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Free fishing, how to find it..

Darren Hawen

Darren Hawen

Senior Member & Supporter
Looking at options for the new season and I’m trying to investigate some free fishing options on some local rivers.

Aside from spending 70 quid searching for riparian owners in a particular area (bit steep that!) can anyone offer any thoughts on alternative means of gaining this detail?

Any info gratefully received.

Cheers
 
Aside from asking farms etc directly, I was curious if anyone knew a way to search for riparian ownership on a river that might show the gaps in ownership where free fishing was possible without shelling out any money?
 
I know someone who has a small stretch of the upper Lea he asked if he could fish it and was told no ...then was Told no the next 4-5 times he asked but with a bit of perseverance and a cheeky little hamper at Christmas they finally said yes... more of a case of shutting him up I think
Sometimes it pays to be a bit cheeky
 
Darren. A good yardstick for free river fishing is whether or not the river is tidal (but not always...disclaimer lol). Most tidal rivers the fishing is free. Magna Carta. Access to the banks on tidal rivers does vary though. Don't be put off by tidal rivers as well. Anything within reason can turn...and does! Most of my biggest river fish species have come from tidal sections.
 
Ady Brayshaw said:
Darren. A good yardstick for free river fishing is whether or not the river is tidal (but not always...disclaimer lol). Most tidal rivers the fishing is free. Magna Carta. Access to the banks on tidal rivers does vary though. Don't be put off by tidal rivers as well. Anything within reason can turn...and does! Most of my biggest river fish species have come from tidal sections.
Click to expand...
Most of the tidal Trent is not free!
 
I’m a bit further south than the Trent and Severn and the rivers are definitely not tidal! Well one is but I don’t fish that far down.
 
Used to catch some cracking chub on the tiny Darent in kent when visiting relatives, saw a stunning wild carp swim past once , still some small northern rivers that are mostly completely free fishing , with some good barbel , just need to avoid the local ming mongs , and all the discarded crap that gets left.
 
Ian Lovett said:
Most of the tidal Trent is not free!
Click to expand...
Good point. Most of that is down to bank access and ownership. Many tidal rivers are 'owned' by bodies such as the EA. From my book Angling Law. "There are some places where private fisheries exist in tidal water but these are very rare, and if a club has leased one it is very lucky indeed. A more likely explanation is that the club has leased the right of access to and along the bank or banks. If this is the case, then the club can control the use of the bank for fishing by an unauthorised person, but this would not preclude anyone fishing below the high water mark say from a boat".
 
The EA offer advice on free stretches, check out their website. Here in the Lower Severn region we have two good stretches of the Severn that are solely EA controlled, one at Upton on Severn, and the other at Uckinghall. The latter I know, it has a long stretch of well maintained platforms, essential on the Lower, it does have easy parking too. All the info on the EA website.
 
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