Closed season, what's the point?

[richjones]

well this may be a stupid question, but why does the close season only apply to rivers and not lakes aswel? surely lakes get as much or maybe more feed than rivers throughout the year, but could someone explain to me why only rivers get the closed season???

 

thanks

[Tim Kelly]

Tell me how the great appeal of the 16th is not the thought that the fish haven't been fished for for 3 months and will be easier to catch? Maybe the appeal to the pro closed seasoners is some righteous glow from giving the flora and fauna time to breed, but then many of them go straight out and fish for the carp that usually haven't spawned yet anyway.

[Guest Rabbit]

There is no strong argument at all for a closed season on our rivers. If exceptions are made with canals and stillwaters then the environment/ fish care argument goes out of the window. However, perhaps a ban on match fishing on rivers for three months shuld be considered, as so few pleasure anglers no fish the rivers surely the EA would want to encourage more people into angling.

 

The irony is that after a deluge through the winter the rivers are no fining down and are at a fishable level for once. Together with higher temperatures in the summer which has and will continue to spoil our summer sport, the spring would be the optimum time to be on the rivers. and yet we are forced into doing mindless househould chores or far worse fishing commercials.

[slodger]

I'd love to see a blanket closed season too. Apart from the obvious arguments concerning flora and fauna, which seem perfectly valid to me, it's profoundly obvious that fishing of any description benefits from a rest, or to use the well coined phrase, "thrives on neglect". I just think the old closed season offered a massive tonic to both fish and fisheries alike. I can see the case for some commercial waters remaining open, and one or two waters that see lots of other recreational usage, but the minute you make an exception for one place or type of water you arise at the situation we currently have where everybody has a case to make for their particular choice of venue.

 

I probably am being a little selfish in wanting a return to the closed season proper, I think in years gone by I was markedly keener each season following the three month enforced lay off. I miss the feeling of regeneration. I don't normally fish during march-june nowadays, though I have been known to head to the coast occasionally for a shot, but there have been occasions in past seasons, particularly when I had a taste for carp fishing, where I've taken advantage of the stillwater ruling.

[peter mccue]

Tell me how the great appeal of the 16th is not the thought that the fish haven't been fished for for 3 months and will be easier to catch? Maybe the appeal to the pro closed seasoners is some righteous glow from giving the flora and fauna time to breed, but then many of them go straight out and fish for the carp that usually haven't spawned yet anyway.

 

So what's wrong with a righteous glow gained from the knowledge that the flora & fauna have been given a bit of a rest right at their most vulnerable time? In a more practical sense it helps to take away part of an argument that is used against anglers by some conservationist groups.

 

The great appeal of the June the 16th date, is not the 'easier' fish, but the anticipation & renewed enthusiasm of getting back on the banks with everything fresh, lush & regenerated after the rigours of Winter. It perhaps says something about your outlook Tim, when you place an emphasis on catching fish that require less effort.

 

I wouldn't make an argument for the close season on the basis of fish spawning, because we'd only have a 6 month season if we were to cover all the Coarse fish, obviously a non starter. However you did make a point about spawning fish being uncatchable anyway, not true, possibly 24hrs before or after spawning but prior to that they are still feeding. How many of us have caught fish that have shed milt & eggs in the net, quite a few I suspect.

 

Rabbit makes the point of Winter floods as if they make the rivers unfishable, well in my experience - providing its not snow water! - they make the fishing better. Incidentally, as the spring temps increase that really is the time when fish are at their most vulnerable to disease, so is it really that bad if we give them a break to allow them to deal with that without the added pressure of anglers.

[wearyone]

If anyone finds 'anglers' fishing rivers out of season and wants a FAST response from the EA, tell them there are people snatching sea trout /salmon (due to the EA's sterling work?? a good few rivers now have them) They will be out faster than Lynford Christie out of the starting blocks, or even **it from a shovel

 

Mention illegal coarse fishing and most EA staff manning the HOT LINE are not even aware there is a close season on rivers.

Edited March 18, 2007 by wearyone

[Amodoro]

Do other Countries have closed seasons,if so why?

In continental Europe the tendency is to have species-specific closed seasons to protect pressured species such as pike and zander during spawning.

[Peter M]

Well the old "flora and fauna need a rest" argument seems to have reared its ugly head again. what abut the canoes who go right uo to shallow spawning beds, what about the dog walkers who throw in the sicks to allow thier pooches to gallop thorugh the shallows, what about boats and cormorants and fly tippers and mums with kids chucking bread in for ducks so they get too fat and lazy to search for food. They will still be their and doing more damage than few anglers. the rivers are lightly fished and the impact of fishing is minimal. Fine if you are proposing no public access to rivers for three months but if not you are just picking on the anlgers.

[Guest Rabbit]

Peter wrote...

''Rabbit makes the point of Winter floods as if they make the rivers unfishable, well in my experience - providing its not snow water! - they make the fishing better.''

 

We have just had the wettest winter for years, the rivers are have rarely inside the banks where I live since November. Locating the rivers is sometimes impossible, and the expectations are that wet winters are going to be the norm, coupled with higher than average summer temperatures the period that has been available for fishing has been severely limited.

 

Another poster has rightly pointed out that canoes / kyaks/ all boat traffic bathers/dogs etc are allowed complete access to the rivers in the spring. Given that anglers do in fact pay for the right to be by the waterside and the afore mentioned do not why do think that anglers should be excluded?

 

It is an old bad law that needs to be reformed, but probably never will until we stop dreaming about the 16th and wake up to the present day.

Edited March 18, 2007 by Rabbit

[Tim Kelly]

Peter, I still think you've got the classic cliched Mr Crabtree view of the closed season and more importantly the 16th. I love fishing on the 16th as well, not just because I've been deprived of the pleasure of going fishing for 3 months, but because I know the fish will be at their easiest to catch and it is such a tonic to be able to look forward to after the often lean days of winter.

 

I'd like to be able to fish through the spring as well though as many of the places I fish are practically unfishable once summer proper arrives as they are so weedy. I can fish maybe 6 weeks at the beginning of the season before it's weedbound, then there's usually a few weeks in the autumn when it is fishable and the fish are catchable, then there's the winter when the lake is fishable but the fish aren't very co-oporative. In effect I probably get about 12 weeks a year when it's worth fishing this particular water and the closed season probably deprives me of at least another 6 weeks when it would fish well.

 

I don't think there are many places where the fish are actually that pressured, certainly not the wilder waters, and the stocked ponds don't have a closed season anyway. The closed season is an anachranism which should be abolished on all waters.