SUPPORT FOR THE CLOSED SEASON ON RIVERS

ALAN BAKER, KENT

Despite my Penshurst AS stretches of the rivers Medway and Eden carrying several feet of floodwater during the final week of the season, club members were out in their quest to put one final barbel or chub on the bank. While several were successful, quite a few of us blanked. But all true river anglers take such knockbacks in their stride. In such conditions, roaming from swim to swim, you really are fishing for just one bite. And despite facing another three-month lay-off, with all the threats our rivers face – abstraction leading to low river flows, contamination from fertilisers and pesticides, endocrine disruptors, along with American crayfish and cormorant predation effecting natural recruitment – I am concerned about the increasing pressure from certain quarters to abolish the closed season on our rivers. I concur with Keith Arthur writing in Angling Times that it is unthinkable that anyone would knowingly place additional pressures on wild stocks at their most vulnerable time. And I do not believe it is feasible, as suggested by Dave Harrell, to leave it to the discretion of individual clubs to choose when to close their own fisheries. Frequently, two clubs manage opposite banks along the same stretch of river, and all fish species migrate several miles to congregate in large shoals prior to spawning. We can all fish stillwaters during the spring without putting unnecessary pressure on our rivers. Although, unlike the majority of commercial fisheries, the four stillwaters I have access to are only ever lightly fished and will be virtually deserted after June 16. Penshurst AS members are mainly river anglers and a show of hands at the AGM revealed a unanimous decision to retain the closed season.