Help the Wye Salmon

Please sign this guys:

Help The Recovery of the Wye Salmon - Petitions24.com

---------- Post added at 14:19 ---------- Previous post was at 14:15 ----------

And please feel free to spread it around!

Done Geoff

all done , got mrs as well for you.

Done Geoff and I'll stick it on our club's website as well. With over 2000 game anglers it should get a few more to sign it.

Thanks guys, share it wherever possible.

Probably a bit controversial but if you value the Wye as a coarse fishery you will not bother supporting this.

If the Wye was to ever return to its former glory as a salmon water the average coarse angler would soon find himself priced out of the market by exclusive syndicates and even worse, large conglomerates catering for the corporate guided salmon fishing weekend market where you would need a bankers bonus simply to walk the banks.
Great news for the riparian owners or those holding long term leases, but your average Joe Soap would be left peering over bridges at miles of deserted bank he could never possibly hope to walk let alone fish.

I have seen plenty of people complaining about the prices the Wye and Usk charge for a days coarse fishing; believe me, if the salmon ever came back to the Wye in numbers you would not be able to get a non fishing day for ten times what you now pay for a day on the best beats.

I am afraid that they were my thoughts after clicking on the link.

The WUF have gazumped plenty of water from clubs on the Wye who's members can now no longer afford to fish them on a regular basis, these are anglers who have fished the Wye for many years as club water and are local to the Wye.

Titus I understand what you are saying, but if you look at the best English or Welsh river of today, it's the Tyne. It out fishes the 4 below it by about 5-1, I'm not convinced that what you say re the Wye is happening on that river. So why should it happen if the salmon runs are restored on it?
My club has quite a few lengths of the Ribble (4th best) we have not seen any disproportional rent rises because of it. Likewise a few on the Eden (2nd best) again no disproportionality there either.
Worth bearing in mind what's good for the salmon is also good for all riverine fish as well.

Those economic fears were once valid but are grounded in the 1950's. Now the owners realise how much money there is in barbel, trout, pike and grayling tickets (which can be sold the whole year around) they are not going to let it go. On my stretch for instance, if the salmon came back in numbers big enough to warrant it, there's no way I am going to stop coarse fishing just to sell a few salmon tickets, even if they sold at twice the price - because for one thing, it don't make any business sense!

With respect Geoff as someone who manages a fishery you would say that.

Speaking as a landlord, if I had the choice of renting a property to one tenant or to ten tenants for the same income then I would choose the one every time.

One angler, on your fishery, paying you £50, especially a nicely mannered gentleman type is going to be 1/10th of the hassle and cause 1/10th of the bankside damage than 10 ladish barbel anglers paying you a fiver each. It's a no brainer.

It is a fact that salmon anglers and corporate organisers will pay many times more for a days sport on a fashionable river in easy reach of London and the home counties than the common or garden barbel angler will be willing to part with for a day's sport.
The only reason barber anglers have been allowed back onto miles of the Wye is because the Salmon are no longer present. Once they return in numbers then the coarse anglers day in the sun on the Wye will be finished.

As for the eastern flowing rivers I'm not sure why they have picked up or are so good at the moment, It could just be that more fish are actually getting back to the river. I have however read on the river boards of another forum of bitter rivalry between game and coarse anglers, on the Tyne in particular, and if I still had access to those boards could cite plenty of instances of traditional coarse clubs losing out to game angling clubs.
The only thing saving the coarse angling clubs from a total rout at the moment is the remoteness of the fishing from the south east, ie, in the northern wasteland but not on the fashionable Scottish side of the border, however, at £40 per rod per day it's getting to the point where it will soon be viable, especially if the fishing is good.

Yep, as a Wyesider I agree with Titus and will refrain from signing.

Titus said:

One angler, on your fishery, paying you £50, especially a nicely mannered gentleman type is going to be 1/10th of the hassle and cause 1/10th of the bankside damage than 10 ladish barbel anglers paying you a fiver each. It's a no brainer.

Click to expand...

Well I guess I'm lucky that I don't get visits from 'laddish' types. But your argument still ignores the fact that the salmon season on the Wye effectively ends end of Sept (a few fish on till mid-oct). Even if your assumption was proved correct, which I doubt, why would any fishery manager turn down 6 months of coarse angling ticket sales?

To me a fish is a fish. The reason I target barbel in summer is because they fight a lot better than chub - for the same reason I target salmon over barbel. Now that's a no brainer!

With respect Geoff, you've (to the best of my knowledge) only lived/fished here for 2 minutes. We can remember what the fishing/land---owner situation was like pre-Wye barbel explosion.

Yes I'm well aware I'm the new kid on the block Russell and I spend a lot of time defending the barbel fishing to the salmon old-schoolers, many of who would like to see them them eradicated. But this is the C21st and the barbel are here to stay. They have to accept that and the fact that barbel fishing is now the river's future, irrespective of the salmon returning in numbers or not. We need to encourage all the species to thrive, not just one or two and we need to get rid of this silly snobbery too, on both sides. United we stand etc