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BFW poll on close season lift or extension.

Would you like to see the close season remain?

  • Yes, keep it as it is.

    Votes: 101 41.2%

  • No, a complete lift on ban.

    Votes: 79 32.2%

  • No, but a new one put in place with more suited start and end dates. (discuss options)

    Votes: 65 26.5%
  • Total voters
    245
Haha, Tony, if I was marching this poll in hand through the doors of parliament then I'd of maybe been a bit wiser with my options, maybe the question itself as well. Since it's just a barbel fishing forum I wouldn't take it so seriously, make yourself a cup of tea and relax for the day........good post David.
 
Hi men,

Iv been asked by Bob to change the wording of the third question to make it a clear option to vote on . Those who voted for the original version ( almost the same , this just a more simplified version ) but want to change it , just let me know via PM and I can do so .


Hatter
 
David Gauntlett said:
Hi Stuart, back home yet mate?

In answer to your question...those fish do not need more 'protection' than their stilwater cousins. So as you say, it is a nonsense. But that nonsensical situation was brought about by greed, which caused the closed season on stillwaters to be wrongly done away with. To do away with the closed season on rivers as well would only compound that wrongness. It wouldn't make it right...two wrongs never do.

The stillwater closed season was done away with at the behest of tackle manufacturers and fishery owners, to extend their profit making to a year round affair. The proliferation of commercials developed to take advantage of that, pretty well destroying traditional river match fishing in the process. I would hate to see them get away with it on rivers as well.

I am of course a hypocrite, because nowadays I have surrendered and joined the vast majority in fishing stillwaters during the river closed season....there seemed little point in not doing so eventually. However, my weakness does not make it right, and I would happily refrain again if the general closed season were to be reinstated. Just my opinion Stuart...which means you and I cancel each other out voting wise. Pretty much the story of my life to be honest.

Take it easy mate, and tight lines for next season :D

Cheers, Dave.
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The comment you make Dave with regard to all year round profit making for fishery owners and tackle manufactures is valid, but without any fishing for three months the High Street tackle shop would have been now as dead as the Dodo.

As you can, as I can recall the huge excitement that was June the 16th when all fishing commenced, however then, for me it was mainly Tench as the target species, and why not as I lived in the Cotswold Water Park.

Just yesterday I came across on a remote Severn Side pool an angler fishing for Tench, and he had them feeding, of course I just might try my hand too this week, but I will feel just a bit 'dirty'.:)

But the whole issue in retaining the close season should be left to the individual angler I think, but perhaps certain areas should be out of bounds, and even matches perhaps.

I can see no harm at all in fishing the larger Rivers all year such as the Lower Severn Trent Thames etc, the close season ban on Rivers has to be the most ridiculous law, in that I can legally fish that pool by the Severn whilst the River, just a stones throw away I cannot, and yet the environmental impact I make on that pool must be greater than any on the river.

Of course if the River ban was upheld by the law, where fines were appropiate for the miscreants, it would satisfy us law abiding anglers, but it is not, witness the post on here that there were anglers fishing the Bristol Avon just yesterday, and they were not concealed like many others that go unchecked, in this case the law is indeed an Ass.
 
David Gauntlett said:
Hi Stuart, back home yet mate?

In answer to your question...those fish do not need more 'protection' than their stilwater cousins. So as you say, it is a nonsense. But that nonsensical situation was brought about by greed, which caused the closed season on stillwaters to be wrongly done away with. To do away with the closed season on rivers as well would only compound that wrongness. It wouldn't make it right...two wrongs never do.

The stillwater closed season was done away with at the behest of tackle manufacturers and fishery owners, to extend their profit making to a year round affair. The proliferation of commercials developed to take advantage of that, pretty well destroying traditional river match fishing in the process. I would hate to see them get away with it on rivers as well.

I am of course a hypocrite, because nowadays I have surrendered and joined the vast majority in fishing stillwaters during the river closed season....there seemed little point in not doing so eventually. However, my weakness does not make it right, and I would happily refrain again if the general closed season were to be reinstated. Just my opinion Stuart...which means you and I cancel each other out voting wise. Pretty much the story of my life to be honest.

