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This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: EA Blitz on Rod Licence Cheats
Good news. Its about time they started checking people. I personally have not been asked for years and fish at least twice a week. Glad to see they are doing something about it...
Limited resources mean that they go where the chances of finding good numbers of anglers and good numbers of unlicensed anglers. That invariably means the busiest river stretches (like Collingham on the Trent), or those with easy access (close to bridges/main roads) and heavily fished (usually the more commercial) stillwaters, especially at the busiest periods. There's not a great deal of point in them walking miles of lightly fished river only to find no one fishing. If you avoid the busy places, at peak times, the chances of being checked are very slim. The few times I've been checked have been on busy day ticket stillwaters at peak periods.
Limited resources mean that they go where the chances of finding good numbers of anglers and good numbers of unlicensed anglers. That invariably means the busiest river stretches (like Collingham on the Trent), or those with easy access (close to bridges/main roads) and heavily fished (usually the more commercial) stillwaters, especially at the busiest periods. There's not a great deal of point in them walking miles of lightly fished river only to find no one fishing. If you avoid the busy places, at peak times, the chances of being checked are very slim. The few times I've been checked have been on busy day ticket stillwaters at peak periods.
Makes interesting reading. In May they found 7.42% of anglers checked not to have a license. The overall figure last year was 4% of anglers checked found without a license. The last time I looked figures for license bought was about 1250000 which means only 5.6 of licenses were checked. I would guess the 4% figure probably about right across the board i.e., 4% of anglers do not buy a license. The average fine was £214. It does not state if this included costs or costs were added on. That would be the most interesting figure, how much chasing this crime cost against the revenue collected in fines. I bet each case cost a lot more than £214 to bring to court. I still say it should have on the spot fines or scrapped altogether and the "tax" raised another way. Its probably costing the tax payer a lot of money and wasting a lot of court time. And for what, to chase approx 4% of anglers who do not have a licence.
I read somewhere that the fines for not having a licence didn't go to the EA so the money spent in checking that anglers have paid their tax is dead money, there is no return on it at all either environmentally or financially.
Wonderful news, hope they catch a coachfull.
Dont think remote waters are not checked.
My lake is well off the beaten track with no signs with access up a very long secluded road but we always receive atleast one visit every year without fail.
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Give it a break Mr Crow.
A far better way to spend your time would be to get all your fishing tackle out and give it all a through spring-clean and service, so your ready to go as soon as your health improves.[/QUOTE]
Give what a break? how do you know I haven't been fishing already? I will decide on the best way to spend my time and my money, one things for sure I wont be seeing part of this blitz, I hardly ever see another angler never mind the EA.
My previous post is valid, the EA gain nothing from the expenditure involved in checking the angling tax has been paid, Mark is correct the only way to ensure everyone pays is to come up with a system where it cannot be avoided, I am not clever enough to know what that system might be I am just a simple angler be but others probably are.
Why can't they simply make it the fishery owners responsibility to check that the person buying the day ticket has a valid EA licence ?
Make it even easier for the fishery owner by allowing them to have a means of checking on line via the EA website whether or not the licence is valid or not (simple security checks - date of birth / address / etc).
If no licence in place get them to log onto a computer at the fishery and get one if they want to fish !
No licence = no fishing .... Simples.
The fishery owners will also probably end up with a better quality of fisherman (or woman) using their fishery and probably treat the fish with more care / leave less of a mess when they pack up.
If someone does leave a mess / behave irresponsibly / cause any issues the fishery owner could even have a means of banning them or tracking them down if they recorded their details / licence number.
For rivers the same kind of thing could apply - at least check whether or not the person actually has a licence.
Spot checks would still need to be carried out by the EA or their appointed representatives but then the fishery owner/ club who manage that stretch of river would be "incentivised" to show that they have a fair and reasonable system in place to check that an EA licence is in place.
If it becomes clear that the fishery owner / club really couldn't give a hoot then the EA should not just consider taking action on the individual person who was caught without a licence but also on the fishery owner / club who are effectively facilitating this offence.
For day ticket venues this should work - for rivers it is more complex as I have seen people rolling up to fish at seven o'clock at night knowing that no one is going to be around at that time to check their licence.
So long as there is some common sense applied this could improve the position compared to where we find ourselves today.
Knowing that the chances of getting your licence checked is pretty remote isn't much of an incentive for the individual to buy one - share that incentive with the fishery / club who own the fishing rights and may be things could get better.
Obviously they do Crow, if there was no checking or penalties, nobody would buy one and they'd get absolutely no income at all. Fisheries is a long way down the pecking order at the EA.My previous post is valid, the EA gain nothing from the expenditure involved in checking the angling tax has been paid