Closed season, what's the point?

[Steve Walker]

Room for another?

 

(And those Edward Barder cane rods look more desirable every time I look at them...)

[dogstick]

Hi all,reading through this I really think "my river" should be the exception.

Pressure-- seen 7 other coarse anglers this year,4 on the last day,so the only pressure on this river is caused by the close season !!

Bankside fauna flora-- presumably the brambles and ferns you have to chop through to get to your swim.Which happens every week regardless through the summer

Spawning--barely started come June 16th up here.

Tradition-- you want tradition stick too it,but dont shove it on other people

Commercials--not my thing,fished woodlands once,but most people have limited time,only weekends to share with fishing and family,they want to catch something on there only day off.

Catch up with jobs around the house-- give me a break ,whats that got to do with the close season,if your roof collapses when your fishing more fool you.

You dont see the trout ppl complaining--I guess not,this is a coarse forum why would they be here moaning about the close season.

The river has changed,new swims found old ones lost--not here everything is as it was 25 yrs ago...Apart from a bloody great resevoir washing all the coarse fish out to sea!!

 

The problem with "my river" is it`s the best Salmon and Sea Trout river in England and Wales and £85,000 for a hundred yard stretch with two pools is enough to keep coarse anglers out the way.But you cant have everything,and now we have nothing.

 

S

[Anderoo]

I've also only seen a handful of people fishing the rivers again this year, but that's not the point. We're now in a situation where the waters that need a break the most (stillwaters) are the only ones which are not obliged to have one, making the rule for rivers seem irrelevant and inconsistent. I'd like to see the proper closed season reinstated.

 

Fishing can have a tendancy to take over - an enforced break not only gives nature a respectful break but also gives the angler a bit of perspective on the rest of their life. And the excitement of the build-up to the new season is a feeling I couldn't live without!

 

It's not forcing tradition on others - in fact the reality out there is exactly the opposite.

[Neil G]

I've also only seen a handful of people fishing the rivers again this year, but that's not the point. We're now in a situation where the waters that need a break the most (stillwaters) are the only ones which are not obliged to have one, making the rule for rivers seem irrelevant and inconsistent. I'd like to see the proper closed season reinstated.

 

Fishing can have a tendancy to take over - an enforced break not only gives nature a respectful break but also gives the angler a bit of perspective on the rest of their life. And the excitement of the build-up to the new season is a feeling I couldn't live without!

 

It's not forcing tradition on others - in fact the reality out there is exactly the opposite.

 

I totally agree with your comments on stillwaters...if there is waters that needs a break the most it's the small commercials that get hammered every weekend throughout the year.....some of the poor carp in these places look worse for wear.

[Tim Kelly]

If your rested the commercials the fish would starve. Hardly a better way to go than having their lips gradually worn away, though close!

[Anderoo]

If your rested the commercials the fish would starve. Hardly a better way to go than having their lips gradually worn away, though close!

 

Yep:

 

The direction angling is taking mirrors the greedy, selfish society we now live in

 

Most fishing now is completely artificial. Whatever you think of fish as creatures they (especially those in commercials) surely deserve some respect. It strikes me as lunacy that 'we' care for fish so much that we carry antiseptic and lovely soft unhooking mats yet target them relentlessly all year round in ponds where they have little or no refuge and have to eat anglers' bait to keep living. Does no-one else see the contradiction? And then we feel all hard done by if we have to leave them alone for a few weeks a year! It's selfishness and greed - and a fish is no longer a wild creature to be outwitted and admired, it's a pile of tenners with dodgy lips.

 

Sorry, very ranty today...

[zedhead]

Peter mccue, I couldnt agree more with your sentiments and logical thinking, for the people who are saying no one fishes their local river, you should consider yourself very lucky indeed, Cueing for a certain barbel swim etc is a common occurance on some rivers, and the fish dont need a break.......what nonsence!

 

There is commercial pools open all year for those who simply MUST catch, rivers are a different ball game, due in part to them being a natural system as apposed to an over stocked carp puddle.

 

Catches would increase significantly should an extended close season ever happen, although judging by tim kelly et als comments, this would be an outrage to some, but common sense to others.

