbying group. Our four primary objectives are: 1. To raise the profile, and public awareness of the River Irwell and its tributaries as a leisure facility. 2. To ensure that our local authorities, United Utilities and the Environment … read more.......
World Fishing Day – Attn Matthew Wright
Hi Matthew - great to see you've developed a love of fishing - here's an open invitation from the committee at Salford Friendly Anglers Society to come up North and catch some decent fish. As … read more Matthew......
Fishing In Urban Manchester – Its Awesome
Our fishing club is free to join - with the aim of inspiring people to take up angling, and to take an interest in the rejuvenation of our local waterways. No need to blether on with lots of words … read more.....
Next Meeting
Our next meeting will not be the usual fishing club meeting - instead we intend to meet on the banks of the River Irwell and have a social fish in.... Maybe one of those elusive Irwell barbel might … read more
Our History
As a result of the passing of the Friendly Societies Act in 1817 a group of like minded anglers in Salford, Lancashire decided to institute a Friendly Society for the benefit of local anglers. Salford Friendly Anglers was instituted on 2nd April 1817. As well as offering fishing on the … .......continue reading
Fishing Season and Closed Season North West England
Here is the definitive guide to when you can and can't fish in the North West England (please click
The Mersey Fisheries – Have We Ever Had It So Good ?
Click on the image above to see it full size The left hand image shows the state of our local fisheries in 1970 and the left hand show the same for 1994 Using our local knowledge.. if we were to update the image for 2018 this map would just show solid lines,,, as all our local rivers now contain breeding populations of fish This is an incredible improvement... Today 16th June 2018 is the first day of the 2018 river fishing season for coarse anglers - if you get the opportunity to get … ....read more
Salford Quays Lure Competition 23rd June 2018
To celebrate World Fishing Day 23rd June 2018, Salford Friendly Anglers Society (the Worlds oldest fishing club formed in April 1817) are holding a lure fishing competition at one of the worlds best urban fishing venues – SALFORD QUAYS The competition is open to all comers Meet at Salford Quays Beefeater Pub ( M50 3SQ […]
The 1903 Challenge Fishing Match
In 1903 – Broughton Angling Club issued a challenge to Salford Friendly Anglers Soc to fish an inter club match at a local venue – where the losers have to purchase tea for the winners. 115 years later – we have thrown down the gauntlet to Broughton Angling Club to re-run this match on Sunday […]
De-Silting Kingfisher Lake
Please be aware that Kingfisher Lake will be closed to all access (fishing, walking, mooching, having a look) from 25th January until 2nd February – to allow contractors to de-silt the top end of the lake (see area marked in red on map below) Kingfisher Lake probably has the highest fish density of any of […]
Website Upgrade In Process
Please bear with us – we are in the process of upgrading our website – all our pages still exist – see drop down menus – however the way the content is being displayed for the next 48 hours or so isn’t as user friendly as it used to be. We should have things right […]
No Plaice For Racism In Fishing
There’s no plaice for racism in our sport. A fishery owner has put up this sign at his fishery — I didn’t realise we were still living in the 1930’s – very sad to see such blatant racism. Also very sad to see – in fact disgusting to see – that the Police don’t think […]
A Historic Challenge From Broughton Angling Society Dated 1903
Back in 1903 it was commonplace for angling clubs to issue challenges to other local clubs.. We found this invitation to hold a fishing competition from Broughton Angling Society dated 1903 – challenging The Salford Friendly Anglers Society to a match. I attended a Broughton Anglers Society meeting last night (the 5th Dec 2017) and […]
River Irwell To Receive Major Fish Restocking
Great news today from the EA – that a winter restocking is on the way for the River Irwell 10,000 roach, chub and dace are on order from the EAs fish farm at Calverton and will be stocked in the Irwell at a variety of locations downstream of Burrs Country Park This is great news […]
Wallness Social Angling Society Spastics Effort 1962
Like many old angling clubs the long lived but now defunct Wallness Social Angling Society was based at the Wallness Tavern, Wallness Lane, Salford (less than 200 yards away from the current Salford Friendly Anglers HQ). The Wallness Social Angling Society featured regularly in local angling club matches and are mentioned in many of our […]
The Freshwater Fish Preservation League
A meeting was held at the Swan Hotel, Fountain St, Manchester on the 11th November 1908 between committee members of The Salford Friendly Anglers Society, The County Palatine Angling Association and the Moss Side Social Angling Club with the remit of setting up a group of local angling associations dedicated to improving our sport […]
The Angler Magazine 1948 Fish Prints
Stashed away in an old faded manila envelope we found these amazing fish prints – they are the complete set that was given away in “The Angler” magazine in 1948.