Wintle's World - Commercial Fisheries #2

Commercial Fisheries #2 In my first article about commercials I mentioned the way that commercial fisheries have evolved over the last couple of decades. This week I want to see what room there is for improvement. Commercial fisheries are the future for many British coarse anglers. To make them outstanding we need radical reform. And that might trigger an angling revolution. I'll cover how to do just that later but first let's look at the pros and cons of what we've got now. Muddy hole Good day ticket fisheries have been around for decades; first class fishing, surroundings and fish in top class condition combine to provide brilliant sport. Such fishing rarely comes cheap, but add on facilities like cafes, on-site tackle shops and secure parking, and the whole package is barely that offered by a third rate golf course! But as I can see little chance of the majority of coarse anglers being prepared to shell out the sort of fees that a first class golf club would command we are stuck with what is viable given good management and hard work by fishery owners. In contrast, there are waters with poor facilities, muddy banks, eyesore pallets for swims, and tight pegging. And then there's the fish. Over-fished and over-stocked yet poorly controlled, and sometimes in poor condition, there is room for improvement in fish welfare. Around thirty years ago Dick Walker provided several visions of what he thought the fishery of the future ought to look like, and some around today are not that different to his vision. His vision was for secluded bays with a chalet on each though to my mind most anglers prefer to choose their swims, and to be able to move swims as they think fit. Bring back the grass! One of the paradoxes of angling is that there must be some challenge; if fishing is too easy we get bored, if it is too hard then all but the diehards will look elsewhere. Good fishery management is all about balancing these two. Go back to the golf course analogy. For a golf course to be worthy of the name there is an expectation that the length of the holes is sufficient that it mostly takes more than one shot to reach the green, that there are hazards to manoeuvre around and that it is stretching. There are variations in this, and the courses used for championship golf are far tougher than the local council ticket course. But golfers don't suggest making the holes three feet across or the greens all sloped into the hole and removing the bunkers. Yet in angling we pander to this lack of challenge. The big difference between golf and angling is that the golf ball is predictable and the fish are not. We can't make the fish more or less catchable. It's time to get radical I believe there are nine steps to angling Nirvana. Regulation: We need a system whereby the EA license all day ticket waters. The EA would monitor all fish stocking, and carefully control stocking levels. The ideal stocking level needs research but would be much less than that achieved by some waters today. This would also apply to the mixture and type of species stocked. You'd need special permission to stock the following species; barbel, ide, koi, orfe, grass carp, brown goldfish and catfish. I would like to see a clamp down on the deliberate stocking of “species” like F1 (actually a crucian x carp hybrid). Conduct: That the EA must standardise fishery conduct regulations. Broadly, this would be based on the SAA Code of Conduct but would bring in research on the effects of heavy feeding of baits like high oil pellets, question the use of barbless hooks in larger sizes, best practice on keepnets (let's have a minimum of 3 metres x 50cm x 40cm, Water lily marked). It would outlaw the tether rigs, and research restrictions on “bungee jumping” pole techniques. Let's lose the worst of the selfish “clone” carpers that set lines across a water spoiling the enjoyment of others. And let's help the novices learn the sport in a responsible way from professional coaches. I for one have no wish to fish next to 'mallet man', or the groups of anglers that set up across three or four swims and wander between them all day. Brown goldfish - who needs 'em? Excellent Fishing: let's move away from carp, carp and more carp. Good fishery management, especially on multi lake sites, should mean a diverse range of fish, and big ones too. Waters that provide fishing for big roach, tench, chub, perch and crucians rather than just carp-flavoured fish soup offer far more than mere fish catching. To obtain this takes time but it can be done. It's time to increase the availability of such fishing. And this would be an attractive proposition for many anglers who currently shy away from such waters. Facilities: Let's set a standard for parking, security, access, and swim creation. Pallets belong in warehouses not on lake banks so let's come up with a better, safer and less intrusive way. Let's make swims further apart so that close swims where you daren't strike sideways are a thing of the past. Let's set a standard for swims at 15 metres, more if possible. First class waters should be designed not cobbled together. Wildlife friendly: the fisheries are a fantastic opportunity to create wildlife reserves in miniature; so let's develop the wildlife aspects of the fisheries to benefit the birdlife, pond life, and surrounding vegetation. Let's plant trees, shrubs and water weeds like lily beds, and set aside wildlife refuges that extend to at least 20% of the site. Similarly, break periods to cover post spawning recovery, and resting parts of the fishery on a cyclical basis should be considered. Get these things right and not only will the fishing improve but the fisheries themselves become more attractive to wildlife AND anglers. Star system: There needs to be a professional body to oversee this. The bedrock of this already exists in the PFA but its remit needs to extend to humbler waters to bring them up to a much higher standard. We may lose some of the tiny 'hole in field' stock ponds along the way but angling as a whole should be much stronger. It's time to move away from the muddy puddles to embrace first class fisheries that are a showpiece for angling. I envisage a system whereby achievement in the above standards would result in an official ranking like hotel stars. Better big carp waters: The growing demand for purpose-built big carp waters grows apace. This type of fishing needs more space yet can charge more. Their surplus 'other fish' can either be moved to where they'll be better appreciated or managed in such a way that the fish that are present provide a viable alternative to carp without being a nuisance to those seeking only carp. That means roach not bream or tench. Better big roach waters: To create a big roach water takes good management; Sway Lakes managed it through annual or bi-annual removal of excess stocks. It can be done and it adds to the variety of good fishing. Marsh Farm is a similar example but built around excellent crucian fishing. I reckon that many waters would be better off without matches altogether; that means no keepnets, ever. A number of waters I fish have 'no keepnet' rules except for the few matches yet it is easy to tell when a match has taken place. Personally I don't want to catch fish with keepnet tail. I long stopped worrying about exactly how many pounds of fish I've caught even if I still have a rough idea. I'm not saying ban matches or keepnets just wondering out loud whether those waters that otherwise ban nets yet have a handful of matches would be much better off losing the few matches completely. My blueprint for commercials sets a challenging agenda; I'm not convinced the EA has the drive to sort out the aspects that should concern them. In the commercial fisheries world we already have people with the vision to make this happen; people like Roy Marlow, John Raison and Pete Clapperton, to name but three. There are no easy answers. What I've suggested will involve a lot of hard work, plenty of expenditure and in some cases a change in attitude to how we go about fishing. In the final article I shall explore the impact of the changing commercial fishery scene on our river fisheries.