EXPOSED: Plans to change the face of pike fishing

Natural England is on a collision course with Britain's 4m anglers over proposals which will change the face of their sport, it emerged tonight.

An investigation by the Pike Anglers Club confirms the powerful conservation quango plans to seek a ban on live baiting.

But officials also want the final say over just about everything else anglers do - ranging from where, when and how we can fish, to which fish belong in our rivers and even whether angling clubs can remove snags or trim bankside trees.

Natural England wants to take control of the way fisheries are managed, imposing draconian controls on our sport. There'll be glib talk of angling's importance to the economy and the benefits it brings, in a blur of Whitehall spin.

But an application using Freedom of Information laws has uncovered a paper trail of policy papers, documents and e-mails between officials stretching back two years.

It all makes for shocking reading, as the true agenda emerges. As threats go, it overshadows clubs banning live baiting, pike culls or even conservation groups buying up waters and turfing anglers out to make way for the bird watchers and picnic tables.

It's angling's ground zero. It's the debate which will define the shape of our sport in the 21st Century. It's the battle that we can't afford to lose.

Natural England first came onto our radar when it called for a ban on live baiting during the Environment Agency's consultation over so-called fish removal by-laws.

While the EA came down firmly on the side of live baiting after listening to what angling had to say on the subject, Natural England won't be satisfied until it's banned.

The argument's hardly a new one. Anglers live baiting routinely move fish from one water to another. However this practice was completely legal until a decade or two ago, so banning it now smacks of stable doors and bolting horses.

But banning live baiting is just the start of it, as far as Natural England's concerned. The powerful quango, which advises government agencies on everything from environmentally-friendly farming policy to conserving rare bats, wants to restrict the stocking of bream and carp and let nature take its course instead of allowing those controlling fisheries to manage them.

They want us to welcome canoeists and swimmers to our waters - and even prevent club working parties from cutting back vegetation or removing snags.

Natural England estimates 4m people go fishing, supporting a £2.75bn industry and 20,000 jobs. It's proposals note that angling takes place on a "significant number" of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and other nature reserves.

"Although angling is formally acknowledged as a reason for unfavourable condition on relatively few of these sites, it is likely that some practices have a serious negative impact on the natural environment," the policy document explaining its proposals says. "These include wildlife disturbance, inappropriate fish stocking and live baiting."

Most predator anglers would probably find the suggestion they have "a serious negative impact on the natural environment" pretty laughable. But livebaiting is singled out elsewhere in the 11-page report.

"Angling can have impacts on rivers and standing waters. The presence of anglers may disturb wildlife such as wildfowl; bank modifications that ease access to the waterside can destroy habitat; and inappropriate stocking and the transfer of species (sometimes non-native) between water bodies is often damaging.

"For example, the inappropriate stocking of standing waters with bottom feeding fish such as carp and bream can often lead to sediment disturbance and a consequent deterioration in water quality.

"Live baiting (where a hook and line are attached to a live fish to lure predators such as pike) has, in some cases, resulted in non-native fish being introduced to waters and native fish being dispersed beyond their natural range.

"Access is also an issue on many freshwaters, with some anglers being reluctant to share water access with other recreational users, such as canoeists. Canoe access is currently restricted to around four per cent of river length in England and Wales."

Even the famous ruffe of Bassenthwaite make a guest appearence, as Natural England presses home the attack.

"Unfortunately some established angling practices are detrimental to the environment. For example, anglers live baiting? with ruffe are believed to have introduced this fish to Bassenthwaite SAC. Here the species established itself and became a significant predator on the eggs of vendace, contributing to this species? local extinction.

"Other practices with potentially detrimental outcomes are the clearance of bankside vegetation and the removal of dead wood from rivers. This is often done to allow better waterside access and lessen the risk of snagging fishing lines, but can also result in a significant loss of habitat for waterfowl, mammals and invertebrates.

