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South Coast Sea Trout

P

Paul Boote

No Longer a Member
Sea-trout fishing, something I did a huge amount of (forty years of) till five years ago and which I very much loved - until it got taken over by the big money, agents, guides and other instant experts (a.k.a. "sundry a'holes"). However, I was pleased to see that the EA plus a host of others Socs, Orgs and Trusts are trying to bring back the sea-trout of the English South Coast - Sussex and Wessex.

Link here to another forum posting offering two links to details about the launch of the project and to an interesting .pdf document offering more details.

http://www.flyforums.co.uk/fish-fly-news/169197-south-coast-sea-trout-action-plan.html#post1016982

Amazing what you can get done if you don't just stand there, pointing an impotent finger at easy scapegoats and making whining noises.
 
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Fished for Sea Trout in Ireland, great times. The wild trout trust seem very hands on and seem to have a bit of clout. As an all round sort of fisherman the only thing that worries me about rivers "filling" with Seatrout and Salmon is how many coarse angling clubs could loose their fisheries as landowners see a bigger profit in Game fishing?
My old boy hood polluted Yorkshire river is no longer home to struggling populations of Roach but is now home to a growing amount of Trout and Grayling. The match anglers are not happy (cant weigh em in) but the fly men are very happy as it is still cheap or free but for how long I wonder....
dave
 
David Oates said:
Fished for Sea Trout in Ireland, great times. The wild trout trust seem very hands on and seem to have a bit of clout. As an all round sort of fisherman the only thing that worries me about rivers "filling" with Seatrout and Salmon is how many coarse angling clubs could loose their fisheries as landowners see a bigger profit in Game fishing?
Click to expand...


Heck, David, as a long-time sea-trout angler (as well as a long-time all-round coarse and game angler of some, known and witnessed, ability) I got banned from one general fly forum and was publicly crucified on two (or was it three?) brand spanking me-too new Sea Trout Forums for saying that. Watch them.
 
The truth is often perceived to be harsh, David, particularly by those who are left squirming when it makes a well-expressed public appearance. No joshing, now - big money made its move on sea-trout fishing ("the new salmon" - words that I - to the people concerned, a possibly purchasable expert and frontman - often heard in posh dinner-table private from those who desperately wanted it to be so, through the 1990s and 2000s), and when someone who valued sea-trout fishing (as did thousands of others, particularly in Wales) as a quiet, talented, thinking, fishy unconventionalist's "sport" suggested that it remain so and not be megabucks gentrified, oh my!, how did the £££s and the ambition and the reputations in their eyes newbies spin and snarl. Big give-away, that.
 
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I was never in that league Paul, the odd brace for the pot was my limit. When in the mid 60's all the local farmers along the upper reaches of the river Rhiw started getting freezers and wanted something to fill them with they would wait until mid summer when flows were so low the pools were virtually stagnant they would pour industrial strength bleach into the neck of a pool and scoop the fish up as they came to the surface.
They took everything, including the tiny three inchers and carried them home in pillow cases.
 
Yup. There are times when I think that those destructive old ways are preferable to seeing runs of sea-trout restored and formerly free-to-any-coarse-club-member weirpools and similar (where the fish will hold and can be fished for with fly) being closed and flogged by the guided night for £200 to £300.

Why?

Because once you make a fish or fishing high fee-only and cant' pay - can't fish, then Angling will go down the pan pretty damned quick: with no youngsters and no newbies of average to modest means coming into it and just a few Poshley-Washleys ruling the roost, rivers and their watersheds, lacking the vital big numbers of fishers to raise a hue and cry and fight for them when threats loom, will continue to be used as mere flood drains and sources of cheap irrigation.
 
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Sussex Ouse sea-trout article in Trite & Slalom magazine I have just been told - the Ouse in the 1950s, plenty of sea-trout, poaching strictly controlled, pike ruthlessly removed, the river unlikely to be anything again sea-trout wise unless such stuff is done once again. On a sea-trout forum I haven't visited in four years I saw the usual "coarse anglers [on the Ouse, Rother and Arun] fishing without a migratory trout licence often take and remove sea-trout and don't declare them" stuff. Ho hum. Back to the dark ages.
 
I saw one of the largest sea trout I have ever seen when fishing Barcombe Mills a few years back. Dawn had just broken and this monster boiled on the surface literally at my feet - amazing sight.

Thanks for the link, I found it particularly interesting as the area discussed is my old stomping ground. I'm surprised he has only seen small barbel up there mind, they've been in the Uck for donkeys years and i've even seen the odd one in both the Bevern Stream and the Iron River!
 
From that site "The Estate has a beautiful and exclusive stretch of the River Rother with three miles of mostly double bank fishing, where fly fishing is for wild brown trout and Sea trout.

The river is regularly stocked with brown trout throughout the season.*

Ah, that sort of beat. :D
 
Took an increadible 11lb fish on the river Hope in sutherland last week...a feat that i am sure i will never better in this country...Just wish i had my camera with me but as usual it was sitting in my suitcase in the lodge...tierra del fuego anyone?
 
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