Occasional angler/krank, are you just another incarnation of Wiedo?
As far as I'm aware no Mepps spinners come with split rings attached.
I guess you could cut the hook. But most people won't be prepared to go to all the trouble and expense of ordering split rings etc in order to use a 99p spinner from the local tackle shop. So the use of trebles will continue and so its better to just teach people how to remove them without hurting the fish as per my original point.
If removed properly trebles are safer to the fishes mouth because they can spread the stress across more than one point. Lures with treble hooks also make gut hooking pretty much impossible because they can't be swallowed without hooking the mouth.
No I'm not. I'm not occasional angler either. And its Krang not Krank.
Ok, you'll have to forgive me i' m dyslexic, really.
Regarding the meps ( they, ondex and blue fox are my favourites) you cut the treble off at it's ring, then simply add a split ring or a clip of one kind or another in the appropriate size.
OK. I can see that would work. But most people aren't going to go to all that trouble to modify a 99p spinner from the local tackle shop.
Also many lures are designed and tuned to run with trebles.
People will continue to use them. If unhooked properly they don't cause damage and have advantages over singles for fish safety. Therefore the best thing we can do is teach people how to unhook them rather than wagging our fingers at people for using them.
No I'm not. I'm not occasional angler either. And its Krang not Krank.
The owners/managers of a venue know their market far better than anyone else.
That said, the only way that they are successful is when the marketplace supports their decisions and it seems that Farmoor have got it right in making it a fly only water.
It is really pointless making petty comments against "fluff chuckers" or indeed emloying the "elite" card, as we have heard it all before, and to no avail.
All anglers have preferrences and in the main those are generally catered for very well indeed, but there wll always be isolated cases where someone can point to the one and only hypothetical situation that disproves a general rule . . . . the OP seems to fit that description rather well.
As for using fly instead of bait, well, surely that is based on what one wants from one's fishing?
If I simply wanted trout to eat then I can buy them far cheaper from the supermarket than I can obtain them by investing time and lots of money on fishing for them . . . it is because I get a lot of fun and enjoyment stalking them on the river, matching their natural food to a fly pattern and then casting to particulat spot to catch them.
I consider myself a multi species angler, in short I enjoy catching most freshwater fish , mostly on seasonal basis, pike- winter, Tench- summer etc if uyou get my drift.
I always enjoy the odd day out fly fishing for trout in what used to be the old close season.
Ladybower, Grafham, Toft Newton, to name a few of my favourite venues.
Why, because they are "fly fishing only waters" which at those times suits me, floats my boat so to speak.
It also suits the owners or others that run these places to make the rules that help to protect the stock from their own weaknesses such as being overly easy to catch by anglers using baits like maggots and worms or god forbid lures and spinners.
Permit those methods and in very short time most of the trout stock would quickly be non existant, Back in the sixties Damflask reservoir nr Sheffield was stocked every year at the start of the old close season with trout , any method was allowed and inside a few short weeks they were all but gone. A truly unsustainable situation given the cost of rearing trout.
So my take on the OP is SORRY but fly only rules are there for both the anglers benefit and the fishes.
As for the OP saying the gentry/ Rich giving off game fish for themselves--- er-- rubbish!
In the industrial revolution workers were often fed Salmon and trout by their employers as a cheap food source. So much in fact that many workers complained about provision provided.
That Farmoor have taken a deliberate decision to not allow lure anglers is due to the market that they understand . . . . personally I'd rather fish a fly only water and have a syndicate membership on the Itchen.
However, post the trout season and for a few months, the venue is open to coarse anglers, but not on the trout beats, but both upstream and downstream of them.
This works reasonably well and neither faction seem to have any problems with the arrangement. The same is true on some stretches of the Test and the Hampshire Avon.
I would think that having the two methods availalbe sumultaneously could affect the fly anglers, as you say yourself, it is far easier to catch trout that way . . . . . so obviously there would be some resentment.
As to the increased revenues well that too is debatable as many fly anglers might well find somewhere else to fish and thereby the income generated coud well be . . . lower.
Let me put it this way:
I pay a significant sum of money for my rod on the Itchen and even then it is only for every second Saturday in the season . . .
For my money I get an entire beat to myself, thereby increasing my chances of catching. Add to that the absolute peace and quiet and the freedom to wander the beat at my leisure.
If I want to see or meet people then I can go to the pub' . . . the fact is that I want to be left alone to fish my way.
Now, I could go to a much closer venue (3 minutes in the car from my house) and pay a lot less for my day fishing but on a much more crowded venue . . . . personally I prefer the seclusion and am happy to pay for that.
If other venues have "any method trout fishing" then by all means go to one of those, if that floats your boat.