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When carpers move in...a dilemma

S

Steve Double

Senior Member
I have a dilemma. On a quiet club stretch of the Loddon where more often than not I have had the place to myself, two carp angling "converts" have moved in.

They are thoroughly nice chaps - approachable, chatty, happy to offer up information, and have even used their own strimmer to improve access in a helpful and responsible way. They happily admit they got tired of over-crowding on the Yateley carp lakes and wanted some quiet on the Loddon.

So far so good. Welcome to the brotherhood, chaps.

BUT...these guys are still using out-and-out carp tactics including:

* Three rods on bite alarms
* Bivvies
* Feeding boilies by the gallon-sized bucket load (I counted four)

Now, for anyone not familiar with the Loddon, using three rods on this intimate little river is probably the equivalent of using 12 on the Trent.

On their baiting regime, another angler told me he started counting when one of the guys began putting in the boilies with his large Gardner baiting spoon. He got to 35 - that was before the pellets went in. The river would have probably risen several inches.

It seems they have had reasonable results, and claim to have caught several double figure barbel plus, fittingly, river carp.

So what do I do? OK, their style and approach is totally inappropriate for the river, but who am I to dictate how they fish just because it offends my sensibilities? Their use of three rods and bivvies are a breach of club rules, but if I shop them, where does that leave me? Because they seem decent guys, despite not fishing how I'd like them to, I'd feel an a*se for reporting them. It would also be very clear who'd dobbed them it. That's the coward in me talking now. The devil in me wants them kicked off so I can have the place to myself again, of course....

What would you do?
 
What's appropriate and what isn't is often personal opinion Steve. Plenty of barbel anglers like to heave the bait in regardless of the size of river, or fish multiple rods in swims where you may struggle to fish one.
Clubs with mixed waters are often a broad church and it's common to find carpers on the rivers early season ringing the changes from their stillwater Spring campaigns.
Club rules are often minimal and may include broad subjective terms which are open to interpretation. If the guys in question are in clear breach of the rules however, then a bailiff should deal with it if he is not conspicuous by his absence.
A gentle prod to highlight a breach of rules cannot hurt, but you always run the risk of being accused of sour grapes.
Failing that, if you feel that the venue rules are being broken on a regular basis and you're fairly local, perhaps consider volunteering for river bailiff duties,.....not the most popular of jobs nowadays it seems.
 
Ask them if they've seen or noticed anything untoward's during their night sessions, you know strange unexplained noises, people moving around in the undergrowth, that sort of thing.

Then relay to them the story that the old boy walking his dog once told you about the rumours of this stretch being haunted after a terrible murder which took place the late Victorian times. Give it a week or so before paying them a visit one night in your phosphorescent ghost costume...:D
 
Steve,
Go to the local Pikie Camp and tell them there's two guys by the river who will be fast asleep by 1.00 each with a grands worth of kit in front of them.

PS don't tell them how much your standard set up of 3 rods plus two snides hidden in the bushes,stainless pod,Delkim alarms(plus remote receiver) and bait boat is worth:)
 
...fish somewhere else until they get bored.....it won't be long before they do, and return to their tame puddle pigs.
 
A little white lie might make them think Steve.

Just say you've had twice as many barbel and carp as them using hemp and caster, and you've found big beds of hard boillie and pellet spook the fish. If they take it on board, then you wont have to push them in.
 
Get your float rod out, fish the next peg up, let the float reach their swim, then hold it back. Once you hook your first, they might not be nice chaps any-more. ;)
 
I experienced something very similar many years ago on the Somerset levels whilst winter pike fishing. A few guys who had "conquered" the big carp in the local lakes were after some winter carp on the drains. Although they never had bivvies, they were similarly and otherwise using full-on carp techniques. It didn't really affect me as I was after pike (in fact on one occasion they did ask me to move into their swim as they were having pike trouble take their baits on the retrieve), and the only thing that I could take exception to was the fact that they were both using three rods. BUT they were, like yours, nice guys and proper anglers, not just occasional puddle chuckers.

