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Help settle an argument

Stephen Crowhurst said:
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.
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Just what I was thinking. I'm afraid the third rod would have stayed up and he could say what he liked.
 
I am sure i have heard about the 3rd rod set up rod before being 'not allowed' somewhere a long time ago. Maybe it was a club rule, but can't be sure where i saw or heard it.

Dave, I remember you did put it up.

Here's another EA 'Conflict of Interest' law regarding Eels that needs to be sorted pronto.

The EA spend our money on building eel passes in weirs and obstructions and preach the necessity for eel conservation to help in the recovery of eel stocks here and worldwide!. As the law now stands, if a coarse angler (who pays £30(from April 2017) for an EA Rod Licence) is caught killing ‘one’ eel, he/she will be prosecuted by the EA and be fined up to £2,000 and have a criminal record.
Ok, all well and good and praise to the EA for seemingly protecting the Eels!
But hey, hang on there.
How come the same EA then ‘sell’ licences to commercial eel trappers/killers, (at a cost of £60 for ten 30+yard long Fyke nets, or as many nets as they want by paying a little bit extra to the EA) which are then 'legally' placed ‘directly above’ and in the vicinity of the new EA built eel passes to ‘trap and slaughter’ the very same ‘endangered’ eels, and sell them commercially for profit and gain, i.e.: the very same eels they are said to be protecting...falsely. They are not at all protecting the Endangered eels, they are protecting the commercial eel industry and the falsely named 'Sustainable Eel Group' to whom the eel killers are members of.
 
Any EA members looking in, and want to come on and try and defend some of the comments made on this thread ? I wonder.

Can someone/anyone invite them ?
 
He would of been told to go forth and multiply by me and to call the police as it says on my licence use of two rods fishing not one packed away which im not useing.

Andy
 
I'd like to see him try that approach during an open match, I reckon he'd be lucky to stay dry and in one piece........
 
Joe Winstanley said:
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.
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Could be plugging or just doing their job?

And in that it was very private and I am reasoning expensive, surely some security in the shape of EA officials is a positive?

The OP has had a poor experience from an officer who needs to show a bit more awareness, but surely that's all it is. I am always encouraged in seeing the EA checking, and none more so when the 'Pons and friends come calling, :) they really have made a difference in these parts in educating folk who thought it was OK to fish unlawfully and the rest of the problems that go with that.

Let's not turn it in to a witch hunt.
 
Well, a swift response from the EA this morning.

I won't copy and paste the e-mail I've had back, nor name the EA officer in question - I don't display all of my dirty laundry on the internet - but, cutting quite a long e-mail short, the main bullet points:
I have an apology and confirmation that I will not be given any warnings or penalty;
They will remove the "event" from their records;
Confirmation that the rules say nothing about made-up rods that you have stored away, only what you are using at any one time;
They haven't commented on the guy's personal/communicative conduct, but have said that he may need some "reminding" of the rod licence rules.

Beyond that, they were also very defensive of the guy - he "acted in good faith" this and "our inspectors are trained to be vigilant" that, and basically, yeah - he was just doing his job.

As I said, I have no problem being licence/permit checked, and it wouldn't have bothered me one bit if he asked to see my club permit as well, or if another club member asked to see my rod licence, wrong jurisdiction or not. My problem is the way he conducted himself with a member of the public (i.e. me). I was not officious, I'm not a big imposing chap, I was in no way rude or disingenuous in the way that he was to me, and I gave him absolutely no reason to treat me the way he did.

Anyway, I've agreed to the matter being closed - I have an apology and confirmation that my details relating to an "event" will be removed from their system.

I could carry on arguing it, but I can't be arsed. It's not like they'll give me a free licence for a year.
 
Having read the comments above and the concerns that Steve had about a 'my word against his' penalty/fine, I may have a solution should this ever arise for any of us in the future. Download a voice recorder app. on your mobile phone. That way you can record the whole conversation and ask the bailiff questions (as in this case) such as:
"Is the third rod in the quiver? Is it broken down? Have you seen me using it? Am I currently only fishing with two rods?" etc. etc. At the same time insisting that he/she gives a response. I would also ask the bailiff to give their particulars or at worst read the details aloud and record these. In addition, I'd photograph the bailiff too.

This may not stand up in a court of law, but it should be enough to stop an incident such as this getting anywhere near such a place and also give the angler peace of mind about being believed.

It's a shame this has happened because as anglers we all want to see more EA bailiffs catching the licence-dodgers and the courts dealing with these in an appropriate manner.
 
Glad they have acknowledged that you were not infringing the rules Steve.
Maybe the bailiff was mistakenly working along the lines of "intent",.. rather like getting pulled over in the early hours with a jemmie tucked under the seat!:D
 
One thing you may want to consider is that although he works for the EA that indeed he may not have ever been a fisherman. This would account for him not having a clue what he's on about sometimes training dosent sink in. I've often caught a few z'ds whilst being trained.
 
Neil Smart said:
Could be plugging or just doing their job?

And in that it was very private and I am reasoning expensive, surely some security in the shape of EA officials is a positive?

The OP has had a poor experience from an officer who needs to show a bit more awareness, but surely that's all it is. I am always encouraged in seeing the EA checking, and none more so when the 'Pons and friends come calling, :) they really have made a difference in these parts in educating folk who thought it was OK to fish unlawfully and the rest of the problems that go with that.

Let's not turn it in to a witch hunt.
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I have no problem with them inspecting rod licences, although I argue that on a hot and sunny bank holiday, the best place to do that would be on the plethora of busy day-ticket commercial waters or on some of the NW rivers which get numpties fishing them throughout the close season. For me that is the best use of public money.

PS - Only expensive if you compare it to a BAA season ticket.
 
All it needs is an email to the Regional EA branch with the details and a request to be informed if the individual is re educated.

Interestingly only last week a chap on the Ross town stretch was telling me about who he described as a most obnoxious Northern member, quite well known, who threatened to report him for walking back to his car after coming of the Wye with an unmade up rod 5 mins after fishing time had finished.

I guess there's always two sides to the story though.

We can't always be perfect.



The EA guy made a mistake. Probably down to training.
 
Read a few of these posts.......some quite accepting some quite negative, be thankful that an EASY bailiff checked you.......they are a very rare breed.......never been checked by one in 40 years of angling
 
Jeff Collins said:
Read a few of these posts.......some quite accepting some quite negative, be thankful that an EASY bailiff checked you.......they are a very rare breed.......never been checked by one in 40 years of angling
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Not sure what you mean Jeff? What's an "easy" bailiff if you have your license with you and aren't breaking any laws? Any angler has the right to be treated properly without being expected to feel gratitude just because a bailiff hasn't behaved like a member of the SS.
 
Checked just last week by the 'PONS'.A very pleasant experience,but then he's also not just a bailiff but a very experienced angler and knows the score.He's also a huge specimen,if he were a barbel I reckon he would go 30lb!!
 
And there was me thinking he was a more streamlined mean fishing Korum machine. A good friend of mine who will help anybody....but has put me on a few dodgy swims over the years :)
 
I wonder how many people will fish with 3 rods for a session or two as a bit of an experiment at the end of this season, to see if they fancy getting the new 3-rod licence for next?

I'm considering it (the 3-rod licence, I mean, not breaking the rules), for the sort of big wide, steady-flowing rivers where I've waited on average 10+ rod hours for a bite from any species (when fishing with big barbel baits anyway), and could imagine why somebody might want to do a 'try before you buy' to ascertain the practicality of 3 rods in some of the swims they fish...

I am not advocating this myself, of course.
 
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