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Viewing 1 to (16 Total) Close season length |
Total Posts: 46
Joined: January 24, 2019
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Does anybody know how the length of the close season was determined?
On the face of it, the length of time seems to be somewhat random. It's a couple of days over 3 months, the same with the number of weeks (13 plus 5 days) and an odd 93 days..
I know and can understand why we have close season, but what is the reasoning behind the seemingly odd length of time.
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Posted on March 22, 2021 at 10:09 AM
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Total Posts: 28
Joined: March 3, 2017
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Re: Close season length
No odd length of time. There is no fishing from March15th to June 15th, which is exactly 3 months.
Posted on March 22, 2021 at 10:17 AM
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Total Posts: 110
Joined: December 31, 2018
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Re: Close season length
Actually its 15th march until 15th June inclusive. So it actually finishes on march 14th and starts June 16th with is 3 months and 2 days.
Posted on March 22, 2021 at 12:40 PM
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Total Posts: 246
Joined: December 1, 2020
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Re: Close season length
A semi interesting read. Turns out we've never been that good at creating rules.
http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/fishing/angling-h...
Posted on March 22, 2021 at 1:07 PM
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Total Posts: 28
Joined: March 3, 2017
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Re: Close season length
Brummymoorey, As the season finishes at 2400 hours on March 14th and starts at 00 hours on June 16th, would that make it 3 months and 1 day?
Posted on March 22, 2021 at 2:29 PM
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Total Posts: 46
Joined: January 24, 2019
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Re: Close season length
I agree with Staffie that it is actually 3 months 1 day - my original calculations were wrong. It's still a weird length of time though!
Fishychris; a nice attachment. It sort of clarifies the randomness of it all.
Posted on March 22, 2021 at 3:50 PM
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Total Posts: 183
Joined: February 13, 2015
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Re: Close season length
What must be remembered in regard to the introduction of a closed season, is that this was in the days before keepnets, and every fish caught was habitually killed and removed. In contests, this could amount to a lot of "cat food". The reason the anglers wanted a closed season was to allow the fish to spawn before being caught and killed. This was very sensible in my opinion.
However, once the habit of returning fish became the norm, the necessity for a closed season became obsolete but the closed season was just never lifted.
Posted on March 23, 2021 at 11:59 AM
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Total Posts: 280
Joined: December 27, 2015
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Re: Close season length
When do the salmon run?
Posted on March 23, 2021 at 8:02 PM
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Total Posts: 107
Joined: June 2, 2015
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Re: Close season length
Not sure that I agree that the close season is now obsolete and a throwback to a bygone age when fish needed protection during spawning. Imagine the impact on stocks, and in particular vulnerable or declining species like barbel, if we had all-year round fishing? Three more months of matches with barbel in keep nets? Three more months for circuses like Lower Trent where barbel are fished for 24 x 7 - especially with those big old girls full of spawn and potentially reaching record sizes. Three more months of fish being prodded, weighed and made to pose for a series of photos? One big bonus of the close season is that we do not have to see more photos of every bloody babel ever caught for three months. Except for those anglers who spend close season reposting photos of their prizes from last season. Predation seems to be given as a main reason for decline of barbel, but I cannot but think that cameras on mobile phones in conjunction with social media platforms does not help the situation. Week one of close season and grumpy already. Have a good day folks - I'm off to the canal at Hinksford.
Posted on March 24, 2021 at 8:28 AM
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Total Posts: 191
Joined: May 3, 2016
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Re: Close season length
mick you should get plenty of bites m8!
Posted on March 24, 2021 at 9:33 AM
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Total Posts: 107
Joined: June 2, 2015
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Re: Close season length
Thx Stewpar! Managed a couple of pounds of small roach and perch on pinkie over a bit of ground bait. Lovely afternoon and a hint of spring. My earlier rant about photographing and weighing every fish goes back to years ago, when I spotted a bloke on the opposite bank to where I was fishing at Arley. He took out his keep net and placed 4 decent sized barbel on his landing net on a shingle bank. He left them there flapping about and then proceeded to slowly pack away. I remonstrated with him and his reply was that he could get a better photo of the fish when they had been out of the water for four or five minutes and had calmed down. Appalling. We should all try and get fish back into the water asap - where they belong.
