"Ian Hooksem" wrote in message
...
My understanding is that the EA have a right to control any inland water,
which theoretically probably includes fish ponds in gardens.

It may seem ridiculous, but as an extreme example, think of this.
You dig a pond in your garden, fill it with goldfish and one of those fish
has a lurgy that will kill other fish within days. A bird lands in your
pond for a drink, and gets that lurgy on its feet. It then flies off and
lands on a large fishery; the lurgy spreads to all the fish there, and so
on. The EA investigate, and if by chance they could track it back to your
pond, they could enter your garden and deal with the lurgy at source.
The EA tell us that most of the rod licence money goes towards this type
of water safety and other conservation tasks, and I for one am grateful
for it, as it helps to protect and improve my sport.
From your earlier posts Clive, I make an assumption that you may not have
been fishing for very long? When you have seen 100's of fish dead floating
on a lake or river, and the EA arrive to inspect and take rearguard action
to stop the spread, then the rod licence fee seems very worthwhile.
Good to know DLA qualifies for a reduced cost though. Hope you are finding
fishing a good hobby ('nutter' or not!).

As for sea fishing licences, well thats another story. Impossible to
enforce becasue of the many miles of coastline, and water borne pollutants
are already rife with all the s*** that gets dumped in the sea.

--
Regards, Ian



"clive" wrote in message
...
Hi all
I made a point about why do we bother we rod licenses a few days back, I
wasn't very clear unfortunately, my point is, on most of the fisheries
(especially here in south east wales ) they are mainly privately owned.
For example, we have Cefn Mably, Peterstone lakes and warren mill which
are pretty good venues.
Now with the exception of warrren mill, these lake were man-made by the
person who owns the land outright. They have made the lakes, stocked them
with fish at thier expense and the lakes are maintained by staff employed
at theses venues by the owners.
When you go there for a days fishing you obviously have to pay for the
day ticket, what I cannot see is why the EA have any right at all to go
onto this privately owned property and expect people to have rod
licenses. This means if I made a large pond in my own back garden, filled
it with water, kept it clean by using electric filters, then stocked it
with fish, according to the law I would need a rod license to fish in it.
I simply cannot understand the logic in this at all.
Clive





Hi Ian, Yes, I see your point, but am not really in agreement with you.
and sorry for any confusion, I have been a regular fisherman for over 40
years.
I think the rod license should be abolished altogether, it is a total waste
of time, I know they say that the money goes towards the keeping of the
waterways etc, but then again the EA is a government organisation, let them
fund it.
Most if not all of our rod license fees goes to pay these people who drive
around asking to see the license.
I have NEVER purchased a rod license in my life, and I never will. call me
anti-establishment if you will, I'm not bothered. I pay £160.00 a year for a
season ticket to fish my local privately owned carp lakes, I'm buggered if
I'm going to pay for a rod license on top.
I have been using these privately owned carp lake's now for over 15 years, I
go as often as 4-5 times a week in the summer, and I have only ever once
seen a EA baliff in all those years. and even he didn't even bother to ask
to see my license.
No, sorry, they will not get a penny out of me.
And the same goes for the BBC....:-)
Clive



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