Will catch and release fishing be banned in the UK?

[Phone]

All,

 

Of course I don't have a feel for the UK culture. I think OG hit it on the head. Attached is an FAO report

 

http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/W0318E/W0318E20.htm

 

Follow the money has always been pretty sound advice.

 

Phone

[Dales]

I can't see C&R being banned but if anglers annoy enough people with calls for culls and wish to ride ruff shod over all other wildlife and water way users then I would not be surprised if it came back to bite us and we ended up with restrictions on angling at a more local level. Maybe some councils or maybe even counties restricting angling on there waters and area.

 

Most people don't care what we do with fish, kill them, use them as bait, release them or even kiss them. However they do care about what we may wish to do to Otters, Seals, Birds and the litter we leave and so our attitudes to those issues may just stir up enough interest in fishing for people to be bothered to try to add restrictions to our access or even vote against angling because of how they feel about those issues. Save the Otter or Save the Fish, I think I know how most people would vote. I can't see any situation where restrictions would be bought in based only on fish welfare.

 

Not enough people care about fishing to do anything about it. We bought C&R down on our heads ourselves and I am sure any further restrictions will be bought about by anglers and there representatives.

 

Even though I do not expect C&R to be banned any time soon, maybe if we skin enough Otters and shoot enough Cormorants and Goosanders we might be able to attract enough interest in fishing to have even more restrictions put on us. That would nice

[davedave]

Interesting. Like it has been mentioned it is the most participated sport/hobby in the UK so I think there would be a lot of resistance against it.

[Old geezer]

I think that if push came to shove, a visit to every MP with a message saying that anglers in their costituency would be voting them out at the next election might do the trick. As phone says "follow the money"

[RelaxGod]

It will never happen, angling has more chance of being banned altogether. In 50 years time i expect to be burried but there are predictions of a 25% population increase by then, i think this is going to cause the biggest threat to angling and water ecology in general..

[barry luxton]

one by product of c&r that hasn't been mentioned is the damage to fishies, carps mouths, in particular in stocked lakes and ponds, in particular the greenies and the antis could run with it. Should there be a policy of knocking them on the head or do they grow new gobs.

[garylee]

Dales posted Yesterday, 06:45 PM

 

I can't see C&R being banned but if anglers annoy enough people with calls for culls and wish to ride ruff shod over all other wildlife and water way users then I would not be surprised if it came back to bite us and we ended up with restrictions on angling at a more local level. Maybe some councils or maybe even counties restricting angling on there waters and area.

 

Most people don't care what we do with fish, kill them, use them as bait, release them or even kiss them. However they do care about what we may wish to do to Otters, Seals, Birds and the litter we leave and so our attitudes to those issues may just stir up enough interest in fishing for people to be bothered to try to add restrictions to our access or even vote against angling because of how they feel about those issues. Save the Otter or Save the Fish, I think I know how most people would vote. I can't see any situation where restrictions would be bought in based only on fish welfare.

 

Not enough people care about fishing to do anything about it. We bought C&R down on our heads ourselves and I am sure any further restrictions will be bought about by anglers and there representatives.

 

Even though I do not expect C&R to be banned any time soon, maybe if we skin enough Otters and shoot enough Cormorants and Goosanders we might be able to attract enough interest in fishing to have even more restrictions put on us. That would nice.

End quote

 

Wouldn't it be ironic if preditation in other areas of the country ends up changing the way you enjoy fishing: but maybe its a risk people in those areas would be willing to take

Edited February 25, 2013 by garylee

[Daniel reelfishingUK]

I really hope not

[Andy Macfarlane]

It would never happen. Fishing is far important for the economy and has been mentioned, it's the biggest participation sport in the UK. Also, there's far more fishing on the telly than there has ever been. It's on every day and it's not being repeated twice a week because nobody is watching it. People who don't go fishing like watching fishing. I've said it before, programmes like Robson Green and River Monsters might not appeal to most anglers but they're mainstream television and every year, there's another series produced.

 

People, whether they go fishing or not, like the fact that people do. We're an island nation and fishing of one kind or another is in our blood. To compare fishing to fox-hunting is just silly IMO. The vast majority of us don't own horses and we don't live in the country, nor do we quaff champagne. Fox-hunting was as far-removed from most people's mindset as travelling into space. I think the backlash would be incredible if such a move was proposed.

 

Most people ask me, "What do you do with them?" and I tell them, "I take their pictures if they're big enough and put them all back" and that satisfies the overriding majority no end, so I really don't see the non-fishing public backing such a move. Besides, there must be 1000s of housewives all over the country who'd be at the bottle every weekend because they'd have to look at their husband's ugly dials.

[barry luxton]

catch and release casualty.