Anglers are to be banned from using live fish as bait

[Twiddler]

Totally agree with Warmit.....I don't fish with livebait neither but it's my personal choice and I would never judge anyone who does.

[gullyworm]

The other night though i swear i heard my ragworm scream

[upnorth1]

Political correctness gone stark raving bonkers!!!!!!!!!
The Royal Family own areas where anglers go salmon fishing (and actually take part themselves), and charge big, big fees for anglers to use them.
Don't think they'll be too happy at losing that revenue if angling does become banned (which in my opinion will never happen - ban fishing then you close tackle shops, tackle manufacturers, clothing firms etc etc etc...how many extra on the dole would that create? The govt. would have think very, very carefully before making such a radical decision...)

[biggun]

I feel that live baiting is a personal choice. I have read that so called "professional" anglers have been caught taking live bait to Ireland to use. I can't see why you should go to all the trouble of importing your own live bait when the water you are fishing on should be able to provide you with enough of a supply and it would be the very same fish that the predatory population is feeding on. As for the right to live bait as I said this should be your choice. I personally don't live bait but would not want to stop anyone else from using this method. I believe that the people responsible for this really need to find something constructive to do with their lives. There are so many problems in this world that need sorting out but these people go for the easy option and have a go at something they probably know nothing about anyway.
If they want to sort out the world then they should start with something that would give them a real sense of achievement like stopping child abuse, creating jobs or just cleaning up the inner city areas around our "Great" country.

(rant over )

[Noel]

The really sad thing is that a lot of fishing clubs have banned the use of livebaits anyway. So you can't just point the finger at the Anti's. So much for anglers sticking together.............

It will be banned in England soon. Like in Scotland they'll use the arguement of disease control but this is total rubbish. There isn't a single proven case of live baits bringing in a disease to a fishery. I've never transported fish anyway. When I livebait (rarely) I always use fish from the place I am fishing (as per the rules of my club).

Nige Williams and co don't help matters either. The "catch pike at all costs" way of fishing does more harm to our sport than good. There are also pikers who 'guest' on reservoirs that they have no right to fish. This infuriates the owners of the fisheries and gives pike fishing a really bad name. It needs to stop.

The only thing more annoying than people who know NOTHING about fishing making up rules is fellow anglers making up anti-livebait rules!

If you don't like, don't do it. But give me the FREEDOM TO CHOOSE.

[Barrie C]

All of the above replies are really valid points and probably represent a good cross section of anglers.

I think if Anglers were united we would make a very powerful group - the difficulty is we are divided amongst ourselves into "sections"

Match Anglers
Carp Anglers
Sea Anglers
Specimen Hunters
Predator Anglers
Game Anglers

and so on.........

All with different magazines (Anglers Mail take note!) often with different forums.

We need a single voice representing all aspects of our great sport - does anyone know of such a group? NFA etc??

This Forum is probably the first instance I have come across of "united Anglers" across the whole spectrum of angling (makes it more interesting as well)

And as regards Nige Williams - he should have been banned from fishing for a minimum of 12 months

Angry of the Fens

[baitmaster]

its a great idea to think all anglers to unite under one banner for the good of angling but there are so many different fishing fractions like sea, game and coarse and then these are all divided yet again into match ,specimen and pleasure and then there are all the different clubs and societies .
angling will look toward the PAC to front the fight against this, which i think is personally the wrong thing to do unless they were to get substantial backing from the whole of angling

if Anglers start to believe the livebait ban coming to England then it will come and a ban will easerly be pushed through with no contention from angling at all .

yes its true clubs across the country have ban the use of the method mostly these are matchmen run clubs but not all .


it is NOW time angling actually take the bull by the horns and actually fight this head on .

you would think with all the big names in the sport excluding our olympic fishmen that they would use there positions in our sport but i see none coming forward infact some seem more to go silent and wait for there consultancy cheques or see there lattest tv ratings

IF CARLSBERG RAN ANGLING WE WOULD PROBABLY HAVE THE BEST SPORT IN THE WORLD

tightlines
kevin

[geejayy]

Originally Posted by upnorth1

The govt. would have think very, very carefully before making such a radical decision...)

i agree with that , but unfortunately they don't.
the individuals within government always seem to act in they're own best interest or the interests of the perceived interested majority.

anti blood sports,
all the feildsports i've participated in contain an varying element of cruelty , i won't contest their point there but these ar*e holes need to take off the rose tinted specs .

hey , this world is a cruel place.
and there are more important issues to deal with .

what pisses me off is the way they go about achieving their ends.
namely , the millitant few , backed by those that just wish to create disruption/fights against authority regardless of the cause, engage in acts of terror / demonstration /conflict to draw public attention to their aims.

hunting with dogs was banned despite a 59% majority who voted to keep hunting. this government voted in order to prevent disruption by the anti's NOT in the interests of the majority.
imho, their (the anti's)aims are achieved by;- influencing the members of the population who sat on the fence and wern't that fussed either way.
causeing so much fuss and disruption that the government were forced to do summat about it.

it would apear that the only way to get the governments attention on any issue is to create major problems for that government.
to get heard you got to shout loudest.

theres always an outcry for, ban this/ban that , but never for ok,life is good ,i've no problems leave things as they are.
thats just not news, hence the unswayed never hear the other side of the arguement till its too late.

ok, rant over.

[gullyworm]

Just a quicky,is this ban just in freshwater or is it sea and fresh?

[Greenheart]

Originally Posted by geejayy

i agree with that , but unfortunately they don't.
the individuals within government always seem to act in they're own best interest or the interests of the perceived interested majority.

anti blood sports,
all the feildsports i've participated in contain an varying element of cruelty , i won't contest their point there but these ar*e holes need to take off the rose tinted specs .

hey , this world is a cruel place.
and there are more important issues to deal with .

what pisses me off is the way they go about achieving their ends.
namely , the millitant few , backed by those that just wish to create disruption/fights against authority regardless of the cause, engage in acts of terror / demonstration /conflict to draw public attention to their aims.

hunting with dogs was banned despite a 59% majority who voted to keep hunting. this government voted in order to prevent disruption by the anti's NOT in the interests of the majority.
imho, their (the anti's)aims are achieved by;- influencing the members of the population who sat on the fence and wern't that fussed either way.
causeing so much fuss and disruption that the government were forced to do summat about it.

it would apear that the only way to get the governments attention on any issue is to create major problems for that government.
to get heard you got to shout loudest.

theres always an outcry for, ban this/ban that , but never for ok,life is good ,i've no problems leave things as they are.
thats just not news, hence the unswayed never hear the other side of the arguement till its too late.

ok, rant over.

Totally agree mate. Look at the countryside march in London. Almost half a million people demonstrated in favour of country sports & the Government ignored them & sided with a vocal minority of animal rights activists & spiteful class hating back benchers who used the vote for political points scoring. (And addmitted this was the reason)