Chillingworth Denies Calling for Livebait Ban

But when contacted by PAC secretary Mark Barrett yesterday, he insisted:

“The reporter asked me for my opinion on how a ban on livebaiting would affect me, I replied that it wouldn’t affect me very much as I only livebait on occasion these days, but when conditions warrant it, I will as long as it is legal and I reserve the right to do so.

“I did not call for livebaiting to be banned and I will quite happily go into print or blow the trumpet for livebaiting where it is carried out to the current law.

“The reporter tried on several occasions to put words into my mouth but I was not biting on that one.”

The paper said Bill had abandoned livebaiting and had recently caught three twenties on paternostered sardine.

But he told Mark:

“I have never, as reported, used a paternostered sea deadbait, I only use a paternoster for live or dead natural baits, and I told the reporter quite openly that the big pike that is mentioned in the story was caught on a small, live roach.”