KSFA - The story of sport fishing goes 20 years back
The story of Kingfisher Sport Fishing Association
Formed in 1995 by Honorary President, Stephen Johnston, Kingfisher Sport Fishing Association (KSFA) has the aim of promoting fishing with a conscience in the Maltese people.
Since its inception, the Association has strived to educate its members to practice fish conservation. All fish caught during KSFA events are in fact handled with great care after capture and are then released back into their habitat at the end of the event.
Kingfisher Sport Fishing Association was the first to introduce the conservation concept amongst sport fishing clubs in Malta and continues to strive on encouraging other Maltese clubs and associations to follow these steps. The Association also serves as a forum were members can exchange views and tips about the various angling techniques practiced in the Maltese Islands. The Association's members number around 50. Kingfisher organises three main leagues every year. These are the Singles League - a competition where competitors fish independently, a Doubles League comprising of teams made up of two members each and a Mullet league fished solely for the mystic Mullet.
It set up its initial online presence on https://www.kingfishersport.org in 2002 and has since migrated to https://www.ksfamalta.com/. KSFA also has its own facebook page.
KFSA has two clubs associated within it namely, the Mullet Club and the Kids Club.
The Mullet Club specializes in mullet only and holds matches on regular basis where only mullets count on the day. These matches are very popular since catching mullet is good sport and many of our anglers are capable of luring the elusive mullet to feed and detect its more than shy bite to hook it.
Conservation here is also of prime importance and the mullet caught is treated like royalty before being released.
The kids club, as the name implies, is a club for kids only. Our juniors are thought the way to fish and especially conservation methods. Matches are held mostly during school holidays. The kids are divided according to ages these being up to eleven years and from twelve to sixteen. In the end all are awarded prizes.
One point worth mentioning is that in one particular match 21 kids took part and landed 11kgs of fish between the lot. The beautiful thing in this specific match was that all fish without fail were returned alive. This of course is not only to their merit but also to KSFA`s teachings in conservation.
In 2015 an idea started formulating of a juniors match for charity, and this came to life in August. This competition was aptly named “Mit-Tfal Ghat Tfal”, freely translated into English meaning, “From the Children to the Children”. And that is how it was, a 3 hour fishing marathon where only kids could fish and at the same time, collecting cash for the Rainbow ward of Puttinu to help other children in need. No less than 50 young anglers took part and they managed to collect over 1000 Euros, in just 3 hours!
Throughout the years many other fishing marathons were held these being 48hrs nonstop marathons. Previous marathons were held for Cash for Cancer way back in 1996, Dar Tal- Providenza, IBIC, Multiple sclerosis, Thorball for the blind, and twice for Razzet tal Hbieberija to name but a few. The record breaker was the one organised for Puttinu Cares, where the live entertainment on stage was televised live on local stations, where donations could also be made by sms, this had netted a record sum of close to 20,000 euros!
KFSA is also affiliated, with the main sport fishing body in Malta, the National Federation of Sport Anglers Malta, KFSA also being the prime founder of this federation.
For the first time ever on the Maltese Islands a national float fishing league has been held in 2014 and this was organized by NFSAM, between its 4 clubs, where each club could participate with up to two teams of 5, in fact all affiliated clubs jumped at this occasion. KSFA entered this league with an A team and a B team and we are proud to say that KSFA B placed first with KSFA A close second.
Our members have also had the occasion to represent Malta in international tournaments abroad under the umbrella of the National Federation. These being a World Sports fishing Championship in 2011 and two European Championships in 2013 and 2014, obtaining excellent results.
In conclusion one can safely say that KFSA was instrumental in introducing sports angling on the Maltese Islands and has also occasionally participated in the sports and leisure fair which is very popular, to drum its message of conservation through and through. Today various clubs have mushroomed around the Island and it makes us proud to see that all these clubs have adopted our rules and regulations, especially the parts concerning catch and release.
