Does anyone care?

Gunth

I suppose the slap on the wrists from the judges prevents them from ever netting again? It must be very annoying and frustrating for you.

Doc Farrell

I give a damn and hope to spend future time doing something about it.

A mechanic friend of mine is Polish and he always returns the pike he catches. He was complaining to me that the Russians and Latvians hold onto everything!

Another Polish chap I share the Nanny river with always releases his catches.

I'm trying to photograph a landowner who I've been told nets sea trout on the Nanny. There are plenty of landowners along the river so I'm not libelling anyone by saying that. I was fishing near there the other night and a half dozen travellers came over to me. They're camped in Julianstown. There's 30 caravans there along the bank. They were fishing with no bait on their hooks!:D

I gave them directions to this landowners fields and told them to buy some mackeral feathers and get stuck in!

Leaving, I filled a black bag with rubbish dropped by locals. classy. The Irish have always treated their rivers as sewers but we are getting much better very fast. As we develop our rivers they will also become much pricier to fish but for the moment we are still fortunate. The stock in the Nanny was all killed off 3 years ago by a slurry dump. The farmer who did it, up by Duleek, is known but as the correct info was not collected he was never prosecuted. I wasn't a member then but if I'm around and it happens again i'll be getting stuck in like a terrier hunting a rat.

driving down to West Cork in the early morning. boot full of gear. very excited.

stevenmu

I think the short answer to this is that yes, very many people do care, unfortunately some people don't. I'd love to say they are in the minority, but I'm not entirely sure that would be true. Either way, minority or not, they unfortunately do have the ability to do a lot of damage to us all.

As for the fisheries board, my opinion is that they are very under resourced. I think that no matter what there would never be enough resources to cover everywhere, and I don't think I'd like it if there was a fisheries officer around every corner watching what I was doing, but I do think they could be better resourced. I don't have any evidence to back this up but I do think that the fishery officers that are out there are doing the best they possibly can and they have fishings best interests at heart, I presume at least that they're not in it for the money and fame.

Slightly OT, but when I was out on Gowna last weekend I spotted a plane flying low over the lake a few times, then it made a low and slow pass over us on the same course, as if it was try to get a good look. It was a cessna stlye plane, slightly larger than average which normally are only big enough for 2 people in the cockpit, this was big enough for a person or two and some equiptment behind that. I've heard there is a fisheries plane that does patrol over lakes sometimes, could this have been it?

Steffano2002 wrote:

So if Ireland introduces a "rod license", does it mean we'll have to pass an exam (like they do in Germany for example) or does it simply mean we'll have to buy a license to fish and then buy a permit for the areas we want to fish?

As has been explained already, currently there is no rod license system here. There is a license needed for salmon and sea trout (i.e. the migratory species) but apart from that fishing here is considered "free". You do need landowner permission if you want to fish from someone's private land, and this is often arranged through clubs who sell permits.

If a rod license is ever introduced, I've no idea what form it will take or if it will involve any lessons/guidelines/exams etc. Knowing the Irish government I suspect it won't, it will simply be a money taking exercise. There was an attempt to introduce a license system, I think it was in 1988 or 1989, and there was nearly riots because of it:) I think people are less militant these days, but it would still take a brave politician to suggest it. Personally I would be against a rod license for two main reasons. 1: It wouldn't mean any extra money for the fisheries anyway, any money raised would simply be subtracted from the normal budget process, or it might even be used as an excuse to reduce the normal budget. 2: Nominally most rivers and lakes belong to the people and I would be against the government charging us to use what belongs to us already. It would be a little like charging people for the air they breathe, maybe not quite as extreme as that, but as far as I'm concerned the government has no right to charge me to catch fish I already own in essence on water I already own, any more than it has the right to charge me to walk across some common land.

SeaFields

Good to see a discussion like this in the angling forum. I pop in every now and again and its usually threads along the lines of 'im new to fishing - please help'. Nothing wrong with that - just good to see a good debate.

I've a few points...

Firstly, as much as i despised the man "Rex Hunt fishing adventures" was always on telly in my house in the evenings. Not even sure if it is still running. One thing I remember from it vividly is that there was always a bag and size limit for the species he caught - even with them being sea fish. I also think that these were advertised in the popular fishing spots - similar to how we have bass laws advertised in certain area. so it can work.

I do plenty of sea fishing in Kerry. I have seen very similar situations with both Irish and non-nationals (not necessarily eastern European either) but I have to say it is with the latter that it is more frequent. I am not casting dispersions on all non-national anglers as I think it is more of a lack of information and education in the area. I would not be the type of person to say anything to an angler but certainly try to show them that I am returning my fish. I actually avoid of few of my formally favorite spots recently because of it.

I was at an AGM a number of years back for one of the larger trout angling clubs in the Cork area. A proposal was put forward to lower the size limit on the river to 8 inches from 9 for competitions as not enough were returning trout. Everyone is entitled to put forward a motion at an AGM and outline the arguments. What was disappointing in this situation was that it came from a long term member with an avid interest in the national and international competition scene. The motion was defeated.

My dealings with the fisheries board in the south west was fraught with disappointments. I was the secretary of a large sea trout club. We were being plagued with poaching (paste and stroke hauling, netting, anti social behavior) . After highlighting the situation on numerous occasions we were getting no cooperation. At one stage on the phone to a fisheries officer I was actually asked 'who the fcuk was I - questioning the board'. He also told me he wasn't interested in catching people for having no salmon licence. Whats the point in any of us buying one then? I stepped down in the end as secretary because of the frustration of it all. We are after getting warrants ourselves and the community guard and politicians involved which has helped enormously.

We many have said our fisheries resources are vast and largely untapped in many areas. Hopefully the political apathy won't stand in the way of our fish and waters being protected for the future.

Tight lines all

sparkie2

I am an ex fishery officer myself and i used to love the job i feel that the irish attitude to fishing is slowly changing with more salmon now returning to our rivers due to the ban on drift nets which was a crazy situation and i was amazed it was allowed to go on so long it nearly led to the extinction in many rivers of salmon. But i am really heartened to see the improvement especially on my own river in stock numbers and work carried out by the fishery board
but all anglers need to be vigilant and do their bit if you do come across incidences of serious poaching such as gill netting with mono if safe to do so contact the fishery board or if they are not in a position to get there give the local garda a ring.

neil_hosey

live in Enfield and was down the canal there last week. There is a sign put up in 6 languages about returning fish and translations of the bye laws in each language (english irish russian polish latvian and something else)..

There has been known to be a number of poachers around destroying the fish stocks... but what frustrated me most was that the sign post was covered in polish writing with a massive "welcome to poland" at the end.... really bothered me.. shows their total disrespect for our laws imo.