This year's main goals were achieved even on a difficult course

At the end of each year, we tend to review and evaluate the past period. This is no different now, and we would like to share how this year turned out from the perspective of our fishing community.

We are not saying goodbye to an ordinary year, but after the difficulties that have affected our country, and thus us, in recent years, the weekdays may begin to calm down and we can start the next fishing season with positive expectations again. By the grace of nature, we slowly overcame the drought of the century, and although slowly, the economic difficulties of the neighboring war, which affected everyone, are subsiding. The rain-free weather of the past two years posed a serious challenge to fishing and fish farming, which brought high and continuously rising fish prices even in the first half of this year. In order to offset the economic difficulties and the extraordinary price increases due to reasons beyond our control, it was inevitable to implement significant price increases for this year's fishing tickets as well. Our association and the Hungarian National Fishing Association did not decide in favor of the significant price increases for their own sake, but it was a particularly important goal that the fishing quantities, which have doubled compared to the situation eight to ten years ago, can be maintained in order to serve the fishing needs.

Furthermore, thanks to numerous public welfare investments, the environmental condition of the Association's fishing ponds has undergone unprecedented development in the past six years, and maintaining and developing these conditions in a way that preserves their condition has been and will continue to be our priority in the future. All in all, it can be said that, despite all the difficulties, fishing remains the most affordable form of active recreation available to a wide group of society among leisure activities in our country. Together, the fishermen and the fishing guides and the workers in the sector can be proud that our fishing community is still the largest non-governmental organization in the county. Thanks to joint responsibility and fair decisions - in addition to a small decrease - we managed to maintain the number of members of our fishing community and at the same time achieve our annual objectives. In the year 2022, after an all-time record number of people (12,002 people), this year 11,570 adult and child anglers exchanged valid fishing documents in our community. Despite the decrease, it is a great pleasure for us that, out of this number of members, the number of our children who exchanged state tickets was 1,765.

In addition to the growth of fishing membership, our priority goal every year is to have more and more people exchange regional fishing licenses for the fishing waters we use. In the case of adult annual regional tickets of particular importance for our Association (complete county, 3 lakes + river waters, river water, partial ticket), the sale this year decreased by 370 compared to the previous year, which unfortunately is a drop of almost 14.5%. In addition to the increase in ticket prices, we attribute this negative turn primarily to the decrease in free time that can be spent on fishing and to the financial difficulties affecting fishermen and their families, as well as to the frequent floods experienced in our natural fishing waters. Even with this decrease in annual ticket exchange, a total of 3,212 adults still found the opportunity to relax in the form of an annual regional ticket on the shores of the iron waters. It is important to emphasize that the number of sales of daily fishing tickets increased, so the losses resulting from annual tickets were partly compensated by this fact.

In terms of child anglers, in addition to the many other technical opportunities and programs, it is a gratifying fact that 733 young people still chose the Vasu waters as their fishing spot. With the help of our professional fishing guard colleagues, we continuously held exams in Vaskeresztes throughout the year, and the number of people who passed the exams in 2023 was 220. It is important to mention that the possibility of a free fishing test does not mean that fishing candidates who arrived unprepared always left with a fishing test certificate in the year 2023. Unfortunately, 43 people failed their first fishing test and were therefore forced to take a supplementary test.

Thanks to the increase in the price of regional fishing tickets and the slightly decreasing fish prices in the second half of the year, as well as the fishing subsidies provided by MOHOSZ and its member associations, we managed to buy native fish in our waters for nearly HUF 135 million, which compared to HUF 96 million in 2022. We would also like to thank the Hungarian National Fishing Association and the associations that participated in the support.

