Fylde Boat Angling Club began in 1971 when a letter appeared on the sports pages of the Blackpool Evening Gazette from a local sea angler who wanted to get together with other local Fylde Coast anglers who fished from their own boats and were interested in the spring season of tope fishing. At that time all boat fishing off the Blackpool and the Fylde coast was from 10ft-12ft open dinghies powered mainly by small Seagull outboard motors. Anglers had to drag their boats across the soft, sandy beach to launch them, so demanding small, light boats and outboards. While today it is not unusual to count 100 boats fishing offshore on a calm Sunday, back in 1971 there were no more than a handful of broad-backed enthusiasts who fished from their own boats. Boat fishing then meant going on a Fleetwood charter boat.

After seeing the reader’s letter in the paper, the angling correspondent for the Blackpool Gazette contacted the letter writer and suggested a public meeting to see if a club could be formed for more general dinghy fishing beyond just tope. The Blackpool Gazette publicised the meeting in its Saturday night angling column and the inaugural meeting was held at a pub. It was decided that rather than just being a spring tope fishing group, they would band together to fish together all year and help each other to pull their boats across the beach.

One of the inaugural members was aware that there was a derelict underground car park at Little Bispham just by the beach and suggested it might be something a boat club could use. Built in the 1930s, the underground car park was soon abandoned and closed up by Blackpool Town Council because it flooded on high tides, damaging vehicles.

The group of dinghy anglers decided to approach Blackpool council to see if the underground car park could be opened up and leased to them so that they could store both boats and a tractor to pull boats over the sand.  Blackpool Council offered a peppercorn rent and the club bought two ancient tractors.

It quickly became clear that with tractors to pull boats over the beach, it was possible to have bigger boats and bigger engines. The facility of an underground tractor and boat storehouse was the catalyst for the move away from boats which were able to be manhandled across the beach to bigger, faster and heavier craft which needed a tractor to launch them and at the same time opening up offshore fishing and the fishing grounds of Morecambe Bay and South Cumbria. But for the idea of club tractors, fishing would have remained in small open dinghies hugging close to shore.

In the early 1980s an approach was made to Blackpool Council for permission to convert two derelict promenade shelters close to the slipway into a clubhouse. The work was almost entirely done voluntarily by members, which now gives Fylde Boat Angling Club the unique position among the boat-fishing clubs on the Fylde Coast of having a secure boat storage facility and a licensed clubhouse, which overlooks the sea and the launching slipway.

The latest move for the club has been to develop a thriving shore fishing section for sea anglers who prefer to keep their feet on dry land or for those boat-owning members who enjoy both boat and shore fishing. This is another first for the Fylde Coast, a shore fishing club that has its own licensed clubhouse.

Today, having just celebrated its 30^th birthday, Fylde Boat Angling Club is one of the largest sea angling clubs in the North West of England and the enthusiasm of its members and innovations of management committee are set to ensure its continues to prosper and grow.