There needs to be an element of care in a discussion such as this. First you need to identify between an amateur sport and a professional sport. To compare fishing with golf, both are overwhelmingly amateur sports. In golf a player is not allowed to win a prize valued in excess of $500.00 or they will be declared a professional, thereby banning themselves from all amateur competitions.

Fishing is an amateur sport and many competitions are now offering huge prizes to attract competitors. Like it or not, it was pretty obvious that before long the value of prizes would be looked at. The alternative would be to have entry fees taxed, as they are in the racing industry.

Immediate knee jerk reactions are to be expected but it really needs to be thought through, even the prizes in some tombola or bingo competitions are restricted to a very small amount. Not saying any of this is right or wrong, it just needs to be given a little serious thought.

It's hard to call oneself an amateur angler when negotiating with a minister for fish concessions and increased limits, when there are prizes of $100,000.00 at stake in some amateur fishing competitions.

Just a thought.