Radio 4 this morning had a news item about fish theft, which seemed to focus entirely on Eastern Europeans, at the end of which Martin Salter MP said the Marine Bill next year will tackle fish theft. From what he said, sounds like a ban on taking ANY coarse fish, anywhere.
The programme alleged that almost all fish theft was for the table, and never mentioned live fish theft for stocking other fisheries - in my view the most serious of these problems.
Mr Salter said the byelaws are 'a mess' and 'arcane' and 'not strong enough.' Another New Labourite trying to legislate his way to fame. He got it right later in the interview when he said the current laws aren't enforced, but went on to say they were unenforceable.
"We don't eat freshwater fish in this country" he said, though he added that, despite the damage caused by Europeans who do, "We have never had so many carp in this country."
Theft for restocking has been a problem for years, perpetuated by fisheries which will buy them, and by the fact that, once say carp are in a fishery legally, there's no way of telling whether any more have been added. If you net fish, why kill them? They are worth more alive than dead. Pikey netsmen have been around for decades, and are still around, supported by dodgy fishery owners who want cheap fish without applying for Section 30.
The programme said the immigrants were catching all the biggest carp; oh yeah? How? It takes really skilled carp anglers weeks to catch them, so what chance a Pole with a telescopic rod and some bread? That doesn't make sense.
"We don't eat freshwater fish in this country" he said; well I do, for one. Trout, salmon, the occasional perch and zander. I see no reason why I should be denied a modest meal because the EA hasn't got the resources/will to catch people who break the rules. On private fisheries, the rules usually forbid taking coarse fish, and that's fine by me.
And nobody will ever convince me that an angler taking a couple of average-sized fish, even every week, will have any grave effect on fish stocks. If that were true, why is angling seen as preferable and sustainable for catching salmon?
If fisheries have too few fish, the most likely cause is poor breeding/feeding environment and pollution, and maybe predation by cormorants where it's out of control.
Why do you say "Another New Labourite trying to legislate his way to fame" Mark?
Given that Martin has been appointed to a position where he can do good for 'angling' why the criticism? We have heard precious little from any of the other parties, and seeing that the Labour Party form the current Government, just who else is going to push the changes through, Bonking Boris and his comical mates?
At the very least he has brought this/these problems to the attention of the Nation.
As for the jibe about the Polish, bread and telescopic rods. Although I can't be described in any way as a 'carp angler', one evening on my club's 'carp water' (described that way because most who fish it sit in bivvies behind three rods) I had three double figure carp take floating crust fished in the edge of a quiet bay. The rod, my Graham Philips 1lb-02oz I use for chub fishing. No hair rig, just a simple size 2 tied direct to 6lb Pro Gold with the hook pushed through some old crust I had left over from a previous days chubbing.
'Sustainable' fisheries, most big fish waters are not, especially the carp waters in the North East. If my club was to lose just 6 biggish fish a month we would not have a club after 12 months.
Many of the waters now producing 'specimen' fish have taken decades to get to the position they are now. Unless clubs are very wealthy and are in a position to buy in replacement stocks, it could take decades to get back to today's position. Even the local salmon/sea trout anglers mostly practice 'catch and release' because they now realise that the rivers are not reaching the self supporting spawning targets. Even the Tyne (now classed as the best salmon river in England/Wales) is artificially maintained through the Kielder hatcheries.
Having said all that, whatever legislation is brought in it will be more a question of educating people, and not only those responsible for taking fish, but also the police, local authority staff and, I'm sad to say, some EA staff and managers.
Mark, I would have thought that stealing fish to sell to fishery owners for restocking needs some organisation. For example, you need vehicles and containers to transport live fish, and you have to build up contacts with a dodgy fishery owner.
On the other hand, stealing fish for the pot is simple - catch them, put them in a plastic bag and off you go.
I agree that if anglers take occasional fish for the pot, it's not going to do much damage. But if the fish are large, or many fish are stolen, then it's going to make the fishing worse.
Most trout fisheries restock their waters rather than rely on natural breeding, yet even these fisheries have limit bags.
Coarse anglers in the UK have conserved their fish stocks and practised catch and release since the start of the last century. So it is disturbing when you read of foreign anglers ignoring our customs (and laws) and taking fish when the rules forbid it.
<p>Stealing fish and stocking them difficult? You're having a laugh, Keith. I can take you to a dozen waters around here that have been either stocked illegally or fished illegally to supply other fisheries. Take LB1, the Fletton Brick Pit. Every carp caught in it was nicked and moved to local 'commercial' fisheries for five years, until there were just too few left to be worth the wait.</p><p> </p><p>One fishery just up the road from me was a stocked trout fishery which had been drained to rid it of coarse fish. Gets taken over as a carp syndicate water and, whaddya know, it's suddenly got 20s in it even though all the fish stocked were under 10lb. </p><p> </p><p>Then there was the bloke who brought a cat over and stocked it in his own 1/4 acre water so he could catch it, claiming it had been in there for years. Then there are all the grass carp that came over from France, as did many other carp that appeared right through the 1990s in the angling papers.</p><p> </p><p>You're in a parallel world if you think that fish, especially carp, aren't being nicked and traded every day of the year, from all kinds of fisheries. Where did the stillwater barbel all come from? The EA hatchery? Yeah, right.... </p>
