What if?

[Dick Dastardly]

Well after reading various anti keepnet,anti live baiting,anti barbed hooks anti anything the person doesnt actually understand or use posts.It seems many of you highly regard the well being of your prey.Also over the years it has come across how law abiding you claim to be.As such I was interested in your veiws on the following scenarios.

 

So theres a hung parliment and the Greens sneak in to team up with one of the big two,they wish to either bring in a "kill all your catch" policy or indeed ban angling.

 

Who would still go fishing? who would still stick to the letter of the law?What would people do?

[Mat Hillman]

Well after reading various anti keepnet,anti live baiting,anti barbed hooks anti anything the person doesnt actually understand or use posts.It seems many of you highly regard the well being of your prey.Also over the years it has come across how law abiding you claim to be.As such I was interested in your veiws on the following scenarios.

 

So theres a hung parliment and the Greens sneak in to team up with one of the big two,they wish to either bring in a "kill all your catch" policy or indeed ban angling.

 

Who would still go fishing? who would still stick to the letter of the law?What would people do?

 

 

I'd fish on, I might be a little more cautious about making sure I was well away from public view, but I'd carry on.

 

I'd also start a campaign asking every angler in the county to go fishing every day, and then report to their local police station and insist on making a confession and full statement to that fact that they had just broken the law. Should imagine the police would soon loose interest in enforcing that law if enough of us did that

 

Mat

[captain cojones]

hi budgie, these laws dont actually ban fishing and returning fish.

what they say is that they prohibit going fishing with the INTENTION of returning fish.big difference in my opinion.

how can anybody prove intent? go with a bag to take them home in....then..........return some as two small....return some as too big.(too tough to eat)..........return some because you dont like the taste of that sort of fish.

very difficult to enforce.

a law like that would mean the end of match fishing i suspect.

and me......i would carry on fishing.

[Andrew Burgess]

I would still carry on fishing - regardless if the green party tried to ban angling or to promote you to kill your catch.

[Guest tigger]

What bugs me about this is that most people will say "I'll carry on fishing anyway, F**k the law. But as soon as you mention fishing without a EA rod lisense then most of the same people are moaning............. "But it's breaking the Law, it's out of order your a bad example of an Angler".

[Dick Dastardly]

That is true Tigger but I suppose they will argue that there are degrees.All the time they can fish then they will do as lawfully as they can but the banning of fishing full stop would take away that option.Any way what would you do? Pleaser humour me as I propose a follow up "what if" question once weve had a reply from a few people.

[corydoras]

I guess I could put away my float rod and get out my beachcasters and spinning rods and change from mullet to more edible marine species.

 

Mind you as Budgie says it is difficult to prove intent. When I am out fishing for mullet, I occasionally catch small bass, which I of course release. I could release the mullet as being indeble, or not to my taste but retain any bass big enough to legally take. I think I have only ever caught one bass that would make muster in the last 6 years.

[Guest tigger]

That is true Tigger but I suppose they will argue that there are degrees.All the time they can fish then they will do as lawfully as they can but the banning of fishing full stop would take away that option.Any way what would you do? Pleaser humour me as I propose a follow up "what if" question once weve had a reply from a few people.

 

 

 

To be honest Budgie I don't know what I'd do. For the last two years I've bought a rod lisense (as the law requires) simply to save me from the risk of Porridge ( I know you will understand what I mean) not because I agree with the rod lisense. Maybe I would jack fishing in alltogether for that same reason.

[Dick Dastardly]

Thanks for replying Tigger.Im hoping most of the regulars will reply to this as honestly as possible.

[Emma two]

Civil disobedience and field sports is not a new thing. The hunts still meet and excersise the pack, and there were a few reported cases of quite open defiance of what many of us belive to be a very bad law, for the sake of the fox it nothing else. I would have liked to see greater resistance to the legislation.

 

A law to prevent catch and release would be difficult to enforce, one would be able to simply drop a fish back into the water, 'they are slippery buggers and wriggle a bit m'lud'. I would set up and fish quite openly, in the river running through town on day 1 of any total ban. The trick is when doing such stuff is to tip off the media so they can cover you being hauled off by the rozzers. I know myself well enough to confidently state that I WOULD do it, no blagging or backing out when it comes down to the wire.

 

if we had to kill everything, I would still fish, probably turning my attentions to trout again. I would stop salmon fishing though as I stopped killing that species long ago. I would totally abandon what I call 'sittin' down fishing' for roach, bream etc. Would keep up the predator lure fishing, and selectivley kill some perch to eat, just as I do now.

 

We are lucky in having the space to fish away from scrutiny. I can be alone in the middle of miles long lake, and although there is a blokey employed to come around making a pest of himself by checking permits and that no one is livebaiting, he comes roaring up in his boat and one can literally see him coming a mile away. I suppose it could be taken seriously enough to make us the subject of the spy satellites which contribute to our 'surveillance society'?

Edited September 27, 2008 by Emma two