Let's get stroppy!

This world belongs to me as much as it does to anybody else .
I suffer no embarrassment in declaring my love of clear water, green meadows, wild flowers, trees...and even cloud formations. It is a wonderful world when it is given half a chance.

At a time when the Amazon Forest loses a tree every 20 seconds, I am nothing less than sickened when I arrive at a favourite patch of waterside Heaven to do a spot of fishing and find that some low-life scumbag and his mate have desecrated it with lager-tins, toilet-paper and all the other detritus deemed necessary nowadays for a weekends fishing(carp-fishing normally)

For over 30 years, I have collected all this junk and have taken it home to MY dustbin at the end of the day...and I'm just about fed-up with it. The situation is getting worse. 'Litter' used to be a fag-packet and a few sweet wrappers.....now it's a dozen lager tins, two egg-boxes, various tins, plastic bottles, gaz containers, bags etc etc. It's got to stop.

I am curious to know just how far some anglers are prepared to go in order to protect their environment and to show the scumbag element of the 'angling' fraternity that their disgusting behaviour AIN'T ON.
I don't want to hear from anybody who advocates an aggresive leafletting campaign....better education....leading by example (I've been doing that all my life)

you can try to educate them nicely,but it doesn`t sink in,get nasty with them and you1l probably get a smack in the mouth.
it`s a sad fact that they aren`t taught to respect the environment by their muppet parents,probably live in a hovel and couldn`t give a toss about anything or anyone apart from themselves.their parents are probably responsible for the shopping trolleys that get dumped in the waterways of this country,they are brought up thinking that this is acceptable and then pass the same attitude down to thheir offspring

Pete much as I agree with what you say about the differing ways to treat these twerps will reap differing responses, I have to disagree with living in a hovel.

More often than not the little shites who don't respect our environment, our neighbourhoods and all the rest of society are generally middle class at least. It might have been true many years ago but not now. We have a society of spoilt twats whose parents haven't bothered educating them correctly because by and large they've been too busy thinking of themselves and how to chase every last buck that they can get. It's a selfish lot make no mistake.

I fish a beautiful stretch of the Thames in Oxfordshire. Loaded with big fish on this beat and to my surprise and mostly to great fishing pal who lives right on its doorstep, we never see many people fish it. But we do always see their leftovers, bait packets, food and drinks containers etc - you name it we see it. Now when I've got a bag I tend to pick up what's there. Last Saturday night I was fishing until dark - there is a no night fishing rule - when two bailiffs come barging into the swim with very very bright flashlights and aggressively inform the both us that "you are out of here". I admitted that yes it was dark but we were packing up as they got there, when I asked about the litter all I got was excuses about they only have so much time etc etc. Yet they had time to come out and harrangue us. Facing a 5 yr ban we are now - perhaps it is a good thing and someone else can have a go at picking up the scumbags crap from now on.

I know this is a bit of a detour but this club says it is very hard on litter but the reality is it has it's eyes on other targets. If clubs are like that what chance have we got.

And just to cap it all off when we informed these two guys that on the opposite bank there were three eastern european speaking males who didn't have rods/reels with them but were suspiciously loitering - guess what? They went home!!

During the latter half of the 70s and all of the 80s, I think I really DID spend more of my time tackling rubbish-dumpers at Johnsons Lakes than I did fishing. I made probably 250 eighty mile round-trips to Johnnies in that time and it was actually very rare for me to fish-out a session without having to trek around the pit to 'have a word' with someone. The total desecration of Johnson's banks was particularly 'hurtful' given that those lakes represented at that time the very best tench fishing in Britain and, given their not-particularly-salubrious location in the Medway Valley, they 'deserved' a bit of respect. Time after time, I'd watch the 'carp-specialists' opposite packing-up after a weekend sesh....expensive gear meticulously stowed away.... bivvy carefully rolled and bagged....two sacks full of shite straight in the bushes! Not even a furtive 'recce' to see if someone was watching!
Well, how can anyone allow such a thing to go unchallenged?
The normal response would be 'They have people come round and collect it, don't they?'
On learning from me that, no, it's the angler's responsibility to leave the swim tidy, they'd reluctantly take the sacks away from the swim...but leave them in the parking area!
Around '87, I knocked-up 4 sturdy signs requesting that anglers 'Respect Johnsons Lakes'. Two were nailed - naively, perhaps - to the stable fence, one 12 feet up a telegraph pole and one on an overhanging willow bough. Two days later, I found all four ripped down and smashed-up.
I've said it before (In the old Coarse Angler) and I'll say it again here...It is to the eternal discredit of those well-known narcissistic anglers who fished and wrote about Johnsons Lakes but never once sullied their articles with the mention of litter; those otherwise beautiful gin-clear lakes were a monumental disgrace to 'fishermen' and this was something those 'faces' had a duty to highlight, but they never did...it just wouldn't do to upset your fans, eh?

