Displaying items by tag: angling news

The public benefits of conservation and economic generation provided by shooting and angling will become increasingly important as spending cuts come into effect, delegates at the Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool were told last night.

Speaking at the Rural Reception hosted by the UK’s largest shooting organisation, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) and the Angling Trust, the representative body for all angling, Roger Williams MP said: “There are tough times ahead. Some public funds may no longer be available. Organisations like BASC will play an increasingly important role in the future. Well managed shoots, well managed rivers are good for the economy and good for conservation.”

Lord Redesdale said “Shooting and angling provide knock-on benefits for the whole community. Fishing is one of those wonderful things and shooting has many, many benefits for leisure, for tourism and for conservation.”

Roger Furniss from the Angling Trust expressed his concern over declining fish stocks in freshwater and in the sea. He said: “There are three million anglers in this country, and angling generates £3bn for the economy every year.” He also called for a review of the role of the Environment Agency saying: “The Environment Agency needs to listen more closely to anglers who pay an annual £26m in licence fees to the Agency.”

John Swift, chief executive of BASC said: “Shooting generates £1.6bn for the economy every year and two-thirds of the rural land area is influenced in some way by shooting management. We want to make sure that wildlife and habitats continue to flourish. We are aware that many public policy areas could be influenced by cost cutting and there could be blunt and difficult problems ahead, but as we face that reality we must find practical solutions. BASC and its members, who enjoy their shooting so very, very much want to work with you."

The England Youth U22s were well represented in this year’s World Championships in Mantova, Italy on 24th & 25th July, scooping team Bronze, with Matt Godfrey taking the Individual Silver. The venue was technically very difficult and the correct balance between big carp, catfish and bream had to be found, with the big shoals of small skimmer bream averaging just 15g each.

Day 1 saw a great team effort amassing a 12 total with Matt Godfrey winning his section with a staggering 260 fish for 4.95 Kg, 100 more fish than anyone else in the field. Seconds came from Matt Derry and Callum Dicks, and a 6th from Ricky Hines, who drew the wrong end of the end section. These performances helped us into second place and 2 points behind Serbia, whose big fish approach worked well.

Day 2 saw a controversial start when it became clear that France, Serbia, England and Holland, the top 4 teams, were all on adjacent pegs in every section, leaving Italy in the other half of the section with none of the main contenders to compete against. They made the most of it, scoring just 7 pts for a winning total of 22 pts.

Team England came in with another great 13pts, Matt Godfrey 2, Cameron Hughes 2, Matt Derry 4, Callum Dicks 5 for 25, tying with Serbia and Slovenia, but being beaten by Serbia by 900g. We were 3Kg ahead of Slovenia.

Matt Godfrey scooped silver with 3 points but was beaten by Dutchman, Sjors Milder on the same 3 pts, but with a 500 g weight advantage.

Mark Downes, England U22s Manager said “All in all a great result for the team, and with just a little luck we could have done a memorable double.”

Dick Clegg, OBE, International Events Manager stated “Once more England has proven at all levels that they are the team to beat in World Angling. By finishing 3rd in the U22s and with the ever consistent Matt Godfrey adding another medal to his trophy cabinet, we can all be proud of their achievements”.

England U18s team finished 6th at this year's World Championships on Canale Fissero Tartaro in Mantova, Italy in one of the closest finishes for years. Unluckily, England did not draw one of the eight end pegs available over the weekend, which had a huge influence on the final result.

Fishing the whole week in 35 to 40 degrees heat, this year's very young team proved themselves to be very efficient anglers drawing with Italy on points but losing out on weight. A total of 17 teams fished the Championships with Portugal winning the Gold medal with 29pts.

Individual placings for the England team

9th Ryan Watson 5pts
31st Ben Taylor 10pts
32nd Connor Barlow 10pts
58th Reece Nicolson 14pts
60th Alex Clements 14pts
from a total of 83 competitors.

