Close season fishing

[Rice Crackers]

OK so the close season is well and truly upon us and with rivers in lockdown and club waters shut I was thinking of heading off to one of my local day ticket waters for a day’s fishing (yes I know they’re over-populated mud puddles full of exotic non-native species but I want to go fishing) in a few weeks.

 

The thing is I’m aware that we have a close season for a reason. It’s there to allow fish to spawn unhindered by anglers so is it morally OK to fish just because a loophole in the law means it’s allowed on land-locked waters?

 

In the past I’ve always justified it to myself with the knowledge that when fish are spawning they are impossible to catch because they are completely uninterested in food, therefore at any given time you can theoretically only catch fish that aren’t breeding but this is a simplistic view based on my own experience (which isn’t huge compared to some on here) so is there more to it than that? Should I leave it until June?

[chesters1]

Trouble is fish dont breed at set calendar times its down to the weather at the time and previously.

I am sure a close season does nothing as you say in mid spawn the fish concentrate on spawning rather than eating ,yes you can lose spawn catching fish just before spawning but i guess its miniscule to the vast death rate of spawn and fry anyway.

I see thousands of fry passing by every day but over just a few weeks most have been eaten ,most probably by their parents its a rich source of food for everything.

Nature tends to try to keep a balance even if man gets involved

 

Ps i am passing the fry not vice versa

 

Anyone know when the course fish closed season was introduced i can see the sense in the game close season or rather the power behind it

Edited April 29, 2014 by chesters1

[Steve Walker]

Anyone know when the course fish closed season was introduced i can see the sense in the game close season or rather the power behind it

Keeps the oiks off the rivers during the best of the trout fishing?

[gozzer]

The closed season was formed by way of the Mundella Act, the best written explanation I've seen is here, http://www.fishingmagic.com/features/diaries/11367-the-early-history-of-the-coarse-fishing-season.html

 

As to whether is serves a purpose has always been debated. From my past experience I believe that it does.

Many years ago the Associations I was a member of, had river areas designated as, Trout waters, mixed waters, and coarse waters. You could fish the trout waters, with fly, and worm only, from the start of the trout season on April 1st. You could fish 'mixed' waters with maggot or worm, also from the start of the trout season. The coarse waters were closed until June, sometimes the 1st, and sometimes the 16th, (it kept changing). Many of the 'mixed' waters had such low stocks of trout, that if you caught one every couple of years, it was a surprise. When fishing the mixed waters during this time, depending on the weather, you often caught coarse fish that shed milt or eggs when handled. As chesters said, probably with no great effect on future stocks. The thing that stopped me fishing during this time was, when the fish were shoaling up prior to spawning. These areas became well known, and became a magnet for some anglers. You could catch a fish a chuck at the right time, some lip hooked, but because of the density of the shoals, many foul hooked. Instead of moving on if it happened, many thought it was great sport.The sight of dozens of fish being brought in, hooked in the gills, fins, vent, etc, and shedding their eggs/milt, just because an angler wanted a 'bend in his rod', made me angry. Of course it didn't happen every time, but often enough to make me stop until later in the year. It also made we see some anglers in a different, and not very complimentary, light.

Apart from that, I loved going on the first day of the season, to a water that had a fresh growth of vegetation, instead of being trampled. It was like fishing a virgin water, some swims had changed, and you had to figure them out again, and expectations were always high, even if the results didn't match them.

John.

Edited April 29, 2014 by gozzer

[chesters1]

Cheers ,i thought it was a fairly recent introduction

 

Now contrary to what is thought not long before that most of the fish eaten on a friday was course fish (the introduction of the railways allowed sea fish to get inland in a fresh condition)

 

Now if fish was harvested on an industrial scale pre railway for food why was the close season introduced ? It cannot be for fish welfare as their use as food must have severely declined ,there certainly would have been fishing for the pot it was common until recently but like drink driving and using a phone at the wheel appears to be a non pc thing to do nowadays

 

Trouble is the close season with whatever reason it was introduced appears not to have worked there is a marked decline in fish stocks ,perhaps the close season needs abolishing ,those bad anglers kicked out of clubs and the EA turns its attention to real management of water and more laws on whats put in it

 

A simple law ...."any water entering a watercourse must be cleaner than the water in the watercourse" or words to that effect and jump down heavily with multi million quid fines for those that do not

 

I would include chemicals not just solids in my estimation of clean although going by the past "clean" was never in most rivers criteria as natural whatever that is and i can see in victorian industrial locations the water must have been heavily poluted but today industry is only a few % of what we do so it must be the waterworks doing the damage and run off ,ban modern fertilisers within x yards of a waterway perhaps but fine those waterworks till they bleed any excuse and they tip the crap straight down the sluice!

 

Suspect though the chap that dreamt it all up was funded by the railways and the sea fish distributors more than welfare

Edited April 29, 2014 by chesters1

[Steve Walker]

A simple law ...."any water entering a watercourse must be cleaner than the water in the watercourse" or words to that effect and jump down heavily with multi million quid fines for those that do not

That, and "abstraction must occur downstream of effluent"

[chesters1]

I would rather no effluent what so ever ,no need for it ,dry it and use it on the land .

If i can buy filters that filter out stuff far to small to see i bet they can .

[Steve Walker]

Dunno, our local river is about 80% treated effluent in the summer...

[Rusty]

In the past I’ve religiously stopped coarse fishing during the closed season because that was what I had to do as a teenager but in more recent years I’ve fished my club lakes and been to the Wingham event before June 16^th.

 

I don’t feel bad about it at all, I think the whole issue of whether the closed season is beneficial to fish is too complex to be able to implement different periods for different species, a blanket period is there for rivers so I abide by it. But where fisheries are open during the closed season I rely on the owner or club’s judgement as to whether is has a detrimental effect on the fish (many don’t give a damn but I don’t go to those places).

 

I find it quite refreshing actually, float fishing rivers will always be my preference but it’s not the most sociable way to fish even if you go with somebody, you can’t trot a float and talk at the same time…at least I can’t. It makes a nice change to be able to pitch up at a picturesque lake during Springtime watching nature prepare for a new year, add in a kettle and a couple of mates putting the world to rights and you have a recipe for very enjoyable day out. It has to be the right venue though, I wouldn’t fish for the sake of it and still regard the 16^th as opening day.

 

I wouldn’t be too concerned about it Rice Crackers, not all commercials are mud puddles, as long as you pick the right place which is open for the right reasons go along and enjoy it.

 

[wunnus]

Do you not think that it was invented by a female mind to make the male of the species pack in all those decorating, gardening and heavy manual tasks into one small period that is often termed Spring Clean? All that white spirit etc on your hands scares the fish off.

 

When the start of season comes around I am ready to flop down on a river bank and relax.