The recent flooding.A point of view.

Freeman30 said:
Yes, that confirms my impression that they are far more concerned with the fish population than flood prevention....
Click to expand...

Possibly because fisherman actively contribute to upkeep of the river with their hobby year in year out whereas bank dwellers enjoy all the benefits gratis until something happens every 10 years or so to remind them that funding flood management is an expensive business ?
 
oldgit said:
Possibly because fisherman actively contribute to upkeep of the river with their hobby year in year out whereas bank dwellers enjoy all the benefits gratis until something happens every 10 years or so to remind them that funding flood management is an expensive business ?
Click to expand...

How do they do that then? I always thought they killed lots of wildlife with abandoned fishing lines, dead fish, litter etc...
 
Chris_d said:
How do they do that then? I always thought they killed lots of wildlife with abandoned fishing lines, dead fish, litter etc...
Click to expand...

First of all there be a fishing licence going from £30.00 to 70.00 dependant on species.
Many keen fishermen will now have multiple licences due number of rods they use at any one time.
There may well be club fees of £100.00 plus as many stretches will be private or day tickets from rip owners.:)
May travel some distance so may well spend good money to get there.
Some will use a local filling station/shop/pub and local fishing/bait emporium.
Fishing is one the biggest if not the biggest "sport" in UK.
Few of us have not dangled a rod at some point in our lives and many still get the urge on a still summer evening to tackle up. :)
Shame about the littering scumbags but most proper fisherman would sooner cut their bits off than despoil the river bank.Many clubs organise a bi annual clear up of all detritus on the club waters.Frequently with local canoe club sorting the hard to get at from the bank stuff.
 
Last edited:
But how do they contribute to the upkeep of the river, the economy maybe all those remote control boats with fishfinders, little tents, bottles of beer, disposable BBQ's, bangers, plastic bags to decorate the bankside trees with:)
 
oldgit said:
First of all there be a fishing licence going from £30.00 to 70.00 dependant on species.
Many keen fishermen will now have multiple licences due number of rods they use at any one time.
There may well be club fees of £100.00 plus as many stretches will be private or day tickets from rip owners.:)
May travel some distance so may well spend good money to get there.
Some will use a local filling station/shop/pub and local fishing/bait emporium.
Fishing is one the biggest if not the biggest "sport" in UK.
Few of us have not dangled a rod at some point in our lives and many still get the urge on a still summer evening to tackle up. :)
Shame about the littering scumbags but most proper fisherman would sooner cut their bits off than despoil the river bank.Many clubs organise a bi annual clear up of all detritus on the club waters.Frequently with local canoe club sorting the hard to get at from the bank stuff.
Click to expand...

I'm with you mate. Forgetting the vast amount of money they pay into the coffers of Envag my experiences of them are positive. They rarely leave a mess and police themselves. Even the kids seem to be more responsible. Of course there's the odd one out but as a whole I find them excellent.
 
byron said:
I'm with you mate. Forgetting the vast amount of money they pay into the coffers of Envag my experiences of them are positive. They rarely leave a mess and police themselves. Even the kids seem to be more responsible. Of course there's the odd one out but as a whole I find them excellent.
Click to expand...

Must be a better class of fisherman in Berkshire, like everything I guess you only notice the bad ones.
But on any scale I would rank them worse than rowers:)
 
Last edited:
Chris_d said:
But how do they contribute to the upkeep of the river, the economy maybe all those remote control boats with fishfinders, little tents, bottles of beer, disposable BBQ's, bangers, plastic bags to decorate the bankside trees with:)
Click to expand...

The quality of the water in the river is of paramount importance to angling especially to trout and salmon.
The angling fraternity were the first to notice and campaign about rivers being used as little bettter than sewers and polluted with agricultural nitrates long before anyone else took any notice.They were also the first to notice that over extraction from bore holes was reducing river and streams to below viable flows.
More than one watercourse has have to had water added at the source to prevent its total destruction.
Fisherman mean fish and fish means a clean river.
Most boaters just chug along oblivious to what is going on under their keel and probably think a holding tank is communist scheme to extract money for old excreta.:)
They are probably more responsible for the good health of the river today than anyone.
Here ended the defence M,lud..
 
oldgit said:
The quality of the water in the river is of paramount importance to angling especially to trout and salmon.
The angling fraternity were the first to notice and campaign about rivers being used as little bettter than sewers and polluted with agricultural nitrates long before anyone else took any notice.They were also the first to notice that over extraction from bore holes was reducing river and streams to below viable flows.
More than one watercourse has have to had water added at the source to prevent its total destruction.
Fisherman mean fish and fish means a clean river.
Most boaters just chug along oblivious to what is going on under their keel and probably think a holding tank is communist scheme to extract money for old excreta.:)
They are probably more responsible for the good health of the river today than anyone.
Here ended the defence M,lud..
Click to expand...

A good defence from my learned colleague I do not wish to cross examine, unfortunately my key witness has gone missing and his tracking device has a weak signal, which has not moved from its
position under the bypass over the Thames for the last 3 days. But in his statement he did comment that he didn't really care what he dangled his rod in as long as he had a good time.
 
Because I know nobody ever reads this forum !

Men are like fine wine and mature with age.
Wimmin are like milk .....! :)
 
Heard on R4 this morning somebody ranting and raving regards the flooding on the Zummerzet levels.
It all the EAs fault cos they have not been dredging the local river.
No mention of where the money is going to come from or the fact it has been raining a tad recently.
Was actually going to ring the chap up and suggest he ask the Thames EA "penpushers" if they could cut down on the model boats and pens and send some dosh down to Somerset. :)
 
If you were listening to the same thing as me, they said the squillions had been spent on a bird sanctuary!

Priorities?
 
I heard the R4 PM on this & it seems the local MP isn't holding back on what he perceives as the problem; lack of dredging by the EA. The Environment Minister was quoted as saying he would sign off whatever was decided was needed. From the tone of the report it appeared historical lack of dredging & the EA being a multifunctional agency with other priorities was seen to be the key problem.

I wonder where I've heard that before?
 
ianc1200 said:
I heard the R4 PM on this & it seems the local MP isn't holding back on what he perceives as the problem; lack of dredging by the EA. The Environment Minister was quoted as saying he would sign off whatever was decided was needed. From the tone of the report it appeared historical lack of dredging & the EA being a multifunctional agency with other priorities was seen to be the key problem.
I wonder where I've heard that before?
Click to expand...
On tonights news at ten. I found his statement about "signing it off", if all parties could agree a sensible path, rather too easily given. The dredging solution is just not credible when you see the amount of water involved. I don't "know" anything but I am prepared to accept that this could well be simply the amount of rainfall overwhelming the infrastructure. Met Office records show 3 times as much rain in the last few weeks as the historic 30 year average. Whilst some dredging might have a slight alleviation effect I really don't believe that dredging is the core solution to the problem and there will need to be far wider ranging defences - and at what cost?

On the East Coast and possibly South Coast (Cuckmere?) I seem to remember the EA abandoning efforts to play King Canute and accepting that coastal erosion in some places just cannot be prevented within reasonable funding and that money would be more sensibly spent on more realistic projects.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top