This award represents an increase on the £1.56 million that was paid over the last four years to build an infrastructure of 1,400 coaches, 35 County Angling Action Groups and 91 Club mark-accredited clubs.

While the award is less than the £2.35 million maximum bid submitted by the Angling Trust, most sports have had reductions in their funding due to cuts in the grant to Sport England from the Government.

Sport England has asked the Angling Trust to focus particularly on growing the number of anglers who go fishing once a week, and on older and disabled anglers.

The Angling Trust is also working with the Environment Agency to secure funding to support growing the number of anglers, in particular young children. As part of the National Angling Strategy launched this year – Fishing For Life – the Trust will be working with others to build the case for other funding organisations to support angling participation and to maximise the social and economic benefits of going fishing.

The Angling Trust will use Sport England’s funding to:

• Support angling clubs and fisheries through its Club Fish national development programme to offer participation programmes over the four year period
• Focus on older and disabled anglers through the Let’s Fish group angling programme, delivered by Angling Champions at partner fisheries.
• Establish a club and fishery competition framework at national, regional and county level to reward regular participation across all disciplines, age groups and abilities.

Sport England is also providing £138,000 to support up to 800 talented young anglers at regional and national level across the disciplines of game, coarse and sea angling. This investment will help reinforce the sport’s talent development programme which is still in its infancy.

Sport England’s Director of Sport, Lisa O’Keefe, said: “The Angling Trust has a huge opportunity to increase the number of regular anglers and it is great to see that it has developed its knowledge and insight into their market to get more people fishing more often.

"We are pleased to be working alongside the Environment Agency which supports the sport in getting more people fishing as well as on educational and environmental projects. I’m confident that angling will continue to develop over the next four years with our support.”

The Angling Trust’s Chief Executive Mark Lloyd said: “While we are disappointed not to have secured the maximum amount in our bid, this continued funding is extremely welcome at a time when government funding is extremely tight. This success reflects the fact that the Trust has set a new standard in professionalism and governance, and that our development team have achieved real progress over the past four years.

“There is a huge amount of work to do to grow angling participation, and it needs to be done at a very large scale to have an impact. Sport England have set us some very challenging and specific targets, and we will focus on achieving them as part of an ambitious programme of work to improve angling and the environment on which it depends.”

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News