License fee

[Stores]

See they\'ve finally got to us - the radio report says it\'s us that\'s responsible for the lack of fish in the North Sea and they\'re going to charge us for the opportunity to further deplete the stocks (that\'s bollixed my 5 fish a year). Hope they\'ve got a quick runner/mountaineer for the summer as I\'m in training for those quick getaways up Eyemouth. Doesn\'t it depress you or what

[bribones]

well if there gonna charge me £22 for catching nowt they got another thing coming,theyd best put some fish in there or better still on me hook ,christ they get enough taxing the gear we buy ,glad they didnt get my vote this year

[tich]

Just heard about it in the Kittiwake tonight, who\'s idea is it??? Me gueses a nother way of screwing a nother coupple of quid of the ordinary tax payer,why dont they tax the spanish trawlers that fish in our waters?screw them on the most expencive petrol in the EEC or the diesel,, no they fill up in some ****ry thats cheeper than us then screw us for the fish ( pun meant,, sorry ) so what does it mean to us ?? Is it just the shore anglers that pick up the tab? or is it the boat lad\'s aswell ,or is it on the rod/ rods you use, time you fish, what you catch?? who knows ,,,,... Im sure I read somthing in the rights of the Magna Cata about fishing the shore line below the high water line & thats why the fresh water lads have to pay and we dont ,, but dont quote me on that,,, I just suppose we\'ll go on about it for a bit nothing will happen and we\'ll just pey it, like we do the T,V bu&&ER all on but it cost\' us £ 120 notes a year ,,, thats my winge overover, <>>>>> wierd things happening to my compuyer .,..... Big brother must be watching\"!!!!!!!

[Red5]

Aye £22 times by about 1 million recreational sea anglers. Good money spinner!

[5150]

How would they enforce it? There\'s masses of coastline, a lot of which is remote... they couldn\'t have people checking every mile of coast constantly looking for the one person with no license who\'s only there for a couple of hours...

Just another stupid plan to rake in some money for nothing.

I\'d sooner see small fee\'s for fishing certain area\'s like piers, harbours etc - took a holiday on the Isle of Wight one time and one pier there (Yarmouth) charged a small fee - think it was something like 40p back in 1989 which went to the upkeep of the pier. Didn\'t mind paying that at all since the pier was well looked after...

[mark]

If they can demonstrate that the money is going to be used positively (which I doubt) then I wouldn\'t neccesarily be against it, but I would want to see it policed. If it got some baliffs regularly checking the piers for example, thereby getting rid of a lot of the eejits and litter mongers then it can only be positive. If however (as I suspect) you pay your money and never see anything for it then its just yet another stealth tax, no doubt to pay for Mr mandelsons expenses on his trips brussels

[bribones]

you can bet your last quid theyl target the most popular spots,piers etc the thing that gets me is how can they for example improve whitley bay pipe ? what they gonna do force the fish inland and net them in,you cant improve something thats gone tits up becouse overseas fishermen arnt putting the smaller fish back,shore and boat lads/lasses arnt the problem we catch bugger all anyway unless your lucky ,how oftens that ,i hate paying money out for no return unless its for charity and most of that goes to overseas steps off soap box

[Red5]

Apparently boats would be bannned from coming a mile inshore so that the shore was exclusively for us!

[MickA]

Any fees will just be swallowed up in the bottomless pit know as the treasury. If it was ploughed back into the sport then I would have no qualms about paying a license fee.
There\'s no way something like this can be policed effectively taking into consideration the hundereds on miles of coastline. Odds on bailiffs will target the easy to get to, popular spots. How many do you think there will be hanging around at the big comps when theres a few hundered or so of us there, thats going to take a bit of bottle. No doubt there\'ll be some underhand methods involved (digi camera\'s and taking reg numbers spring to mind).
Really p\'s me off things like this as Mark is right when he says its just another stealth tax that we\'ll not ba able to anything about and get nothing back once we\'ve paid it.

Anyone know if consessions will be made for kids ?

[DaveMcK]

I was over in Australia last year for 4 weeks and did quite a bit of shore fishing. You do need a license for about £20 but tourists dont need one. The NSW goverment used the money to buy out the inshore commercial fishermen and as a result the fishing has seen a big improvement. They do enforce size and bag limits and most folk adhere to them.
I would not mind paying a fee if it were used compensate the inshore fishermen and an exclusion zone of say 3 miles from the shore was introduced.

[Ell]

I don\'t know that much about the Marine Eco System but I would hazard a guess that these itty bitty 1-3 mile \"Exclusion\" zones for commercials would mean nish in terms of conservation. Many species migrate as do bait fish. FISH CANNOT READ SIGNS \"oh lets all snuggle inside the 1-3 mile limit\" where do these proposal leave the inshore boat angler? What consultation has gone on? What have the NFSA and other Angling bodies had to say about this. Leon fill us in mate please if you can.