So, to repeat myself, just how far would you go to put these rubbish-dumping toe-rags right?

nigel,i guess that you are correct about the type of housing these people live in,they probably come from all walks of life.
regarding the no night fishing rule,if you were packing up, then you weren`t actually fishing were you!
what i would say to the club is that you were packing up very slowly as you wanted to keep an eye on the suspicious foreigners on the opposite bank mate,plus you were picking up litter.i don`t see that the club can argue with that,if they do then they are idiots.
one of the clubs in my area is the same,ie,they`ll harrass the people that stay out a few minutes after dark,yet when it comes to unlicenced anglers and litter on the banks,they can`t be bothered.
i sometimes walk the banks near to my home after a match to net out any dead fish to use as deadbaits in the winter.more often than not,there are paper peg numbers left on the banks despite the rule stating that all competitors must pick up their peg number and dispose of it properly,and half of them are committee members,the chairman and secretary among them!

I'll do again what I've done before when I've known who it was who left the litter. I've collected it up and then emptied the bag on their doorstep and once I emptied a bag through a car window. That was some time ago though when I could run fast.

What's happening in fishing is just a reflection of what's happening on the streets. Both kids and adults are dropping litter with no thought whatsoever. The answer for the long term has got to be, first, education, and second, a really hefty fine or other punishment that will make them think twice before they do it.

Clubs should just instantly ban for life any member found leaving litter.

Readers might (?) be interested to see this letter I had published in my local freebie.

Obsession!

I am becoming positively obsessed with the subject of litter and, equally ? possibly more so ? with those who habitually make a mess of my world.
Think about those last few words. This is your world as much as it is anybody else?s and yet in some parts of our country it would seem to be the majority who naturally and quite casually discard their cola tins and burger-boxes at their feet ? wherever they are!
When you become as pre-occupied with the subject as I, you realise that the crime of littering isn?t one perpetrated by the ignorant few who need politely pulling into line but an automatic and totally thoughtless reaction of millions! I can sit in my town square for just five minutes and see two or three incidents on any day of the week and at almost any time of day, yet the boys-in-blue at the local cop-shop tell me that actually witnessing somebody dropping litter is almost impossible.

Cobblers!

Between Lands End and John o? Groats there are legions of fly-tipping, rubbish-dumping, bottle-throwing, can-lobbing, burger box-dropping criminals openly inviting our wonderful police-force and politicians to come and fill the nation?s coffers to the brim with hefty fines! Until the day arrives when rubbish-dumping is viewed seriously and penalised as such, the government could be in a state of constant euphoria as it watches its cash reserves swell, burst and cascade day after day after day! The opportunity to fulfil all those election promises requiring huge investment is there, waiting, right in front of their eyes, and yet they choose to ignore it! Are they blind? The rubbish-dumping classes are the least likely to vote at Election Time so upsetting these people should be no problem to a political party hungry for popularity, and even the offenders might eventually see the good sense behind Draconian rubbish-dumping laws. Imagine, too, the favourable reaction from decent people on realising that, hey, we?re living in a clean country! It?s like Austria, Switzerland, Germany?this is good!
But no. The Powers-That-Be prefer to ostracise, criminalise and generally worry the pants off motorists, petrified of over-stepping the speed-limit by two or three miles per hour and averting their critical attention from the road ahead. Even in my relatively clean home town of South Woodham Ferrers, Essex, the police could make a few grand every day at, say, ?50.00 per offence. Why not concentrate on the socially unacceptable junk-throwers as a means of boosting funds? (I assume we all agree that speed-cameras have little to do with road-safety any more)

Incensed by the preponderance of beer-bottles and cans in our flower-beds, I recently visited the police-station to ask what, if anything, they were doing about it.
I was told by a WPC that they did, in fact, view the problem seriously but that actually catching somebody in the act was near-impossible. Naturally, I disagreed, said my bit and left the station in a distinctly Mildrewesque frame of mind.
I?d taken less than thirty paces when two teenagers ? en route to the police-station ? casually dumped their unwanted fish and chips on the pavement! I gathered the evidence and returned to the police-station where I stood in line, behind the culprits, awaiting their turn for attention.