"Inappropriate in-channel weed clearance can also have a detrimental effect on some fish species. Many coarse fish use weed as spawning habitat and where it is removed (usually to prevent snagging) breeding will be less successful."

Natural England talks in guarded terms of increasing opportunities for anglers - alongside canoeists and even swimmers.

"Working in partnership with local fishing groups, the Angling Trust and SSSI landholders, Natural England will explore the opportunities for responsible, environmentally-friendly angling on National Nature Reserve estate and SSSIs, and consider expanding this effort where it already occurs.

"For example, by improving access to water bodies where this would be of benefit to anglers and other recreational water users and where this would not be detrimental to nature conservation interests.

"Opportunities to develop angling should not conflict with the recreational value the freshwater environment holds for other users, such as canoeists and swimmers."

Rewind the "where this would not be detrimental to nature conservation interests" line again. Natural England effectively wants the last word, the final say on how waters are managed and the part that angling plays in that picture.

And internal e-mails and documents obtained by the club reveal an alarming anti-angling bias among unelected officials.

In an exchange of correspondence in September 2009, Stephen Arnott, a member of Natural England's policy team, tells colleagues the new policy would give "guidance" to conservation officers (COs) drawing up management plans for rivers and stillwaters classed as SSSIs.

"I can imagine that many COs have no idea of the problems anglers can cause and don't even consider them when formulating management plans," he writes.

"However, I don't think that this rationale for the policy is one we'd want written down in a public document as it wouldn't make us look very good."

Why exactly might Natural England not look very good if its true intentions became public - among some of the more laudable obectives set out in the policy, such as improving the quality of our rivers..?

Because the organisation which frames conservation policy wants to highlight the problems anglers cause, as guidance for those who draw up management plans for nature reserves, who decide if, where and when we can fish.

Some feature in the e-mail trail, requesting more details of these problems. Last October, Sue Cornwell wrote to colleagues requesting more details of wildlife disturbance caused by anglers. "Disturbance should be no problem," Mr Arnott replied within minutes.

One wildlife trust already has a No Fishing policy. In the last Pikelines, Alan Dudhill reported hundreds of acres of stillwaters in Nottinghamshire had been closed after being bought up by the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.

Elsewhere anglers are already starting to lose out to a powerful conservation lobby looking to create new wetland reserves to replace those lost to rising sea levels and climate change.

Natural England also has its eye on carp - the species which probably supports the vast bulk of the angling industry.

One discussion paper asks whether all stockings should be opposed - apart from those in "enclosed artificial waters". It asks whether fish to be left to their own devices to re-colonise rivers and lakes.

"The commonly-stocked common carp is classed as a natuve species by the EA, but considered by some to be an invasive non-native species," it goes on. "Should Natural England promote the removal of species such as common carp from the wild and restrict their use to enclosed artificial fisheries."

A dialogue is under way between the PAC and the Angling Trust, which was unaware of many of the policy's details and the discussions which led up to it.

"At the moment we are talking to them at a senior level, Chairman and CEO, and expressing our concerns over this draft and especially the emails which you exposed," a seniot source within the Trust said.

"We have strong working relationships with many of those within NE who support angling and they provide a useful source of knowledge of where the problems might exist internally. Those contacts will continue.

"We will be taking the concerns to Richard Benyon, Fisheries Minister at Defra, and asking that NE should have no part in fisheries management of sites which they do not control themselves."

Natural England's fisheries policy has now been approved by its ruling board. It is now due to go out for public consultation.

When it does, we could well find ourselves fighting the most important battle our entire sport has ever faced - let alone this club.

Gill netting spectre still hangs over the Fens

SEIZED: An EA official with an illegal gill net

The spectre of illegal fish removal hung over the Fens tonight, after PAC members found dead bream tangled in a gill net floating in the River Welland.

The grim discovery is a stark reminder of the devastation those who remove coarse fish for food can cause to our nation's fisheries - not to mention the less than eager attitude on the part of the authorities when it comes to prosecuting those responsible.