Take it easy mate, and tight lines for next season :D

Cheers, Dave.
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Hi Dave

Yes , home safe thanks , just added a hangover to the jet lag

Fair comment and well constructed as ever and you are totally entitled to you opinion as is everyone

I just don't agree , we don't live I a perfect world , never have so regardless of the reasons the close is lifted on the still water making a complete mockery of the river shut down for the rough angler .

If we wanted we could still call it class discrimination?

Antiquated law that has no place in today's society


As anglers I believe we have a duty of care to the very commodity we use , just how many fish are to be lost whilst the banks are devoide of anglers ?
 
"make yourself a cup of tea and relax for the day"............... What again? I do that every day!
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Hello all, I sent a letter about the closed season to the Angling Times last week. They may or may not publish it - a copy is shown below.

Between 15 March and 15 June I can fish on most stillwaters and canals but if I do the same thing on a river I could theoretically end up with a criminal record - now that strikes me as being a somewhat ludicrous situation. Apparently, the law preventing anglers from fishing for coarse fish was passed sometime in the 19th century – well I think we can safely assume that anybody catching fish back then would no doubt have eaten anything they caught. It was a perk of living by a river, and anyway, there weren’t many Tesco stores about in those days!

It’s a good bet that the law was in fact written to keep us miserable non-game fishing plebs away from rivers because that’s when Lord So & So of Somewhere liked to fish for salmon – why do you think that species other than game fish are referred to as ‘coarse’ fish?

Most anglers know that that act of spawning is very much a product of climatic conditions and water quality i.e. cold spring weather will more than likely mean that ‘coarse’ fish will not have spawned, even when the closed season has ended (like last year for example) – so the theory behind the closed season really isn’t very effective.

What I do struggle with though, is the fact that it’s somehow alright to catch fish all year round in stillwaters but not in rivers. Wait a minute, you may say, we can’t go upsetting the natural balance of things without some government body spending an absolute fortune on numerous scientific surveys to establish that river fishes’ idyllic lifestyles are not compromised if we abolish the closed season. Well chew on this – for some years now, our river fish have been under unrelenting pressure from predatory birds and from the actions of people who decided (without talking to anybody else) that it would be a good idea to rear otters in captivity, then release them in as many rivers as possible – and stuff the consequences. River anglers have witnessed dramatic falls in fish populations in many of our rivers – have the E.A. responded to our concerns and done anything positive to rectify the situation? I think you’ll find the answer to my question is not really.

Currently, the biggest threat to river fish is predation, closely followed by poor water quality - banning anglers from rivers for a three month period really doesn’t achieve a great deal other than prevent us from looking on as cormorants, goosanders, mink and otters continue to steadily munch their way through our already depleted fish stocks. Remember, there’s no closed season for predators!

Do I sound frustrated, even a tad angry? You bet your life I do, because we river anglers get a raw deal. The E.A. persists with maintaining the archaic dysfunctional closed season under the guise of fish welfare and totally ignores the fact that annually, tonnes of fish are disappearing down the throats of predatory animals!

I’ve been an angler for well over fifty years and when I started fishing, our rivers were magnets that attracted millions of anglers – sadly that’s not the case now. Many stretches of my local river Severn are deserted, even at the height of summer – a scene now replicated on many of our major rivers. It’s about time the powers that be addressed the real problems relating to fish protection and instead of fining and criminalising river anglers; they should be actively encouraging them.
 
Roger, I am not wholly grasping the link between predation and the close season. If anglers on the bank were such an effective method for somehow controlling or minimising the impact of predation then why, as you say, are the rivers in such a terrible state given our bank side presence for 9 months of the year? And if this was in fact the case, why is it necessary to fish to help prevent predation? What can't armies of anglers organise themselves in such a way as to ensure that rivers were routinely partrolled with the would be fish munchers chased away or otherwise discouraged from performing acts of evil- if it's as terrible as you say ? I am not saying predation isn't an issue, of course it is- I am saying that this doesn't feel like a truly valid argument for lifting the close season on rivers.

When those in favour of keeping the close season suggest that it's a really good thing because it gives the banks a time to recover and re-grow, those who want to see it lifted say that is a rubbish and ludicrous suggestion because of all the dog walkers and God knows who else who are of course still allowed near the river. Well you know what I am going to say next- if that is indeed true why are they not a worthwhile deterrent for predators? Or is it only people slumped in chairs staring at rod tips that the otters et el fear?
 
