Fishing Security

Another nice article Mark. Some of the things you mention in there may sound obvious, but people can often be lazy and not bother carrying out some of these measures.


Just a query, is there anything you could carry with you in the form of self-defence should you need it legally?

Nash Powerstick........

Some good points Mark, did you see GMTV the other morning they had a respectable man on, who was stopped by the police and arrested for having a Leatherman tool in his possession.
The reason being it has a lock on the blade.
When asked why he was carrying the tool he replied i always carry it with me it is multifunctional tool.
The answer was deemed not good enough by the officer and he was arrested, his car towed away and he was off to the slammer.
Never right.

Good aticle Mark ,Ive taken photo`s of all my gear and it is covered by the house insurance away from the house up to the value of ?5000 but I now need to i.d. it.
I also carry a bottom half of a brolly bankstick ? with a spiral tip which i use for making holes in hard ground for my banksticks, which is made of stainless steel and quite handy for other use`s.

Jonny,
if you carry anything in the name of self defence then you would be committing an offence. For example if I have a baseball bat and ball down the park with my son and we are playing and someone try's to mug me and I wack him with the bat to prevent him robbing me, no offence committed, not unless I go past the point of reasonable force and cave his head in. If I carried the baseball down the park whilst walking the dog as I've heard there are muggers about so I've got it to defend myself then it would be an offence as its then becomes an offensive weapon. I would say see the logic but there isn't any really, the law is good intentioned as it is designed to stop people having weapons to hand when they all to oftn lose their temper or become fronted by confrontational situations.

Cat

If what you say is true and someone was arrested for having a leatherman on them (and they had no other issues so to speak)then all I can say is the officers involved need a lesson in proportionality. Myself and at least 4 other officers carry a leatherman both on and off duty, the blade is great for cutting seatbelts at RTC's etc. There is an offence of having a bladed or sharply pointed article in a public place as well which covers any knife etc. This is there to combat those who use darts, craft knives and stanley blades etc in the commission of offences. The key to carrying anything that could be classed as an offensive weapon is having a "lawful and reasonable excuse" to do so. If you have a road rage incident and pull out your leatherman, swissarmy knife (or axe, or chainsaw if your a tree surgeon say) and try to intimidate or threaten the other party your lawful excuse defence goes straight out of the window. If the aformention items stayed in your pocket or vehicle and were not mentioned or seen until a copper searched your car or person, no offence has been committed.

I hope I haven't confused or lost anyone, its complicated I know, but you wanna try the police and criminal evidence act, now that is a minefield !

"In the words of Crime Watch - ?Don?t have nightmares? "

Also - "These cases are extremely rare so sleep safetly."

I remember those words so many times when Jill Dando was closing the programme.

As it happens, I bought yet another new rod that arrived today and thought to myself -

I must take some fresh photographs of all this new gear sometime. Set a day aside and do it - as Mark says - on somethign familiar in the house. It's not a photo competition so the carpet of armchair is as good a place as any.

Fortunately I've yet to experience any of this sort of thing either with tackle stolen from home/car or indeed assault on the bank. However it seems that we don't live in a safe society these days despite apparent increases in standards of living and I think Mark has detailed a number of sensible precautions which I'm going to enact ASAP.

Cheers Mark.

Best thing is a walking stick with a nice heavy handle -you can never be accused of carrying it purely for self defence.

I would like to thank Mark for a very good editoreal.It was realy enjoyable to read & pionting out how to mark your kit.Normaly I fish on my own as I have just started fishing again after a many years away from fishing.
Once again thank you.Keith

Just like to say thankes to Mark for taking the time to write this artical to keep us on our toes

Sensible stuff, Mark. The best advice of all was the last part. Think about where you fish and, if it's not a safe place to be, don't go there. No fishing, no matter how good, is worth a high degree of un-necessary personal risk.

While I can understand the idea of marking gear........why use your postcode?

What happens when you move house and end up with a different post code.....will you be in a position to prove you used to live at that postcode, say, more than five years ago.

For that reason, when I mark my gear I use my National Insurance number.

Great stuff this article /forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif