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Phoned the EA today

Richard Hamlyn said:
..the fish did better because of the constant supply of food.
Click to expand...

When I go fishing I like to catch fish, not extensions of any greed!
I find, in support of the abolishment of the close , the argument that fish cannot do without anglers' bait one of the most loathsome.
 
Apparently almost as breath-taking as yours Richard. While I admit I know little about your rivers I know that Pike fishing on the rivers of the next county towards civilisation was until recently second only to places like the fens and the broads. All unprotected waters where laws are flouted and have suffered consequentially.
Some of the still waters Devon had to offer Bradford Pool for instance brought the likes of BB the celebrated angler and Master from Rugby school to break the carp record of the day. How many record fish has it thrown up recently? I believe recently a very well-known Tench Fishery; a species very close to my angling heart; in your county has been ruined by the introduction of hundreds of Carp. Is this how you value your fisheries in the provinces?
Incidentally I am unclear on your turning a blind eye stance. Do you turn a blind eye to fish theft, unlicensed abstraction and sewage discharge? Or have you your own list of laws that are so secondary that a blind eye is the only way to treat them if so I would be grateful for your guidance as to which laws I should turn a blind eye to.


Richard Hamlyn said:
Kevin,

Your lack of knowledge on the state of fishing where I live is breathtaking. The quality of coarse fishing in our rivers is truly poor and the reason for that is because of the Ph of the water and not the lack of efficient policing. However the standard of the game fishing in said rivers is going from strength to strength and due to the class system in this country the EA are only too willing to prosecute people poaching salmon and sea trout. They are really not interested in roach and perch down here.....or anywhere else for that matter if the threads on here are to be believed.
As for the close season we in Devon have more experience that anyone else regarding the effects of not having one as we were years ahead of the rest of the country on having it removed on still waters. The benefits were two fold. Firstly the fish did better because of the constant supply of food. Secondly we used to get a healthy influx of match anglers from the Midlands every Sunday during the close season who had no idea of how to catch fish on tough waters and we locals were only too happy to relieve them of their money and send them back up the M5.
In my experience people like you tend to be self appointed jobsworths (probably bullied at school) who just like to spoil the fun of others and hide behind antiquated rules to do so.
Click to expand...
 
Damian's point about the use of our rivers by an unlicensed un-policed rabble is a good one.
I think most of us accept our licence fees should go to maintaining our waterways and not necessarily just the fishing aspect. Why should any river user be exempted from paying for our fantastic amenity.
Jeff, there is an organisation that will do what you ask. All you need to do is mandate it by giving them a few bob and your signature once a year, you know just like the birders do when they join the RSPB; it’s called the Angling Trust. They will do our dirty work for us, they will fight pollution, they will fight for access, fight to control invasive species, they will lobby parliament to change the laws that hurt us; not just turn a blind eye to them; The only people who can stop them is us.
 
Quite a few fishing on the Itchen this morning, EA didn't seem interested when I called them..............
 
Damian Kimmins said:
When I go fishing I like to catch fish, not extensions of any greed!
I find, in support of the abolishment of the close , the argument that fish cannot do without anglers' bait one of the most loathsome.
Click to expand...

Damien,

How do you get from my actual words "the fish did better due to the constant supply of food" to "fish cannot do without the anglers bait"? The former simply means that when fish have a constant supply of food they do better which is pretty much common sense and uncontroversial I would have thought. The latter means that without anglers baits the fish would die........the two statements are not even remotely similar. You read the words that are written but you comprehend what you want to believe.

Your strapline reads "Whilst developing creativity, also cultivate receptivity"............perhaps you might like to give it a try?
 
Kevin Daly said:
While I admit I know little about your rivers I know that Pike fishing on the rivers of the next county towards civilisation was until recently second only to places like the fens and the broads.
Click to expand...

Kevin,

I can assure you that the pike fishing in Cornwall is nothing to shout about.
 
Richard Hamlyn said:
Damien,

How do you get from my actual words "the fish did better due to the constant supply of food" to "fish cannot do without the anglers bait"? The former simply means that when fish have a constant supply of food they do better which is pretty much common sense and uncontroversial I would have thought. The latter means that without anglers baits the fish would die........the two statements are not even remotely similar. You read the words that are written but you comprehend what you want to believe.

Your strapline reads "Whilst developing creativity, also cultivate receptivity"............perhaps you might like to give it a try?
Click to expand...

How do they do better Richard?
 
Damien,

All animals on this planet, including us, do better when fed on a regular basis. To see an example of what happens when food intake is suddenly cut short watch a Save the Children appeal.
 
