Norton1

The long-running summer season conflict on the Norfolk Broads between anglers and boaters that has simmered ever since the phenomenal growth of the floating tourist industry in the 1950s appears to have come to the boil again following a ban on angling being imposed on the Postwick Wharf and Bramerton on the tidal River Yare and at Worlingham and Beccles on the River Waveney. The spots at Bramerton and Postwick are popular with the elderly and the disabled anglers due to nearby parking and flat banks. I don't know much about the locations on the Waveney. The Broads Authority have stated that bank anglers can only fish from 30 Oct to 31 March so this effectively is a complete ban on the Yare as unless we have very mild weather because at that time the fish will have migrated into Norwich and the boatyards. What really gets my goat is that owners and hirers of boats are mooring there and then unloading their gear and fishing from the bank alongside their boats. The enviroment agency are aware of this and doing nothing, just what am I paying my licence fee for, I live in an area with 120 miles of navigable river, with the amount of bankside fishing negligible especially if you are elderly or disabled and need close by parking. Now to lose more fishing bank is tragedy. Sick Angler

Let me put you right on a few facts. There were no bycycle tracks, but deep groves cut into bank where ropes had been continually pulled up the bank. In a lifetime of walking along that bank I have seen one bike before,You can't ride bikes along there anyway. I have not seen any kids for years. There was broken nylon rope on the bank, fish scales, and thousands of fish that had just started spawning gone, this is an isolated place, you would have a job to find a piece of litter on this bank. Let me tell you the fish were nicked. The official EA statement differs very much from the unofficial one believe you me . Only two people visited that site, and both were in agreement in what had happened, one was me and the other I have promised not to name him, or who he's employed by. Too many people are making statements for goodness knows what reason try and to discredit this story, let me tell they weren't there, and havent got a clue what they are talking about. I only reported this for in the best interests of anglers and the eco system of the river. I begin to wish I had never bothered, I am now beginning to think that some anglers and their official bodies are their own worst enemies, and contribute to these crimes. Let me try to put thing more simply: You come home and your car is missing from your driveway, there is glass from a smashed screen, a small piece of broken doorlock, and the end of a screwdriver laying nearby. 1 Do you say nothing happened? 2 It's just kids on bikes enjoying themselves? 3 Or do you say " some scumbags nicked my bloody car? Why some people keep saying it's must be 1 or 2 beggars beleive. You can all think what you like I have done my best to protect our sport. All I seem to have made is enemies, and out to be a liar, I give up.

Hi I will rule out the first suggesting, fish manipulation, this is definitely not the case, and as for the second immigrants, now this has been said before, but is very doubtful, as the location is very remote with difficult access, there are only a few immigrants in the area, and they have never been implicated in this type of offence before. You would almost certainly have needed loclal knowledge.

Hello all I live in Norfolk and I am a keen fisherman and amateur naturalist, I firmly believe the two hobbies go hand in hand. I only fish the rivers and broads in Norfolk during the season, out of season I spend my time walking along the river banks watching the wildlife especially the fish, as I firmly believe I can improve my fishing by observing the fish. I have been doing this over a number of years and know some rivers and it's inhabitants like the back of my hand. Anyway a couple of weeks I came across hard evidence of a massive theft of spawning Roach that I had been observing. I am as sure as I can be that this theft happened. So I done my duty informed the EA, loclal newspapers and some fishing forums, in efforts to prevent this happening again. Whilst lots believe this theft has happened, and have witnessed similar in the past, I am now getting certain people doing their utmost to discredit any fish theft claims, and I don't know why? have you any ideas, why some peole are going out of their way to try disprove this theft, the strange thing it is people that wouldn't or shouln,t have any knowledge of it other than what they have read. What do you think.? By the way the theft happened on the river Bure between Horstead Mill and Buxton Mill.