So-called fish theft is against the provisions of sections of the Marine Bill, which outlaw almost all fish removal from our waters, apart from limited numbers of fish for use as bait.

Monofilament gill nets are freely available on the internet. They are used commercially for catching surface-swimming species of sea fish.

Gill nets are not a legal fishing method in freshwater, yet their use appears to be on the increase - probably because they are a more efficient method of fishing than set lines or fyke nets.

So far, just one case involving the use of gill nets to catch coarse fish has come before the courts.

Migrant workers were ordered to forfeit boats and equipment worth thousands of pounds after they were caught red-handed netting fish from Norfolk's River Wissey two years ago.

Clikc here to read our report.

The Environment Agency's national head of enforcement said the case sent out a clear message that stealing fish from Britain's rivers would not be tolerated and pledged it would take "strong action" to bring offenders to justice.

Since that case came to court, there have been numerous occasions when gill nets have been found by pike anglers and fishing club bauiliffs.

But the "strong action" promised has not materialised. You sometimes wonder when it ever will.

Illegal gill net found on River Welland

GRISLY: Dead bream tangled in a gill net

A pike angler out for a trip on his boat today found a discarded gill net which had killed more than a dozen bream.

Phil Brown, Peterborough regional organiser for the Pike Anglers Club, made the shocking find downstream of Crowland Bridge, on the River Welland.

"When I went past it, I thought it was a dead sheep in the water," he said. "On closer inspection, I could see they were dead fish, about a dozen of them in a net.

"We tried to get it out but it was stuck to some kind of gate."

PAC members made contact with Angling Times journalist Greg Whitehead, and took him out to photograph the grim remains, which were floating just beyond the margins of the river (left).

"It was about 15ft long, a gill net made from thin monofilament," said Greg. "There were 15 or so decent-sized dead bream in it, they were quite old, they'd been in there for a while.

The Environment Agency was immediately informed of the discovery.

"The EA didn't come out - they said they wanted to stake it out," said Greg.

The net was snagged to a sunken gate. It could have drifted downstream after breaking free from where it was staked out further upstream, or possibly those who set it did not return to claim their catch.

The stretch of the Welland where it was found has suffered a marked and as yet unexplained decline as a pike fishery in recent seasons.

Pike anglers slam "environmental vandals"

VANDALS: A banner opposite the Broads Authority's HQ

Pike anglers have made their feelings known as safety measures to protect the River Thurne from toxic silt are exposed as a sham.

Officials claimed silt screens would prevent prmnesium algae spores escaping from Heigham Sound into the river, as contractors began test dredging.

But pike anglers who have visited the site have photographed gaps in the screens which could allow material to pass through into the river.

"The silt control is disasterous," one told the PAC, as pictures were released of the screens. "It looks pretty from a distance, but they've just tied it together. They're supposed to have Velcro over the ropes."

Norfolk pike anglers, led by the Norwich and District Pike Club, have opposed plans to dredge shallow areas of the Thurne around Heigham Sound.

Officials hope to use material removed from the river to reinstate an island which once stood near the mouth of nearby Duck Broad.

But anglers fear the dredging will release prymnesium trapped in the silt, leading to a repeat of major fish kills which happened on the shallow Upper Thurne system during the last century, all but wiping out fish life in parts of the river.

Recognised as one of Britain's most historically-important pike fisheries, the tidal river and its network of reed-lined meres and broads have produced a string of 40lbs-plus pike over the last 20 years, including two fish which have held the record, before the Broads were eclipsed by trout fisheries in the bigh fish stakes.

Yesterday, banners calling the Broads Authority environmental vandals appeared across Norfolk, including opposite the BA's HQ on the outskirts of Norwich.

Conservationists have not always been synmpathetic to pike anglers, but many fear the consequences for birds and even otters if prymnesium gains a foothold in the system.

Tackle importers set to scrap pike gags

One of Europe's biggest suppliers of pike gags has agreed to discontinue them after approaches from one of the PAC's regional organisers.