When it came, I interjected and asked the same WPC I had spoken to less than four minutes before if she still regarded the apprehension of rubbish-dumpers as ?near-impossible?!
The boys got a pathetic ticking-off and I returned home wondering what the Hell I pay Council Tax for.

I work full time, covering a six mile stretch of river, i have 14 volunteers doing bits on sections where they live, i have Work Parties once a month targetting everything we can shift.

every day we still find litter. Ok we clear it and are on top of the situation and have seen a 95% reduction on fly tipping and other large debri items.

i stop and talk to all Anglers and ask them to leave thier swims clean, take all litter they find or create home and bin it. this in part is working, but every day i find Beer cans, soft drinks cans, sweet wrappings, and a few Angling related items, but have seen a major reduction.

The most common debri we get is Dog Crap Bags. hung in Trees, floating in the river, on the bank or pushed into bushes. We get dog Crap on shoes, Takle, even when kneeling its sometimes squidged or a hand put in it, especialy in longer grass. Yet all i get is complaints about anglers, from Dog walkers, Not all, dog walkers mind you.

I get Jo Public ranting at me about the mess Anglers leave. Ok some do, but only 20% of the River has access for Angling, 70% full public access and the rest is private.

Do angles leave Dog Crap bags? Do anglers leave used Nappies and Sanitary Towels?
Do anglers raid charity Shop donation sacks, left on door steps over night and empty the contents into the river?
Do anglers dump car tyres and Traffic Cones?

yes we get a few moron anglers still. Yes we have targetted all anglers and other visitors to the river and have seen a reduction of Angling related litter, a reduction in Youth Anglers leaving litter.

we get complaints about night anglers leaving Cans, joints, bags etc. Infact its not anglers in 99% of the cases, its people who have a drink & drug habit who like the Quite out of the way places, even the Town Centers have groups drinking and making a mess, even abusing us whilst we work and throwing cans at us.

A local well known Club/Day Ticket water is a Shit Hole, its never cleaned, the margins and surrounding land is a health risk, alive with Rats. Some marginal areas are inches thick with layers of litter floating.
Its a big club, with funds, in a public area, full of Bivvies, families, so plenty of eyes and ears, yet still a place i dont fish anylonger.

check out www.cacg.co.uk
www.thames21.org.uk

Just got in, Filled 6 huge refuse sacks with Clothing & bedding from the riverbank and several carrier bags full of beer cans floating along and watched a chap bag up his Dog Poo & walk away. I followed on to pick up more sacks and hey presto, Bag of Shite in tree.

Nice!

Ashe -


REVENGE!

I?d have been around fourteen or fifteen years old at the time of one particular night-fishing session which saw me return home , on my bike , winding and bumping my way across the reclaimed land that separated the club lakes from the housing estate .
On reaching the gap in the fence I decided to take the ?pretty? route through the woods that ran parallel to Hamble Lane; it was a truly beautiful morning and the only sounds at that time were of bird-song and the chinking of milk-bottles being delivered to the houses nearby. I remember being tired but happy . The night had been warm and still and had produced for me a couple of hard-fighting wild-carp and a good perch of nearly two pounds , so I was , indeed , at peace with the world as I slowly pushed my bike along the sun-dappled forest-path?.I then received nothing less than a visual punch in the face . There in the undergrowth , completely undisguised and ugly as a wart , was a great mound of domestic rubbish and old newspapers! Having come this way less than twelve hours before , I knew both that darkness had provided the cover for this unforgivable act of vandalism and that daylight would not prevent it?s ceremonial return?..there had to be an address!
And there it was! Time and again, writ large across the top of every newspaper and magazine ? CHILDS 54 HAMBLE ? irrefutable proof!
I leant my bicycle against a tree, lowered my fishing tackle to the ground and set about the task of returning the eyesore whence it came ?.Having staggered upright with the first load , it immediately became obvious that this wasn?t to be a five minute job , rather one that would require six or seven trips and much exposure to the Childs household and their neighbours ? but right was on my side! For some twenty minutes, I plied back and forth laden with damp Daily Mirrors, Titbits, Reveilles , Beanos and Dandys , gladly dumping each bale in the garden of No.54 with the greatest of satisfaction .

excellent!you should have crapped on their doorstep as well!

that story remnds me of the day that i found a pile of litter that two brats left behind them after they`d finished fishing.included in the rubbish was a school report naming the pupil and school,it stated that he wasn`t doing very well at school due to his laziness.i sent it to the school, stating that i found it in a pile of rubbish that had been left on the bank,and advised the headmaster that the parents may not have actually read the report.i suggested that the boy be named and shamed at the school assembly and that his parents be told that not only was he bone idle,but a litter lout as well!

