Royalty going syndicate?

[argyll]

Nobody is sure of anything at the moment mate. We're in headless chicken mode.

[Cranfield]

I bet Davis Tackle,in Christchurch knows.

[Peter Waller]

I don't think that it matters whether it is a game or a coarse syndicate, it is still unforgivably selfish.

 

From, I suppose, about 17 years of age I always knew that I would visit three great shrines of my youth, Radio Caroline, The Spencer Chapel at Burghclere, and fish the Royalty.

 

I took my Wife to Burghclere, we were both spellbound. On the same holiday we fished the Royalty. It wasn't so much a wish to catch, but an inner satisfaction of having fished it. Two Meccas in one week, a memorable holiday. I don't suppose we shall ever go back to either. The magic may not be there the second time round.

 

But the point is that the Royalty is the high alter of English coarse fishing, and, for a few quid, anyone could go and worship there.

 

To loose that to the selfish few is unforgivable. It should belong to England and English Coarse Anglers. It is, surely, our Jerusalam.

[ayjay]

There's not enough Salmon or Sea Trout that run through the Royalty to support a game syndicate, I feel that the "just-good-to-be-out-fishing" mantra would very quickly wear a little thin.

 

I've probably got more opportunity than most on here to fish the Royalty as I only live couple of miles away but I never fish there as it's too busy, too busy with visiting coarse anglers that is, they are the only ones who would keep a relatively small fishery such as the Royalty going.

 

It is an important fishery for the travelling angler and has been for a long time, however there are equally famous fisheries that have gone the other way, Redmire is an example that springs to mind, once the exclusive domain of a select few but more recently open to many more.

 

I don't think that whatever the outcome is it will affect me very greatly if at all, but it's always sad to see something so seemingly traditional go out of the window. If it goes to a game syndicate I can see the local tackle shop being the biggest loser, it's recently changed ownership and been extended into the property next door,and I'm sure that the visiting coarse angler is the main source of their profits.

[Paul Boote]

ayjay:

There's not enough Salmon or Sea Trout that run through the Royalty to support a game syndicate, I feel that the "just-good-to-be-out-fishing" mantra would very quickly wear a little thin.

 

I've probably got more opportunity than most on here to fish the Royalty as I only live couple of miles away but I never fish there as it's too busy, too busy with visiting coarse anglers that is, they are the only ones who would keep a relatively small fishery such as the Royalty going.

 

It is an important fishery for the travelling angler and has been for a long time, however there are equally famous fisheries that have gone the other way, Redmire is an example that springs to mind, once the exclusive domain of a select few but more recently open to many more.

 

I don't think that whatever the outcome is it will affect me very greatly if at all, but it's always sad to see something so seemingly traditional go out of the window. If it goes to a game syndicate I can see the local tackle shop being the biggest loser, it's recently changed ownership and been extended into the property next door,and I'm sure that the visiting coarse angler is the main source of their profits.

Whoever is taking the Royalty, John, will be astute enough to make it a mixed fishery (albeit probably a very different one from the one we have now):- more profit this way, much better PR.

 

 

Here's some stuff I posted not long ago on a Fly Fishing forum thread -

 

http://flyforums.proboards53.com/index.cgi...28948394&page=1

 

 

I am replying to this by 'JO'(a regular and experienced Avon sea-trout fisher with the fly)

 

"BTW, Paul the ST population is at present pretty healthy and on par with most top runs in the UK. And the salmon, although nothing compare to the runs of the 50's and 60's, has been steadily improving over the past few years."

 

 

- my reply to him:

 

Ah, the increasingly fashionable and expensive sea-trout... And a pretty healthy population, too, you say?

 

We have a reason, then, for what's fast looking like just another sordid little fishing 'grab', Jo - at Home this time, you understand, not in far-off Patag....

 

Same big-bucks crew, same total menace to the future of Angling anywhere (mining out the base of the Angling Pyramid for short-term profit etc), in my opinion...

 

 

- plus this follow-up posting from me soon afterwards:

 

And by "expensive" above, I meant expensive.

 

http://seatroutfishing.proboards34.com/ind...read=1124220526

 

 

Doubtless The Management will throw a sop to coarse-fishers - limited numbers, limited times, only specified swims and stretches at a (for a coarse-fisher) premium price, off the fishery well before dusk etc...

 

 

My stuff appears to be nigh-on deranging one or two over there on that forum; they think that the old regime of passive acceptance, top-down ordering, fait accomplits and due deference to one's betters is in danger of imminent collapse - but then I have that effect upon some people!

 

[ 10. October 2005, 08:50 PM: Message edited by: Paul Boote ]

[captain cojones]

i can remember the day, maybe 20 years ago when i went and fished "the royalty".

i had dreamed of fishing there since i was a small kid.

when the day came that i actually went there to fish, i was shaking so much,with excitement,that i couldnt get the line through the rod rings!

for me, a very special place.

cheers dave.

