Close season review, and a bit more

[shajw10]

I didn't want to jump into your discussion on the close season as my issues are slightly diverting somewhat from the original topic, but it is an issue that I feel so strongly about, and in a way is relevant to what is being discussed now. I felt that I had to post.

 

First of all I agree with a close season and adhere to this practice, but my gripe is that there is no point in giving the fish and banks a rest for three months in the interest of fish health and conservation only to destroy all that good work in the following nine months.

 

I know from reading the posts on this site (and some of the names appear again and again) that out there are what I would call true anglers, in love with the sport and wanting only what is best for it. However, and this is what sickens me, there are so many so called anglers out there that in the fishing season pursue not only the sport but some kind of sick inclination to spoil everything that crosses their path.

 

An angler with every ring in his keepnet showing in the water with the top four rings totally out of the water, simply chucking in 3lb+ chub ( thats not the way to do it..F*** off was the reply)

 

Fair enough if you dont know exactly the correct way to handle a fish, common sense still surely tells you.....gentle, careful etc etc

 

Anglers catapulting swans and ducks as they have come into their swim for some free nosh.

 

Opening week this year on the River Dove, in a beautiful traquil field full of sheep, an angler packs up and leaves the bank and six empty cans of Stella. It fair broke my back picking up his litter and taking it home for him.

 

The endless litter and line, and god knows what else, I could go on but I wont bore you.

 

Its these people that give angling a bad name, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Angling would have a better chance of survival if people would just stop, think and act damn sight more responsible.

 

Will it ever change........

[CARPBOB3]

i cant see it ever changing ... there will always be those who really dont give a damn. early this year i was fishing the Leeds/liverpool canal when some youngster started fishing near me, they had all the wrong kit 12lb line No10 hooks etc, i helped them out with lighter line smaller hooks etc as they packed up to leave there was loads of empty crisp packs etc so i asked them to take it with them and put it in the bin which they did... they also took my Zippo lighter. So although i didnt mind helping out it cost me at the end of the day. thats life !!

[davidP]

shajw10:

Its these people that give angling a bad name, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Angling would have a better chance of survival if people would just stop, think and act damn sight more responsible.

 

Will it ever change........

I agree with your sentiments entirely, but will it ever change? I doubt it. The kind of 'angler' that leaves litter is one of those people who will leave litter wherever they are. The kind of person who empties the rubish out of their car at traffic lights or throws their cigarette packets & wrappings out of the window whilst driving, or who drops their McBurgers carton in the street etc etc.

Sadly of course their children see this and any good work done by schools etc is totally ruined and thus we have litter-lout children. And so it continues.

 

There is very little we can do to stop it. Even if fishing is lost due to litter, These people will simply moan about it and delude themselves that it was nothing to do with their behaviour. After all, nothing is ever ther fault is it :mad:

[Eddie]

Move the close season to the end of June till the end of September. This will cut out a lot of, but unfortunately not all, that type of angler.

[John Ellison]

The close season debate should have been over and done with years ago. I read 5 years ago from the AE/NRA or whatever"there is no scientific evidence that fishing 12 months of the year is harmful to fish" or as near to that as dam it!

We've all this about supermarkets opening on sundays and the evils to come, the same with lisencing hours how the streets would be full of drunks!

If I fancy a beer 24 hours a day, I can get one.

If I want to go supermarket shopping at 2am on thursday morning I can. I've not seen any evidence of society falling apart. The only thing that's stopping me going river fishing 12 months of the year is someone else's predjudice against me :mad: . I want to. They don't want me to.

Let common sense prevail and lets fish.

[Excalibur]

Perhaps it couldn't be done with rivers, but years ago, when things were different, Hull& District AA used to allow year round fishing on their waters, but rest one water on a rotation, all year, every year. Personally, I tend to feel that we should be allowed to make our own decisions, but then again some folk do take things to extremes. :confused:

[Peter Waller]

John, three things mate.

 

First, lets have some scientific evidence that removing the close season won't do any harm.

 

Secondly, and a bit contradictory, can we trust scientists over matters to do with nature?

 

Thirdly, do you really think the world is a better place now that we can shop seven days a week and twenty-four hours a day? It might be more convenient, but is this greed, this constant grab every penny attitude really making it a better place?

[John Ellison]

Peter, all I want to do is go fishing mate!

When it's my day off and I've fulfilled my obligations as a husband and father, I want to be winding down at the waterside. It's the way of the world that is responsible for me needing to 'stress out' so let me just go fishing. A simple man of simple means I just wanna go fishing

boo hoo

[Steve Burke]

The closed season is a subject I have strong opinions upon. In fact, it's one of the few topics on which I ever get annoyed by fellow anglers. In particular I strongly object when other anglers try to foist their views on me as to how I should run my own fisheries.

 

I strongly believe that the closed season on stillwaters should be left up to individual fishery managers. I have no doubt whatsoever that there are many waters that would benefit from a break. However, there are others like my own that are very little fished that wouldn't.

 

Having experimented with no closed season and one with different dates, there's been no measurable effect on either the fish or on the wildlife - and remember I run Wingham as a nature reserve.

 

In fact we found one benefit to the birdlife as there weren't anglers suddenly descending on June 16th and disturbing nesting birds. They simply built their nests away from the immediate vicinity of popular swims.

 

As far as the fish are concerned, bear in mind that the closed season was brought in a long time ago when fish needed protection so that they could spawn and thus stocks could be replenished. In those days many coarse fish were taken for the table, whereas not only is this now rare but most venues are overstocked - in many cases grossly so.

 

Rivers though are a different matter altogether. Here I'm 100% in agreement with the views Bruno expressed in another recent thread.

 

In particular bear in mind that fish in rivers are considered to be wild and are owned by no one, regardless of who stocked them. Because adjacent stretches and opposite banks are often owned by different people, anything one fishery manager does is likely to affect another. Additionally, river stocks are usually lower and fish often come a long way up or downstream to spawn.

 

I've therefore against a national closed season on stillwaters but for one on rivers. In other words I support the system that we have at present except that I believe that canals connected to a river should also have a closed season.

 

Apart from the practical reasons given above this means that there are many stillwaters that remain open all year round, whist those that fish rivers still have the artifical romance of an opening day.

[snotty]

So far so good, as an angler hitherto sitting on the fence as far as a close season goes, I must admit that the pro's are winning the argument for me.

 

This and other similar posts seem to indicate that different waters need different rules. I have no problem with that either.

 

Separating the emotion (if that's possible!) from the facts, still leaves me wondering why we aren't having a proper scientific study of the subject, but appear to be getting a rather hazy questionnaire sample of a small number of licence holders, who as one poster has already stated, may not include a representative number of river anglers. :confused: