Commercial rafting appears to have taken possession of the upper reaches of one of Scotland’s most noted salmon rivers, the Tay, almost entirely; consequently anglers have simply given up trying to fish and fishery rents have imploded.
Despite being offered a 50-50 timeshare with anglers the commercial rafting interests have ignored the needs of anglers totally and swamped the river with endless flotillas of rafts and sensible fishing is no longer a proposition. For the rafters a policy of ‘invade and ignore’ has worked brilliantly against angling interests.
To add insult to injury Perth and Kinross Council, which has local jurisdiction in this matter, has ruled that they have ‘no evidence’ of rafting having any detrimental effect on salmon fishing. This despite repeated requests by Fish Legal – in every case ignored – to submit evidence of damage done. Fish Legal, the legal arm of the Angling Trust, is now considering legal action against Perth and Kinross.
History has, of course, shown un-nerving parallels and the un-checked progress of would-be oppressors has often resulted in a domino-like effect if left to go unchecked. Make no mistake, what has happened on the Tay will eventually find its way to the rest of the country.
Some anglers I have spoken to have failed to see the significance of this apparent victory of the rafters. ‘What the hell has salmon fishing of all things…in Scotland of all places…got to do with us here?’ is quite a common reaction.
Well, it has everything to do with us and I fear the navigation rights lobby will do its best to drive us out wherever they can and anglers on rivers in Wales are already fighting something of a rearguard action on the issue of canoe access. If we are weak and unprepared, the canoeists will win. They form a vociferous lobby, pushing for a universal ‘right to paddle’ on the lines of the notorious ‘right to roam’ for walkers.
Or do you still think that what has happened in Scotland cannot possibly happen elsewhere? Are you of the passive ‘wait and see’ persuasion?
Please do not forget that this particular battle will be fought at a political level. These interest groups lobby politicians and seek media coverage of their case. The average non-angling member of the public – a huge chunk of voters in fact – will either be totally ignorant of, or indifferent to, fishing, fish, rivers and the anglers’ case, or else they will think that the paddlers deserve access as much as anglers do, or maybe even more than anglers do…
So what we need to do is get our own lobbying, PR and legal machine into gear – it goes under the name of the Angling Trust by the way – for the battle ahead. It is no good just shrugging your shoulders and putting your head in the sand or, as many do, criticising and belittling the Trust from a distance. You need to join; solidarity is now the name of the game. So, if you have not already done so get up off that apathetic behind and add your voice to the much-needed single anglers’ union which is at long last now reality: the Angling Trust.
Whilst we are at it my own personal view is that in such cases of conflicting interests there is no harm in proactively fighting fire with a little fire of our own. A few hard-hitting but totally civilised demos might not go amiss. How about, for instance, dumping a huge box of papers on the doorstep of Perth and Kinross Council to represent the evidence they were clearly not interested in receiving? It would of course be sensible to give the local media prior notice in all such cases.
And please do not even bother to tell me, as so many anglers I meet do, that we are not an effective lobby and get walked over on every possible issue. The full story is that we get walked over precisely because of the defeatist attitudes of people who think like that. If you do not consider it worth joining then in the long run fishing as a sport is finished. The real enemy is then not the rafter or the canoeist or the anti-angler. It is you.
So don’t let us remain weak and unprepared – join, and do it now.