Posted on March 24, 2021 at 7:24 PM
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Total Posts: 246
Joined: December 1, 2020
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Re: Close season length
The theory and efficacy will be completely different. I don't think we'll ever know for sure whether it makes a difference. Even if we scrapped it and surveyed fish populations in 10 years, you couldn't prove any difference was down to the closed season being in place or not. Stocking, farming, natural cycles, climate, floods etc could all make a big difference. My instinct is the closed season has limited impact, for various reasons.
As for photos, I get it for PBs or particularly noteworthy captures, but not every fish. I rarely take photos (mainly because I'm usually stood in the middle of the river), and I agree with micks comments.
Also, I may be unreasonably miserable here, so feel free to say if I am, but what is wrong with looking at the bloody camera? Where has this obsession with gazing longingly into the fish's eyes, so people can see your infinite and unconditional love for it come from? I think like most fishing fads its from carp fishing. I just think it looks cringy and daft.
Posted on March 24, 2021 at 9:38 PM
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Total Posts: 46
Joined: January 24, 2019
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Re: Close season length
It would seem that, and on the face of it, the close season, in main, is to protect spawning.
This then begs the question; why is it that the majority of canals and stillwaters are open to fishing? Are all the fish eunuchs (lol) ?
Leading on from this, I would ask why Scotland and Ireland do not have a close season?
Maybe somebody with a better understanding could enlighten me, as I am completely at a loss as to understand the why and wherefore of it all.
Posted on March 25, 2021 at 11:37 AM
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Total Posts: 45
Joined: April 1, 2020
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Re: Close season length
The current closed season may best be described as a bugger’s muddle with more inconsistencies than we could imagine. In part this is because as the earlier attached article shows it was born out of uneasy compromise and this has continued ever since as its timing and scope have been amended.
Some may feel it has something to do with fish spawning, but its development is also subject to
other influences. As others have noted spawning times vary dependent on weather (in warm springs generally earlier) and on species (perhaps by up to 5 months if we take the extremes of pike and dace and carp and barbel). 3 months set at fixed dates is at best an uneasy compromise.
When I was very young I seem to recall that different localities had different dates (SW and Yorkshire started and finished earlier I think) and following lobbying from the pleasure boat and holiday industry in Norfolk the closed season was suspended as its existence was considered damaging to hire-boat owners’ profits. Today we are not immune from the perceived power of the landed gamefish lobby with the blanket application of a closed season on rivers, whereas ‘coarse’ canals and stillwaters can be exempt; the exemption being in the hands of the landowner. Stillwaters cover commercials whose owners naturally want to maximise angling opportunities and 25% of the year off will do nothing for profits or even viability. As Peachy has observed there is no logic here.
Neither is there logic apparent in exemption from the closed season on canals where certain pounds are in fact impounded rivers (there are many of these throughout the England and Wales). Within the route of the canal such sections are outside the closed season whereas the adjoining river sections are closed. Some drains (man-made stillwaters) are closed and some remain open and the only way to be certain is the check the local byelaws for that location.
As I noted elsewhere good laws are clear, fair and provide certainty. Our closed season’s legislation fails on all 3 counts.
Posted on March 25, 2021 at 12:12 PM
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Total Posts: 45
Joined: April 1, 2020
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Re: Close season length
I’ve actually gone back to look at some research I did on this on this topic about 5 years ago.
Our current arrangements date back to the 1990s when the latest rules were brought in. Pressure
then to grant exemptions to what had been a mainly universal 3 month closed season was mainly
from the commercial stillwater owners following years of byelaw bending in the Thames area. But
this single narrow exemption for commercial stillwaters was opposed by BAA which put the NRA (precursor to EA in overall responsibility for maintaining fisheries) under pressure to include canals in any exemption only the grounds that 3 months fishing only at commercials would act as disincentive to club membership and haemorrhage club membership putting their continued viability in question.
In the end the BAA’s arguments were accepted (a further compromise) which is why today canals and stillwaters can be exempt from the closed season requirements. Proof here if anyone doubted it of the power of commercial and vested interests over science, logic and consistency
Posted on March 25, 2021 at 6:35 PM
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Total Posts: 67
Joined: December 6, 2016
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Re: Close season length
It definitely needs updating, you can't fish the rivers but you can fish stillwater??
And certain byelaws allow you to fish for eels.....but you could catch a barbel or chub as a result???
The seasons have definitely changed, I remember seeing barbel spawnng early August a few years ago.
Posted on March 29, 2021 at 4:16 PM
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