Notts-based Alan Dudhill contacted firms to urge them to abandon the crude and outdated unhooking tools.

"Being rather ambitious I decided to start at the top by contacting Fladen Fishing in Sweden, the biggest of the suppliers of gags to the UK market," Alan said.

"They wasted no time in responding to my concerns and immediately put me in touch with Rachael Bradwick, assistant managing director of Fladen Fishing UK."

Rachael Bradwick's response was quick and to the point.

"It’s concerned us to hear that this item could be harmful to fish if used in the wrong hands and felt obliged to discontinue it," she said.

"I’m pleased to confirm that Fladen have decided to withdraw their pike gags from the UK market and they will not appear in their 2011 catalogue. "

Alan said the move was a "significant and commendable move" by Fladen. Fellow importer WSB Tackle - another significant supplier of gags to the trade - was quick to follow suit.

UK general manager Mario Massimino said: "We have also decided to stop the import of pike gags, and not to include them in our next catalogue. We already sell a lot of forceps, and do recommend these as a preference over pike gags."

WSB has also confirmed that they will refer their customers to the PAC web site to learn safe handling and unhooking techniques.

Alan said: "Experienced and responsible pike anglers will know that gags have no place in modern day pike angling. They are near useless, cause damage to the fish and are completely unnecessary. Indeed they are already illegal in Scotland and high on the agenda to be banned completely in England and Wales.

"As a life-long supporter of the PAC and a bit of a ‘pike hugger’, I’ve spent years challenging retailers about the sale of gags with mixed results.

"Education always seemed to be the key but with untold access to information on pike welfare and handling, my opinion was that if it hadn’t sunk in yet, it probably wouldn’t do. I eventually decided to miss out the ‘middle-man’ and go direct to the main importers and suppliers."

Alan said he would now be approaching other manufacturers, urging them to follow the lead set by Fladen and WSB.

"I’m sure that other companies will now show the same level of responsibility and put fish welfare before profits. Hopefully the pike gag will soon be eradicated from the shelves and resigned to the medieval archives along with the gaff."

For tips on the safe handling and unhooking of pike, click here to visit the PAC website.

Shaun wins day with piking legend ET

Shaun Sykes from Mansfield got an unexpected bonus when he joined the Pike Anglers Club.

He's won a day's fishing with the legendary Eddie Turner, in our exclusive membership competition.

Mark Davies, from Dalkeith, is also celebrating, after winning a pair of Free Spirit rods.

PAC membership secretary Chico Winterton said there had been "a bumper crop" of entries.

Summer Pikelines is hot stuff

Cutting edge lure tactics, along with all the latest news and views from the world of pike fishing are packed into Summer's 72-page edition of Pikelines.

Pike Anglers Club president Tim Kelly asks if anyone else out there can see the bigger picture, as powerful conservation interests look to impose their will on angling.

The threats to our sport are as real as when the PAC was formed more than 30 years ago.

But as well as fighting to conserve the pike and pike fishing, our members show they're no slouches when it comes to catching them.

Andy Charmer tells the exclusive story behind the capture of a 40lbs specimen from in-form Chew.

And Westcountry PAC stalwart Jules Chidgey has become the first pike angler to win the Drennan Cup - the most coveted prize in specimen angling.

Jules will be topping the bill of speakers at the PAC Convention at Kettering, on September 25, along with Eric Edwards, Mark Ackerley and Gary Knowles.

There's a full preview of the biggest predator fishin event of the year, along with reports from PAC events and fish-ins, and regional news from up and down the country.

Tactics-wise, we focus on lure fishing with a masterclass from Fens maestro Mark Phillips, a thought-provoking look at leaders from Mark Leathwood and some tips on tarting up those spinnerbaits from Good Ole Gordy (weeee-haaaa).

We've also got the inside track on the ongoing BAA livebait debacle, while committee members and our regional organisers report on some of the other battles the club's currently engaged in.