[Paul Boote]

There are NO coincidences in certain lesser-known areas of our very varied pastime ('lesser-known' as in those not in the know, not in the right social milieu, not in the same price-bracket).

 

This posted tonight on another (sea-trout) forum that I sometimes kick about on:

 

 

"It's a bizarre coincidence that this has come up today as I met someone this morning who told me about this fishery.

 

Not sure about the figures for this year, but apparently it's been fishing exceptionally well for both salmon and sea trout.

 

Once I saw this thread I called the guy and he confirmed that yes syndication was on the cards, but apparently the deal is not yet done.

 

He's going to get more details and get back to me.

 

T.P. "

 

 

Clearly, some 'folks' felt that the Royalty was becoming simply too 'desirable' for mere coarse-fishers...

 

 

http://seatrout.proboards21.com/index.cgi?...28948963&page=1

 

[ 10. October 2005, 10:21 PM: Message edited by: Paul Boote ]

[Paul Boote]

Consider the following to be summat like a day-after explanation for why I steamed into this subject yesterday.

 

 

What happens to fishing when fishing is totally Market-led.

 

Linked below is a fairly recent 3-page thread (click the page-number box at the bottom-left corner of the forum webpage to move on) on a small but very well-read sea-trout forum. The thread is mostly about mega-money and Scottish salmon-fishing, but includes Argentina, Chile, Wales and the acquisitive nature of a certain type of upmarket modern 'angler'. The thread inevitably led to an accusation of paranoia on my part, to which I wrote this reply:

 

 

"Oh, just to make absolutely sure that Welsh anglers are aware of the threat. They are now, I believe - from what I have said on the Web in recent years, and what my pal Rhys continues to tell fellow Welsh fishers in Wales, in both English and Welsh, about the almost incredible in its deviousness and relentlessness, sordid little foreign-led land grab of Argentine trout and sea-trout fishing (with that country's anglers duly disppossessed of virtually ALL of their better fishing) that we both witnessed during the 1990s. Never again!"

 

 

Never again, indeed; and I fear, to borrow from that line in David Lynch's weird 'Twin Peaks' drama , "It IS happening again." (or could be, to the Royalty).

 

 

http://seatrout.proboards21.com/index.cgi?...22882451&page=1

 

 

PS - my throwaway comments about 'jacuzzis' in the above thread allude to another posting of mine about wild wild waters I extensively fished at the bottom of the world, on the island of Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America in the 1990s. In a few short years these waters were taken by some Very Big Money and turned into exclusive 'world-class' fishing-operations. Fancy fishing-lodges were quickly built to accommodate visiting international anglers. One of these lodges now has a bankside jacuzzi for sea-trout sports to soak in at the end of a long day ... but then they are paying several thousand U.S. Dollars / Pounds each for their week's fishing... As for the locals ... well, they don't fish anymore - make that CAN'T fish, having been pushed off and priced off their waters...

 

[ 11. October 2005, 08:00 AM: Message edited by: Paul Boote ]

[Paul Boote]

It appears that the London Money Men aren't liking it.

 

Correspondence a few minutes ago in another forum's Royalty thread:

 

 

"Paul,

 

Personally if I'd be pretty happy if some conservation minded guys take over the water and essentially hold it in trust for the future. If they are seen to exploiting the water then I would be one of the most vocal opponents."

 

 

-- my reply:

 

Christchurch Angling Club, one of the best in southern England, has been doing an excellent job managing the Royalty fishery, Corin. If it hadn't, I would be shedding no tears at its imminent loss. We are talking about a very few people's personal or corporate GREED here, NOT about improved river management and conservation.

 

"Conservation", increasingly now, is being used as a smokescreen by certain sorts as an unanswerable reason / justification for their taking a water over. As I have said on Fly Fishing Forums several times, such conduct, in my opinion, utterly STINKS (and will, if it goes unchecked, be the death of Angling; a few cynically mining out the base of the greater Angling pyramid; sport only for the few and not the supporting many as a consquence etc, as I wrote last night on another forum).

 

 

http://seatrout.proboards21.com/index.cgi?...28948963&page=1

 

[ 11. October 2005, 10:35 AM: Message edited by: Paul Boote ]

[slodger]

I think a contingent of us should chain ourselves to the pipes!

 

If Paul has it right, it will probably rank as the saddest news I've ever heard as an angler.

 

No more crouching under the Railway bridge watching shadowy Mullet and having my ears shattered every ten minutes.

 

No more leaning over the rail up by the chain and dropping lumps of Meat to those huge barbel.

 

No more cueing outside Graham's shop at 7.0am in the morning, hoping to get the drop on a few other hopefuls....

 

Many of my most evocative fishing memories were forged on this timeless piece of angling history. It would be a crime against tradition and heritage!