Above the law (rules)

[Darth_codhead]

Matchmen seam to me to be above the law they are aloud to get away with thing that the pleasure angler can’t

 

They use keepnets where we can not WHY

 

That are band from using bloodworm (it gives them an unfair advantage)

WHY are we band from using it?

 

You go to your top place to fish there is a match there they have the best pegs it will still cost you £5-£10 to fish on the bad pegs

 

Carp on the match they put them in to the keepnets

YOU DO NOT PUT CARP IN NETS so I was told

 

Are they above the law

[Simon Newbould]

yep

[singy]

What a silly question . Of course there are different rules for them and us . Money is involved

[DMCA]

Yes, but the poor souls are only allowed to fish at the worst times of day, can't choose where to fish, have to fish in a crowd, have to start fishing when told to, have to stop fishing when told to, have to lug around more tackle than an elephant could manage, judge their day's fishing by comparing their catches with someone else's, have to pay through the nose for all this, AND have to buy a keepnet.

 

Each to their own but it's not my idea of a good time.

[Hereford_angler]

Is there ney real cometition match anglers hear who want to give their side of the argument? Nope i thought not ! To tell the truth i have never had a problem with match anglers. I fish a wild river and a few large ponds which very really hold matches. Try and find out when the matches are on before you put your tackle in the car and set off.

[Zinky]

Boys its each to his own type of fishing.

We went down this road a few months back "re keepnets and match anglers."

Result all hell broke loose.

Top Tip never fish a water that is match fished?

[big pole]

Our club has had a similar argument. We have always kept one of the best lengths of the canal free for plesure fishing. This length holds a lot of fish, easy to get to and is in fact a dream. But all this year I don't think there will have been more than 50 people fishing this stretch. So we started to use it, why keep it free when it's costing money and not been used.

 

I think on most places bait bans are the same for match and pleasure anglers.

 

I do agree each to his own, but I can imagine the pleasure you must be getting hauling all those carp out of a pudlle that will eat anythink you put in front of them. Me well, I will have do do with 15lb of roach and skimmers from a difficult venue.

 

Those who can match fish those who can't, spend £5 a day on a over stocked pond!!

[davidP]

Darth_codhead:

Matchmen seam to me to be above the law they are aloud to get away with thing that the pleasure angler can

 

They use keepnets where we can not WHY

 

That are band from using bloodworm (it gives them an unfair advantage)

WHY are we band from using it?

 

You go to your top place to fish there is a match there they have the best pegs it will still cost you £5-£10 to fish on the bad pegs

 

Carp on the match they put them in to the keepnets

YOU DO NOT PUT CARP IN NETS so I was told

 

Are they above the law

Above the law? In the instances you quote, no. Why not? The first thing is that none of the things you mention are against the law. They may be against fishery rules but they certainly aren't against the law.

Second - the rules of the venue allow them to do it else they wouldn't be doing it.

 

Speaking as the ex-treasurer of a large Midland club the income from match booking is often a significant proportion of your income. On commercial venues I could see this being of even more importance. It gives you a regular income often at times when you wouldn't necessarily expect to sell the peg ie winter & in summer they're off the water by lunchtime so you can then sell the peg again and make more money. Plus they feed your fish more and better quality bait than most pleasure anglers! any of them will also visit to practice so you make even more money from them.

 

As for keepnets - if you ban keepnets 100% then you won't get matches being held. Therefore if they want the income (and it often cannot be ignored) then you have to relax the rule for match anglers. A match by it's definition needs a method of determining the winner. The commonly accepted method is weighing at the end of the match so the fish have to be retained. A pleasure angler on the other hand has no 'need' to retain fish for viewing at a later date, it's just something that some anglers like to do. As it isn't necessary it gets banned.

 

Bloodworm - often a very contensious subject. In general most bans were put in place either on the grounds of cost (he who bought most bloodworm & joker was thought to have an unfair advantage) or because it was felt that it's overuse was reducing the standard of the fishing because only bloodworm would catch. It must be said that there was often an element of truth in both arguments. Some waters opted for an outright ban, some for calendar restrictions ie bloodworn ony allowed in the winter and some imposed limits. I must say though that I've never come across a venue where it was allowed for matches and not for pleasure anglers.

 

The best pegs taken by matches? Well they've booked in advance. If you book a theatre ticket in advance wouldn't you expect to get a better seat than someone who turned up 5 minutes before the show? Matches often give a more consistent income than pleasure anglers. If you put your matches on the worst pegs you'll soon find match attendance dropping and you income going elsewhere. And how difficult is it to ring up the venue and ask what matches they have on and when and then plan round them. My experience is that pleasure anglers often complain about waters 'always' being 'closed' when the reality is that 20 pegs on a 60 peg water were reserved for a morning and just happened to include the peg the angler wanted to fish. Never mind the fact that 40 other pegs were available - 'their' peg was booked therefore in their minds the whole pool was closed!

 

Carp in keepnets? There is no rule about not putting them in nets. The reasons it's frowned upon are a) the carp has become this almost mythical being superior to all other fish and hence has to be treated like royalty , and the dorsal fin has spines with a serated edge that on 'standard' keepnets can go through the mesh and then the serations get stuck in the mesh. This means that when you lift the net the carp is left dangling by its fin. The solution to this is to use a carp-friendly keepnet which does not allow the spines of the carp to penetrate and catch.

 

So are they above the law? In these regards No, but they have plenty of other tricks that are a bit more dodgy!

[poledark]

David, I am impressed by your sensible, rational response. Thankyou,

 

Den

[Peter Waller]

Matchmen break no laws, but do they do wrong? Interestingly, when a match river had been on form, such as the Trent, Severn & Ouse of old, they eventually died off, and therefore far less, if any, matches were fished there. Stranglely enough these rivers then recover! Perhaps its only a coincidence! Well, of course its only a coincidence! What else could it be? But no, matchmen do not break the law, anymore than carp fishermen do!

 

[ 07 July 2002, 08:27 AM: Message edited by: Peter Waller ]