Problem members

[artisttom]

After the torrential rain yesterday it was bright and there was a brisk wind on the river today. The water was high, up to the seats on the parish pegs at Topcliffe, still rising and steaming through - great barbel fishing in prospect once it has passed over the top. (Anyone leave a green brolly at Topcliffe parish pegs?)
Started at Myton and visited various stretches during the day.
Red diesel pouring into the river between Topcliffe and Asenby. Rang the EA incident line - not cheap on a mobile by the time you've listened to which buttons to press.
The men who lease the Leeds access field for farming were fixing the gate and alleged that they had fixed it several times this year but anglers (Leeds??) have smashed off the lock, when it was replaced with something stronger they had filled it with superglue and were now taking their cars to the river through the adjacent gate which is private. Who are these people? What are they about - too idle to walk a couple of hundred yards for fantastic fishing?
I visited the Barbel Society water opposite our stretch below Asenby and one member had just travelled 80miles+ to fish this wonderful stretch for barbel as the conditions were peaking . They have had this stretch for three years. Who lost it to them and why?
Four doubles have been caught there in the past couple of weeks.
Leeds apparently lost the stretch which now belongs to the Asenby Anglers syndicate. It is like Fort Knox as they realise its value.
As I said yesterday, if we want to hang on to such great fishing we have to deal with the mindless morons in our ranks and if one of you is reading this don't winge when these waters have been lost.
Cheers.

[stanfish]

hi tom all leeds year books have a warant card on the back,ask these people when you see them,dont take any risks though,and report them to chris , his name is on the forum pages look under balifs,or working parties.stan..p,s. thanks for bringing this to the forum more of this is needed ..

[nightline]

Hi Tom, the fishing rights to the Barbel society water at Winn Lane Topcliffe used to belong to Idle and Thackley, penultimately it came into the hands of Ted Reeder the caravan park owner.

When he relinquished his fishing interests as that business was sold he let it go. The barbel society was on the ball and the rest is history> ( You have to be on the Ball). However I have to say that although the Lower swale is all pretty good Barbel water that stretch is not the best by any means.

With regard to the Asenby syndicate water The lower stretch was previously owned by Bradford 1aa, prior to that it was 'Fields ' a Bradford based business who ran there own fishing club.
This was lost because of loutish behavior and we (Asenby Syndicate) had to do a lot of hard work to regain the confidence of the local community afterward which took at least two years.

The bull length above the bridge had not been in the hands of Leeds dasa for decades.
Myself and a pal were directly responsible for obtaining that fishing. However it was never asked for it was offered out of the blue as a result of a lot of hard work in other areas, bailiffing day and night putting ourselves at risk, working parties, bank repairs,tree planting etc etc. All given freely - you get out what you put in.
There are some very misleading assumptions made about private fishing clubs. It is never about being privileged, it is about being committed.

I know the Swale as well as anyone - and as I said earlier there are other areas of the lower Swale that are are just as good and even better than those mentioned, all of which are day ticket or club waters, producing many doubles a season in recent years .

Ultimately you do have a point 'The point ' in fact, as all the political issues that face our sport are irrelevant if we cannot control the few mindless idiots that bring angling into disrepute.

Clubs would not need rules at all if all members behaved as they should. With the privilege of fishing rights we gain as anglers though - also comes responsibility.
The only way to deal with louts is to stamp on them and take away their privilege if they cannot obey the same rules as the rest of us and that involves commitment and hard work from some one.
In order to look after the interests of our fishing club we the members not the officers of the club have to get involved in this.

[frim]

obviously we have a new member [nightline] thats clued up on swale,

[nightline]

well I'm no pellet head ;D

[gusgreaves]

As you may know I have looked after Catterick Complex for the last eight years and until recent health problems have been there almost every day.

I just wish there was an answer to the problem of anglers that seem to find it impossible to keep within the rules. Mostly the rules of any society are there to protect the fish, the environment and where applicable the interests and wishes of the riparian owners. The most common cases of rule breaking are litter, the use of banned baits and banned tackle such as barbed hooks.

In one day I took fifteen rigges off the islands on Copley Lake, eleven of which were barbed and two were sea hooks with barbs on the shank. However, although serious enough these incidents are small fry compared to some of the things I have had to deal with. On one occasion it was reported to me that anglers were throwing rocks at the carp in the feeder stream in order to scare them back into the specimen lake. The problem is that people are often willing to report the actions of the rule breakers but are not prepared to stand up and be counted when asked to give evidence.

As far as litter is concerned, which I might add is the major line of attack by the anti angling bodies, it seem to me that if it is a question of putting litter in their cars or leaving it in the countryside the environment looses out every time. It is understandable in very windy conditions that some items of litter will get blown away. But when the litter bin is ten yards away and someone has walked twenty yards, with a neatly tied up Tesco bag full of litter to throw in the bushes, it beggars belief.

Unfortunately you have to catch these rule breakers in the act, which is not an easy thing to do especially on a big site like Catterick. However when you get irresponsible top anglers writing articles in the angling press, saying that barbless hooks do more damage to carp than barbed, it is obvious that some angler are going to follow their lead. Unfortunately if you catch one and fine him or her, or ban them for life, it will have little effect on the others of the same ilk. Not wanting to sound like a Lilly Livered Liberal but i do think education is what is needed. Indeed if these people could see the effects on the fish they profess to love so much, when fish are lost on barbed hooks and get snagged up, they might think twice about using them. Also carp with their insides blown apart by fast swelling baits that have not been soaked, is a sickening sight.

Because the 'powers that be' in angling, stupidly decided to back the ban on hunting angling is now in the spotlight and we will have to get our house in order or go the same way as hunting.

Just one last thing I hear many members of the society saying what are 'they' doing about this or that, quite obviously referring to the officials. As members of the society 'they' should be asking themselves what they could do and get involved. After all 'they' are the society.

Regards Gus Greaves.