PAC events head for Norfolk

This season's PAC events will now include a two-day bash on Norfolk's famous River Bure.

We have places for 14 anglers setting out afloat from Wroxham on Thursday, November 25 and Friday, November 26.

There are four 12ft (two anglers...) boats and two 14ft (three anglers...) boats reserved. Cost £25 per angler (2 per boat) & £17 per angler (3 per boat)

Discounted accomodation may be available depending on numbers of rooms and nights required.

Returning zander does "nil" damage

Zander anglers can sleep easy in their bivvies. Because e-mails between officials at Natural England reveal why you won't be prosecuted for returning them - despite recent claims to the contrary.

More here.

BAA ban upheld but PAC vows to fight on

Predator anglers have vowed to keep on fighting to defend their sport after Birmingham Anglers Association upheld its controversial ban on livebaiting.

Its executive committee has ignored pleas for unity from the Pike Anglers Club, which said the ban was "damaging and divisive".

In a brief e-mail, BAA secretary John Williams said: "The committee briefly discussed the issue again and re-confirmed their approval of the Changes to our bye-laws. “

Mr Williams said the committee registered its disapproval of adverse press coverage of the issue.

But in a statement, the PAC said: "From the outset, we have tried to negotiate with the BAA committee but were allowed only to put our concerns to Mr Williams, who has passed them on.

"If press coverage of the BAA's actions has been less than sympathetic they need to ask themselves why.

"They ban boat fishing on navigable rivers. They ban livebaiting despite the Environment Agency coming down in support of the method. They charge different membership fees for men and women. The BAA is no longer an inclusive club for all anglers.

"This is a sad day for our sport, but angling can rest assured we have no intention of giving up."

The Midlands club broke ranks and announced its decision weeks before new national by-laws came into force giving the green light to the method.

The EA drew up the by-laws after a lengthy consultation process anyone could take part in. They increased the protection of mature coarse fish, amid concerns at the numbers being taken for the table, but also allowed predator anglers to take up to 15 fish a day for use as bait.

"We must also recognise that the taking of small fish for bait is an important part of predator fishing," the EA said. "There is no evidence that this is damaging stocks and therefore should be allowed to continue."

The BAA committee disregarded the EA's findings when it voted unanimously to outlaw the removal of any fish - apart from zander - from their waters.

Midlands LO Steve Bown put predator angling's case to the BAA, after Angling Times asked: What's next - a ban on keepnets.

When Steve Bown met its secretary John Williams, he said predator anglers were the only branch of angling to be adversely affected by the club's new by-laws.

He said the ban would not prevent illegal fish removals, while justifying it on welfare grounds was a dangerous step for angling.

"Predator anglers fishing under restrictions will be tempted to flout rules on waters which rarely see a bailiff," he added. "We would rather work within the limits of acctpable club rules.

"Working with local prdator anglers to achieve a mutually-acceptable by-law would be excellent publicity for the BAA.

"A demonstration of different branches of angling working together would no doubt encourage more people to join."

Mr Williams said the PAC's concerns would be passed on to the BAA's executive at its next meeting. The BAA committee has the power to revisit the issue, though it remains to be seen whether it will choose to do so.

A BAA ban on livebaiting was famously over-turned by the club in what was seen as a landmark victory in the 1980s. The PAC is now considering the next step.

Club's new badge remembers Barrie

A limited-edition badge will be launched at the PAC Convention in memory of one of the club's founding fathers Barrie Rickards.

Tributes flooded in when Barrie passed away last November, after battling cancer. His loss rocked the angling world.

As well as raising funds for the PAC, a portion of the profits from the £5 cost of each badge will be donated to two of Barrie's favourite good causes - Cancer Research UK and the St John's Ambulance.

The new badge will go on sale at the PAC convention, at Kettering Conference Centre, on Saturday, September 25.

Click here for more on the convention, ticket prices and this year's line-up of speakers.

