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What would you do?

S

Steven Palmer

Senior Member
Hi All,

Went for a walk on Wed. & Thu. early evening taking advantage of the lovely weather and using it as an excuse to be by the water (middle Trent) and saw a couple of people fishing both times, clearly not regular or "serious" Anglers but fishing none the less. One pair opposite Staythorpe (Wed.) and the other pair just downstream from Farndon Marina. I'd bet my bottom dollar none of them had a Rod Licence either.

So what do you do? Confrontations can be risky these days and I've been wary since a couple of assaults on members of another club I'm in when they challenged illegal fishing. I doubt the Police will be interested and what would the controlling club do?

Cheers,

Steven.
 
Hi men,

Easy , stand opposite them , trousers down , shout over - " hi boys , I'm coming round there to make passionate love to you " , (making thrusting movements ) ,start walking , then shout " give me 10 mins to pop to the shops first " .

They will be running within 30 seconds, and unlikely to be seen on that stretch for a long time !

Hatter
 
Before the 'Kill em all, poaching scum' brigade come on rattling there sabres let me say I think you were spot on by not confronting these people.
If you look on the back of your rod licence you will find a number, phone that number and report what you have seen, it's unlikely anything will happen but at least the call will be logged and the data can be used at a later date.
I can appreciate your frustration but like you say 'confrontations can be risky' and unless you are extremely confident in your own negotiating skills or you're some sort of self defence expert it's better to be safe than sorry. EA bailiffs don't wear stab vests for nothing you know.
 
I had a chat with a fther and two sons who were fishing within 15 yards of a pair of EA Lock Keepers on the Thames a couple of years ago. They had no idea there was a closed season or that they needed a rod licence, the dad apologised and they left, no complaints at all.

I then asked the lock keepers why they had said nothing, they replied "not our job mate"!!!
 
IMO, most are just ignorant of the rules.

Like you say, they most probably haven't got a rod licence, and lets be honest, what's the chance of them getting checked, and because they know that there isn't a closed season on stillwaters, they assume they can fish anywhere.

Its the EA's fault if you ask me. If you really think about it, its totally wrong to have a 'closed season' on running water and yet allow fishing, for what is generally the same species, on stillwaters.


Steve
 
The first thing i would have done (and indeed do when i come across this), is to be polite and state to them that no fishing is permitted on the rivers during this time and that stillwaters are open all year round. By the response recieved you can gauge what type of person they are and adopt suitable action. Not everyone is aware of the river closed season, license holder or not. IMO the worst thing to do is to just walk on past, ignoring it as i am sure many do; there is far too much of this attitude in life already.
 
i have not seen a bailiff in three years or the ea stewards.therein lies the problem. fill your boots.if we stop putting money in the kitty we might get some action.
albert
 
Thats brilliant hatter, next time I get the opportunity i can see a use for " squeal little piggy".
That would work.

We should all be careful though.
 
I have previously gone down the diplomatic route and advised them in a friendly manner that there's actually a close season and that I had seen bailiffs taking people's details only yesterday/last week etc.

If that doesn't work then avoid angry confrontation. I witnessed a bailiff coming close to a beating a few years ago when he was trying to get details of a group of anglers fishing without licences.

As an aside, I regularly fished a private lake on private land a few years ago where the owner made it known to anglers that he wouldn't allow EA bailiffs on his land as they had to ask his permission to visit beforehand. Indeed I never saw a bailiff in the ten or so years that I tench fished there. Increasingly of course it attracted the scumbags. Wondered if indeed the EA must ask the owners permission.
 
cemex have given access to all their waters to the EA,i think boyers have done the same and right so to.
as for people fishing where they shouldn't, i've got fed up getting hot and bothered now.
 
Got to say, last Saturday on Windermere, 2 EA bailiffs were going around in the Park Warden's boat with an ITV cameraman (part of "The Lakes" series I believe) and they were, unusually I must say, extremely blunt, rude and threatening...........almost accusing me of fishing illegally with three rods until I produced my two current licences and my 2 for next year too!!
I am guessing they were showing how efficient they are to anyone who cares to watch.......
 
Ian Crook said:
Got to say, last Saturday on Windermere, 2 EA bailiffs were going around in the Park Warden's boat with an ITV cameraman (part of "The Lakes" series I believe) and they were, unusually I must say, extremely blunt, rude and threatening...........almost accusing me of fishing illegally with three rods until I produced my two current licences and my 2 for next year too!!
I am guessing they were showing how efficient they are to anyone who cares to watch.......
Click to expand...


How did you get on Ian..... I've been waiting for a post off you on the ABF forum;)

Steve
 
Thanks Tony Rocca. Handy to know that as there's another land/fishery owner I know who believes EA bailiff visits will damage his business.
 
A mate of mine was in the the same situation last year when he came across a guy fishing while out walking his dog. He pointed out to the guy that it was actually the closed season and he should'nt be fishing. The guy told him to ***** off and what was he going to do about it...within a few seconds 2 house bricks were quickly deposited inches from the guys float!!!

My mate is a handy guy and can take care of himself, telling him to ***** off was like a red rag to a bull. :D
 
Ian Crook said:
Got to say, last Saturday on Windermere, 2 EA bailiffs were going around in the Park Warden's boat with an ITV cameraman (part of "The Lakes" series I believe) and they were, unusually I must say, extremely blunt, rude and threatening...........almost accusing me of fishing illegally with three rods until I produced my two current licences and my 2 for next year too!!
I am guessing they were showing how efficient they are to anyone who cares to watch.......
Click to expand...
you always get good ones and bad ones, just like coppers!
i had a EA bailiff check me on the river back in the summer of 2005, he asked what i was after, so i told him, he then told me what he had seen downstream, it was a nice shoal of barbel under a bush, thanks mate...:D
 
I have never seen an EA bailliff in all my years fishing and to be honest I may never see one. I also think that if you report that a couple of lads are fishing on a river, especially now that the cuts are just about to hit, and that a few have got redundancy notices or early retirement, the chance of the EA coming out and taking some action will be very limited.
If it was me, i would courteously approach and ask for a rod licence, if its produced and if they can read, point out the closed season to them. If no license, i would also tell them its out of season and i am going to ring up the EA to let them know, obviously knowing its highly unlikely they would turn up, this generally gets them shifting.
Another solution which is far better is the Club Bailliff/members to regularly walk the banks.
 
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