Grace catch report - Is Big Brother watching us?

[drifter]

We left Royal Quays around 9am at low water and headed North to give the boat it's first run of the season. It was slack water so we fished the wreck just East of the yellow can (Arthurs wreck) and within a few minutes we landed our first Cod which was returned. We picked up a few Pouting before heading to the ground outside the yellow can and landed another Cod straight away (also returned) but the tide was taking an age to turn and the bites dried up completely.
We had just finished our second pork pie when a Drone suddenly appeared about 15 meters above the boat and hovered there for a quite a few minutes. It looked an expensive piece of kit with it's camera lens pointing at us and propellers at each corner.
After a while it took off vertically to maybe 50 meters before shooting away in the general direction of St Mary's. We were perhaps 3 mile out and I am left wondering if the Drone was an official bit of kit deployed by DEFRA, Fisheries Protection or the coastguard.
I'm not too bothered if it's an official surveillance tool but they need to let us know because if it belongs to some nosey techno geek I'll be taking some potshots at it with my catapult.

[codhw]

Dont mind if the drone is official or just some interested techno geek but if it becomes a pain think I would practice my vertical castings skills. Glad you had an early season successful trip hopefully we will be out in the next week or two

[Davem]

3 miles range seems a long range for a hobby drone , no expert like !

[Tadpoleman]

Are people alowed to invade your personal space and secret weapons and baits ? And special powder coated colours and Shads ! I think we need a few Cattys aswell !

Well done on the seasons first one under your belt and catching
3rd of April for us ,can't wait yee haa

[Charlton]

suggest you contact NIFCA and see if it theirs, doubt it, don't think they have the dosh for those sort of things

[canman]

Just keepin an eye on who's plundering me wreck. I've got a "Black widow" catapult at home, i'll take it out with me next time.

[Scrubbs]

thought this was interesting

f your drone is under 20kg and you're not using it for commercial reasons, then you still have some rules to follow. Anyone filming with a drone for their own purposes must avoid flying it within 150 metres of a congested area and 50 metres of a person, vessel,vehicle or structure not under the control of the pilot.

You will also need to fly the aircraft within sight. This means you can’t go above 400ft in altitude or further than 500 metres horizontally. If you want to exceed that, you’ll again need to seek explicit permission from the CAA.

There are other potential areas of law that the CAA does not deal with, such as privacy issues and nuisance from noise, which you'll need to bear in mind. Filming people without their permission when they have a reasonable expectation of privacy is a no-no, for example.


so I think your best idea is ignore it , then wait till it's on you tube then report them to the CAA.

[Jimbob]

Remembered this post from ages ago.
This newish £1000 drone ; DJI Phantom 4 can fly at 45mph with a range of 3 miles...

DJI Phantom 4 Drone + Extra Battery | Maplin

This was filmed with the inferior DJI 3 model;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9hAcFCjMxU

[dt1]

I was paddling in at Church Point Newbiggin Saturday morning and thought I had a swarm of bees around me looked up and there it was , a UFO directly above me lol . The footage from these drones is amazing , some good vids on utube of the Cambois /Newbiggin coastline .........Dave.

[drifter]

Since my earlier posting there's been a few more occasions when a drone has appeared above the boat. The latest couple of drones have not looked as "official" as the first one which was similar in terms of colour to the new NIFCA vessel St Aiden. Not heard anything about the NIFCA using drones to enhance their surveillance capability but it would make good sense.