From our point of view, this year's fishing is an outstanding result in light of the previously described decreasing number of fishermen and territorial ticket changes, which can also be seen in the fact that in several cases we managed to significantly exceed the fish management plan for carp and whitefish in our water areas of significant fishing interest. 57,991 kg of carp and 34,600 kg of white fish entered the waters. This year, we also managed to increase the stocking quantities of predatory fish from previous years, despite the extremely high fish prices (net 5000-6500 HUF/kg): 1000 kg of catchable-sized pike, 882 kg of two-year-old perch, 150 kg of two-year-old rainbow trout and 7000 pre-raised brown trout , 12,500 pre-raised baleen, 5,000 pre-raised chub and 20,000 pike found a new home in Vasi waters.
On several occasions, our fish wardens jointly held boat ramps and coordinated group inspections with social fish guards, in addition to their inspections based on monthly orders, in order to protect the fish stock. In addition to fish stocking, ensuring fish conservation is an extremely important task, despite the increasing associated costs. On installation days, our fish guards regularly participated in the on-site measurement control of the delivered fish batches, accompanying the fish shipment and/or on-site installation. In addition to the fish guard duties, the professional fish guards carry out regular waterfront maintenance and grass mowing work in the water areas. We thank the active social fish watchers and partner organizations participating in fish protection and waterfront maintenance for their work throughout the year and we count on their help in the future. In addition to the fish guards, we also tried to continuously maintain the well-being infrastructures created next to the fishing waters with the involvement of external contractors.

As in previous years, our Association was the main or co-director of more than 15 events in the field of competitive fishing. In the year 2023, they had plenty of opportunities to prove themselves to the Pecas. The competitions organized by the Association were almost all sold out and, based on the positive feedback of the anglers, they were organized without any problems. For the fourteenth time, our "Iron Waters Best Sport Angler" competition series was held, the title sponsor of which was the Garbolino - TackleBait company for two years now. Our excellent partnership with the TackleBait Fishing Store and pet food store and Garbolino Wholesale will continue to strengthen, because the company led by Tibor Geröly will remain the title sponsor for the 2024-2025 season.

In 2023, Decathlon Szombathelyi Sportáruház, which has been a significant supporter of the Association's fishing community events for years, was the main supporter of the Association's programs for youth, youth and disabled anglers. The county-level sponsorship of these market-leading companies also indicates that our Association, as a non-profit NGO, is committed to supporting competitive sports and youth. The most popular discipline of the national competitive sport is Method Feeder, in whose national championship nearly 600 competitors took part this year. Our association was once again honored that the preliminary and intermediate finals of the National Championship of this discipline took place in Vas county, on Lake Abért. We launched it in the spring of the XVIII. Vasi Vizeken Elementary School competition with 17 teams with 68 participants. In the county, we operated five fishing courses in elementary schools with the help of volunteers, which resulted in the fishing education of 83 children throughout the county. At the beginning of the summer, we held the Vasi Vizeken Youth Fishing Competition for young anglers, the winners of which could take part in the finals held at the MOHOSZ National Fishing Camp. At the beginning of August, 30 children from all parts of the county took part in our fishing camp in Vaskeresztes - at a discounted price - in the boarding and day care system. Our youth programs were implemented with the partial support of the MOHOSZ Horgász Youth Training and Education Program.

The Pinka-Völgyi Halas Nap was held for the ninth time on July 8, 2023, in Vaskeresztes, in the Alpesi Fogadó és Horgászturstikaki Központ, which, as in previous years, was attended by many people and celebrated with us the 30th anniversary of the Association's existence.

On the occasion of the anniversary, we announced various fishing ticket sales, and our Association made a commitment that for every county "1" adult annual regional ticket sold until April 30, 2023, HUF 200 will be contributed to the goals of the "Gréta a Mi Hősünk Foundation" . By April 30, 1,136 of our fellow anglers exchanged complete "1" county adult annual area tickets, so we supported the recovery of Gréta Geosits with HUF 227,200.

