Fishing the offside of a canal

Is it the landowner who controls the fishing rights?

In some cases yes. I used to work with one guy who's garden went down to the canal, he used to fish there even when the club who controlled the tow path had a match on and there was nothing they could do. Whats more, he caught plenty of fish and his misses took brews and bacon butts to him.

I thought it was the owner of the riparian rights, but Wobbly's mate story throws doubt on this. So on reflection I don't know .

Ok this may not be totaly true but after being on the comitte for the thorne and district aa and talks with the local EA baliff here goes.
When a club gets the fishing rights for a section or sections on the canal the fishing rights and rights of way are for one bank only, but that said if a section or part of a section has no access or there may be a boat yard ect then that section or part of may be on the other bank to the rest.
So to anwser your question i would say no the land owner does not have the fishing rights, that said if the club bailiff comes and your on the other bank there is not a lot he can do as he only controls the one bank, although round our parts they try to tell you to pack up or charge a day ticket. Doncaster aa have tryed to get round this by stateing they have control of any bank were there is access and a book or day ticket is needed.

Sorry for the bad spelling.

Lee

stan_lee said:

Ok this may not be totaly true but after being on the comitte for the thorne and district aa and talks with the local EA baliff here goes.
When a club gets the fishing rights for a section or sections on the canal the fishing rights and rights of way are for one bank only, but that said if a section or part of a section has no access or there may be a boat yard ect then that section or part of may be on the other bank to the rest.
So to anwser your question i would say no the land owner does not have the fishing rights, that said if the club bailiff comes and your on the other bank there is not a lot he can do as he only controls the one bank, although round our parts they try to tell you to pack up or charge a day ticket. Doncaster aa have tryed to get round this by stateing they have control of any bank were there is access and a book or day ticket is needed.

Sorry for the bad spelling.

Lee

Click to expand...

there is absolutely nothing at all that he can do end of. the fishing rights for one bank cover to mid water, there the bailiffs influence ends at mid water the rights belong to anyone who happens to hold the rights for the far bank.

When BW started to let stretches out I negotiated the towpath fishing rights on a stretch of the Trent and Mersy canal at Ingestree ,the far bank was contolled by GEC angling club ...conveiniently I was on the committee of both clubs .