Angling trust fish theft poster

This evening removed 2 anglers from a club water and returned a carrier bag full of roach(alive) back to the canal.

Does anyone know if the trust provide the fish theft poster in the form of a sign free to member clubs?

jasonbean1 said:

....Does anyone know if the trust provide the fish theft poster in the form of a sign free to member clubs?

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They were available as downloadable .pdf files from the ATr site - but after a quick look through the site now - I can't spot them!

The current Enforcement Campaign Fisheries Enforcement Campaign - The Angling Trust has a new poster - this time only in English - Perhaps it was thought that the previous one in 5 other EE languages was too confrontational!

Aah! Here it is: http://www.anglingtrust.net/image-cache/image-8182-200-auto-both-both-85-5.JPG

Hope you can manage to get the new one from ATr!

They do not deserve to be described as "anglers"! What were they going to do with the roach?

mikench said:

What were they going to do with the roach?

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A curry!

Roach vindaloo! No thanks Steve!

It was quite an interesting 20 mins with them.....

I called them anglers because they were proficient at catching quality roach on hemp corn on the waggler fishing the far side. the bag that I emptied had about 10 fish in the 4-12oz bracket in it. If they were in a match they'd be doing quite well.

I got a call from a guy who lived on the housing estate next to the canal saying there's some dodgy looking guys and it looks like they are keeping the fish.

Even though it wasn't my clubs stretch I went down, I could see them 100 yards down, cans of lager in hand... one of them was quite a big chaps so I approached cautiously just asking politely for club cards and licence.

One had a club card for the pound above the next bridge but no licence and the other had a licence but no club card.

So told them politely to leave explaining what the rules were and they were lucky it was just me asking. As they were leaving I asked if they had any fish to which they said no... then the guy who rang me turned up opposite and pointed to a Sainsbury's bag tucked under the rushes....low and behold a bag of roach that were going to have a very lucky escape.

After all that they said they regularly fished the canal for the pot and said so do there friends, basically admitting they never get checked, there are no signs to say private fishing or don't take the fish away so they admitted they're just trying there luck...no harm intended.

So one of the clubs is an ATr member and I was asking if the trust supply ready made rigid signs not just templates to have made yourself.

It beggars belief! You did well and clearly cannot be too careful!

Out of interest do you know what nationality were they? I definitely dont want to create some kind of hate discussion, especially as EE myself, but I came along lits of anglers from lots of countries and finding out some interesting stuff..

Many coarse fish are routinely taken for the pot throughout the world as well as europe. Carp are only here in our waters because they were originally for the pot!

One must respect the customs of the country you live in!

They were from Romania and you've guessed it worked at the local car wash!

Is it any wonder we have sterotypes! The PC brigade annoy me; if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, its a duck!

jasonbean1 said:

They were from Romania and you've guessed it worked at the local car wash!

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Interesting. I have to say that most EE anglers I have met did tell me they would like to keep fish, but none (so far) was aggressively going for it. While fishing commercials they obey the rules and on the rivers they would not argue to put fish back in. All in all I have met one guy who took one carp and one perch home for bbq.

Coming from EE country I can tell you that it is unusual for us not to be able to keep the fish. In-fact when I tell people I am catch-release kind of angler they cannot see the point why to fish at all. I recently had trip back home and was very surprised to find that you can keep whatever you catch as long as it is in norms of size/weight. Also getting license and keeping log of catches is quite strict over there.

On the other hand I have met many British anglers that even though they didn't keep the fish basically killed them in other ways. I am now fishing quite often one of my local ponds and it is not unusual sight for anglers to be ripping hooks out of fishes mouth rather than proper unhooking, dropping fish, drying fish of the slime, hooking fish by the bellies and basically opening their guts and then throwing them back, not waiting for fish to recover etc.

Also there isn't much of respect to other anglers to go around. Just yesterday one guy came with couple of lagers and two sons, setup his rods on the bank 90 degrees from where I was and told the sons to feed the spot where I was fishing. When the boys protested "Dad but that man is fishing there" he then went on "Boys! shut up and get on with it! First rule you need to know, do not give a **** about anyone! I have seen it all, we can do whatever we want." after which he went on and casted over my line...

