Soft Target .

I have not returned to fishing again for very long but last Sunday about mid afternoon I decided after a good day catching on a small local commercial that it was time to set sail home. On walking to the car park to young men stopped me and said they were from the EA and they would like to see my License luckly it was in the glove compartment of the car. I did ask with tonque in cheek for ID and where were you last year when I reported 4 men and 1 rod with a little gas burner stove on the local stretch of the River Medway again on a Sunday afternoon out of season, different department was the short reply we are the commercial team, makes no odds all I got was a recorded message at the time anyway.

My concern is after reading a lot of others experience in the weekly angling press and so on about the shortage of baliffs there is evidece of illegal fishing and remains of small fires everywhere you walk around our river , are commercial fishers an easy option when the owners police their own waters anyway, just for the EA to roam around on a sunday afternoon asking for proof of a rod tax is not really getting the job done is it ? surely most commercial anglers have a License or can afford one and the concerns of the river bank are a higher prority.

I would be interested to hear of any others experience regarding this I know there are for and against on the annual license I don't mind paying and it was not a problem producing evidence but are they targeting the wrong people......

Of course commercial fisheries are the most obvious target for the EA. I've only ever seen them once on a non-commercial. However, it was club stretch of river that bordered a stretch of day ticket water. Neither required a walk of more than a couple of hundred yards but both are very popular. You can't really blame them, what's the point of walking miles to find whole swathes of river unfished when they can go to a commercial and check hundreds of people in a quick easy hit.

Years ago I was fishing a very big well known commerical complex in Bolton, it was a few days after the new EA licences came out. They must have caught upwards of 25 anglers without EA licences, would have been a good day for the EA.

I would guess that the rivers in the UK are almost unpoliceable simply due to the amount of river the EA would have to cover. Four of the most popular rivers in England, Thames 215m, Avon 96m, Trent 171m and Severn 220m create 702 miles of river bank!

mol said:

702 miles of river bank!

Click to expand...

Double that if you think about it.

One of the problems they have is seeing someone on the opposite bank and the nearest bridge upstream is 6 miles and downstream another 4 miles. Either way, that's a big journey with what at the end of it?

Another is the lack of enforcement officers. You report something on the Medway and two officers might have to set off from Berkshire to investigate. Not a simple journey and with what at the end of it?

In both cases the answer is = nothing! Plenty of time for the miscreants to have fled the scene.

Surprising just how many people fish commercials who think they can get away with not buying a licence!

I've been fishing for 43 years this year. Total times I've been asked to show my licence 1.
Pathetic!

I would sooner see someone being caught for blatantly refusing to buy a license rather than targeting people on the first days of the new licensing period, as obviously a higher percentage of these people have just forgotten to renew on time.
Also I'm more concerned about people who fish in the closed season or dont bother with landing nets or proper fish welfare- don’t know why but I don’t loose too much sleep about the EA not getting the odd few quid they could have collected. Their priorities are different than mine