Because there isn't a close season on canals and stillwaters, there isn't any good reason why you can't fish rivers all year round. No difference IMO. Doesn't seem to matter in Ireland and other countries. Time to get rid of it.

Great topic and conversation as always, if no ones fishing them leave them open through the spring and more people might go as the weather warms up and before the rivers get choked with weed as the summer draughts arrive. The argument for closing due to spawning and birds nesting has never had any foundation to close the waters.

2019, the E.A. did a survey asking twenty thousand licence holding anglers their opinions on the close session. Fourteen & half thousand replyed, most I imagine never fish rivers look it up online. When I was asked, I had the over riding option, this was no more than a P.R exercise, I say this because it was more about asking anglers did they dry out their nets between fishing venues to stop diseases spreading. Important, yes, but not the point. The E.A. had made their mind up from the start. Tells you all you need to know.

I live near the Cherwell and am amazed when I see anyone else fishing, how come there is no close season in Scotland or Ireland? The river has been in almost constant flood and just when the weather turns it is closed, this is ludicrous and outdated, luckily the Oxford canal is open all year round and yet the water flows out of the river into the canal, What is the difference?

When there were 1000s of anglers hammering the river back in the day it made sense to give the rivers a rest for 3 months but everything is different now

I think it's at least worth being looked into by the EA, like you say, the spawning excuse seems pointless given that it seems to be happening outside of the closed season for most species nowadays.

When ALL waters were closed in the closed season,here in Lincolnshire we could still fish still/ landlocked waters. In no way did the waters or fish stocks seam to be affected.....just a thought

It seems a pointless exercise now. Sack it off completely.

I always was and still am an advocate for the close season. It’s not just about the fishing, it allows the banks to recover and regenerate at the time of year when everything starts growing and also it’s at the time of year when most birds are breeding so gives them a chance without any disturbance. I am at the age when I can remember the close season was on all waters and June the 16th was a magical date. In those days anglers that wanted to fish in the close season took up fly fishing for trout as the season for them started in April which also helped out the tackle shops at this time. At least nowadays those that want to coarse fish have still waters and commercials to visit providing they are not SSSI.

Good topic Joe ! Yes I think we should change it up a bit as you sead we catch them with sporn in em anyway at certain times of the year so maybe we do need to push for a chainge I love my tiny river fishing it real fishing isn't it!

As a young lad, back in the 60's and 70's, life was pretty miserable, when my non-fishing parents and relatives brought me fishing tackle, for my birthday on 17th March. After a couple of weeks they would ask me if I was catching more fish with my new tackle. I use to lie to them, it just seemed easier than trying to explain the close season.

Abolish the , not fit for purpose, closed season. Doing so would be beneficial for both the monitoring and management of our flowing waterways. Year round, Legal angling presence on the river bank will curtail poaching, pollution incidents would be monitored more effectively and fish stocks may even benefit from less predation ( the cormorants and mergansers fly away when I get to my local river “hotspot”.) and increased food amounts may be beneficial at a time when the fish need energy for spawning and recovery. We have a duty of care to manage our fisheries correctly. Ignoring them for three months is poor management. Make river angling all year round, like it is on canals, reservoirs, ponds, and pig puddles, it is just plain sensible. Other vested interests are encouraging riverside activities that are detrimental to the river and its natural environment. Access to river banks , rights of way, and parking facilities are sadly neglected. We need to encourage engagement not curtail it. Angling is a watchdog for sensible river conservation. Encourage year round participation and the recreational angling fraternity would benefit mentally, physically and financially. It’s a no brainier and high profile angling superstars , like your good self, should be championing this cause. Sorry to go on! But you did ask!

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Time for the close season to end as excuses that it's benefits bank recovery is a joke as the salmon anglers are still walking the banks all through the close season. As for fish spawning I think you covered all the arguments for dismissing this as a valid reason in your video

Closed season for what, river closes for course fish but opens for game fish, then it's closes for game fish ,it's still open to course fishing, so you can fish all year round, also while fishing for trout you will catch roach or dace with chub and even barbel showing up, All ways can not understand why we have closed season.

Congratulations on your recent Chub captures. The dates chosen for the close season are political and are not based on anything scientific. As you say, the start of the river season normally coincides with the Chub and Barbel spawning. The thing with rivers is that there are huge lengths of river and only so many fishermen. Most people stick to their own favorite stretches and most stretches are therefore not heavily fished. In this case I don't really see any value in a closed season. I think a flexible closed season is unworkable. However, on more heavily fished stretches like Throop for example, it might be a better option.