World Championships Youth U18’s Team Results

1st Portugal 29 pts – 18.045kg
2nd Czech Republic 33 pts – 21.740kg
3rd Slovakia 33 pts – 21.615kg
4th Croatia 34 pts – 20.735kg
5th Italy 35 pts – 21.125kg
6th England – 35pts – 17.965kg

World Championships Youth U18’s Individual Results

1st Ivan Turkovic, Croatia 2 pts – 11.210kg
2nd Ondrej Pokorny, Czech Republic 3 pts – 7.280kg
3rd Ferenc Hamar, Hungary 3 pts – 6.690kg
4th Carlos Silva, Portugal 3 pts – 6.180kg
5th Alberto Visciglia, Italy 4 pts – 10.080kg
6th Juraj Smaha, Slovakia 4 pts – 9.295kg

World Championships Youth U22s Team Results

1st Italy 22 pts – 33.090kg
2nd Serbia 25 pts – 31.990kg
3rd England 25 pts – 31.080kg
4th Slovenia 25 pts – 27.220kg
5th Netherlands 27 pts – 29.330kg
6th Germany 32 pts – 24.740kg

World Championships Youth U22s Individual Results

1st Sjors Milder, Netherlands 3 pts – 9.120kg
2nd Matt Godfrey, England 3 pts – 8.620kg
3rd Vukasin Dimic, Serbia 3 pts – 8.280kg
4th Sven Hekman, Netherlands 3 pts – 7.520kg
5th Lorenzo Tassinari, Italy 4 pts – 9.560kg
6th Alberto Italiani, Italy 4 pts – 7.490kg

The Angling Trust and the CLA Game Fair are delighted to announce that Peter Rolfe is the winner of the first Fred J Taylor Award for Environmental Stewardship in the world of Angling. Peter is pictured with his trophy here (left), along with the Arthur Oglesby Award winner Hugh Miles (centre) and Bernard Cribbins (right).

Peter was selected for his work over nearly four decades studying and conserving crucian carp, a species which has suffered a dramatic decline in numbers due to destruction of its habitat and hybridisation with feral goldfish and other carp. Peter was awarded with the Fred J Taylor Award at the CLA Game Fair on Saturday 20 July in the main theatre, along with a cash prize of £1,000 to spend on furthering his work.

In the 1970s, Peter restored, created and managed several field ponds for the benefit of crucian carp, tench and a host of other wildlife. Thousands of field ponds, once a common sight in the British countryside, have disappeared through neglect or deliberate infilling.

In the 1980s, as secretary of his local angling club, Peter then moved on to creating two larger lakes of 2 and 3 acres respectively, stocked with fish which had bred in the field ponds, and restoring two half-acre lakes dating back to Saxon times. The latter he still manages as fisheries and wildlife reserves.
In 1989, he set up a business raising water plants and fish, including crucian carp and tench. He and his partners went on to create more than 20 new ponds, providing thousands of fish for stocking throughout the West Country. In the same year, he supervised restoration of two Victorian estate lakes of 2 acres each, which went on to produce fish approaching record weights.

Now in his mid- seventies, Peter has just completed a book (Crock of Gold – Seeking the Crucian Carp, Mpress Ltd.) about crucian carp to pass on his knowledge to fishery managers following in his footsteps. This is the only book devoted entirely to this threatened species.

Angling Trust received a small number of very high quality applications for this new award, all of which were entirely eligible to win. However Peter’s nomination stood out as being the precise embodiment of everything the Trust was trying to achieve by creating this award in memory of Fred J Taylor.

Chris Yates, angling writer and star of the BBC TV series A Passion for Angling wrote in his testimonial to Peter’s work:
“for several years now I have fished a pair of Saxon field ponds beautifully restored by Peter Rolfe. Though small, these waters are now a favourite with me, not only because of their wonderful crucians and tench, but also because of their wilder inhabitants. In summer, the reedbeds are alive with damselflies and dragonflies; grass snakes bask on the banks, brook lampreys live in the feeder stream and the rare water vole lives under the banks. Last season, there was a barn owl nesting in an oak on the upper pond and I have often seen a pair of hobbies hawking for dragonflies there.”

Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of the Angling Trust said:
“Peter has single-handedly contributed to the salvation of an important fish species for angling while at the same time restoring one of the country’s most threatened habitats: small ponds, along with the plethora of wildlife that are associated with them. We are privileged that he is the first winner of this award and hope that he will inspire others. We are very grateful to everyone who took the time to apply. We will be promoting the vast amount of work carried out by the angling community to Government in discussions about how we can contribute to the Big Society agenda.”

Vincent Hedley Lewis, Chairman of The CLA Game Fair Board said:
“Peter is an outstanding role model who hopefully will have inspired many people to improve the water aspects of their land. Improving environmental habitat is an invaluable asset to be appreciated with grateful thanks by generations to come.”

Peter Rolfe said:
“Fred J Taylor’s book on tench was one of the inspirations for my field pond work in the 1970s and I feel very honoured to have won an award named after him. I am grateful to the sponsors for this opportunity to highlight the plight of the crucian carp, a fish that has been under-valued until now. Their generosity will help me greatly in my latest project, the restoration of six derelict ponds, in two acres of marvellous wetland, where I plan to continue my research into this remarkable fish and to breed many more for waters all over the country.”

179 young anglers took part in the Angling Trust Cadet, Junior & Intermediate National Championships on Saturday 3rd July on the Trent and Mersey Canal in the Willington area of Derbyshire.

There were just two teams that took part in the Cadet section with Worksop and District AA, managed by Doreen Butt, taking the Cadet Championship title by just one point with 16 points from Smartbait Leeds who had won this title for the last four years. Doreen said “I am thrilled to bits with the win, as we have only kept one of the existing team members from last year and the rest of the youngsters are all new”. The Cadet winner was Harry Keedy (Smartbait Leeds) with 930g. Harry was fishing his fourth National and caught fifty small fish on squatt and pinkie from the far side of the canal. In second place was Reece Keirnon (Worksop & District AA) with a very similar net of small fish scaling 880g. There was a triple tie for third place on the day with Jake Hodgkiss (Worksop and District AA), Adam Thorne (Smartbaits Leeds) and Daniel Slack (Worksop and District AA) all weighing 340g.

The Junior age group attracted eleven teams of six with the match being fished in the Stenson and Swarkestone area. Local team Pride of Derby AA took gold with 53 points which proved to be too good for Tameside Fox Gold in second place with 49 points, leaving Maver Farnborough on 46 points (3kg 980g). The winning Junior was Jake Gallacher (Maver Farnborough) with eighty small squatt fish for 1kg 500g and in second place with a very similar net was Joe Kent (Wakefield AC) 1kg 480g. Matthew Ebbrell (Tameside Fox Gold), with 1kg 310g, came in third place also with small fish on squatt.

The Intermediate section attracted sixteen teams of six and ended up with Wakefield AC winning the gold medal with 87 points, and the Pride of Derby AA Juniors with 75 points in second place, and Smartbait Leeds Gold in third place with 68 points. This match was fished by Castleway Bridge and Josh Reynolds (Wakefield AC) had the top score with a well earned weight of 4kg 20g to take the winning individual title. Josh drew in the row of trees on the bend, on the Alrewas side of the bridge, where he fished chopped worm and caster to take chub to 2 lb and a few perch. In second place was Tom Sharpe (Barnsley and District AC) who was near the Findern Bridge where again chopped worm and caster did him proud, netting chub and perch for 3kg 450g. Eric Yeomans (Pride of Derby AA) came in third place with 2kg 880g of chub, skimmers and perch.

Unfortunately the entry was a little down on last year, but the three age groups showed considerable skill and there was visible proof that the future of match fishing is in very safe hands.
Angling Trust would like to thank the Pride of Derby AA for providing the venue for the event, and also for the reduced peg fees during practice. John Aldred of the Pride of Derby AA was a tremendous help in the run up to the event clearing and strimming pegs and also on the day. We would also like to thank Stenson Marina and the Bubble Inn at Stenson for all their help in making this a successful National Championship event.