Happy ending for Cornish killer pike saga

When stories about killer pike in a Cornish duck pond began hitting the papers, we wondered who'd started all the media hysteria.

We launched a complaint when we found out the source was the Environment Agency.

"The once tranquil waters of Par Duck Pond near St Blazey have been disturbed by hungry pike that are chomping their way through the local fish population," began an EA press release the BBC, local media and even a national newspaper happily copied and pasted, without any effort to check the facts about pike.

Our complaint to the EA said: "Common sense, not to mention accuracy appear to have been taking a day off when it was issued.

"We expect better from the EA. We certainly don't expect the custodian of our nation's fisheries to recycle such groundless hysteria."

We enclosed a copy of Pike in Your Waters - which you can download for free from our website.

Now the EA says it will review future communications and take our complaint into account.

"We do accept your point that the press release "sensationalises" negative aspects of pike behaviour and will ensure that future press releases take your concerns into account," Simon Toms, the agency's fisheries, recreation and biodiversity team leader for Cornwall said in his response.

Mr Toms's letter also revealed a happy outcome to the saga: "We were keen to conserve and relocate any pike caught at Par duck pond as we are fully aware of their value as a predatory species anglers enjoy catching.

"A health check was carried out and proved that the opike were free of any damaging fish parasites, so enabling the subsequent movement of pike uop to 10lbs to Trenchford Reservoir."

Time to put an end to zandercide..?

Today's Eastern Daily Press features a lengthy opinion piece, setting out a compelling case for why zander should be protected just like any other coarse fish.

"More lies have been told about pike than any other fish, Queen Victoria's inspector of fisheries Frank Buckland once famously observed. If zander had been swimming in our rivers when the phrase was first coined, he might just as easily have said it about them."

Zander have been excluded from new national fishery by-laws, which forbid anglers from removing any fish apart from a limited number for bait. And Natural England wants anglers to kill all the zander they catch.

"But those who target them in Fenland's sprawling maze of rivers and drains, and pike anglers who catch them from time to time, have more respect for their quarry than they do for officialdom," the piece observes.

"Most will do what they've always done, return the fish unharmed after a picture or two regardless of what anyone says to the contrary."

Environment Agency officials have already gone on record stating they will not prosecute anyone who does so, because zander were lawfully stocked by one of its predecessors two decades before the Wildlife and Countyside Act classified them an unwelcome alien species.

"Activists see zander as a watershed for angling, because officialdom is widely feared to have bigger fish to fry when it comes to what species do and do not belong in our rivers."

Zander aren't the only so-called alien fish swimming in some of our rivers, the article concludes. But no-ones advocating killing barbel and carp, yet.

It advocates a simple solution: "A ground zero approach, which draws a line under waters where
zander existed prior to the Wildlife and Countryside Act and where they should be allowed to remain because they have become naturalised.

"That doesn't mean anyone's calling for them to b stocked anywhere else - including the Broads.

"It just means where they're already present and valued as a sporting fish, with a role to play in our rivers, they should be returned."

Petition launched to save fishing at Chasewater

Repairs to a Midlands reservoir will see fish removed to other waters.

But anglers have been told the venue they have enjoyed for more than a century will not be re-stocked once the work has been carried out.

Chasewater Dam was built in the late 18th Century to supply water for the growing network of canals. But 200 years later British Waterways and council officials say the 300ha water must be drained to stabilise its earth banks.

Now anglers have been told Lichfield council does not plan to replenish stocks after the £2.5m project is completed.

"The private contractors were willing to carry out the works for a considerable charge, but would sell the fish as part of the process," the council says.

"British Waterways on the other hand are happy to rehome the fish in local waterways, but once rehomed, the fish will be owned by British Waterways and will not be returned to Chasewater.

"Once the water levels and the ecology of the reservoir are back to acceptable levels, we could theoretically consider restocking the pools with new fish, but as we only make less than £500 from angling licenses a year, we won’t have available monies to do this. The lake’s SSSI status would also restrict how we could restock the reservoir, and no alien species or trout would be allowed back."

