The Anglers Action Group was formed by a group of recreational anglers in 1993 in response to a proposal by a local council to ban fishing from it's rock ledges. Immediately two other issues came to the fore, one was the dredging of Narrabeen Lakes and the other was proposed fishing restrictions in Cabbage Tree Bay. One issue, the proposed dredging of Narrabeen Lakes, was successful due to the work by AAG. The Cabbage Tree Bay issue was one that had an extensive consultation process that lasted several years until fishing restrictions were finally imposed. The lesson learnt from the CTB process was the tactics that the local council employed, and that NSW Fisheries were willing to accept the results of flawed consultation processes dubious scientific data.

The AAG tries to serve two functions. One is to stand up for the rights of recreational anglers where we see these are being impinged upon by various groups such as local councils and State and Federal governments or governmental bodies and various greens based ideologies. As such we are not a fishing club, we do not hold fishing competitions and are not trying to compete against fishing clubs. We are a non-political and independent lobby group. We have no allegiance nor ties with any political party and are funded entirely from members fees and donations.

Secondly, and perhaps more important, is to keep the angler informed of decisions that have been made, and to encourage members to form their own opinions and make submissions in their own right. In fact, AAG’s motto is ‘keeping the angler informed. Since its inception, the AAG has had a newsletter called the AAG Rag, and this was the main vehicle for dissemination of information. It not only went to members, but also to local councils, State and Federal politicians, media groups and other fishing bodies. This year has seen the first use of the distribution of the AAG Rag via email, with Issue #34 being sent as a pdf file to about 90 people and organsiations, including parliamentarians, local councillors, Fisheries staff, media people, fishing related groups and clubs, charter operators and tackle shops. It is hoped this list will be expanded in both numbers and along the NSW coast. We are also in the early stages of setting up discussion lists with list-servs, and have the beginnings of a web presence at http://www.spunge.org/~aag. It is anticipated that these will be developed over the coming years, so that alerts can be sent to members quickly by both email, and on a Web server, and to encourage discussion of issues.

One of our goals is to build a network of concerned anglers along NSW with contacts with other clubs, organizations and anglers. We have close ties with the AAG at Coff’s Harbour when the SIMP was being discussed. An earlier president established ties with bodies in Jervis Bay. This is an on-going process and hopefully made easier with the email version of the AAG Rag, email discussion lists and a web presence. Although we have cut ties with the Recreational Fishing Alliance of NSW we still maintain a close association with its members.

We welcome any new members, their contributions to discussions or the newsletter, or to raise issues with the Committee.

If you would like to be sent a copy of the latest edition of our newsletters, the AAG RAG, send an email to: aagfish@gmail.com requesting to be added to the email list. Copies will eventually be placed on this web site .