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Help settle an argument

S

Steve Lewis

Senior Member
Sorry - this isn't about barbel, but I'm posting it in this sub-forum as it'll get the most views and responses...

Popped down to Somerset for a few hours pike fishing yesterday morning and, literally for the first time ever, saw and was licence checked by an EA bailiff (he had an EA van and showed me and allowed me to take his credentials). I have a two rod licence and was fishing with two rods, but I also had a little lure rod made up (although in the quiver broken down and in rod bands) in case nothing was doing on the deadbaits. The EA bailiff took exception to this third rod being made up. He then asked to see my club permit, which was also for two rods (although 3 and 4 rod tickets are available). He then basically rudely admonished me for having three rods set up, despite the fact I was clearly only using two at one time, and both the EA and club rules very very clearly state that two rods can be used "at the same time", i.e. there is nothing to say you cannot have other rods made up if you want a quick and easy change of tactics.

After 5 or 10 minutes of back and forth I knew I was getting nowhere, so I begrudgingly took down the lure rod and put it back in the car - the EA guy watched me do it - before he took my details.

I don't have a problem with being licence checked or anything, but the way the guy talked to me and effectively treated me like a criminal really angered me, and now with the knowledge that my details have been noted somewhere as being a rule breaker also concerns me.

I'm planning to make a complaint to the EA (as I said, I took his details as well) and try to force their hand to delete my details off their system and apologise, as I'm innocent of any wrong doing both in my opinion and going by the written rules of the EA and the controlling club, but before I do so I just want to make sure that I definitely 100% wasn't in the wrong with this.

Thoughts?
 
IMHO.. he was undoubtedly in the wrong Steve, and he deserves a reprimand (for what he said, and how he said it). You were fishing with 2 rods ...end of.
ATVB
Terry
 
Sounds like a proper jobsworth to me, there is as far as I can find out no law saying a rod licence is needed to own a rod set up or not, he should have concerned himself solely with the rods you were fishing with nothing else.

Does he do this at fishing matches when an angler may have 3/4/5 set ups but only fishing with one? I doubt it how about an angler fishing 3 rods but with 2 others set up (marker + spod)

What a total waste of anglers money from what I consider to be nothing more than a tax on angling.
 
Hi men ,

Match men regularly have 4 top sections of poles ready , a feeder rod , and a float rod :rolleyes: .

I did run into the same thing on a local lake , where its a 2 rod rule ( on a 80 acre lake in the middle of nowhere ) , the bailiff checked my ticket , and pointed to my rod bag where a third rod was set up ready ( minus bait ) asking me to break it down . I pointed out politely that its always in the bag , i just pick the holdall up each time , as there was lakes i fished that had a 3 rod rule . In the end after a very "robust" conversation he see the error of his views , especially after i pointed out i had a marker rod set up as well , all a bit silly really.


Hatter
 
Thanks chaps - all as I thought.

Strongly worded e-mail will be winging its way to the EA.

I know it will largely be ignored and I'll be lucky if I get anything more than an automated response, but I'm not putting up with that and not doing anything about it.
 
Steve Lewis said:
Thanks chaps - all as I thought.

Strongly worded e-mail will be winging its way to the EA.

I know it will largely be ignored and I'll be lucky if I get anything more than an automated response, but I'm not putting up with that and not doing anything about it.
Click to expand...

Maybe if more anglers did that the attitude of this chap and anyone else with the same would change, maybe he should think about where his salary comes from and that he is in a service industry.
 
As soon as i read it i also thought of the amount of pole top sections on pole roosts at matches.Then you think 'Peanuts and monkeys' what fools they are employing these days,probably sending them out without proper training or common sense.Methinks you will probably get a prosecution notice stating 'using 3 rods'(i hope not),maybe they are putting them on commission.
 
Mark Swaby said:
Methinks you will probably get a prosecution notice stating 'using 3 rods'(i hope not)
Click to expand...

That is exactly what I'm thinking, and now wondering if the detail in his report will say that I was physically fishing with three rods.

I hope it's not going to be a case of my word against his, and they go with his because he's a rep of the EA...
 
I echo everyone's comments and would also add that he had no right whatsoever in asking to see your club permits unless he is at least a member of said club.
Way out of his jurisdiction.

ATB
 
John McGough said:
I echo everyone's comments and would also add that he had no right whatsoever in asking to see your club permits unless he is at least a member of said club.
Way out of his jurisdiction.

ATB
Click to expand...

I didn't even consider that, so something else to add on any subsequent correspondence. Not that that would have bothered me in normal circumstances - always happy to show whatever licences and permits I have when asked by any official or club member - but that's not the point in this case, I know.


I had an automated receipt response, very quickly followed by a holding e-mail written by an actual human being, which basically says "we are investigating".
 
