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Closed Season Controversy

Mark Mole said:
The rivers already have had a break. The last two months,and even before Christmas,the conditions have been atrocious,especially for barbel. Only the people who live close to decent rivers,the ones with actual fish in them,have been able to capitalise on brief fishable spells. The hardcore few who can fish full time,the ones who stare back at us from the angling press,they're very much the minority,most anglers don't have endless opportunities. Also what about summer floods,most can't fish then too.
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You paint a grim picture there Mark, there’s plenty of fish to be caught even in this cold spell, ok not barbel but the chub are very hungry at the moment and the last couple of months I’ve had my best fishing for years. I have pretty much the whole of the wye a Hereford to myself at the moment...too many fair weather anglers about nowadays.
 
Jason Bean said:
You paint a grim picture there Mark, there’s plenty of fish to be caught even in this cold spell, ok not barbel but the chub are very hungry at the moment and the last couple of months I’ve had my best fishing for years. I have pretty much the whole of the wye a Hereford to myself at the moment...too many fair weather anglers about nowadays.
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Winter has always been my favourite season Jason,but these last two winters has seen my local venues decimated by predation,both by animals and man. To get to a decent bit of river I'm looking at least an eighty mile round trip. Not everyone has the Wye or the Trent on their doorstep. Come and live in Birmingham Jason,I'll put you up.
 
I gre up in Leicester that was bad enough... I suppose someone has to live in brum... live in oxford now, but enjoy trips to the wye
 
Craig Wood said:
The trouble with the closed season debate is the fact , hard facts are being ignored. Pointless looking on with memories of yesterday when all was good . There is no evidence what so ever to suggest wildlife and flora need a break , many Rivers don't see the numbers of Anglers as in the past . And given the serious predation problems faced by ALL Rivers , surely a break of 3 months only helps predators thrive without disturbance. Mr Tarka knows where to be when fish spawn , particularly for Barbel and then just picks them off when they are most vulnerable . Anglers don't see the damage until after the event and then wonder why the Barbel numbers are declining. Of course there are other factors such as pollution , which is discharged even more when the season closes , as no one is there to see..This happens every year on a River local to me , with high levels of algae bloom and slabs of pollution foam coming down the River. Coincidently the algae bloom and slabs of pollution foam actually stop around the middle / end of june......There are 2 water treatment plants situated on this stretch of River and i have personally witnessed the higher than normal slabs of pollution foam coming out these water treatment works , when the closed season starts and again witnessed it decrease around middle / end of June..
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Sorry clicked the wrong button again, I think I need some new specs.
 
Joe Fletcher said:
Is the call to do away for the river close season for purely selfish reason? ...... Every other sport has a start and end of season . So why should fishing on rivers be any different .
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I haven't noticed a season for paddlers Joe legal or otherwise.

The closed season is so ridiculous that while one cannot fish a river during it moving a few yards to inside a marina that's connected to the river will see you fishing perfectly legally. Guess where the fish go during floods :)
 
Some idiots target barbel on one small Yorkshire river directly on the gravel where they spawn . Have seen the crap left and banks dug out when observing some good barbel spawning during what still is the official closed season , Whilst barbel fishing has been a up hill battle this later part of the season , the cod fishing has been superb on the east coast, only don't catch a Bass, only if you have a big boat and a big net
 
David Clewer said:
Two things. First, if we are to hold ourselves up as the saviours of the countryside and all things riverine, as many of the conservation minded angling groups and organisations do, can we really scrap the close season? The presence of anglers on a year round basis, has to have an effect on the wildlife, both flora and fauna, and can hardly be seen as contributing to the conservation of our precious environment.

Second, are we all that self absorbed with catching fish that we have to do it all year round? If you want to fish 365 days a year, you can go sea fishing or trout fish to fill the close season gap. Why do you have to continue chasing your precious coarse fish, which are likely to become more pressured and difficult to catch as a result?

Personally, I go fishing as much for being out in the countryside and enjoy seeing the wildlife in all its forms, as I do for catching fish. Even blanks are enjoyable when you have enjoyed the sight of soaring buzzards, the blue and orange flash of a kingfisher or even the company of a hungry robin on a cold winter's day....


Dave
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Anglers probably have least impact on our rivers
 
But there is no closed season is there? I can go to my local ponds canals or sea , I am afraid the flora fauna argument doesn't really stack up, especially with regard to rivers, so many invasive species that cause problems that anglers do cut back or remove. As long as clubs are ignorant of the need to manage their fisheries with regard to providing safe areas for spawning I see no benefit in banning anglers, when Kyaks and everything else can ruin the spawning redds.
I have said before I would rather areas that are particularly important such as the Teme to be allowed to go fallow for long periods, but MANAGED too.
It's crazy to impose closed season on such as the Lower Severn where a huge amount of boat traffic abounds. The middle Sevrrn is a different story where a closed season or a longer ban should benefit recruitment.
 
There are definitely problems with a one size fits all close season, and there are certainly some arguments in favour of amending the current rules. One argument I’m not remotely pursuaded by is the one which points out the disturbance that canoeists and dog walkers cause, and in essence says that because they do it, anglers should be able to do the same! We all acknowledge how reckless and inconsiderate some river users are, surely all the more reason on for anglers to rise above it and set a better standard.

Of course angling disturbs wildlife in one way or another, to varying degrees on different rivers. This is likely to be amplified on smaller rivers, and none more so than during the peak breeding bird season. To suggest otherwise is plain daft.
 
