How can I get started with Kayak fishing?

[markcw]

Is this safe to click from a new paddlers first post in answer to a post started in 2016?

And the OP has not been on here since 2017, shows how interested he was.

 

[John Aston]

Even if you launch a boat on a navigable water, this doesn't mean you have the right to fish from the boat. For example, I occasionally fish the Yorkshire Ouse and the Ure (essentially the same river), which is navigable from the sea up to Ripon. One of the clubs I belonged to had to take legal advice about non members fishing the club's stretch of the Ure from boats. The legal advice was that on this stretch of river, fishing rights belong to the riparian owners and their tenants and anglers fishing from boats are poaching unless they have consent from the riparian owners or tenants.

The rules for the Thames might be different.

I am a little late but this isn't quite correct. There is a legal right for anybody to fish tidal water, including tidal rivers, from boat or bank. Except in very unusual circumstances (Royal Charter, special/local legislation ) this applies to all tidal rivers in England . But the right to fish from the bank is largely illusory , as there is no legal right of access above the high watermark - so when your club book gives you the right to fish on a tidal river , it is actually giving you the right of access , as you already have the right to fish the water.

There is no right to fish navigable water from a boat - permission is required unless the water is also tidal .

In our friend's example , this means you can fish the Ouse as of right up to the locks at Naburn, below which it is tidal, sometimes spectacularly so... But above the tidal limit , you need a ticket, whether you fish from boat or bank - except for any explicitly free water

A lot of the legal stuff is actually pretty theoretical - if your club only owns one bank you only have the right to fish up to half way across but nobody takes this very seriously . There is some misleading folklore about wading - one common myth is that it's ok to wade , and fish, more than half way across even if you don't own the far side rights 'as long as you keep facing the far bank , and not facing your own' . Not so , but widely believed .
.

 

[keora]

I was referring to the non tidal parts of the river Ure/Yorkhire Ouse. The non tidal stretch is upstream of Naburn Locks near York. Above Naburn there are long established navigation rights in the upper stretches from York to Ripon (There's locks at Linton and Boroughbridge to allow boat traffic). I didn't mention the tidal section below Naburn Locks because this didn't seem relevant to the original query.

In tidal rivers, fishing rights are free, although if you intend to fish from the bank, you need the consent of the riparian owner. If you don't have consent, you're poaching unless you fish from a boat. If you fish from a boat, you'll have to find somewhere to launch it. If you need to drag the boat across private land you also need the riparian owners consent.

It's all very complicated.

 

[John Aston]

I'd assumed , incorrectly , you were including the tidal Ouse. But no matter , I agree that it is indeed , complicated, and there's álso a lot of misinformation around. Not least that nonsense spouted by the more militant canoeists , and by our angling chums who think that the absence of a private fishing sign is tacit approval of fishing without consent.

 

[keora]

Yes, there is a problem with some canoeists, who don't accept the established law and claim that they can canoe on any river. It seems to have got worse during last year's lockdown. I saw three groups of illegal canoeists on the river Wharfe in a period of about a month. Some of them were also using small inflatable canoes. I imagine they are easier to ransport across fields to a spot on the river where they can be launched.

 

[markcw]

Is this safe to click from a new paddlers first post in answer to a post started in 2016?

Going by his details he is from the USA
so would the details in the link be relevant for the UK, ? Unless he has been kind enough to find a link for UK rules.

I blame @mikench for posting about Snake River in Montana ?

 

[mikench]

And that’s where he should go as it’s far enough away from my local waterways.