Council plans sea angling to catch more tourists

Council plans sea angling to catch more tourists

Rother District Council wants angling to help boost tourism along its 15 miles of coastline  

Draft proposals for a summertime ban on angling and bait gathering on part of Bexhill sea front and to stop beach fishing anywhere if it was deemed to be causing annoyance, have been dropped following consultation with anglers.

Instead the council’s cabinet today (Monday) agreed a voluntary code of conduct should be created to ensure everyone enjoys the beaches, which include some of the best fishing spots in Sussex.

Both the council and anglers believe their agreement could be studied by other seaside resorts to bring more sea angling to their areas.

In May, anglers criticised draft byelaw changes as “draconian”.  A petition from more than 2,000 living in Rother and elsewhere who visit the area’s beaches all year round, led anglers and the council to get together.

“Anglers made their voices heard loud and clear and we have done the right thing and listened to them,” said Cllr Martin Kenward, lead member for culture, sport and tourism.  “In that respect the consultation has helped us to make our decision.”

He added:  “We had two very good meetings and listened to each other.  We were willing to change the proposals and together we will now make even better use of our fantastic seaside resources for everyone’s benefit.”

Neil Smith, a Bexhill resident and shore angler, who led the talks with the council said: ”This exemplary outcome was achieved because we all acted together - anglers, angling clubs and businesses in Rother, regional and national bodies and the thousands who made their feelings known to us and the council through the petition.” 

Councillor Kenward said it was a very positive development. “We look forward to more anglers visiting Rother.  They are especially welcome as all-year-round visitors and contributors to our seaside economy.”

The code will advise anglers not to fish from crowded beaches, to keep well away from swimmers, to watch for bystanders before casting and to keep hooks out of reach of children and dogs.  It will also remind them to keep only the fish they will eat putting others back.

Anglers and the Council are currently in discussions about holding new fishing-related events in the district.

Pevensey Bay beach work

From 3rd August the foreshore between Cooden and Eastbourne will have thousands of tons of shingle dumped on it. Pevensey Bay Coastal Defence Ltd issued a warning to mariners about it but it will mean that the night high tides during and afterwards should fish well for Smoothounds and other species feeding on the crabs, whelks and other food being dumped on the shore. Could be some good sport.

A report on a recent a meeting of the Rother DC Byelaws scrutiny committee to dicuss the proposed changes to bylaws.

On Tuesday 19 July we attended a meeting of the Rother District Council Byelaw scrutiny committee along with representatives from IFCA the Angling Trust and the Bexhill Sea Angling Club. Here is a summary of the meeting compiled by one of the members present:

This was the first meeting of the Rother council bye laws working group since the closure of the consultation period on proposed byelaw changes affecting angling from the shore. 

The group consists of five councillors.  All five, with six council officers, attended this meeting

together with six invited anglers. 

Three anglers were from Bexhill Angling Club (Arthur Freeman the club chairman, Melvyn Adrain and Tim Macpherson), both angling representatives on the Sussex IFCA (Steve Hanks and GrahamFurness) and the Sussex sea angling representative of the Angling Trust (Alan Brothers). Three presentations were made to the meeting all explaining why this bye law was wrong and unnecessary..

It was reported that there had been 291 responses to the consultation which the chief executive said was “quite good”.  These included one from the sea anglers together with a 2,000 signature petition opposing the changes.

In discussion, Councillor Mrs. D.C. Williams and Councillor J.A. Lee both seriously questioned the need for the proposed bye laws, and that the matter could perhaps better be settled by the use of a code of conduct.  Councillor S.D. Elford supported this.  Councillor C.N. Ramus did not join the discussion because he felt he was not qualified to as a he represented a ward away from Bexhill itself

The council chief executive (Derek Stevens) summarised the reasons why it might be best to use a code of conduct instead of bye laws, to control any bad behaviour by  a very small minority of anglers on the beaches.

