Fish Mainland has an 11-member working group and is seeking a meeting with Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash.
The group was created out of what members saw as a need to organise marine recreational anglers in a way that did not exist.
The working group has two Otago members, Craig Dewar and Brett Bensemann, as well as Alan Key, of Gore.
Chairman Jim Crossland said the sustainability of fishing was at the core of the group.
The funding would be "no easy task" but the group had several ideas it would discuss with the minister.
One of these was requesting tax money taken from petrol in boats which was now put towards roads.
"We need to have funding to have a full-time person.
`There's nobody centralised to [act on] behalf of recreational fishers."
Several South Island fishing clubs already recognised the need for collective representation, he said.
"They realise that if joined together, they can accomplish a lot more than if they continue to work individually or in small groups."
Some members tried to create a similar national group in 2010, but found competing factions in the North Island.
In a statement, Mr Bensemann said members already had a two-day meeting and were modelling the group on Western Australia's Recfishwest, which had successfully represented 750,000 recreational anglers in Western Australia for several years.