Hi All
Richard has made a very good point, which has got lost in all the other stuff. He talks of game fishing going from strength to strength because of the class system in this country. This is a sentiment very close to my heart recently.
In times of austerity we all know that not a lot of public money will be made available for fishing projects. Not true here in Sussex, we have project MORPH. Middle Ouse Restoration of Physical Habitats. Large amounts of money and resources made available to 'improve' the river. Great news! No, not really, it is all about Sea Trout. 100s of tones of gravel dumped in the river for spawning grounds. Features and course fish holding areas stripped out, to allow easy passage for the Sea trout. I have already lost my favorite Barbel swim. In order to build a fish ladder, the best Barbel pool on the river will be drained and the fish relocated. This will include the one you all see young Mr Wickens holding on the front page. This fish has been in this pool since the early 90's, when it was stocked. looks to have done quite well.
I am not sure what percentage of Ouse fisherman are Sea Trout anglers, but it is very small. It does seem to reflect the society we live in, the small percentage at the top doing well at the expense of the rest. Heyhoe, we voted for that system, not I, so suppose we must put up with it.
Shaun
 
Shaun,

Excellent post that exposes what some of us have known for some time. Many years ago I sat on the Eastern Division Fisheries Advisory Board, the committee of which was dominated by riparian owners of salmon and sea trout fishing. Their behavior towards a working class coarse fisherman in the room was to treat me as if I were a bad smell. All attempts to apply logic and fact to their "kill them all" arguments when it came to coarse and game fish living in the same habitat were a total waste of time.

"So what"? I hear you say. Well, we see many genuine people (not that awful Patrick fellow) posting on here and stating that if we were ever to be a "united" body behind the AT then we would be able to get something achieved. We are also urged to join the AT and made to feel as if we are some how letting the side down if we decide otherwise. The truth is that the biggest omission to the AT are the Salmon and Trout Association (who will NEVER join any group that looks after the welfare of coarse fish) and until we have a representative body for ALL fishing interests nothing will change.

If anything happens to threaten a top salmon beat then a quick call into the old boy network is all it takes to fix the situation up to and including the laws of the land. Coarse fishing can go to hell in a handbasket as far as they are concerned.

Instead of being a toothless compliant bunch of anglers who abide by the close season, buy our EA licenses, do what we are told and put up with non game fish rivers being treated as glorified sewers we need to adopt a different approach. The first step is for us all to boycott the EA license and fish the rivers at any time it pleases us within the bounds of fish welfare.
 
But don't salmon licences cost double of a non migratory/coarse licence? Surely if you pay more you expect more ?
 
Richard Hamlyn said:
Damien,

All animals on this planet, including us, do better when fed on a regular basis. To see an example of what happens when food intake is suddenly cut short watch a Save the Children appeal.
Click to expand...

So we should aspire to feed fish year round because they do better, and if we don't, then we can look to a Save the Children video to see what happens?
 
Whilst the class system is something I find loathsome, I don't therefore dislike all game anglers or their representative bodies. Funnily enough, the vast majority of things which benefit game fish in our rivers, also benefit coarse fish. Yes it would be nice if we had as much clout as game anglers, but in the absence of equality, I'm glad they at least have some clout. As for people not joining the AT, well some people seem to find the 10% of things the AT does which they don't totally agree with as being more significant to them than the 90% of things which are of unequivocal benefit to angling. Others would just prefer to join when it has more members and has much more influence. Pretty much a sign of the times I'm afraid. Let's bypass the struggle and go straight to celebration party. Anglers, what a useless bunch we are.

Nick C
 
Absolutely right Nick, Shaun talking about protecting an invasive species for that river; the Barbel; into the Sussex Ouse at the expense of a natural occurring species the sea trout shows what an insular self-seeking group Barbel specialists are. I wonder if the Game pressure groups on the Sussex Ouse were cheering when the Barbel were introduced what is in the grand scheme of things very recently. As fishermen we must all work together and let what happened in the past stay in the past.
 
Great post Nick. I can't help feeling that all these verbose arguments for not joining the AT are all about saving £25 and no more.

Dave
 
If every angler paid £100 Chris, the AT could arrange to have Michael Phelps catch it and have a Royal Guard escort it back to the sea. At the moment it's trying to deal with a problem with limited resources. You're right Dave, for some it simply is a case of saving themselves £25. There are also those that just fail to see the bigger picture and others that simply prefer to squabble and bitch.

Nick C
 
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