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Hacking

Dave Taylor said:
Risking a tale from a decade ago that will probably make your eyes glaze over ,… but it’s cautionary advice.

One late close season Sunday morning a good mate and I checked out one of our club owned stretches of river,.. we were both committee members at the time, and having served as a secretary of the club I was well aware of the club’s rights of access etc.
l was using my reed/ weed slasher ( shown in this thread) to take out a few nettles in overgrown swims when we were confronted by a stable-maid who told us we were trespassing. I calmly explained that my club owned the fishing rights and that we had legal access along the bank,..to which she became worryingly hysterical,.. then proceeded to run back across the meadow to the stable block and soon returned with a woman who looked as she could have given Mike Tyson a hard time !
We ( again) calmly explained that we were within our rights to be on the stretch of river. We were both subjected to a few ff’s ( water of a bailiff’s back) and were informed that we were to be reported to the landowner.
I immediately phoned the club secretary to pre-empt any crap.
Sure enough,.. he received an email from the landowner to say his tenants had been threatened by me with a machete! ( a serious accusation)
The land owners knew we had legal easement of access and were told that it wasn’t a machete but a purposeful ligit tool for our riverbank management and it was us who were threatened. That was the end of that.
My point is that if I’d been holding any one of the big threatening sharp tools available and was photographed,.. things may have been different,… although I had my mate as a witness .
It pays to be careful of folk with phones who are looking for offence where none was intended nowadays.
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When I helped out on a shoot I often came across trespassers, sometimes with dogs. Before going to speak with them I put my phone on voice recorder. That assisted to prevent a few spurious complaints.

Also, most of the tools pictured above could get you in trouble with the law. Taking one with you to do a specific job might be OK. But routinely carrying one just in case might get you in hot water. There is a legal stated case involving a chef who took his knives home to be sharpened and was stopped and searched for whatever reason. It was deemed not to be sufficient reason.
 
Clive Kenyon said:
When I helped out on a shoot I often came across trespassers, sometimes with dogs. Before going to speak with them I put my phone on voice recorder. That assisted to prevent a few spurious complaints.

Also, most of the tools pictured above could get you in trouble with the law. Taking one with you to do a specific job might be OK. But routinely carrying one just in case might get you in hot water. There is a legal stated case involving a chef who took his knives home to be sharpened and was stopped and searched for whatever reason. It was deemed not to be sufficient reason.
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Hmm,… Iv‘e just spent a while trying to find some specific clarification on the legitimate use of what could be termed as countryside management tools and decided it’s a minefield. It would be interesting to clarify what tools can be legally carried and used on fisheries that are both on public and private land when legitimate use is proved.
There will always be a risk of a fraudulent litigious accuser I guess,… .
Just thought,…. I often use a filleting knife when beach fishing,… that has to be a no-no as well .
 
Dave Taylor said:
Hmm,… Iv‘e just spent a while trying to find some specific clarification on the legitimate use of what could be termed as countryside management tools and decided it’s a minefield. It would be interesting to clarify what tools can be legally carried and used on fisheries that are both on public and private land when legitimate use is proved.
There will always be a risk of a fraudulent litigious accuser I guess,… .
Just thought,…. I often use a filleting knife when beach fishing,… that has to be a no-no as well .
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It is a minefield. The vast majority of the time you won't be checked. But in the scenario whereby someone took offence to your being where you were fishing and mentioned, as the sometimes are prone to do, that you have a 'machete', then you could face some difficult questions.

I would not routinely take such an implement in my tackle bag. By all means take one if you know that you will or are likely to need one. And take one that is obviously designed for the purpose. I occassionally take loppers, secateurs and / or a folding saw. For long grass, nettles and low brambles plus a bit of pruning those and gardening gloves will do for me.
 
About 6 months ago our local neighbourhood Police reported on their Facebook page they had confiscated a dangerous weapon. They had found an old scythe in an outbuilding, they seemed very proud with their find. I found it really sad that a wonderful tool could be classed as a weapon so emailed them to see if they would give it to me, no answer to my email.
 
Mark Swaby said:
About 6 months ago our local neighbourhood Police reported on their Facebook page they had confiscated a dangerous weapon. They had found an old scythe in an outbuilding, they seemed very proud with their find. I found it really sad that a wonderful tool could be classed as a weapon so emailed them to see if they would give it to me, no answer to my email.
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Peasants revolt??😉☹️
 
Just had another look it was called a Lethal weapon by Hillingdon police, what a waste.
 

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I bought a few of these fold up sickles cheap from web (about £25 for 3- a few years ago) , they are cheap for a reason and not for a full on day's bashing , but handy to stick in a folded up chair and make short work of tidying a peg. I usually clear a few over half an hour whilst the baiting up settles down
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