Went on a bit of a rant sorry for that, but from what I have seen here I think there are worse things to worry about than somebody taking a fish or two (even though in no means I am one of them).

Nice post Tomino - an interesting perspective from the EE side of angling.
In SFAS we have a lot of EE anglers - most of whom are very conscientious regarding fish welfare - and are useful resources for helping to explain to the "no speaka the English" guys who try taking fish from the waters! They are some of our most fervent ambassadors - and are constantly embarassed by the bad behaviour of other anglers - irrespective of nationality!

Keep up the good work lads:thumbs:

Signs wont change anything nor will the work done by those EE anglers that stick to club/owners rules, imo the only thing that will work is for the EA and the police to do what they should be doing about illegal fishing but that's not going to happen is it? If it came about that they did severe penalties that are widely publicised in media that is in other EE languages not where the law breakers wont see it.

Regardless of their place of origin, if they had a valid EA License then that allows for them (and us) to take the following . . . on a daily basis:

Coarse (freshwater) fish

Each day you can only take from rivers:

• 1 pike (up to 65cm)
• 2 grayling (30cm to 38cm)
• 15 small fish (up to 20cm) including barbel, chub, common bream, common carp, crucian carp, dace, perch, rudd, silver bream, roach, smelt and tench

Any eels you catch (except conger eels) must be released alive.

You can also take:

• minor or ‘tiddler’ species, such as gudgeon
• non-native species
• ornamental varieties of native species like ghost or koi carp

Personally I think that no fish should ever be taken from any venue but, currently . . . thems the rules . . .

Peter Jacobs said:

Regardless of their place of origin, if they had a valid EA License then that allows for them (and us) to take the following . . . on a daily basis:

Coarse (freshwater) fish

Each day you can only take from rivers:

• 1 pike (up to 65cm)
• 2 grayling (30cm to 38cm)
• 15 small fish (up to 20cm) including barbel, chub, common bream, common carp, crucian carp, dace, perch, rudd, silver bream, roach, smelt and tench

Any eels you catch (except conger eels) must be released alive.

You can also take:

• minor or ‘tiddler’ species, such as gudgeon
• non-native species
• ornamental varieties of native species like ghost or koi carp

Personally I think that no fish should ever be taken from any venue but, currently . . . thems the rules . . .

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All of which are overridden by whatever club/water owners rules about fish removal are, most clubs I have belonged to state that no fish should be removed.

thecrow said:

All of which are overridden by whatever club/water owners rules about fish removal are, most clubs I have belonged to state that no fish should be removed.

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. . . and legally only enforceable if proper and adequate signage is present . . . . .

Neither of my 2 clubs or the syndicate have any rules a regarding the taking of fish.

that's the starting point for any club...

no fish removal, private fishing...signs stating this

then bailiff your water and if it still persists try to us the law/ea

the clubs that control this section of canal have no signs up, little or no bailifing and club cards that are not very explanatory to new members. basically they're small local clubs with few proactive members.

Peter Jacobs said:

. . . and legally only enforceable if proper and adequate signage is present . . . . .

Neither of my 2 clubs or the syndicate have any rules a regarding the taking of fish.

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I doubt that I could afford to join any of the clubs/syndicates you belong to Peter Although I purposely omitted syndicates from my post as on all the ones I have been a member no fish removal was a given.

Peter Jacobs said:

Personally I think that no fish should ever be taken from any venue but, currently . . . thems the rules . . .

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Well IMHO thats another extreme. I think it os absolutely natural circle of life that we catch something and eat it. At the end of the day fishing really is hunting. I think its perfectly reasonable to keep fishh when for example camping.

Also afaik most of trout fisheries actually forbid catch release.

For me, I couldnt be bothered taking fish, the killing it, cleaning it etc. Too messy for someone living in an apartment. But if o would be somewhere out in nature camping I would probably catch and eat the odd fish