I’ve been in the UK for the last three weeks and when in the London Docklands area one day was intrigued to see a young bloke fishing in one of the dockland basins, which these days are surrounded by expensive apartment buildings and full of canal boats moored in marinas. The unusual thing about this fisherman was that he was fishing right next to a big ‘No fishing’ sign.
While I’m watching two coppers wander along and I think ‘Now he’s in strife.’ But the coppers have a friendly chat for a while and then simply wander off, leaving me wondering what’s going on.
A bit later on he hooks up and fights a sizeable fish for about ten minutes before bringing it to a long-handled landing net and lifting up about a 4 kilo carp onto the footpath. He unhooks the fish and shows it off to any passers-by who are around, drops it on the concrete (which must have done it a lot of good) and eventually lowers it back into the water in the landing net. After about another ten minutes he releases it and it slowly swims away.
This got me interested in the regulations governing fishing in the UK and I obtained a set of Angling Regulations, from a nearby shop, governing the area, which is controlled by the British Waterways London Authority.
So here’s a brief summary of what I found out about fishing in England (Scotland and Wales are different and have their own regulations).
Fishing is controlled by two sets of bylaws.
The National Bylaws cover the whole of England.
The Local Bylaws are determined by the local Authority owning or controlling the water, but they cannot over-rule the National Bylaws.
Further restrictions may be added to these by a private landowner who owns the fishing rights on the rivers running through his land. (98% of English rivers are privately owned and there is no right of public access without a permit or permission from the owner. This also means you cannot even paddle a canoe down these rivers without permission).
So, in general, to fish an area, where fishing is allowed – and there’s not many of them available to the public - you need two things
- A rod licence - 25 pound ($40) per year, 68 pound ($109) per year if you want to fish for salmon or sea trout. If you want to use more than one rod at a time (4 may be used when coarse fishing and 2 when fishing for salmon or trout in still waters you need two licenses.
- A permit from the Authority controlling the water or from the landowner or business operating the fishery. This is 20 pounds per year for the water controlled by the British Waterways London Authority.
On top of this there are all sorts of National and Local regulations. Here’s just a couple.
Bag limits – 2 fish per day, but only one tench, carp, barbell, bream or pike.
The owner of the river fishing rights may prohibit the removal of any fish (but cannot exceed the National bag limit of two fish per day). In the waterways controlled by the British Waterways London Authority all fish must be returned to the water unharmed as quickly as possible.
‘A minnow taken in a minnow trap may be used as bait in the waters from which it was taken, but requires the previously obtained written permission of the Authority.’
‘The use of a gaff is totally prohibited in all fresh waters.’
‘No fishing weights made of lead may be used except those of 0.06 grams or less and those of more than 28.35 grams.’
‘You may not use a landing net with any knotted meshes or any meshes of metallic material.’
And so it goes. The regulations go on and on with endless complications, local variations and ever-increasing restrictions on the angler.
I know that these regulations are mainly there to protect the fishery and the environment (and the privileged position of wealthy landowners), but, after reading all this stuff for a while I can only say…
Thank God I live in Australia!
Cheers (and it's great to be home - I need to go fishing soon)
Freeeedom
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Re: Thank God I live in Australia!
Originally Posted by caster226