This is the most EA's diabolical and nosensical rule/byelaw that needs to be dumped immediately regarding the freebie killing of our river fish...including multiple amounts of barbel.

Coarse fish removal
On rivers, you may take no more than

one pike of less than 65 cm per day;
two grayling of between 30 and 38 cm per day;
15 barbel, chub, common bream, common carp,
crucian carp, dace, perch, pike, roach, rudd, silver bream, smelt or tench
(including any hybrids of these species) of less than 20cm per day.
All lengths are measured from the tip of the snout to the fork of the tail.
There are no restrictions on the number of other coarse fish you may take (see
Later for eel and shad).

On stillwaters and canals, you may only take freshwater fish with the written permission of the fishery
owner or occupier. NB. Canals are defined as those canals where the coarse fish close season has been
removed.
You may keep fish in a keepnet or keepsack before returning them to the water

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...7947/Rod_and_line_fishing_rules_july_2015.pdf
 
Make the complaint formal and keep going until you get an answer. People like this do the EA a lot of damage. If you get nowhere threaten to contact your MP - that usually makes the EA pay attention!
 
He's clearly in the wrong and has gone way beyond his remit, I would submit a complaint to the EA.

I got bailiffed by the EA last summer, on the May spring bank holiday to be precise whilst - a group of 3 or 4 EA bailiffs (in two vehicles) turned up on the water I was fishing, just as I was packing up after a 48-hour session.

I was amazed to see the EA so far of the beaten track to be honest, I didn't expect them to be inspecting rod-licences on a private syndicate water. It's not really the place where they are going to be finding anglers fishing without a licence?! After showing them my licence, the real reason they were there became clear when a couple of them 'tried' plugging me for info on the water (which has a very strict publicity ban), wanting to know the species it held, the size of the stock, how big were the larger specimens, how do you join etc...:(

That said, most of my experiences in the past with EA bailiffs have largely been very positive.
 
Ray Walton said:
This is the most EA's diabolical and nosensical rule/byelaw that needs to be dumped immediately regarding the freebie killing of our river fish...including multiple amounts of barbel.

Coarse fish removal
On rivers, you may take no more than

one pike of less than 65 cm per day;
two grayling of between 30 and 38 cm per day;
15 barbel, chub, common bream, common carp,
crucian carp, dace, perch, pike, roach, rudd, silver bream, smelt or tench
(including any hybrids of these species) of less than 20cm per day.
All lengths are measured from the tip of the snout to the fork of the tail.
There are no restrictions on the number of other coarse fish you may take (see
Later for eel and shad).

On stillwaters and canals, you may only take freshwater fish with the written permission of the fishery
owner or occupier. NB. Canals are defined as those canals where the coarse fish close season has been
removed.
You may keep fish in a keepnet or keepsack before returning them to the water

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...7947/Rod_and_line_fishing_rules_july_2015.pdf
Click to expand...

I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago on another thread Ray.
Seems so antiquated especially when the rivers are struggling with recruitment.
I have quite a few old pics of my old dad ( in his late teens) posing in my grandparents garden with dead fish that he had taken from the river and brought back home to eat.
It was the late forties and there was rationing, .. different times.

The irony is, that if Steve was fishing a free stretch , he could have had a pile of dead fish on the deck and the bailiff would have correctly ignored them,....after a quick count and measure of course!:rolleyes:
 
Rod license allows you to fish with upto two rods, it's not a rod permit where the individual rod is liecenced.
You probably did the right thing by putting your "third" rod away to shut him up but a letter is required. It's worth wondering what exactly would he have done if you'd stuck to your hubs and told him to sod off, I know it's not helpful but he was wrong.
 
Dave Taylor said:
I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago on another thread Ray.
Seems so antiquated especially when the rivers are struggling with recruitment.
I have quite a few old pics of my old dad ( in his late teens) posing in my grandparents garden with dead fish that he had taken from the river and brought back home to eat.
It was the late forties and there was rationing, .. different times.

The irony is, that if Steve was fishing a free stretch , he could have had a pile of dead fish on the deck and the bailiff would have correctly ignored them,....after a quick count and measure of course!:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Indeed it's crazy. There is/was a Chinese chap that used to catch Dace on the free stretch for food. He fished with rod tops like a whip and would sometimes have about 8 of the damn things in the bushes. Pretty sure he's stopped doing it now after receiving a few stern words on a few occasions.
 
The EA has recently been trying to get club bailiffs to become unpaid EA bailiffs .I wonder if your club member applied, someone who failed his Police and traffic warden application,but wanted some power --fine for the EA,cheap,unpaid and an idiot.Met a fool like that two years ago on a free stretch of the Colne, 11 at night,who turned a floodlight on my swim and then told me he was a river bailiff and there was no night fishing and that i should pack up and leave or be reported.You cannot imagine what i told him after he killed my fishing,and was wrong,the air was blue,these prats exist,seems like you found one.
 
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