[By Andrew C]
I got in contact with the secretary of B.A.S.S and explained the idea of designing, printing and mailing a poster to all fishing shops. The number of fishing shop addresses that I found online totalled nearly 450 stores. With the concept being accepted SOS Bass got involved by requesting poster designs to be submitted .
From there, the print ready image was then sent to me. Through work ( a print and mail company ) I got the printers we use to give a very good price to have just over 600 copies printed A3 size. David C from SOSB then drafted a covering letter to the tackle shop owners requesting them to put up the poster and encourage the visiting customers to visit the website and email politicians and ministers. I then printed the addresses onto C4 envelopes and then drafted in the wife and kids to put a letter and poster in each one. I think they want me to catch fish more than I do!!
Again the Bass committee approved the idea and agreed to fund it. Result! I chose about 28 well known fishing tackle retailers and created a compliment slip for each one using their own logo. From there it was a case of printing out and trimming down the samples, mailing them to the following stores with a covering letter, asking if it was possible to include a compliment slip with all their over the counter sales, also include one in all their online sales supplied to them free of charge. And then hope!
The final slips are now away and there are a few more follow up calls to make to be sure they have been received and maybe more to print. The slips are now also appearing on tackle stores pages too, gives me a buzz every time I see one.
What a result! It could not have been done without the Save our Sea Bass team and Bass Anglers’ Sportfishing Society for all the funding, and the amazing response from all the owners and staff at the stores. Also thanks to my wife for putting up with me spending too long on this trying to get things perfect.
The article above is one of the more recent ideas thats developed further as part of our ever increasing campaign.You can still help with this by letting us know if you have seen the posters or compliment slips in your area, or send us a photo of the items or share on our Twitter or Face book page.
The sos bass team are always looking for new ways to campaign or engage with the wide variety of sectors and people interested or involved in bass conservation .We are available to contact via the SOS website so if you think you have an idea worth proposing do mail us.
[SOS Bass Team]
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