I don't know what wildlife you are aĺluding to, bank side that is, wildlife very often is dependent on man, scavenging , certainly the Bird life enjoy the extra food we supply. It is not suffecient to close off rivers to anglers and rest with the thoughts that will rejuvenate only for the impact of June 16th to undo any advantage. The Otter will of course have easy pickings without any fear of Man intervening. The closed season offers only a romantic notion of taking time out, there is no evidence to suggest it benefits any one thing.
 
Unfortunately I think the only right way to do it is to impose species specific close seasons. They do it with trout and salmon but for some reason all coarse fish seem to be lumped together, regardless of when they spawn, which doesn't work as we've all noticed at some point.
You just know if they scrap it there'll be countless dickheads flinging feeders into spawning fish, though as just mentioned this still happens start of season. I'm not worried about most of the places I fish, but certain stretches will get hammered right through spawning.
So I'm in favour of scrapping the current one but would like to see it replaced with something more suitable, though I've no idea what!
 
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Joe Winstanley said:
There are definitely problems with a one size fits all close season, and there are certainly some arguments in favour of amending the current rules. One argument I’m not remotely pursuaded by is the one which points out the disturbance that canoeists and dog walkers cause, and in essence says that because they do it, anglers should be able to do the same! We all acknowledge how reckless and inconsiderate some river users are, surely all the more reason on for anglers to rise above it and set a better standard.

Of course angling disturbs wildlife in one way or another, to varying degrees on different rivers. This is likely to be amplified on smaller rivers, and none more so than during the peak breeding bird season. To suggest otherwise is plain daft.
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Joe have you seen the damage that paddlers can do to spawning redds? I have seen them stopping mid river and walking about on the gravel that the Barbel spawn on, this where there is no PRN, who is there to stop them? Its not just paddlers that I have seen on gravels but fly anglers wading on them during the coarse closed season.

Imo dogs being walked off lead by a river will disturb wildlife a whole lot more than an angler sitting quietly on the bank, I have seen them running through undergrowth chasing anything that moves not to mention the sheep worrying I have seen, this was on a smaller river, the Derbyshire Derwent where there is no public right of way. If you truly believe that anglers can cause more damage to wildlife than paddlers and dogs why is it that where there is none of this happening due to no access for either wildlife abounds?
 
We all know the close season is not perfect . As imperfect as it is , For me a close season is better than no close season at all .
 
Joe Fletcher said:
We all know the close season is not perfect . As imperfect as it is , For me a close season is better than no close season at all .
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Joe can something imperfect be any use to any wildlife? what we have bears no resemblance to why the closed season was introduced, fish spawn well before and well after it, if we were to try and cover all spawning situations the season would be very short and have to take into account the different geographical changes in temperature in the country, it would be an impossible task that could even need changing year on year considering the changes that seem to be happening with our weather.
 
Graham Young said:
Joe have you seen the damage that paddlers can do to spawning redds? I have seen them stopping mid river and walking about on the gravel that the Barbel spawn on, this where there is no PRN, who is there to stop them? Its not just paddlers that I have seen on gravels but fly anglers wading on them during the coarse closed season.

Imo dogs being walked off lead by a river will disturb wildlife a whole lot more than an angler sitting quietly on the bank, I have seen them running through undergrowth chasing anything that moves not to mention the sheep worrying I have seen, this was on a smaller river, the Derbyshire Derwent where there is no public right of way. If you truly believe that anglers can cause more damage to wildlife than paddlers and dogs why is it that where there is none of this happening due to no access for either wildlife abounds?
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Did you actually read my post Graham ? :). Where did I write ‘that anglers cause more damage to wildlife than paddlers and dogs’ ?! But for the record, they must cause more disturbance on ‘some’ rivers e.g ones which don’t attract paddlers or are close to PROW, I don’t recall ever having seeing any paddlers on my local rivers (Dane, Weaver & Govt) and the stretches I fish tend to be well away from areas visited by dog walkers.

I’m well aware of the distrubance some irresponsible paddlers and dog walkers can cause, as I said in my post, ‘we all acknowledge how reckless and inconsiderate some river users are’. The point I’m making is I don’t see how that translates into a cogent argument for completely scrapping the close season.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a PRN?
 
Neil Smart said:
I don't know what wildlife you are aĺluding to, bank side that is, wildlife very often is dependent on man, scavenging , certainly the Bird life enjoy the extra food we supply. It is not suffecient to close off rivers to anglers and rest with the thoughts that will rejuvenate only for the impact of June 16th to undo any advantage. The Otter will of course have easy pickings without any fear of Man intervening. The closed season offers only a romantic notion of taking time out, there is no evidence to suggest it benefits any one thing.
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Come off it Neil, for every species such as the robin and chaffinch that shows a liking for maggots and groundbait (and your really stretching it to use the term dependent) there are several species that bolt at the mere sight of a human. Water Rails, Little Grebes etc. And there will be lots of species that won’t nest close to pegs being regularly used by anglers so the available nesting habitat would be reduced.

Is there any actual evidence that the close season increases otter predation? With reference to barbel, I’ve always been led to believe that it is during the colder winter months when fish are torpid, and other food supplies less abundant that barbel are most susceptible to predation. And doesn’t most otter predation occur at night when most anglers don’t fish?
 
We as anglers complain about the decline in fish numbers in our rivers . Due predation , water quality etc etc .and here we are debating should we do away with the close season . Surely we as anglers have a duty of care to look after our dwindling fish stocks in what ever shape or form that might take .
If that means tinkering with the present close season . For example start the close season at the end of March until the end of June or middle of July then so be it . I would of thought the last thing a fish would want just as there getting down to it , For some idiot with 4 ozs of lead to be lobbed on top of them .
 
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