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Contacting farmers/landowners

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Dave Merrick

Senior Member
Anybody had or have much luck in trying to access areas of river that aren't run as fisheries? Thinking of the vast hundreds of miles of the rivers I fish and how much there must be that is privately owned or farmland etc that probably sits untouched
 
How would you go about finding out who the farm belongs to???

Interested to see if anyone else has had any success also
 
Is there something called the land registry that lists who owns land? I don’t think there’s any river round here that’s not club controlled or public to some extent even if it’s never fished.
 
If you can access the land without trespassing ie no private keep out signs and there are no signs to say a club controls it you can just go and fish and see what happens. Chances are nothing, worst that can happen is a land owner asks you to leave if he doesn't want you to fish there after you have asked his permission politely.
 
From my experience a knock on the farm door nearest to the stretch you are interested in is the best approach . If it's not their land they will probably know who the riparian owner is .Jason's approach may work but I would think it has the potential to get you off on the wrong foot .i.e. farmer thinks :''Who's this cheeky so and so wandering around on my land with his fishing tackle''?
 
If you can access the land without trespassing ie no private keep out signs and there are no signs to say a club controls it you can just go and fish and see what happens.
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Jason, do you not think that your approach may give anglers a bad name? Just wandering onto someone's property and fishing without permission is hardly likely to endear yourself to the landowner and may scupper anyone else's chances in the future.
 
Around my way there's quite a bit of water not controlled by clubs and I have just gone and fished and not had any problems.

Last winter I fished a stretch if the river Thames at Clifton Hampden that up until recently was controlled by the odaa. They gave it up because they could not afford the rent and just kept the first few fields. After a few trips down there I bumped into the farmer feeding his cattle and he said he was pleased to see some one fishing there and it wa a shame the odaa had given it up.

So I think as long as you conduct yourself in the right manner you might be surprised at the response you get from landowners.
 
As has been mentioned,.. a good OS map, a bit of diplomacy and legwork can get a result, worked well for my dad on both pond and rivers.
Worth remembering that fishing rights don’t always form part of riparian land ownership, and farmers don’t always own the land.
Some estates have fishing rights on both banks but may only have riparian land ownership of one.
I’ve experienced unscrupulous land owners attempting to sell their land with fishing rights,.. even when said rights are owned and registered to another party!
There have been a number of occasions when land adjacent to a river has changed hands with the new owners oblivious to the fact that the fishing rights are owned by a club and there is an existing legal easement for potentially over a 1000 members to walk the bank. Most of these new owners aren’t short of a few bob so you would have thought that their legal team would have carried out a thorough search of land registry,... but not the case. I’ve also known of riverside land changing hands over a card game,... usually very dodgy and a nightmare for those who own fishing rights and have to spend money on solicitors letters to protect what is legally theirs!
Land registry is always a good start for establishing who owns what,.. as fishing rights can be a separate riparian lot. Not all are registered,.. foolishly.
Sorry to digress a bit,... but being a club sect for some years opened my eyes to riparian rights.
 
There is no single answer to this. I have used Jasons approach with no negative comeback, quite the opposite. On the other hand a friend tried it on a stretch of the upper Cherwell where people had fished for years and was approached by a stroppy new landowner who demanded £10 a day. Another stretch of the Cherwell was owned by one person and leased to the another. Enquiries to the owner were met with "ask the guy who rents it". I did this and the tennants reply was if it's OK with the landowner it was OK with him. It was good stretch of river too but the club controlling the opposite bank was one of those who think they own the river and several verbal exchanges were had across the river when they accused me of poaching!
 
In my experience a lease on a piece of water is fairly uncommon. Landowners usually grant a "Licence to Fish" which states the T&C's. responsibilities etc.

If your club is a member of the Angling Trust you can make an enquiry to their legal dept (Fish Legal) who will send you template agreements. This service is free of charge to clubs who belong but not sure if it applies to individual members.
 
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