Great reading Lads.

just spent 6 hours in me boat dreddging Tyres and traffic cones out the mill pond, covvered in Shite Smelling silt, six boat loads later and several inches of festering sludge, ells and chinese mitten crabs in the boat i called it a day.

walking home was nice, River Keeper kit in burgan, smelly, thursty, mud setting rock hard, i walked past a regular hollow for local news paper dumping. two seperate lots cleared last week, paper informed of deliverers not delivering papers.

Gues what, more of the same papers, not in bundles, but strewn down a 20 ft bank that a small child or contortionist is required to squeez down.

So first thing tuesday morning im calling the Local rag and will explain that im happy to remove the papers again, but will charge for additional time, risk assesment & disposal of the papers to them.

Im also doing the same with shopping trolleys & charity shop clothes.
I have a law firm to back me up too.

I have spoken in person and writen and phoned the owners of said debri items and offered my support in returning thier property, but they dont seem to want to know.

However a local Tackle shop, sellng bait in logo bags to kids, promptley responded to a pleasent chat, they are good lads, help me out too with National Fishing Week etc.

we had kids & a few Grown Ups!!! leaving the bags. Logo and Name gave away the shop it came from and proved anglers do leave litter. The shop no longer sells bait in Bags.

so if they can respond to a friendley approach, being a small company and playing thier part to keep the rivers clean, why cant the Big Boys?

oh and Dog shite bags again today.

more Dog poo bags.

OK letter to local press now. With some grotty pics. Nice!

A few years ago I was fishing, with some friends, opposite a small shopping area with a car park on the Hole in the Wall stretch of the Grand Union. About midday a car pulled into one of the bays facing onto the canal and a guy, probably in his 40's, got out of it, opened up the boot and took out 2 large and bulging bin liners. He then walked to the bank edge and proceeded to empty the contents, comprising of cans, bottles, cartons and other household waste into the canal. Those of us who witnessed it remonstrated with him but all we got back was a torrent of obscene verbal abuse until suddenly there miraculously appeared beside him 2 coppers who then wanted to know what we were shouting about. When I told them what he'd done they looked down at the pile of refuse and then proceeded gave us a lecture about disturbing the peace on a Sunday over such a small matter. When I pointed out to them that the dumping of litter was an offence they said that it only applied to highways and not waterways.
The litter dumper then got in his car and drove off and the coppers disappeared behind some trees. A few moments later we heard a car start up and we watched as they drove their patrol car past the gap in the trees where the dumping had taken place.
Yes! They'd been parked up only a few yards from him and had seen him dumping his rubbish in the canal.
If the police and the law won't protect our waterways from this sort of thing then it seems we're fighting an uphill battle.

you should have got their badge numbers and reported them to their senior officer mate.

it would seem that the police can`t be bothered to enforce the law regarding people fly tipping in waterways, or illegal fishing.
a mate of mine was walking along the town centre stretch of the local river last may ,at least 5 people were lined up on the bank coarse fishing,using maggots,sweetcorn,bread etc,plus using keepnets.
two coppers came along and my mate informed them that the anglers were fishing illegally ,as it was the close season and only trout fishing with fly,worm or small spinner was allowed.
the answer from the police?"well they aren`t doing any harm are they?"

I returned yesterday from a spot of barbel fishing in Switzerland (caught no barbel - just a chub).
I walked approximately one kilometre upstream from where I was staying before settling-down to fish and can honestly state that I did not see so much as a fag-butt along that riverside path; it was absolutely spotless.
The fields, greens and parkland I passed were all pristine, unsullied by so much as a sweet-wrapper.
Kids' play-areas were in similar condition and not a scrap of graffiti was to be seen.
The 250 yard-wide river itself was, literally, clean enough to drink from and clear as gin...not a scrap of litter flowed past me during the whole day.

Back on the streets - the same. Not a matchstick to be seen. The towns? Not a scrap of shite to be seen ANYWHERE.
Clearly, EVERYONE treats their environment with reverence and NOBODY has a problem with taking their litter home.It's the same in Austria and Germany...What a contrast to the legions of shite-hawks in this country!
(For the third time, I ask - How far would readers be prepared to go in order to teach the culprits a lesson? Somebody respond!!..Preferably from Essex)
Well done, Frank, for kicking-up a fuss on seeing that scumbag dumping rubbish in the river, though you should have taken those coppers to the cleaners.