Allduerespect
BAILIFFS, wardens and river watchers get a hard time from far too many anglers in Scotland.
Time and time again I hear them maligned and vilified as if they were the enemy – when in point of fact the reverse is true.
Presumably this attitude lingers from the days when poaching was perceived among the working class as a righteous way to redress some of the balance between rich and poor.
If the laird had more salmon – or deer, or whatever – than he knew what to do with, what harm in taking one for the pot?
Fair enough, I suppose. Back then, the men set to stop the poachers were to be feared, and you’d best watch what you said when they were about.
But in this day and age, with salmon stocks in serious decline, the bailiffs aren’t acting so much for the benefit of the landed gentry as for the fish themselves.
Poachers now have no excuse. There’s nothing roguish or romantic about what they do. Most are simply common thieves, stealing for financial gain.
Even the angler who takes one more than he’s entitled to THIS one went missing in our files for a wee while but better late than never. It’s the 21lb springer Killin ghillie Simon Hill caught with a floating Rapala on Loch Tay on opening day, January 15.
Congratulations Simon, you will shortly be receiving details of your fantastic prize courtesy of top UK tackle makers Daiwa, our Fish of the Week sponsors. when no one’s looking is a liability to the sport.
It’s just one fish, he’ll tell you, and anyway there’s plenty here and it’s not as if I’m doing any harm. He’ll say he’s smart enough to know when there’s a harvestable surplus and sharp enough to get away with it.
Others might have a sneaking admiration for him and even have a go themselves.
And if it’s all right for one guy, how can he complain when it degenerates into a free-for-all until the river is a wet desert, devoid of life?
No, the law’s there for a reason, and the guys who enforce it are the friends of anglers everywhere.
Deride them if you will, try to put one over on them if you think you’re so smart.
But in the not-too-distant future, when your children or grandchildren ask you why there’s no salmon left in Scotland’s rivers, it won’t be the bailiffs who are to blame.