Guys,
I take on board your concerns and I am not in view of anyone when on the water, casting in a very public such as at the bridge at Kintore would not be something that would even occur to me. The fact remains that I am not causing any damage to redds and am not in anyway doing anything even remotely illegal. I personally see no issue with any angler using a stretch of water for practice during the close season provided they have permission to be there and they are not causing any damage. After all, anglers for the most part generally have the best interests of a fishery at heart, particularly if it is their local and regular fishery. I would like to think that anyone "casting" would not go blindly marching into the river in areas that they should not be and where they could be causing damage. I do not see how my association with the river has any bearing on what I do in relation to my practice and I would simply not be on the water without permission from the landowner and would not advise anyone else to put themselves in that position. There are a few spots on the water I have access to that I will not use at this time of year even though they would be useful in certain winds because I suspect but do not know that they are spawning areas, the river bed simply looks suitable for spawning so I do not go there.
The point you are making Sandy does not really hold for me, there are waters where anglers are actually fishing during the game fishing close season infact many of our best grayling fisheries are also superb salmonid fisheries, do we ban winter grayling fishing for Joe public or at least Joe public who does not have a basic knowledge of salmonid spawning habitat? Or should we just ban grayling fishing outwith the trout and salmon season?
As far as canoes go, yes they can be a pain and a voluntary national code between all water users would be a good thing, with that would come some education probably for all concerned but, everyone has a right of access to our waterways provided they are not in breach of any law, and have the requisute permissions, that is plain & simple fact. As anglers we have to live with canoes and they have to live with us, I do think they should be registered and contribute to river maintanance. How this would be effected I do not know. From their POV it must be a pain to come out of the flow (read head of a nice pool) and paddle round some nut stood in the river. Not come across them on the Don but, on the Dee they seem pretty decent about giving room although I doubt they are looing for redds when entering or leaving the river.
Merry Christmas to all.
Ben
