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Illegal fishing a growing concern

John Hooper
5/ 7/2008

ANGLING: THE subject of people fishing local waters illegally has risen again this week, with three societies reporting problems.

Castleton AS bailiff Tony Ware reported at the latest meeting that on several occasions in the past month he has asked people to leave the water as they were not willing to pay for their fishing.

He also claimed many of these individuals were claiming ignorance of laws surrounding angling.

Rochdale Walton and Todmorden have reported similar problems.

Ray Barbour of Todmorden AS suggested anyone who witnesses individuals fishing illegally (especially those using nets) should report the matter to the police and EA immediately, taking down any vehicle registration numbers.

The fish being stolen cost angling societies around £6 per lb and the law-breaking must not be allowed to continue.

Todmorden matches last week were on the canal at Summit and on Croft.

The Trophy match on the canal was won by Graham Mallinson who fished the pole with pellet to catch bream and chub weighing 14-6-0. In second place, with a net of bream weighing 14-2-0, was Roger Priestley. Third place went to Tony Green who weighed in 6-7-0.

The match on Croft was won by Bruce Clarke with 25-8-0. He caught carp, ide and skimmers on pole and pellet. Craig Howarth, in second place, also had a mixed catch on the same method to weigh in 18-10-0. In third place was Tony Smith who put 12-13-0 of carp and skimmers on the scales.

Rochdale and District’s Rose Bowl match was held on the Delves at Thorne. Although there were a couple of reasonable weights it was generally very slow.

After walking about for an hour, in the middle of the match, Steve Hodgeon went back to his peg and put a winning weight of 23-15-0 on the scales. He caught carp and skimmers on pole and pellet. On the next peg along, Gareth Watkins netted three good carp with a few skimmers to finish second with 22-13-0. Vinny Eyes finished third with 17-13-0 of carp, taken on the tip with floating maggot.

Last Thursday’s match at Rochdale Walton’s Healey Dell was won by Pete Mottram.

Fishing pole and pellet, close in, Pete netted a mixed catch of 21-14-0. Martin Kerslake was in second place with 18-15-0. Third placed Darren Armstrong had 16-14-0.

Rochdale Walton’s Treasurer’s Trophy match on Syke was won by Chris Woodrup who caught carp, bream and silver fish weighing 20-8-0, on pole and pellet.

In second place, with a similar mix of fish weighing 19-8-0 was Darren Wright. John McFarland was third with 15-4-0 of small carp.

Dave Redfern had his fifth win in the CAS sweepstake series on Wednesday when the George and Dragon section fished extremely poorly. Redfern caught a tench of 2lbs, with some roach, to win with 2-9-8.

Tony Holcroft, in second place, caught a small tench with roach to weigh in 2-3-8. In third place, with a skimmer and some roach, was Paul Chadwick who scaled 2-2-8.

The latest fixture in the Trows Lane league was held on the round lodge.

Match organiser Vinny Eyes won this one with 7-15-0 of roach caught on caster up in the water. Regular framer Bob Harrison was second with a mixed catch of 7-1-0, taken on bronze maggot. Tom Meyrick was third with roach and skimmers, on worm and caster, for 6-4-0.