 

There is no romance of the 16th for me, just that i feel atleast on some waters, fish see the bait every day and get caught frequently.....a prime example of this is the ouse and the traveller....who wants that situation as it is, let alone a full 365 days, fishing on rivers would be an absolute farse without a close season!

[Neil G]

If your rested the commercials the fish would starve. Hardly a better way to go than having their lips gradually worn away, though close!

 

Good point....I suppose they get used to kilos of every pellet/seed under the sun being put in and would struggle without it.

 

I have no problem with the close season myself...I suppose I should think myself lucky as queing for a swim on a river sounds madness!

[Steve Burke]

We're now in a situation where the waters that need a break the most (stillwaters) are the only ones which are not obliged to have one, making the rule for rivers seem irrelevant and inconsistent.

 

The closed season was brought in to project stocks at a time when it was common to take fish for the table. These days the situation is very different with the vast majority of stillwaters being grossly overstocked and thus not needing such protection (and I'm not talking about just commercials here). Thus there's no scientific reason to have a stillwater closed season to protect the fish themselves. I'll come back to the other issues later.

 

On the other hand the stock density on rivers is much lower. In fact, unlike most of their stillwater cousins, these fish need to breed to sustain their populations. They therefore need protection at spawning time, especially as on many rivers the fish travel to the same areas each year, where they're particularly vulnerable to angling pressure.

 

For the above reason I'm in favour of a closed season on rivers.

 

Additionally on rivers the fishing rights on adjacent stretches, or even opposite banks, may be owned by a multitude of different people/organisation, and what one does will effect his neighbour. It's therefore impractical to have different closed seasons imposed by different owners. Thus there's an argument for a national closed season with fixed dates on our rivers.

 

With the exception of large waters like the Broads, stillwaters normally have just one owner. Moreover there's a wide variation in stocking policies, angling pressure etc. On some waters a closed season would be beneficial, on others it wouldn't.

 

Therefore on stillwaters I'm very firmly of the opinion that any decision on whether to have a closed season should be decided by the fishery managers themselves - and certainly not the government.

 

For instance, on my own gravel pits at Wingham there's so little pressure by anyone, let alone anglers, that a closed season has little practical benefit to the fish, the bankside or the wildlife. I know this to be true because when the statutory closed season on stillwaters was abolished I kept it for the first year. The second year I had a winter closed season on one lake, a conventional closed season on the other. There was no measurable effect on either the fish or the wildlife. Indeed, there was a benefit in not having a closed season as, although the overall population remained unchanged, birds didn't nest in the few popular swims and thus didn't have a sudden disturbance on June 16th.

 

Having said this, I did impose a short closed season on the Coarse Lake at Wingham as from last year. The dates will vary from year to year but will be always be for the 2 weeks immediately after the bream spawn. This is because at this time (not before they spawn), big bream are especially vulnerable, and there is always some natural mortality at this time. The problem though doesn’t seem to happen with other species.

 

All of the above is based upon science rather than emotion.

 

Of course there’s the emotional argument in favour of a closed season from those who like the romance of opening day and the break itself. If they choose not to fish then that’s their loss and their choice. It’s one I have some sympathy with and certainly respect.

 

What I won’t tolerate though is any attempt by them or anyone else to change the law so that my own choice is restricted. In particular I’ll fight tooth and nail to be able to manage my own fishery in the way I think is best. In fact, such interference is one of the few things that gets me hot under the collar!

 

I feel that the present situation is a very workable compromise, as well as being good science. The romantics have a closed season on the rivers, whilst most stillwaters are open for those of us who want to coarse fish through some of the best months of the year.

[Tim Kelly]

I virtually don't fish in the closed season, though this is not through choice, just that virtually all the lakes and rivers I fish have a closed season imposed on them. As I said in previous posts, most of the places I fish have self imposed closed seasons in effect anyway as either weed growth or water temperatures make catching fish virtually impossible for large parts of the season.

 

I'm sure there are places that get heavily fished. If the fish were really suffering from the effects of it though the fishing would soon go off and the pressure would subside.