Mark Wintle
Well-known member
I think you need to do more research, Jeff. I was surprised to find that closed seasons for coarse fish fishing predate the Mudella Act by hundreds of years. These were on a much more local basis and were biased towards fixed engines and nets but the principle for conservation of stocks was established long before.
The problem with your free vote is that he who shouts loudest gets heard the most. Few anglers understand justy how low stocks are on rivers compared to well stocked lakes. We only get big catches on rivers due to the concentrations of fish atcertain times of the years due to seasonal migrations. In the Midlands there has long been a campaign to continue fishing through the spring for match fishing yet this activity could be the worst in the long term, and yet if the closed season were abandoned but keepnets barred from 1st March to 1st August the situation would probably be much better than the current one. Equally, much better and tighter management of vulnerable areas such as where barbel and chub are spawning - whether inor out of season - should be applied but I simply cannot see it happening in practice.
Personally I think the fishing in spring on rivers would be surprisingly patchy; that's because I have experience of it (Devon and Ireland)! Some fish are in excellent condition at the moment, othersreally need to be well left alone. A perch I caught three weeks ago (2/3) was almost ready to spawn yet chub are some weeks away from the same condition.
As for scientific evidence; it is hard to get objective results simply becuase there are so many variables, between stretches, angling pressure, predation, good years/bad years etc. Last summer was not especially good for river fishing yet the much better river fishing earlier this year demonstrated that the fish were still there.
The problem with your free vote is that he who shouts loudest gets heard the most. Few anglers understand justy how low stocks are on rivers compared to well stocked lakes. We only get big catches on rivers due to the concentrations of fish atcertain times of the years due to seasonal migrations. In the Midlands there has long been a campaign to continue fishing through the spring for match fishing yet this activity could be the worst in the long term, and yet if the closed season were abandoned but keepnets barred from 1st March to 1st August the situation would probably be much better than the current one. Equally, much better and tighter management of vulnerable areas such as where barbel and chub are spawning - whether inor out of season - should be applied but I simply cannot see it happening in practice.
Personally I think the fishing in spring on rivers would be surprisingly patchy; that's because I have experience of it (Devon and Ireland)! Some fish are in excellent condition at the moment, othersreally need to be well left alone. A perch I caught three weeks ago (2/3) was almost ready to spawn yet chub are some weeks away from the same condition.
As for scientific evidence; it is hard to get objective results simply becuase there are so many variables, between stretches, angling pressure, predation, good years/bad years etc. Last summer was not especially good for river fishing yet the much better river fishing earlier this year demonstrated that the fish were still there.