In October, we organized an integrated fishing competition for the fifth time, where the young people of the National Association for the Protection of the Interests of People with Intellectual Disabilities and their Supporters (ÉFOÉSZ) of the Vas County enjoyed a nice joint friendly fishing afternoon with the fishermen of the Vas County Association of Sport Fishing Associations at the Szombathely Boating Lake. The development of our existing fishing waters is also a priority for us, and in the realization of this goal, the Vas Vármegyei Municipality has been our priority partner for years within the framework of the Territorial and Urban Development Operative Program. TOP Plusz - Local and regional tourism development c. after the long preparatory work of our application submitted to a call for proposals and won at the end of last year, a support contract was concluded in the fall of this year, so the preparation and implementation of the implementation plans for the application can begin in the year 2024-2025. Within the framework of the project, in accordance with the Vas County Spatial Development Strategy, the development of the tourist infrastructure of the Büki fishing lake, the Kőszeg boating lake, the Kőszeg brick factory lake, the Vassurányi lake, the Rábasömjén fishing lake, the Ikervár section of the Rába river and the Vasvár II fishing lake will be implemented in the With the support of the Hungarian Government and the European Union with the support of HUF 199,915,797. Small-scale infrastructural interventions on the previously listed lakes and river sections and in their immediate surroundings help to improve the image of the affected settlement, and also expand the recreational opportunities of the population living in the area and the tourists who come there. As a result of the planned developments, in addition to the listed fishing waters, there will be roads, parking lots, fish ponds, fishing spots, as well as benches, rest areas, fishing spots with limited mobility, camp toilets, event spaces, bacon grills, information boards and other welfare improvements.

In close cooperation with the Hungarian National Fishing Association, in addition to its numerous activities, the national organization has carried out the renovation of the basic infrastructure of Lake Döröskei over the past two years with its own funds and the MAHOP-1.2.1-2017-2019-00013 awarded for the reservoir. as the new owner of the project. This year, Döröskeitó received a water rights operation permit for the next 20 years, and as a second milestone, the lake's fish management plan was completed, which was approved by the authorities until December 31, 2027. In the past period, in accordance with the fish management plan, the first new "inhabitants" of the lake arrived, a total of 468 kg of extra carp between 4-5 kg, as well as 500 kg of selected bream in the month of November. MOHOSZ, as a fish management authority, in cooperation with our Association, wants to use the Döröske reservoir primarily as a C&R (catch and release) sport fishing lake starting next spring, so that the water area can be re-entered into the fishing tourism cycle. Plans include the renovation of the dilapidated beach and tourist buildings next to the lake, which will only be possible if state and EU funds are available. MOHOSZ is currently working on the "National Fishing Tourism Strategy 2030." get government approval and, similar to the plans in Döröske, a fishing tourism development program can be launched in several areas in Hungary. We would also like to thank the Hungarian National Fishing Association, the Vas County Municipality and the region's parliamentarians and mayors for their active support and cooperation in achieving our development goals.

Vas Népe, a prominent media supporter of our Association, reports regularly and in detail about our programs and current events, which is a bi-weekly fishing page about the happenings in the waters of Vas. Szombathely Television has also reported on all our important events and current affairs, and the recordings are available in the video gallery of our website.

Comprehensively assessing the life of our organization, we have a colorful and productive year behind us in many areas. We know that the future holds further challenges and tasks to be solved for us, but we will work to ensure that the fishing community in Vasi continues to grow stronger and that all its members can spend their time on the shores of the Vasi waters enriched with positive experiences.

As a final word, we would like to remind fellow anglers that the state tickets for 2023 and the Vasi annual regional tickets are valid until January 31, 2024, so you can fish with them without any problems at the beginning of the next year. State fishing tickets for 2024 are already available at all our member organizations, and we hope that the sale of regional tickets can also start smoothly in January. Please find out in advance about the customer reception regulations of the associations and observe the individual regulations of the ticket sales points.

The Vas County Association of Sport Fishing Associations wishes all fellow anglers a New Year rich in health and fishing experiences!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TRUST IN 2023!