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For gods sake stop posting common sense Howard...how on earth do you expect us to get a decent 'debate' going if you are going to keep spoiling it by doing that :D

Cheers, Dave.
 
This poll is still ridiculously flawed. Option 3 is a 'yes' vote, NOT a 'no'. It is saying 'Yes, retain the closed season, but with revised start/end dates. To list it as a 'no' vote is completely skewing the whole poll. Bad boy Bobby, lol.

Cheers, Dave.
 
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David, it's a 'no to the current close, and a new one in place with dates' or a 'yes to keep it and an extension to dates'. Glass half empty or half full? However you feel it should've been worded, don't get your knickers in a twist. If you have a few gcse's to rub together it doesn't take much to figure out that the majority are in favor of a close season, either it being a new one with new dates or the current one extended, however you like to see it. Your choice.
 
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You can't have a simple yes or no with this question as there are people who want it to remain but with the dates revised/or you could say 'a new one in place'. That skews the views of 'yes' straight away because they aren't happy with the way it is, thus a simple 'yes' not being the correct answer for their view. To be honest, I'd rather be discussing the close season debate than having to squabble over the wording. Rather boring for me...and everyone else that uses this forum for that matter.

As it stands we have 68.18% that WANT a close season with 25.76% of that wanting a change in dates/new close season.
And 31.82% wanting a complete lift on the close season.

Pretty clear poll I say.
 
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I agree with you Bobby.

This poll is still ridiculously flawed. Option 3 is a 'yes' vote, NOT a 'no'. It is saying 'Yes, retain the closed season, but with revised start/end dates. To list it as a 'no' vote is completely skewing the whole poll. Bad boy Bobby, lol.

We should vote now on banning worthless , bore you to death posts like the above of BFW. ;-)

I also think we should keep the closed season and how it is ... give our rivers a rest.
 
Looking at it another way at the moment 68% want to have a close season in some shape or form and 32% want it removed altogether. Of those that want a close season 38% of them would rather the dates were changed. Over the weekend I fixed a dodgy bannister, cleared a load of stuff from the garden and planted a small tree. That would never have happened if there wasn't a close season.

Cheers

Nick
 
Hi men,

Ok , I don't mind one way or the other at this time , but I'm leaning towards doing away with it . There was the same arguments going on when the lakes and canals had theirs lifted .

A 4th question ....

All those who voted to keep the close season in some form , if it was lifted , would you fish ?.

Hatter
 
Nick Clark said:
Looking at it another way at the moment 68% want to have a close season in some shape or form and 32% want it removed altogether. Of those that want a close season 38% of them would rather the dates were changed. Over the weekend I fixed a dodgy bannister, cleared a load of stuff from the garden and planted a small tree. That would never have happened if there wasn't a close season.

Cheers

Nick
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Why not, no one is forced to go angling, never got that.
 
I’d just like to reply briefly to Howard Cooke’s comments about my earlier post.

Howard, I think you’ve somehow got the wrong end of the stick. If you re-read what I wrote, you will see that I did not say that the closed season should be done away with so that the presence of anglers will act as a deterrent to predators.

The point I was trying to make, was that the E.A. presents the case that the closed season effectively protects spawning fish, but it conveniently turns a blind eye to, and therefore produces no legislation to control predation which is responsible for far more damage and fish deaths than anglers could ever inflict.

My personal opinion is that the closed season is for many reasons flawed (my earlier post explains some) and should be rescinded.

I see that the total number of votes cast so far, is 135 and yet the total number of views on the subject is 1,916 – so it could be argued that the poll is not truly representative since only a small number of anglers have actually voted.

More sensibly though – I’m sure we all appreciate that this whole debate is never going to be resolved in any realistic manner. It has however, given us all something to mull over whilst we wait in anticipation for the new season in June.
 
Paul Boyle said:
I agree with you Bobby.

This poll is still ridiculously flawed. Option 3 is a 'yes' vote, NOT a 'no'. It is saying 'Yes, retain the closed season, but with revised start/end dates. To list it as a 'no' vote is completely skewing the whole poll. Bad boy Bobby, lol.

We should vote now on banning worthless , bore you to death posts like the above of BFW. ;-)

I also think we should keep the closed season and how it is ... give our rivers a rest.
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Change it to STV Then..LOL:D
 
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