Birmingham Anglers Association :: Re: Nafford below Weir - warned off 2 anglers fishing for Pike from a dinghy

Viewing 1 to 1 (1 Total) Re: Nafford below Weir - warned off 2 anglers fishing for Pike from a dinghy
MrChub Total Posts: 45 Joined: April 1, 2020	Reg, I am not sure that KenL has got this right. As I understand it, fish in rivers are wild and belong to no one (unlike those in enclosed waters where they belong to the owner of the land where the stillwater is located). The rights to fish for them reside with the landowners of either bank. Where each bank has a different rights holder neither has exclusive rights over the fish within the river but the rights are held jointly by each owner/rights holder who can confer these rights to the angling club legitimately holding these fishing rights via a lease. If you found a non BAA member fishing the BAA bank he/she would be poaching and guilty of the theft under s1 of 1968 Theft Act. This is theft of rights (which in this case belong to BAA) and is a criminal offence and should be reported to the police as well as BAA. The EA would not be interested unless the methods used were illegal. Following this logic in the case of Nafford if the bank opposite is held by a club and they (like BAA) do not permit fishing from boats then an offence was committed by the anglers spinning from the dinghy and you were within your rights to legitimately discourage them. The 'offence' in this case would be breaking the rules of both/either clubs, but not necessarily committing a criminal offence. You would need to know if they were members of either BAA (giving a right to fish but not according to BAA rules from boats) or the other club and if the other club permits angling from a boat to be certain that a criminal offence - theft of right - is being committed. If the perpetrators held no membership or permission from the rights holders of either bank to fish from a boat a criminal offence was committed. The EA would only be interested (and in a 'one off' like this not very interested at all) if the boaters were fishing without a rod licence. The bottom line of course is that is you are legitimately fishing from the bank and a boat chose to fish in a way which encroached on your swim it is akin to an angler setting up within 10 metres of you and fishing or casting into your swim from the other bank. Its bad manners, inconsiderate and selfish behaviour which genuine, decent anglers would not do. Posted on March 16, 2022 at 9:32 AM

Viewing 1 to 1 (1 Total)

Re: Nafford below Weir - warned off 2 anglers fishing for Pike from a dinghy

MrChub

Total Posts: 45

Joined: April 1, 2020

Reg, I am not sure that KenL has got this right.

As I understand it, fish in rivers are wild and belong to no one (unlike those in enclosed waters where they belong to the owner of the land where the stillwater is located). The rights to fish for them reside with the landowners of either bank. Where each bank has a different rights holder neither has exclusive rights over the fish within the river but the rights are held jointly by each owner/rights holder who can confer these rights to the angling club legitimately holding these fishing rights via a lease.

If you found a non BAA member fishing the BAA bank he/she would be poaching and guilty of the theft under s1 of 1968 Theft Act. This is theft of rights (which in this case belong to BAA) and is a criminal offence and should be reported to the police as well as BAA. The EA would not be interested unless the methods used were illegal.

Following this logic in the case of Nafford if the bank opposite is held by a club and they (like BAA) do not permit fishing from boats then an offence was committed by the anglers spinning from the dinghy and you were within your rights to legitimately discourage them. The 'offence' in this case would be breaking the rules of both/either clubs, but not necessarily committing a criminal offence. You would need to know if they were members of either BAA (giving a right to fish but not according to BAA rules from boats) or the other club and if the other club permits angling from a boat to be certain that a criminal offence - theft of right - is being committed. If the perpetrators held no membership or permission from the rights holders of either bank to fish from a boat a criminal offence was committed. The EA would only be interested (and in a 'one off' like this not very interested at all) if the boaters were fishing without a rod licence.

The bottom line of course is that is you are legitimately fishing from the bank and a boat chose to fish in a way which encroached on your swim it is akin to an angler setting up within 10 metres of you and fishing or casting into your swim from the other bank. Its bad manners, inconsiderate and selfish behaviour which genuine, decent anglers would not do.

Posted on March 16, 2022 at 9:32 AM