New fishing startups are disrupting leisure fishing with innovative, mobile-first technology.
One startup, created by a group of angling coaches who wanted to strip themselves of burdensome admin, developed a new company, ClubNest. This was conceived to drive a new age in digital operations at fishing clubs around the country.
The growth of sports fishing in the UK has seen participation massively rise in recent years. Boosted by government initiatives in partnership with the Angling Trust, greater opportunities at grassroots level and improved infrastructure, sales of rods and equipment are expected to grow 6.1% by 2030, according to the UK Fish Hunting Equipment Market Size & Outlook report.
Join The European Business Briefing
New subscribers this quarter are entered into a draw to win a Rolex Submariner. Join 40,000+ founders, investors and executives who read EBM every day.
SubscribeAngling is also becoming more mainstream. Some of YouTube’s most popular channels, like Fish with Carl, focus exclusively on the sport. The BBC’s long-running docuseries Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing continues to earn high ratings and rave reviews, too. There’s been an influx of fishing-themed titles on iGaming platforms as well, where users can play at an online casino Big Bass Blast, Fishin’ Frenzy and Atomic Fishin’ among many others.
ClubNest’s arrival in 2026 is indicative not just of a surge in participants, but of the immense commercial potential of this leisure niche.
Holistic Digital Toolkit
For ClubNest’s creators, the same problems were appearing all the time. From safeguarding and registrations to permits, payments and communication, operational bottlenecks were preventing coaches from concentrating on their main role.
The company has created a holistic digital toolkit containing QR-code permits, AI-driven catch analytics, cloud-based booking systems and content tools in order to offer users a single, all-encompassing solution.
Other Startups Changing Fishing
Given the rapid growth of leisure fishing in recent years across Europe, it’s no surprise to learn that ClubNest is not the only startup disrupting the market through digital-first innovation.
Swimbooker in the UK, for example, offers a directory and booking platform and acts like an Airbnb for the fishing world. Anglers can look at 360-degree virtual tours of lakes and book day tickets at hundreds of venues.
Elsewhere, in Sweden, the social logging app Fishbrain has built a community of over 15 million users. As well as tracking anglers’ catches, it uses AI and crowd-sourced data to recommend the best locations. And in Norway, Fishbuddy uses advanced augmented reality to identify and weigh fish using just a smartphone camera.
ClubNest’s work with the Highbridge Angling Association in Somerset is a great example of the tech in action. This historic club, which runs several popular lakes, was held back by old-fashioned paperwork, cash payments and a website that people simply couldn’t find on Google. By switching to ClubNest, they have replaced manual booking with instant online ticketing, digital permits for smartphones, and online match results, while new, search-friendly web pages made the club highly visible to local anglers online.
By making it easy for people to find ticket prices and buy permits directly from their phones, the club turned casual online searches into paid memberships, helping users cut down admin and helping them generate new business.
These start-ups show how they are securing the long-term future of this thriving fishing leisure sector in the digital age.
