boat vs angler

[lozza]

A quick question does any body know who has the right of way I have recently had a few problems with canal boats trying to moor in my swim both on the river and on the canal any body help?

[Janet]

It all depends....were you fishing on visitor moorings or near locks? Safe and secure moorings for narrowboats can be hard to find on some rivers...were you perhaps in one of those spots? I recall cruising into darkness on the River Soar in December as the only mooring spot for miles was occupied by a fishing match! It was over an hour later before we found another safe and accessible spot.

 

Were you near a lock? Boats do need to come into the side to offload crew to work the locks, and it can be a real pain if there's an angler set up there. It's especially annoying for me, as I don't want to disturb their swim, but we're left with little choice on occasions.

 

We've just completed a month's narrowboat cruise on both canals and rivers (Soar, Trent and Thames). We travelled over 500 miles in total and never once moored up in an anglers swim (well, not when there was an angler there, anyway!) although we did moor in some choice fishing spots!

 

In fact, in the last ten years of constant narrowboating, I don't recall once mooring up and inconveniencing an angler. On the contrary, if there was someone set up where we wanted to moor, we just carried on until we found another spot so I could fish in peace!

 

On the other hand, I can recall several occasions where we've had major trouble getting through locks because anglers were set up with keep nets at the very place where we needed to pull in to offload/load crew to work the locks.

 

It's very much about give and take, and there's room for us all - boaters, anglers, dog walkers and even the dreaded cyclists!

 

Janet

[lozza]

The spot where I am fishing is no ware near any locks so mooring up to go thorough the lock is not an issue. It a stretch of free fishing but boats have to buy an overnight ticket to more my question really is that if I am fishing there do I have to move to let the boat in or not? The people that moor there are holiday type who have never been on a canal boat before so both of us are in the dark on who has the spot

[Worms]

I'd suggest that it should be a case of good manners! If somebody is fishing a spot then the boater must move on. If a boat is mooring then the angler should move on. Just common courtesy really.

[gozzer]

The spot where I am fishing is no ware near any locks so mooring up to go thorough the lock is not an issue. It a stretch of free fishing but boats have to buy an overnight ticket to more my question really is that if I am fishing there do I have to move to let the boat in or not? The people that moor there are holiday type who have never been on a canal boat before so both of us are in the dark on who has the spot

 

In the case you describe lozza, I would say the boaters have the priority, because they have paid for the mooring, the fishing is free.

In reality it's a case of both sides using some common sense, and 'give and take'. If you are fishing in the last available spot, then I don't think you can blame them for mooring up. But if there is plenty of room then unless there's a specific reason to use your swim, I would expect them to moor further along the bank.

 

John.

[AddictedToScopex]

I'd suggest that it should be a case of good manners! If somebody is fishing a spot then the boater must move on. If a boat is mooring then the angler should move on. Just common courtesy really.

 

I would agree with worms here. It is just human courtesy which should decide. Although I suspect this would not always be the case as there are some ignorant people out there.

[Wag]

Given it's a canal - built for navigation by boats - I would say the boats have the right of way.

A bit of common courtesy wouldn't go amiss from the boaters though.

 

A similar issue occurs on a local canal to me, where anglers are constantly moaning at having to ship poles in and out as boaters, walkers or cyclists try to move along the towpath. It's a navigable waterway, specifically built to carry boat traffic, so complaining about boaters wanting to be able to get to and from their boats, and to moor where they are allowed seems a bit rich.

 

If it wasn't for the boats the canal would weed/silt up and there would be nowhere to fish in the first place.

 

The ones who deliberately steer across the waterway to disturb your swim etc are just plain ignorant, but I've met a few anglers who are just as likely to sit opposite and cast into your swim. I'm afraid ignorant to$$ers are something you have to deal with in all walks of life.

[Rusty]

A similar issue occurs on a local canal to me, where anglers are constantly moaning at having to ship poles in and out as boaters, walkers or cyclists try to move along the towpath.

 

I've never understood this, why anglers use poles to fish canals on the towpath bank is just beyond me. I think the swim/boat issue is just something that both parties have to deal with and hopefully common sense prevails but to use a method which effectively presents barriers to pedestrians and cyclists is baffling. I fish canals and have experienced some igorant boaters but when I see a line of anglers all using poles I sometimes think we're no better.

[Tigger]

to use a method which effectively presents barriers to pedestrians and cyclists is baffling. I fish canals and have experienced some igorant boaters but when I see a line of anglers all using poles I sometimes think we're no better.

 

 

Yeaph, it's annoying if your walking down a tow path and it's blocked up with anglers poles like some kind of hurdles or barriers, especially when they wait untill the last second to move the darn thing or make you wait while they ship in ! You'd think they'd learn how to cast with a propper fishing rod...plonkers

[JV44]

As has been said good and bad in all but luckily our local bit of canal around our mooring is either flowing canal or river [one and the same really] so its rare top see fisherman doing the 14mtr pole handicap stakes .

Lack of understanding/explanation can also lead to rows for eg some canal boats sit a lot deeper in the water than others and often look for areas of metal piling or concrete banking to moor against as there draught means that they cannot moor elsewhere on the cut and if that happens to be near/opposite fishermen then its light the blue touchpaper esp if the boater cannot be arsed to explain why he is mooring there .

I personally have had far more problems with other Boaters/Mountain bike type chappys/Dog walkers [esp ones that either don`t clean up after there hound or throw said bag into the bushes than i ever have from fishermen Steve.