At this stage it was becomoing clear that the thinking of the group was to work out a way to replace

the proposed bye law changes with a less draconian method possibly by using an amended version of 

a code of conduct provided by the anglers the previous month.

The chairman commented that it had been “a very, very good discussion”.  He asked the anglers if 

they had any further comments, thanked them for attending and closed the meeting.

What was clear from this meeting is that the whole issue had been inlcuded by council officials in 

order to allow the Council to apply for a best beach award - the councillors had little idea that the 

proposed ban would cause such trouble. The Chief Executive, Derek Stevens, broke with his usual 

impartiality by stating he thought the bye law was not the right way to deal with the issue and 

almost instructed the officials there and then to remove it from the draft. 

It seemed clear to us, having had a chance to lobby the councillors in a coffee break, that if it came to

a vote three of the councillors would want the clause removed.

However there seemed to be little prospect of the second clause in the bye law being removed as this

is a form of words that the Department of Communities has directed councils to include when

updating bye laws.

So the campaign was successful and thanks need to go to Bexhill angler Neil Smith in particular for

his efforts in getting the petition signed and delivered - not to mention all the other people worked 

to ensure this bye law was amended. . 

Rother byelaw working group meeting

Rother District Council are holding a Byelaw Wroking group meeting on Tuesday 19th July at 10am. The Group is taking submissions from interested groups For anyone wanting the full agenda and written submission from Natural England email tim@sussexanglingmedia.co.uk. Councuillors Elford, Lee, Bouart, Williams and Ramus are the working group members.
(or go to http://www.rother.gov.uk)

More on this later.
 

Marathon weekend

I have just come off a weekend fishing binge which although exhausted has left me feeling that I have learnt something new, executed a plan well and generally had a great time. It all started with an email from an old fishing mate, who lives a long way away so had never fished in my neck of the woods before. a longstanding invitation was taken up when a bit of business dovetailed nicely with the opportunity

He wanted a bit of bass fishing, between 4pm and 10pm on a specific day. How could I deliver that with three days notice? After much thought, and the realisation that because the local beam trawlers had been through and cleaned up our local shoals which made boat fishing untenable (along with the unhelpful tides), I made a call to another fishing mate not far away. He confirmed that Bass and Sea Trout were indeed running up his local river and that the time proposed was perfect. 

So we spent a fantastic 4 hours trying (in vain) to catch Sea Trout. My long distant friend managed to catch one Bass on the fly and the other guy lost a Sea Trout which he had managed to agitate into lunging at his lure and jumping straight out of the water in front of him but missing the Mepps. 

It was a beautiful evening, we spotted Redshanks, Oystercatchers, Reed Buntings, Skylarks and a Marsh Harrier lazily flapping over the nearby marshes. The Mullet which inhabit the river were driving us mad - uncatchable with spinners and only following the flies we were casting to them - as they sploshed about in the margins. Matchstick floats and rag worm on tiny hooks and 2lb line is the best method but we did not have the tackle to beat them. still I'll be back for that one soon. We finished at dusk with a pint and I left my distant friend on a local beach trying to catch Bass with poppers. 

Next day I launched the boat returning the favour to my local fishing buddy by taking him as crew along wit my 9 year old, fishing mad, son. The idea was to go 6 miles out to a shingle bank and catch some Plaice and maybe a Turbot.

The previous week I had been out on the same mark using mackerel on long traces to try and land my first Turbot - my crew for that day managed to catch one, but it ignored the three flappers and took some smelly lugworm. So I surmised we should return and try again. after a short stop at a Bass mark to try and land one on a livebait we steamed out to the spot. 

The day was full of plaice - we must have caught 40 or so and returned the bulkk of them. My local friend who had never been plaice fishing enjoyed the experience and we even had a specimen fish touching 3lbs. So we had grilled mackerel and fried plaice fillets for supper.

