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What are your opinions on night fishing ?

Most of my fishing is during daylight hours...because I enjoy it and am happy at the catch rate.
However, a trip to other waters at a distance, Trent, Severn etc. for a long weekend, including a few hours into dark is just that more special and makes good use of the extra travelling and accomodation expense.

For interest, Many of the RDAA (Reading) waters will be extended to 9pm this coming year including those late Autumn and Winter months when packing up at dusk or just after is often painful as the first indications of fish moving start to show.

Why someone would like to prevent others fishing enjoyment is difficult to understand.

Graham
 
The River Wye is a great example of what I said, used to fish it's head off in daylight but as many of our southern rivers have become more difficiult people have flocked to the Wye in droves the last few years, resulting in that river too in many places, not switching on till after dark.......
 
I think it's about freedom of choice rather than catch rates. What sparked the debate Ian, is there a move to ban night fishing on your waters ?
 
I have never fully understood why it was that some anglers love the feeling of enhanced excitement and the thrill of anticipation as darkness draws in....while others have completely the opposite view, preferring to head off home at the end of the day, much as they do during the week after a days work. I had always assumed it was just a case of horses for courses, each to their own....and left it at that. It seemed to me that this was how things should be, people choosing to pursue their hobby as and when it suits them best.

What I find MUCH harder to understand is why one of those groups of individuals should seek to interfere with the other in any way, shape or form.....much less be selfish enough to attempt to put a stop to the 'other lots' pleasure altogether. Surely freedom of choice alone should be reason enough to prevent interference? When you add the fact that some anglers are left with no choice but to fish evenings/nights, due to work, family or other commitments....then I for one can see no excuse for anyone seeking to impose their choices on another in this way.

I have heard plenty of very good and sensible reasons in this thread why night fishing should be permissible wherever local laws/regulations allow....and not a single one worth a damn against it. I rather think our hobby is under enough pressure as it is....we are facing enough in the way of threats from outside influences without yet more in fighting and beating each other up with the big stick of unthinking self interest.

Cheers, Dave.
 
I am one of those who thinks that this current trend in society to have what it wants when it wants it needs to stop, as unpopular as that view is.
I am of the opinion that more than ever we are in conflict with ourselves and the desires that would have us everything we ever want are seemingly getting the better.
I wish people would take a look around and consider some of the issues affecting us today, both in society and the world around us, then consider how much our greed plays it's part.


Damian
 
Re: Night Fishing

I really cannot get to grips with those opposed to fishing after dark on rivers.
Even though I am retired I tend to fish late afternoons into late evening throughout the year and have never had any problems. On certain stretches of my local river we are allowed fish until 10pm in winter and I can tell you that on the majority of occasions I am nearly always the last to leave the bankside. Very few anglers stay after the sun has gone down. Even on some stretches where they are now allowing fishing until 8:00 pm in winter (previously 2 hours after sunset) there are few anglers around until that time.
I just love fishing into the dark and yet I honestly don't think it's any more productive than daytime fishing.
What I would say is that as long as Bivvies are banned from the riverside there should be no problems and there won't be the ridiculous circus that we have on many of the carp lakes. I therefore I would not be happy with allowing fishing throughout the night on rivers as that would certainly lead to demands for setting up camp from the Bivvy Brigade but fishing until 10:00 pm or possibly later appears to pose no real problems.
Also may I just add a personal appeal when fishing on rivers:
DON'T USE BITE ALARMS
They really annoy me. I can understand their appeal when fishing long sessions on carp lakes but please their is NO NEED AT ALL ON RIVERS. I certainly don't want to hear them bleeping away merrily everytime an angler reels in or casts out again especially after dark.
Mike
 
Cliff Turner said:
I think it's about freedom of choice rather than catch rates. What sparked the debate Ian, is there a move to ban night fishing on your waters ?
Click to expand...

The debate was sparked off Cliff, in the november fish of the month thread, after I ribbed Ray Thorpe about being scared of the dark, and asked if he had been listening to too many of my ghost stories :D:D:D

He replied on a serious note that night fishing should be banned, and that he thought it made Barbel fishing harder, and then said it wasn't the place to debate the subject, and we should start i new thread, i was curious enough to know what others felt about night fishing i.e fishing into darkness not necessarily ALL night, so i did.

Though obviously we disagree, i've got a lot of time for Ray, not least because if he's got something to say he'll say it your face, but he's also a good mate, and a damn good bailiff ;)

There are certainly no plans to ban night fishing on T&DFC waters where it is allowed Cliff, in fact the only waters that have time restrictions are where our rental agreements dictate it.

Regards
Ian.
 
Damian, as much as I agree with your statement from a globalised social perspective, I fail to see the relevance.
I don't think banning night fishing on rivers is going to help solve world poverty!
 
Thanks Ian, well it's clearly provoked some interest, most in favour of night fishing which I am too. Pleased to hear RDAA might be changing their winter rule, seems sensible to me, I have a long journey from Essex so leaving the water at 4or5pm in winter often stops me going.
 
hi mike,
i think that like myself i like to go night fishing and i do have a bivvy to sleep in, when things go quite as long as the angler respects other anglers fishing, yes i do tend to agree on the alarms to loud, myself i dont use them , im more inclined about the rubbish they leave behind,
 
Fishing in daylight hours should be banned.
Seriously, as long as club rules are not infringed what does it matter.
 
A lot of clubs who have night fishing bans are match orientated and the ban is in the interests of the match angler. They dislike someone in the swim they wanted to fish when they turn up at 9 a.m and they also get a little panicky at the thought of loose feed/groundbait going in at night and so filling up the fish before they get there.
One of the better Warks Avon stretches has a very strictly enforced night ban (it is primarily a match club) and by night they mean darkness. This is 4.30 from mid November so a season ticket was really summer/early autumn only if you wanted to fish after work.
Be interesting to see how those who want it banned would react to a ban on daylight fishing as John suggests!
 
