Have Eastern Europeans found the Ribble?

Some on here know I bailiff for one of the clubs I?m in, which have stretches on the Ribble.
Last week I was checking cards and got talking to two salmon anglers, the talk was about the river its fish and so on. The subject came around to eastern Europeans and poaching, one of them tells me that he?d only last week hooked a fixed line in the river with multiple hook rigs on it, whilst fishing a Toby.
I kind of dismissed it in my own mind as finger pointing and bandwagon jumping.

Now I get about the NW a fair bit and have never come across any new migrant eastern Europeans. Fully accept some areas in England (East Anglia, Fens, Lincolnshire) you can?t move for em.? However, we have little in the way of agricultural food cropland, some on File coast, but that about it. The bulk however is made up of sheep, dairy, and stock beef grassland. So the type of work they a noted for isn?t there.

This weekend, Sunday, I?m out checking again and as I?m getting my gear out of the car another car comes in the car park, two youngish guys 20s early 30s get out. Were after some information in an eastern European accent.
Now over the years I?ve probably work with every nationality that has ever migrate to the UK, so I can reasonably accurately pin the lilt of English down to a country of origin. The one that did all the talking I?d lay money on it was Polish. His command of English was very good and he said, ?I?d like to know about pike in the river.? A big siren whet off in my head?. a quick scan in the car and there?s no visible fishing tackle. ?Sorry mate there?s no pike in the river,? was my reply to him! Don?t want to say much more on this for reasons, which I?ll come too further down. ?Well what sort of fish are in the river?? ?Salmon and a few coarse fish mate,? I answered.

?Where can we pay for a ticket?? ?The farm there, but you?ll need to show him an EA license?? you have got an EA rod license haven?t you?? Then his good command of English went to pot! ?Me no understand, what is this rod license thing?? Like hell you don?t understand I thought?. and you ain?t getting away with it that easy matey!

?You need one of these! Out comes me license. Without this the farmer won?t let you fish!? Command of good English come back. ? Where can we buy one of those and how much do they cost?? So I tell him the price and where from.

?Are there any more places down river where we can get a day ticket from?? ?Yes, but you?ll have to show your EA license before they sell you one!? ?Err? are there any more rivers around here where we can fish for pike??

?No, not that I know there ain?t!? Patience is getting a bit thin by this time? ?Look mate, if you haven?t got a license you can?t fish anywhere in England and Wales. And if you?re caught without one, you will be prosecuted? .No if, buts or may bes about! Mumbles something to his mate and they get back in the car.

An old chap passing with his dog says hello, so I move over to talk to him, so I can clock the reg number of the car.
The car was an Audi A5 last series in silver, with a reg number of R453 NVV
Any benevolent police officers out there who would like to PNC for me? An anonymous brown e-mail would be quite handy so I can pass on the owner name and address to all the clubs Secs with waters on the Ribble.

Now the length I was parked at has in the last month been mention on this site.

They knew it did tickets, and how to find it. So I pose these questions -

?Is this site being looked at by potential stock pillagers, possibly using illegal methods from Eastern Europe??
Is it now time to be very circumspect indeed about what we write and post about the Ribble?

?Is this site being looked at by potential stock pillagers, possibly using illegal methods from Eastern Europe??
Is it now time to be very circumspect indeed about what we write and post about the Ribble?"

Is the pope a catholic?

Phil I hope your not trying to curtail the penis measuring contest mate because any suggestion of stopping posting to the Ribble thread will fall on deaf ears.

Now take ten paces backwards then run with your head down at full pelt towards the wall. Alternatively you could turn to face into the prevailing wind open your fly withdraw your willy and urinate?

This is yet another good example of what I and one or two others have been warning about for some years. Now you have it. The Polish fish thieves (The undesirables) are now on the Ribble. Not only that, they are on a stretch that has had much publicity on this site in the last month. It is all too obvious where the Poles have got there information and directions from.
KEEP YOUR MOUTHS SHUT!

This is the best angling website going as far as I am concerned. But surely it is now time to close the Ribble reports thread. Posters on this thread now need to decide what they want. Do they want a river that will become harder and harder to fish, but still be able to bleat and blab to anybody that cares to log onto this site?
Is fame all that matters? Do you have no respect for other anglers that fish this river? Or do you want a future Ribble report thread that only talks about how good it was in the past before it was devastated by fish thieves?