Fish including pike and bream are are already dying as water levels fall, according to newspaper reports.

A council blog details progress of the work here.

A petition has been launched, calling for re-stocking once work is complete. Click here to sign it.

+++More on this on Monday...

Pikers fined more than £1000 for having rods too far apart

Two pike anglers have been ordered to pay fines and costs of more than £1,000 for ignoring a No Fishing sign and having their rods spread up to 50m apart.

Matthew Collins from Hertford was fined £400 for attempting to take fish and £500 for using rods and lines in such a way as to cause damage to fish, when he appeared before King's Lynn magistrates.

Thomas Coombes, also from Hertford, was fined a total of £250 at the same court hearing. Both men admitted the offences on the Cut Off Channel at Stoke Ferry, Norfolk, last December. Both were also ordered to pay £127 costs.

The area they were fishing was clearly signposted ‘no fishing’ in several places, including on the road which gives access to the area and on the river bank itself, the court was told.

Once popular with pike anglers, the Environment Agency now considers the stretch around Stoke Ferry Waterworks, where a sluice connects the Cut-Off to the River Wissey, as being too dangerous to fish.

Although both men produced valid rod licences, under Environment Agency byelaws they should not have been fishing in the area, and the way in which they were using their rods was also prohibited.

The EA said where multiple rods are used, the butt ends of the outside rods must not be more than 3m apart. In this case, the butt ends were up to 45m apart. The rule is in place to protect the welfare of fish, as rods placed too far apart cannot be checked fast enough to prevent fish being harmed by being hooked on them.

Environment Agency bailiff Mick Robinson said: "These people were fishing in an area where it is clearly sign-posted that no fishing is allowed.

"To add to this, they were using rods and lines in a way that could have left fish struggling on a hook for some time. I am very pleased with this result and hope it will make all anglers check that they are fishing in the right area and that they do so in a responsible manner."

On the same day at the King's Lynn court Ramunas Katkevicius, from London, was fined £175 and ordered to pay £75 costs for fishing without a rod licence in November 2009.

It's election time - so what will they do for angling

OK, David Cameron hasn't joined the PAC (yet). But as campaigning starts in earnest for the May 6 general election, we're wondering what any of the parties are going to do for the nation's anglers and our fisheries.

Predator anglers are having a bumpy ride at the moment, with the BAA bait ban, so-called conservationists telling us we've got to kill zander and proposals to ban bivvying up in parts of Scotland.

Gordon Brown's hosting a special people's PMQs (Prime Ministers Questions) tomorrow.

If you click here, you can submit your own question. So why not ask him what he's going to do to get zander taken off the alien list - or about any other angling issue that gets your goat.

If enough of us do it, you never know...

The Times reports on new fishery by-laws

New rules are set to come into force giving coarse fish added protection, but allowing predator anglers to take limited numbers for bait, The Times reports.

Nine twenties in 36hrs

Dave West nailed more twenties in an arm-aching 36hrs on the Shannon system than most of us manage in a good season. Check out the gallery for pics ====>

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PAC events update

It might seem miles away, with summer coming. But PAC events organiser Mick Crisp is already organising next season's club fish-ins.

So here are a few dates for your diary.

We're kicking off on Rutland Water, Leics, on Friday, September 17. This is a lure-only event, with 20 boats at £30 an angler, plus a boat fitted out for disabled anglers.

Monday, September 27 sees another lure-only bash at Esthwaite Water, in Cumbria. There are 15 boats available for this - plus a disabled boat - cost again is £30 per angler.

Next on the agenda is Ardingly Reservoir, Sussex, on Sunday, October 10. This is a deadbait-only bank fioshing event, limited to 20 places at £10 each.

Application slips for all the above will be in the next Pikelines, due out to members shortly.

We've also got two lure-only events at Menteith on Monday, November 1 and Saturday, November 6. Application forms for these will be in August's Pikelines.