Having
written recently about the likelihood of big increases in the price of
annual fishing licenses for pensioners and disabled anglers I really sat
up and took notice when I read about a statement put out by the Environment
Agency.
It warned that unless license fees rise sharply in the near future the
E.A. may have to cut back on parts of its expenditure, including their
employment of enforcement officers who check that anglers have bought
a license.
Of course, some of the work done by the E.A. benefits anglers and one
of the best things about this is the stocking of fisheries with lots of
fish from their fish farm.
Mind you, very few of the places that I have fished at over many years
have ever seen a visit from enforcement officers.
I have fished on several thousand days in my lifetime, and when I was
younger and fitter I fished almost every day.
In all of those days I have seen a baliff who asked to see my license
on only three occasions!
Something else concerns me too. It is becoming quite common for owners
of commercial fisheries to insist that customers buy their bait from them,
and not from elsewhere.
As if that was not sufficiently annoying we are now seeing an increasing
number of fishery owners who advertise facilities for camping or caravaning
or chalets near the fishing insisting that the accommodation is not available
to all-male parties.
Are not most groups of anglers all male, and is it not illegal to discriminate
in this way between male and female anglers?