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Illegal Fishing


troutman62

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When I was on Hols at Horning a few weeks ago, as usual I spent many hours fishing,  not with great success this year unfortunately .

I was appalled to see on a daily basis various idiots  ( sorry I mean gentlemen and learned scholars of course :naughty: ), sitting on the back of boats usually going flat out  towing lures behind them in the hope of catching a pike. Any pike unlucky enough to be hooked in this fashion would  have to be travelling like a  torpedo in the first place and would certainly die from shock anyway.

 It would be a good idea for the boatyards to stick up a bit of prominent A4 stating forbidden  dangerous practices in their hire boats advising these individuals exactly what they can't do, (presuming that they can read in the first place.) I also saw on one occasion, 3 young children sitting on the back of one of the Faircraft boats dangling their feet in the water as the boat motored merrily along. One little slip and they would have been under the screw.

The boatyards could certainly do more to stop this behaviour, no doubt a lot of it is just sheer ignorance to be fair, but the price of a bit of paper these days probably puts the yards off and its too much trouble anyway, the fishing is nothing to do with them. They could even put something in the boat manual, you know, the one that nobody looks at, 

These rules should be displayed prominently and it might help to some degree.

On a lighter note for all you pikers out there, I bought a few Daiwa D Popper weedless frog lures from Wroxham Angling, these are the best lures I've ever used, totally weedless, brilliant action, I had loads of takes, the pike were mad for them, only caught jacks but who cares ?

regards

Stefan 

 

 

 

 

 

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I'm not sure you should aim this one solely at hirers or hireboat yards. I lost count of the number of anglers I saw trolling from boats using electric motors during this last week. These are not occasional visitors, nor "once a year" anglers. These were serious fishermen with serious gear including the boats who should know the local bylaws but choose to ignore them. I spoke to one of the rangers who acknowledged the problem but it is something which generally happens when these people know the rangers are not on duty and even if caught they are only "spoken to".

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Just for the record trolling under power is perfectly legal as a fishing technique, where it becomes illegal is in regards to navigation.

When I went up to Potter the other day I was surprised at just how many anglers had moored up mid river, within the main navigation channel. That too is illegal as regards navigation.

As an angler I do have some sympathy with these blatant transgressors but when I got shouted at by a bloke on a boat moored out in the river for sailing too close to him I did inform him that it was not me that was out of order. Not that I told him but as an angler I couldn't for the life of me, or my fishfinder that doubles as depth sounder, see why he was moored where he was, not that that mattered.

There is always a bubble of goodness surrounding the Rangers, perhaps they should break their routines more often, even turning round and going back, might surprise a few errant boaters or anglers. 

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10 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

Just for the record trolling under power is perfectly legal as a fishing technique, where it becomes illegal is in regards to navigation.

When I went up to Potter the other day I was surprised at just how many anglers had moored up mid river, within the main navigation channel. That too is illegal as regards navigation.

As an angler I do have some sympathy with these blatant transgressors but when I got shouted at by a bloke on a boat moored out in the river for sailing too close to him I did inform him that it was not me that was out of order. Not that I told him but as an angler I couldn't for the life of me, or my fishfinder that doubles as depth sounder, see why he was moored where he was, not that that mattered.

There is always a bubble of goodness surrounding the Rangers, perhaps they should break their routines more often, even turning round and going back, might surprise a few errant boaters or anglers. 

only under oar power on the broads

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25 minutes ago, lurcher said:

only under oar power on the broads

Agreed but it is a fact that it is a navigation rather than an angling byelaw.

I have and do troll with an electric outboard outside the Broads area, one hand on my rod and one hand on the outboard, This means that I am in direct contact with my lure and consequently any fish that I hook. When I row & troll I have to lay my rod down and rely on observation rather than feel to indicate a bite, not so good if it's a drop back style take.  No question, in my experience, that trolling with an electric outboard is more fish safe than trolling under oar power. Time to update the byelaw?

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As long as the bylaw remains, it should be policed. It is not the job of the ranger, or indeed the collected brains of Thorpe House to determine which bylaws should be enforced and which should be ignored. Once you start ignoring one bylaw and others see that it is being disregarded then the rule of law is diminished. Why should we then criticise someone for boating after sunset, after all, it is still light enough to see so what harm is being done? Why shouldn't I leave my twelve year old son at the helm, after all, he's been driving boats since he was four and is far more competent than many?

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Can't really argue with that Paul, but I'll have a go!

When a law becomes outdated, as in this case with the introduction of electric trolling motors, then in its application that particular law becomes illogical so surely there is then a very real risk that the very rule of law itself becomes devalued, that the law, once again, is shown to be an ass, or is it an rrse?. 

When laws become illogical, unreasonable even, a good and fair administration has two options, ignore or change it. We have numerous statutes in this country that wisdom has allowed to become dormant. However, in this case I'm not preaching a blind eye but rather wise revision, e.g. trolling with oars or recognised electric trolling motors but not before November the 1st.

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There are far too many people who want to create laws to control our behaviour instead of encouraging people to use common sence.

I do not want to live in a police state let alone a state policed my amateur curtain twitchers eager to report a perceived violation of our increasing burden of laws.

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14 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

Can't really argue with that Paul, but I'll have a go!

bless you Peter, never give up trying. I wouldn't necessarily disagree with changing the bylaw to allow electric trolling motors to be used at low speed, maybe that could be your next campaign. 

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4 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

Agreed but it is a fact that it is a navigation rather than an angling byelaw.

I have and do troll with an electric outboard outside the Broads area, one hand on my rod and one hand on the outboard, This means that I am in direct contact with my lure and consequently any fish that I hook. When I row & troll I have to lay my rod down and rely on observation rather than feel to indicate a bite, not so good if it's a drop back style take.  No question, in my experience, that trolling with an electric outboard is more fish safe than trolling under oar power. Time to update the byelaw?

I agree that trolling is a perfectly legit and effective way to fish and do it myself on occasions, but dragging a lure from a cruiser going flat out isn't trolling unless you're fishing for billfish in the bahamas. No pike could survive that kind of trauma.

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More likely to catch an errant Tern than a pike anyway at 6mph!

had some anglers in a day boat just down from brundall today. Anchored just off the channel and fishing into it!! Didn't reel their lines in even with 2 sailies, a hire boat overtaking them and me coming from the other direction. Just missed their lines. Not sure they appreciated how much of a pain they were. 

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