Close season

Had a walk around a local lake at the weekend which was fairly busy with the usual array of holidaymakers, kids and once-a-year fishermen so I carried on until I came across a lad who looked like he knew what he was doing. Decent tackle, good set-up and talked a good game. 10 minutes later he informed me that as he was in the region on holiday he thought he might fish the local RIVER WELLAND on the following day. On being informed that it was not fishable due to the closed season I was told I was wrong and that you could fish anywhere, all year 'round now.

God help us. If this bloke doesn't know the rules and regulations (and presumably, didn't have a license) what chance have we got of all the other people on the lake knowing.

Lets adopt the European method of control. Do your exams, pass, be given your license (photo included) and then you can go fishing.

See people fishing drains and rivers all over the place whenever I'm driving around the Fens.

I've just read about an angler who caught and killed a Zander of 17lbs+ from the Severn and then put it in his freezer at home. It was caught whilst fishing in the "Close-Season". This guy should be taken out and publicly flogged. He has been named and they know where he lives.

The problem with the closes season is that to the once in a while river fisherman who mainly fishes the open all year round fisheries, he may not be able to distinguish between a coarse fisherman and a game fisherman, one of whom can be seen on the river all year round. But I suppose in general the ones your talking about just doesn’t give a dam anyhow.
Kevan, don’t know if you are complaining about the guy killing the zander to eat or the fact that he caught it in the close season or may be both?

I thought the guy who killed the zander was just a selfish oaf, who'd probably struggle to fill a stamp with what he knew about them.

He wasn't killing it to eat it, but because it ate all the other fish. Err, all fish eat other fish to some degree mate, so do we give them all a good whack round the back of their heads to learn 'em..?

The British Waterways cull is also total ignorance. What's the point in culling them after they've spawned..?

All you get is a water full of tiny zeds that'll munch their way through all the small silver fish.

One minute British Waterways says they're under control (see article on here a few months back...), next it says they're rampaging, lock up your daughters, lets kill another lorryload.

They don't "give them away to people to eat" either - they end up in a landfill tip.

As countless waters in the Fens show - esp the lower Great Ouse, which is not dissimilar to middle Severn, say between Upton and Tewkesbury in terms of size, a balance soon establishes itself and things settle back down again.