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 by
1. Observing the close seasons.
2. To stop the taking of undersized fish for the table
3. To halt the practice of killing all fish before the weigh in at angling competitions.
4. To encourage all anglers to become “good sportsmen”
Long before the days when catch and release was the norm – most fish caught ended up as someones dinner.
At the turn of the 19th century it was common practice for match nets to be weighed in dead, and the fish sold by the fishing club match organising committee.
Obviously some enlightened anglers were wise to the fact that practices such as this were damaging our sport and decided to take appropriate action.
The meeting resulted in the formation of the Freshwater Fish Preservation League – who continued as an active organisation until the late 1950s. Indeed “The League” even formed their own match team who were recorded competing in post 2nd World War 1st Division National Matches.
Please click on these two documents below to see them in full size and have a read of what was decided upon one November evening in 1908
Over course of the next few weeks we will be adding more documents to our archive – and will create more links to documents and information about this organisation
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