After a long campaign, Fish Legal has welcomed the Environment Agency's announcement that anglers will be involved before deals are done with polluters.

Fish Legal believes that "Enforcement Undertakings" (EUs) - one of a raft of measures introduced under the Environmental Civil Sanctions Order 2010 - could lead to secretive agreements with polluters without angler involvement where rivers have been damaged by pollution.
"Civil Sanctions" provide an alternative to prosecution. Instead of paying a fine to the Treasury, polluters can put right the damage which they have caused - for instance - by restocking.

Most anglers would be supportive of such measures if they were drafted properly in the legislation by DEFRA and implemented fairly. However, Fish Legal has argued that the way EUs are described in the legislation could lead to agreements between polluters and regulators reached behind closed doors - without full angler involvement or publicity.

The Environment Agency announced at the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association conference on 27th June 2010 that it had now taken on-board the concerns of Fish Legal .

It has been confirmed that the Agency will require evidence from the polluter that it has consulted third parties affected by pollution, including angling clubs, before signing-off an undertaking by issuing a Certificate of Completion. It will also be made clear to polluters that the sanctions are not an alternative to civil claims made by those affected by environmental damage. Importantly, the content of all EUs will be actively published and the sanction will be subject to the Freedom of Information legislation.

"After over a year of letters and consultations, we felt as though we were up against a relentless DEFRA legislative steam-train." said Justin Neal, Head Solicitor at Fish Legal.

"However, the Agency now appears to have understood our well-founded objections at the way in which Enforcement Undertakings might be implemented. At first, DEFRA completely ignored our warnings and pushed on without making some very simple amendments to the Environmental Civil Sanctions Order. We then pressed the Agency to produce guidance on implementation to recognise our concerns. It appears that the Agency now agrees with us in confirming that it will require full participation of third parties which have been affected by pollutions - including affected angling interests.This is not just a positive outcome for angling but also for the members of the public who want to keep all deals with polluters out in the open and available for scrutiny."

All three of the main Westminster political parties have now signed the Angling Trust’s Angling Manifesto. The document sets out a detailed agenda for the next Parliament to protect and improve angling and fisheries and to acknowledge the economic, environmental and social benefits that the country’s most popular pursuit offers to the British people.

Signed copies of the Manifesto have been received at the Angling Trust offices from Richard Benyon (Conservative), Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour) and Andrew George (Liberal Democrat).

The Angling Trust’s Manifesto for Angling, available in full on the Angling Trust web site, calls on the next Government to promote angling, recognise the rights of anglers and create healthy angling environments.

Richard Benyon said: “The Conservative Party are happy to be signing up to the Angling Trust’s Manifesto for Angling. David Cameron and the Conservative Party are firm supporters of angling and see anglers as being on the front line of the battle to improve the natural environment and our country’s biodiversity. We value our relationship with the Angling Trust and will continue to work closely with them and all representative bodies to improve the quality of our rivers and waterways and encourage more people to go fishing.”

Huw Irranca-Davies said: “I am pleased to confirm that the Labour Party signs up to the Manifesto for Angling, building on the excellent relationship we have enjoyed with the Angling Trust and with recreational anglers across the country, which we know will continue for many years ahead. We value the contribution of the millions of anglers to our society, economy and environment, and the broad principles outlined in your manifesto are a great basis for a continuing and active partnership.”

Andrew George said: “Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats are pleased to be able to support the Angling Trust’s 2010 Manifesto. We recognise angling is a hugely popular pastime which delivers important conservation and economic benefits. We're absolutely committed to working closely with the representative organisations of the sport in order to maximise the benefits of angling.”

Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of the Angling Trust said: “We are delighted that the Angling Trust has achieved consensus amongst our politicians that our sport is positive and beneficial and that angling – and the environment on which it depends – must be protected and improved. We will of course be holding them to these commitments in the new Parliament.”