balifs

[pingu]

well dived through the lime kilns on way home to see how and where it was being groundbaited by the weekend anglers for my planned trip tommorrow
and was greeted by the sight of 2 guys being spoken too by the Environment agency and then 1 of them being fined for no licence or ticket

now thats going to smart in his back pocket

realised as well that the guy with the environment guy who i see regulary is a exeter angling water balif , but hes never asked to see mylicences


anyway just saw this as a post to put up as a reminder too all

[Greenheart]

A good friend of mine who's been fishing for about 60 years & is a season ticket holder at Chew valley lake (Cost about £300 a season) & always buys a rod licence. Just happened to forget to renew at the start of one season. He's only been asked to show his rod licence once. Guess when that was!!! He now pays the same way as I do. By direct debit. Licence arrives automatically in the post about a fortnight before the new season begins. Nothing to remember & no worries.

[biggun]

I'm with you Ian. Pay by DD every year.

[baitmaster]

i got my missus to buy mind the year before last thought nothing of it until i was ask by a EA officer so on that i gave him my two rod licenses as i was using three rods .
he proceeded to give me a ticket and i thought he was joking which he was not
i ended up being fined for fraudulent use of rod licenses when i looked my missus had signed them at the bottom, but my name and address were clearly at the top ,but this did not matter as she had signed them when i asked her why she had she said the person in the post office told her don,t forget to sign them before going fishing, so guess what she done thats right signed them both i never thought to check
ended up costing me a £250 fine as they would not drop it i even argued and even took all my licenses just to show i DO NOT FLOUT THE LAW as i keep them all (don,t know why ) but i was in there eyes trying to fish illegally
so now to make sure there is no mistakes i get them myself and if i see the EA bailif again well lets just say he will be climbing out of the water if he lucky

tightlines
kevin

[Barrie C]

Trouble with the fishing license is it is treated the same as a gun license -

I once forgot to take mine with me and that was the very first time in 5 years i had seen the local EA officer!

You can imagine my supprise and horror when he read me my rights!

As I had bought the license's on line I thought he would be able to confirm I had bought 2 via simple technology and accesing the system or by calling his office. He could not so I was instructed to send by post my 2 licenses to Reading.

I declined and took them personally and they VERY kindly decided not to take action.

I've yet to see an EA Officer around when there are "anglers" fishing for food on the Fens and the Rivers around here.

Still mustn't grumble!

Barrie

[Omahayank]

I dont think I've ever had my licence checked in the field, all the years I've fished. I bought a lifetime permit a couple years back, supposedly I only need tell them my # to be legal, if asked...we'll see...
Nebraska takes "poaching" seriously, they'll take away ALL your gear, boat, trailer and the truck you used to tow it to the water too. Same w/ hunting too.

[BaggieRich]

Originally Posted by baitmaster

i ended up being fined for fraudulent use of rod licenses when i looked my missus had signed them at the bottom, but my name and address were clearly at the top

Can't you signature be anything? You could scrawl an X or put a smilie face if you wanted, so how come this guy knew that wasn't your signature?

Okay, so the name might have read something like "Karen Baitmaster", but then you could have just said this is what you call yourself at the weekends!

Of course I jest, but the point is, how can they prosecute you for something like that, when it was obvious you'd paid your dues and a signature are as good as useless when it comes to ID anyway??!?!?

More money for the state no doubt...