The following day proved to be the best of the lot. The local club which I am a member of had a comptetiton day with a difference. It was a species hunt - the person with the most species wins. Now I am not a great competition angler - I find the obsession with winning competitions can spoil a good day, catch as many as you can in 4 hours kind of thing. But in this case I thought it would be an interesting test of skill. 

First plan the species you want to catch, then work out where they'll be, what bait and how long youn can give each species. We were targeting Cod, Bream, Gurnard, Plaice, Mackerel, Pout, Dab and a bonus species. That is the easy part - now catch them. Well it couldn't have gone any better. First up we anchored to catch Bream and Dogfish - we had an hour and it took us 90 minutes but by the time we left that mark we had Cod, Dogfish, Bream and Mackerel. Then we drifted around an inshore wreck: Plaice, Gurnard and Wrasse. It was here that we had the only blot on the day.

While drifting my line tightened and rod bent as if I had snagged but it was moving slowly in the wrong direction crossing the other lines. Big plaice have a habit of giving very small bites - like they are sucking the bait in effortlessly rather than gobbling it down as smaller fish do -  then either just lie on it or start swimming slowly away, which is what was happening here. 

I picked up the rod  - felt there was something on and then set the hook - it took more time than I would have liked to bring it up 20 meters but I am not sure it new it was hooked although I could feel it fighting. As it saw the light it began to realise and I knew when it saw the boat it would bolt for the bottom. 

I got it to the surface and as I saw it I almost dropped the rod. it was the biggest plaice I had ever seen (and I have seen a few over the years). I got the net under it at an angle so that when it bolted it would go into the net. It duly bolted - and as it did the line clipped the metal bar on the net - and parted. I stood there watching the leviathan swimming back to the bottom with my beads trailing it its wake like coloured bubbles. They probably heard me onshore 7 miles away. the next boat certainly did. 

We caught palice and dabs and went ashore to weigh in - coming first and second in the competetion and demonstrating some degree of skill in executing our plan. But the day will be forever spoiled by the one thast got away....


What a weekend!

     
     

discards ban improves fishery success

http://fb.me/173F1XRfc

Cormorant Watch

Following a couple of earlier missives about fish predation by Otters and Cormorants all anglers will be pleased to know that the Anlging Trust has now set up a monitoring project called Cormorantwatch (/http://www.cormorantwatch.org/)

It is generally accepted that Cormorants cause substantial damage to fisheries up and down the country – how much can only be guessed at but it is a problem that the angling industry is struggling to deal with. At present fisheries owners can apply for licenses to shoot cormorants but the procedures are tortuous and the number of cormorants that can be shot is tiny and has little affect on the overall population.

Earlier this year Mark Lloyd, CEO of the Angling Trust met the fisheries minister, Richard Benyon, and he agreed to carry out a review of the licence procedures. This is all very well, Mr Benyon seems genuine and is also an angler, but to convince the government to take decisive action the Angling Trust wants to what build up an accurate picture of the extent of predation, which is where cormorant watch comes in.  

     

So this site has been designed and it allows anglers to input valuable statistical information to help find out the real extent of cormorant predation on UK fisheries. 

Anglers can record sightings and activity of cormorants in the UK, when, where, how many and their behaviour and then inputted directly onto the Google Maps driven micro-site.  Users will also be able to scroll around the map to view cormorant sightings and details of each sighting and watch the real picture of cormorant predation in UK waters build up.

The data recorded will be used to present a compelling case to Defra and demonstrate the impact these birds are having on native fish populations. The Trust’s aim is to persuade DEFRA to simplify licensing procedures and allow greater controls on cormorant numbers.

So far, after announcing it in the Angling Times and Anglers Mail, over 900 sightings have been recorded with 1000's of indivudal birds and some nesting sites which were not known about. 

The summer months are the most crucial time to record sightings so if you see cormorants on inshore waters please use the site to log the loaction and number of birds you've seen.
For more about the Angling Trust go to www.anglingtrust.net.