cg74
Well-known member
It is totally farcical that one can fish a lake but not a river in the close season.
What difference does it make? You can (in normal conditions) walk the banks of rivers for miles before you see another angler. I know of only one stretch of river (on the upper river Lea) which is busy daily - infact to all intents and purposes it is like a 'commercial' but on a river, mile upon mile of the Thames, Colne and Kennet are devoid of anglers! The same also applies to the G U canal, Basingstoke canal and the Kennet and Avon canal.
It's us anglers who care and protect the fisheries we should be encouraging anglers to get out and fish them! Forget the puddles get on the rivers.
You can't fish natural stillwaters; Windermere, Ullswater etc
The reason given is to protect fish stocks that can migrate to areas that are controlled by others.
---------- Post added at 20:40 ---------- Previous post was at 20:10 ----------
I do not think that the current Close Season is haphazard at all; it protects most species of fish, in most geographical areas and in the most average of weather coniditons.
That fish spawn a different times in different areas, albeit overlapping a fair bit, I see as no good reason to even contemplate different Close Seasons for different areas.
What are these average weather conditions you talk of, most days when I look at the weather forecast Newcastle seems to be 2-3`c colder than Oxford. I'd say that'd be why Sam V sees spawning fish (barbel & chub) a month later than us southerners.
Sticking with the weather, in the last 5 or 10yrs how many winters and springs have been even remotely textbook?