Bob Bradford

Colin, yes! I heard about this scheme, I think it has cost the tax payers about £100,000 so far! I have a very good supporter for my cause, she is a Councillor on Cambridgeshire South Dist, and lives in the next village to the illegal travellers site in Cottenham, Travellers have more rights than the ordinary citizen of this Country, but contribute nothing toward it's upkeep, quite the reverse in fact. Sportsman, Exactly! There are some very fine words in that Charter covering all aspects of the EA and their duty's, and when one reads through the charter, one could be forgiven for being heartened by it's content, All words though! When was the last time you read about an EA proscecution for fish thefts? Mr Pyett has openly admitted to me that , in 16 yrs working for the EA he has NEVER been involved in a proscecution for fish thefts! SIXTEEN YEARS!!!!

It is impressive reading, and looks good for the future of Angling in this Country, As an angler it would get my vote, is it enough though, to warrant a vote for Labour in the next Election? I am undecided.

It's great when the mystery is solved Peter! well done, you should be a detective! Seriously, I have no Idea what fate beheld those fish, except I doubt they are swimming around in the Thurne or the Bure! Like most valuable assets in this Country, if they are left unattended somebody will make use of them! What will be interesting to see, is the effect it will have on Tourism on the Norfolk Broads, hire fleets are part of a multi million pound leisure industry, and whilst I conceed not everyone that hires a cruiser or boat wants to catch some fish, it is top of the list for many.

I have PM'd Rudd a couple of times and he has been in contact with me, over the years I have had many things said about me ,some true , some not! Rudd knows I have no ill feeling toward him, he also knows (now) there were only four people present when the verbal exchanges took place, so no-one else could possibly know who said what and to whom, I do have a temper, that much is true, and I will not be intimidated by anyone, axe or not! I look forward to helping anyone with info on the river Yare in the future if I am asked, (including Rudd!), all the best to you ,Bob.

Rudd you have a PM.

Hi Rudd, am I really communicating with a fish? he he. I don't know what you know, about what happened to me last October, but here is an update. I was attacked and struck on the head with a felling axe, ( the sort of axe you would use to chop a tree down with) the force of the blow made me drop to my knee and knocked a filling out! I was struck with the blade and it cut through my baseball cap and sliced my head, I got up straight away, and as I was rising, the traveller tried to finish me with another blow to my head, which I parried with my upper arm, this scared him, as did the sight of my 18 stone 24 yr old son ! the guy and his mate with a spade ran off never to be convicted. I receieved a lot of stitches and some glue to the wound at Addenbrookes hostpital and my son drove me home. I took my wife out for her birthday meal (as promised ) that night and the following day fished the Norfolk and Suffolk winter league match on the river Yare, I had a hell of a headache and only managed to finish 3rd in fact, Mick Bartrum at the next peg showed me no mercy and beat me by 1 ounce! again I had promised to turn out for Eastern match group and was determined not to let them down. My head is fine and I have to say Addenbrookes did a magnificent job, unlike Cambridgeshire police, but that is another story mate.

I have spoken to Mr Rupert Pyett earlier today, and to be frank, he has done very little in the six weeks or so between our tel; conversations. He has not visited the site to gather evidence of natural predation or theft. He has not contacted the Angling Times for the compact disc of photo's supplied by me. He refuses to put into writing what has occured in those wetsheds, and as far as he is concerned that is the end of the matter. I have E-mailed the EA with a letter of complaint as I always purchase a fishing licence, and have done for the last 20 odd years, I expect a better service from a body set up to deal with exactly these sort of issues, paid for by my licence money, put simply ,the EA are failing in their duty's and it is not good enough! On the issue regarding Eel nets and traps, I have the following information supplied to me by the EA. Anglian Region; In 2002 approx 500 nets were licenced, In 2003 approx 400 nets were Licenced, In 2004 just under 200 nets were Licenced. So ,Legal netting is in decline, ( no surprise there then, as there are very few Eels to net!)) Mike, I know the EA are legally bound to issue licences on demand, but should push harder to change the law.

No Newt , not at the moment at least, I supplied the Angling Times with a disc (after I took some digital photo's the day after) of at least a dozen shots, they did not use them! however The EA should be in possession of the disc now, as they requested it, I told Mr Pyett to contact the A/T for a copy, I will phone Mr Pyett tommorrow for an update and post his reply on here.

Salt in the river does not explain the thousands of fish scales on the board-walks Peter!! but that is all I have seen, I have heard reports about Fyke nets and trawling , all sorts of accusations about large pike ending up on the dinner tables of the French,etc. One thing I know for a fact is (because I have asked,and been told) the EA are still granting Eel net licences to any one that applys for them, I find this practice strange on two counts,firstly; Why would some-one want to trap non existant Eels from our rivers for a living or personal gain? Secondly; Why (given the massive decline of Eels ) don't the EA get a new byelaw in place as quickly as possible to stop the netting of the few Eels that do exist, to protect them ?

Cheers Peter, For what it is worth this is my best guess as to the fate of those missing fish. Just before last Christmas Dave Dowcra popped over to Potter Heigham to have a look in the wetsheds for signs of fish, what he saw prompted him to join Stalham AC so he could fish a few club matches, ( he is suffering from breathing problems and is restricted somewhat) he told me he had never seen so many fish in one place at the same time, he reckoned the wetsheds were "Lifting with fish". A few short weeks after his visit Stalham started their matches in the adjacent boatyard, the first match was resonable, but the following two weekend matches produced 6ozs for the winner!. My view; It looked to me like the fish have been removed from inside the huge wetsheds (perfect cover) by a gang of people using large landing nets to scoop the fish out into bins or containers, and the scales were from the fish that had MISSED the target! this is speculation I know, but the fish have not migrated (too early)back into the river Thurne, the EA had recently electro fished the adjacent river and found next to nothing. I believe the fish are worth more alive than dead to some-one, but I do not rule out a fish farm selling them as dead-baits to unsuspecting dead-bait suppliers, thinking and believing the fish are ligit, I have NO proof, but it is the only thing that makes any sense to me.

I am flattered Peter! I have visited your website and would like to congradulate you on an interesting site, How are the roofs? well, the ones I fix are watertight!, but I hope that there are many that need my expertise! he,he.

Hello, I am new to this site and would like to tell you of my first hand account on this matter. First of all a little about myself, I am an open match angler of some 20yrs, I do not fish the boat basins refered to by Roy Webster and never have, I have no vested interest in this matter in any other way, other than, that of an angler and conservationist. I was visiting Lathams of Potter Heigham with my wife on a shopping trip several weeks ago, I, by sheer chance, spotted Jim Randell fishing a small club match and wandered over to have a chat. I asked him if he had caught etc, his reply was a firm no! he nodded toward 3 big wetsheds (boat sheds) and said "Have a look in there" I walked over and entered, what I saw next, so shocked me I felt compelled to photograph it, I purchased a throw-away camera from Lathams and returned to the wetsheds. I took over a dozen photo's of thousands and thousands of fish scales strewn along the wooden walk ways inside the sheds, to give you an idea of how many, I paced out over 30 paces (aprox 30 yrds long), absoloutely covered in fish scales, there were NO fish skeletons,heads or anything else, just scales. There were NO droppings or animal foot prints in the mud to indicate Otters or Mink predation ( as reported in Angling Times, based on an EA experts opinion that has not visited the site). I am currently communicating with Mr Rupert Pyett from the EA, I have asked him to prove or disprove in writing his colleagues claims that Otters and Mink are responsible, I will of course keep you posted, Bob.