If you care, and care passionately about the welfare of the fish stocks on the Ribble the way that I do, you should now think very very carefully about what you post in the Ribble Reports. And in the very least to consider to stop posting on it all together.
KEEP YOUR MOUTHS SHUT!

A lot of clubs now have a no publicity rule and for very good reasons. People that post on the Ribble Reports thread are members of these clubs and know the rules in these clubs. So why are they so pigheaded and blab to all and sundry on this website where they know no such rule exists? Is their own vanity, call it what you will more important to them than anything else?
KEEP YOUR MOUTHS SHUT!

I have made a number of friends who fish the Ribble, and I would like to keep them as friends. I also realise that this post will cause some annoyance with my friends which has made typing this post very difficult.
I do not want to fall out with anybody over what I have written but the time has come to face reality. Upstream of, downstream of, the long walk back through the woods etc, etc, etc, PLEASE, for the sake of decency and common sense, and for any future anglers, put a stop to it now.

KEEP YOUR MOUTHS SHUT!

I have every sympathy with the sentiment behind this thread but very much doubt that stopping posting about the Ribble on the venue reports thread will make any difference providing location details are kept to a minimum.

You can learn more about the fish stocks in the river, the day ticket venues, etc, by calling into the Tickled Trout hotel, or any other public house anywhere along the river. The thread on here is mainly keeping anglers up to date with the Ribble's form. Saying they've caught above or below Preston/Ribchester, etc, isn't telling anybody anything about location.

If the guys who Phil writes about really were East Europeans using this site to target the Ribble then they're hardly going to pull up and ask an angler about the pike in the river, advertising who they are via their accent.

If they'd read on here that the Ribble was easy pickings (and gleaned all the info that Phil and Baz reckon they can glean on here) then surely they would just visit the river in the dead of night and get on with it.

Look at it this way, if post offices are being regularly robbed by people with east European accents I don't think they'll be going into post offices prior to the robbery and asking, with east European accents, how much they've got in the safe.

By all means keep location details to a minimum to be on the safe side, but the evidence so far presented does not add up to east Europeans using FM for information in order to plunder the Ribble.

The thread on here is mainly keeping anglers up to date with the Ribble's form. Saying they've caught above or below Preston/Ribchester, etc, isn't telling anybody anything about location.

Sorry Graham but yes it is. The last thing that I want to hear is people making excuses and pointing the finger else where. I doubt very much that these people heard of the Ribble from the Tickled Trout hotel.

This site managed very well before the River Reports, and there is no reason why it should not do so again.
It isn't rocket science Graham to see what is happening.
Tell,me one of the reasons why clubs have a no publicity rule.

Baz, Phil has related an instance of two guys with European accents asking him about pike and day tickets on the Ribble.

If they're being used to help substantiate the claims that they've used FM for information then why do they need to ask an angler and give away their nationality?

No, tell me about some even semi-substantiated evidence (evidence, not opionion) that FM is being used and I'll listen. So far all you've given me is speculation.

The main reason for no publicity rules in angling clubs is to help the more paranoid and secretive club members, especially committee members, keep their catches closer to their chests.

And I offer that opinion from three positions: club member, club committee member, and angling writer of many years who has heard it all before from envious anglers who resent anyone who is more successful than them.

Oh, and before anyone even thinks that I'm arguing my corner from any motive to keep a forum section running because it's so popular then think again.

If it wasn't for the Ribble reports I would have closed that section of the forum long ago. I only keep it running for the Ribble lads who like to help each other and find the reports useful for keeping in touch with Ribble form.

I think they all know where to fish.

No publicity rules has nothing to do with farmers wanting to know how valuable their stretch is before they hike the price up to the highest bidder then has it Graham?

Are you also saying it has nothing to do with keeping their stretches safe from undesirables?

As for you asking for any evidence that the Eastern Europeans have got their information from this website, the only thing that I can do is to is to appeal to the anglers common sense and decide for themselves.

This is not just a one off incident Graham.

If anybody thinks these people are only interested in Pike then you are greatly mistaken. That is one thing that I should not need to point out.
And the Eastern Europeans know of no boundaries. They do not differenciate between day ticket and club water.