The vast majority of my fishing is done in daylight hours, simply because i enjoy it more. For me, one of the great joys in angling is being out on the banks, amongst nature, watching the wildlife. Pretty hard to do that in the dark!

I've nothing against those who fish in the dark, i do it myself from time to time, particularly at this time of year. I don't agree that night fishing makes barbel harder to catch, my thoughts are similar to Crooky's. I fish a river that see's a lot of barbel anglers on the banks, the vast majority fish the evening into dark. The barbel are very catchable during daylight hours - and a lot easier to spot. ;)
 
Rhys Perry said:
Damian, as much as I agree with your statement from a globalised social perspective, I fail to see the relevance.
I don't think banning night fishing on rivers is going to help solve world poverty!
Click to expand...

The relevance, as I see it, Rhys, comes from fact that we always view what we can't have as something we must, regardless of the consequence to those involved. What will it do for society's ills? Nothing, immediately.
In all areas of society, in order that we start to teach the younger generations some of the more important lessons, we should learn to restrain ourselves - to consciously decide not to exercise every desire we have.
Perhaps more relevance though comes from my philosophy and the philosophy of many before me that as we come from nature, for our well being, we should follow nature.

Damian
 
That's what I try to do, follow nature by fishing for fish when they want to feed, sometimes that is at night:)
 
For the last 4 years I have fished into dark twice I think, prior to that I severely curtailed my night fishing as a friend drowned in the Thames while night fishing.
Since then my wife has stayed up until I got home simply because she thinks I am going to fall in as Stan did and end up on a slab.
I decided that my fishing late was un-fair to her and because of that I now fish during the day, I also rather rashly stated to a friend that I thought I could catch OK on the float to which he simply said "prove it!"

Over the last four years I have caught more and bigger Barbel and to be honest I don't miss the night fishing, that said, each to his own, I would never try and impose a night ban on anglers.

I am in a position with my club where my opinion counts and on every occasion I fight hard to allow full 24 hour fishing, in fact as the fishery officer for Fishers Green I managed to negotiate an extra hour or so on the fishing times Lea Valley Parks allow (for some reason they, and by that I suspect it is down to the Bio-diversity teenager, are dead against night fishing), the late fishing went well on FS this year so I will try and get another extension for next season.
Even though I don't fish late I see no reason to restrict others and I will always fight for their right to fish as they see fit.

Tight lines Chaps…….whatever time of day you choose!:)
 
Like a lot of posters on this thread my fishing is dictated by other considerations. I tend to fish till about 11pm at the latest if I feel it is worth the wait but normally 9pm in the winter. As long as you are not bothering farmers or households near the river and are acting in a responsible manner I do not see the need to ban night fishing. I don't tend to fish too late as the rats generally put me off anyway and it just screws up the next day which is usually part of the all too brief weekend. I did not join a couple of clubs on the Swale as they have a rule you have to be off the water by lighting up time and as it's a 45min drive there it just wouldn't be worth my while.
 
One potential problem with night fishing is that it could allow some swims to be hogged over a weekend. Once I was a member of a small carp lake and the fishing was great until night fishing was allowed and the popular pegs became unavailable to daytime anglers. The fish eventually became uncatchable. This wasn't a problem for the bivvy brigade as the fishing seemed of secondary importance. I appreciate that most barbel anglers would not bivvy up for the weekend, but the potential is there. Personally, on arriving at a river, I would find it depressing to see a line of bivvies dotted along the bankside.
 
Jim Foxall said:
One potential problem with night fishing is that it could allow some swims to be hogged over a weekend. Once I was a member of a small carp lake and the fishing was great until night fishing was allowed and the popular pegs became unavailable to daytime anglers. The fish eventually became uncatchable. This wasn't a problem for the bivvy brigade as the fishing seemed of secondary importance. I appreciate that most barbel anglers would not bivvy up for the weekend, but the potential is there. Personally, on arriving at a river, I would find it depressing to see a line of bivvies dotted along the bankside.
Click to expand...

Potential is not nescesarily reality Jim, in fact in this case the potential senario you give with the bivvie brigade hogging swims, i would say is an extreme rarity, if where it does occur - barring free stretches, i would say the clubs committee have been derilict in their duty to see fair play.
The Club i belong to have 5 stretches of river regularly fished for Barbel, that situation has never occurred, in fact even though all our stretches or parts of them have 24hrs fishing available, you'll rarely see anglers after 2am, most are gone before midnight, It's never even been a problem on our Carp lake, not once in my 5 years as head bailiff have i ever recieved a complaint, though i know the carp circuit waters on commercial tickets may be a different matter, but again i think most organisations are aware of the potential problems, and have maximum stay rules to curtail that sort of thing, and where they don't, as i say they are not considering their members or clientel, and i'd bet that would only be one of the problems to put up with, those kind of organisations tend to attract the dross in angling, and do a good job i think in keeping that sort away from the rest of us :D:

Ian.
 
Damian Kimmins said:
The relevance, as I see it, Rhys, comes from fact that we always view what we can't have as something we must, regardless of the consequence to those involved. What will it do for society's ills? Nothing, immediately.
In all areas of society, in order that we start to teach the younger generations some of the more important lessons, we should learn to restrain ourselves - to consciously decide not to exercise every desire we have.
Perhaps more relevance though comes from my philosophy and the philosophy of many before me that as we come from nature, for our well being, we should follow nature.

Damian
Click to expand...

I have tried without success to understand your point in regard to night fishing Damian. Are you suggesting that people who want to night fish restrain
themselves, or people who want to ban night fishing restrain themselves?
 
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