Having gone over similar things in my head, in the end I just decided to say summat along the lines of "I see you're using three rods - IF you weren't aware, the limit is two, but the main reason I'm telling you is because the club is VERY hard on rule breakers, and three rods is a potential ban, so cos you seem like a good bunch of lads I'm giving you the heads up".

Coincidentally, I never saw them much after that, and when I did I must admit I didn't really notice whether they had taken any notice. But the way I did it left my conscience clear on both sides, and it avoided any hassle coming back to me.
 
Club rules are exactly that and should be enforced by the club bailiff. It is probable that the landowner has requested no night fishing on his land and your club could be in danger of losing the fishing rights which then affects all the members not just these two selfish individuals.

Our club has a rule for single rod fishing on the narrow stretches which having fished the Loddon I would say are very similar.

Technically if there is no permission to fish at night they are guilty of a Schedule 1 offence under the Theft Act 1968 "Theft of fishing rights".
 
John,

The rules being broken are a two-rod limit and use of a bivvy, as night fishing is allowed. I've checked with the club and they don't have bailiffs as such (!)so it's down to the members, so I need to man up.

Cheers,

Steve
 
Steve Double said:
so I need to man up.
Click to expand...

Actually, without wanting to totally hijack the thread (although it's still sort-of on topic) this raises an interesting question...

I have only ever properly challenged another angler once in my life. It was at Woodborough lake, which is a few miles outside of Bath. It used to be leased in its entirety to what was then the Bristol & West Federation of Anglers (now Amalgamated - [EDIT - or was it Bathampton? Can't remember now] - although they've long since ended their lease and the lake is now back with the current owners of Woodborough estate, with no fishing allowed). I had suspicions about this chap when he turned up - cheap little portable set up that was clearly a travel sea kit, totally not dressed like an angler, and spent a lot of time looking around at anything but the lake. Never judge a book by its cover, though, so I just let my prejudices slide. Eventually he settled down into a swim just opposite me and started fishing. After about 10-15 minutes, a radio and cans (which later turned out to be beer) came out and he appeared to just fall asleep. After about an hour, I decided to "have a word", made up some BS about being a deputy club bailiff, and asked to see his rod licence and ticket. He refused outright when I couldn't produce anything showing that I had any official clout (back then the club rules didn't cover all anglers self policing), and then reared up and started intimidating me. Only verbally but, being small in stature and fairly meek in character, and given that there was hardly anyone else there, I backed down and said that I was only doing my job.

I'll be honest and say that that little moment scared the shizzle out of me, and I've never challenged anyone since.

A lot of the smaller clubs around my parts now ask you to declare on applying to join if you agree to act as an angling bailiff and, whilst these are supposed to be non-discriminatory declarations, I know for a fact that at least one (more exclusive) club rejects applicants who are not willing to do so.

Morally we all should be policing, of course, however the reality is very different when you don't know exactly what or whom you are challenging. I'm sure 9 out of 10 challenges will end up with "yeah, okay - fair cop". But all it takes is that 1 challenge to land you in casualty or worse...
 
i bailiff a popular stretch of the nene and we get a few carpers who are fed up and want to try for barbel but many cant seem to leave the carp head at home and come down over gunned tackle wise and fill swims in then wonder why they cant catch.
we are lucky we have a strict no night fishing rule and have this season brought in a one rod rule and minimum landing net size but also our landlords have a no camping rule which covers bivvies which is basicly a fancy tent. the controlling club of that stretch of the lodden need to be a bit more proactive and get some members to become bailiffs then patrol the banks daily and enforce the club rules before it gets out of control.
 
Carpers have been coming to fish Arborleigh Loddon woods section early season for years. They pile the bait in dont catch a lot and are gone by the middle of July. Then return next season. Blimey Arborleigh is a big enough place with 4 sections to fish far away from the Carpers. As for the 3 rods there is a Bailiff, and they will get caught out.
 
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