Baz, you can't put every bad incident on the Ribble down to publicity. If publicity was that powerful then none of the anglers along there would drop litter and give the farmer an excuse to rent his water to another club...

But let's stick to the point.

Yes, I too ask for common sense. And I really, honestly and sincerely cannot see that there is anything on the Ribble thread, other than that it tells anyone that the Ribble contains a decent head of coarse fish and some game fish.

And you can find that out from lots of places if you really want to know. One email, one phone call, one letter to the EA, for instance, will do the trick.

if you type into google (fishing the river ribble) you get 41000 pages to look at giving all sorts of information on the river and what it holds.i dont think stopping giving out info on this site would make alot if any difference at all to how the polish poachers get there info on the different rivers.i have worked with them and find most to be very arrogant they would not think twice about walking up to a river and asking what was in it and as phil said they do have a thing about if they do something wrong they lose command of there very good english at the drop of a hat.so yes you could stop the info on this site but then you would need to ask the other sites to follow suit but i cant see that happening lets just hope the excellent info on this site is used by anglers for angling not by scum bag poachers for poaching.

I am sticking to the point Graham.
The biggest cause of litter on this stretch of the Ribble is caused by flood water as everybody knows. It is you yourself that is straying from the point in question.

No I'm sorry, these people would not even think of asking the E.A. for such information. Why should they? It is all on here and other sites for them to see.

On another very recent thread concerning another river, not only were directions to the river were given on this forum site, but also the name of the pub which the river is next to.
Incidentally, the anglers were Piked out.
Yes that is straying from the point, but it is as equally irreresponsible.

Sorry Nige but in your post you say -: lets just hope the excellent info on this site is used by anglers for angling not by scum bag poachers for poaching.

Do you seriously believe what you have just said? Burying our heads in the sand will not help matters.

Just had a quick browse for Ribble-related stuff and found these sites. There are plenty more but I got fed up after half a dozen. Very useful to east Europeans.

Let?s close down the lot of ?em and sod all those good folk who find the information useful.

Or we could just accept that policing the waters more efficiently would be better, and campaign for that.

Where to fish on the Ribble

Salmon fishing on the Ribble

Barrowford Anglers

Fly fishing on the Ribble

More salmon fishing on the Ribble

Trouting on the Ribble

Graham.
I think I have made my opinions very clear on what I think about this latest Ribble fiasco and I stand by what I have said. I have done my best to try and explain of the dangers of what I believe we are doing wrong. I can only hope that common sense prevails in the future.

I have made many comments in the past about giving too much information away on an open forum. For the sake of decency the problems on the Ribble and the causes of them, go a lot deeper than what I will put into print on here.

As already stated I have no desire to lose friends over it. I would only ask that people who post in the future think very very carefully over what they are saying.

I agree Baz. Let common sense prevail.

Continue to post with 'form' updates without giving anything away other than that any fish caught came from the Ribble.

Nothing else makes sense.

Right, I'm off to the Tackle and Guns show at Stoneleigh now.

I can agree with Baz, to a certain extent. From personal knowledge,poaching became rife on a certain stretch of river,following comment and threads on this site.
A bit,reds under the beds though.On the basis of your comments, only Bait Box, will receive any input.

As for the I**e,alas,it's common knowledge,even the golfers, on the course that runs alongside, knew about the p**e.

A few weeks ago i was fishing just below the m6.On the opposite bank which i believe to be paas water were 3 people who looked like they had been there all night.When they packed up they emptied the contents of a keepnet into a plastic bag.I could see through my binoculars that they had basic gear and were not dressed as you would expect for an all night session.I never spoke to them so i dont know where they were from but i think i could have a good guess.

the fixed lines with multiple hooks are also used by british poachers arnt they.also were are all the baliffs if it is so bad shouldnt there be more.another point is this ,how many fish do you think there catching with such crude tackle it aint easy as most of us will know and thats with good bait and rigs.

Guys, river and lakes have fish in them. The buggers are everywhere, and whether you post details or not, they will end up on your fishery eventually, removing the stock.
It's what they've always done - what they go fishing for. And they're often pretty tidy anglers too!