The close season is antiquated and with global warming the weather seasons are changing and so is the spawning times. River anglers do not get a full year's actually fishing but still pay a year's rod licence particularly if they don't fish commercials. Also with the close season, nobody sees the unlicensed fishing for the plate. More anglers would return to the rivers. Don't forget we are the eyes against pollution. Great discussion Joe.

End August September October November are the best times to fish most rivers .most rivers have winter leagues and big matches on in them months. December January February most rivers are flooded most the time so not many matches. Just as the rivers improve the closed season comes in for me extending it till the end of April would give way for another wave of big matches such as spring leagues helping out the clubs that control the waters and local tackle shops.the closed season could be may and June .You can’t beat a river match everyone has a chance of winning with every peg different.

What wonders UK has done with enforcing close season against other countries where they dont have close season. ?

Love river fishing..my river near me is full of crayfish though

I know UK fishing is different to mainland europe or further but i don't think there are closed seasons elsewhere else in the world. I think have to remove but give clubs the opportunity to close the fishery if needed (which they have right to do during when rivers are in season too). I do wonder what it would do to to pressured venues like Evesham but again a good reason for empowering controlling clubs rather than EA.

Seems to me that fishing for salmon and sea trout is acceptable when the fish are in the rivers to spawn! Additionally, I see no difference between fishing in a river or lake for a specific species. I firmly believe that the close season is a pointless exercise. And, don't lets have any guff about the banks needing time to recover! The rivers I fish need machete work to get anywhere near the water and any angler is a rare sight.

My memory as a kid was there was a blanket closed season where you couldn’t fish my local res and mill ponds and the rivers. It only seems there is a river closed season. Why don’t other venues follow the closed season, commercials etc? I’m no expert, but it would be common sense to follow the same rule for all?

i Live minutes from Hampshire Avon and Dorset Stour. Apart from the Royalty and Throop i dont see many people at all. I dont see why we cant have it open. I am 72 and can remember seeing Salmon leaping and lots of Anglers up and down the Rivers here. I dont have a veiw either way.

Well some commercial are spring fed&near to rivers&are filled by them&if they flood fish go in&out of either. Im saying that commercial stay open even when spawning so the rivers could there all 🐟 🐠 🎣

Needs to be a close season IMO. Yes it's never been perfect, but does protect fish full of spawn being targeted by the unscrupulous section of specialist anglers only interested in catching the biggest fish possible.....full of spawn included. I did use to fish Yorkshire rivers in the closed season under trout restrictions, but I never targeted fish that were spawning, was a pleasure fishing to try catch the trout. We used to go to a stretch below Boston spa, and one say we went, there were huge numbers of pike gathered in one particular shallow area, obviously their spawning area, was an awesome sight but we never bothered them, just watched them. You wouldn't cut your garden hedge if you knew there were birds breeding in it would you? Wild creatures need peace to procreate. It's a complicated subject agreed though. People talking about commercials being open all the time are talking crap as well, every one I fish stops fishing in areas/times when fish are spawning.

Great topic but I think you answered the question in the first two minutes of the video. You are not seeing the people on the bank, there is no disturbance of the fish in the main during what is known as the closed season and so there is in fact no need for the closed season at all. It is proven that fish spawn at different times of the year, purely dependant on the species. I live in Sweden and there is no closed season and people fish right through the year and it has no proven effect on the fishing. They fish through the ice in winter, the fish come into some rivers in the spring and are not seen again until the next year. I am from the UK originally and will go back at some time and I hope the closed season has gone by then as I love natural water fishing. If you can fish on still waters and canals they why not a river?

If it gets abolished, you will have fisher people on the banks who are the eyes and ears of the waterways reporting all sorts from sewage to poaching, all while picking up rubbish and maintaining the banks (especially during close season as its all growing and hard to get to the river when it opens) Its a good time to fish as the weather is warming up and the fish are hungry might attract more people back to the rivers in turn generating more income for local shops and the clubs that manage the river.

Even though I'm a fossil the closed season is a relic of yester year. It should be a voluntary decision by who controls the fishing rights.

So many benefits to get rid now, I want it Gone…… Example : Newark stretch final weekend over 100 anglers Saturday and nearly 100 Anglers on Sunday, 60 anglers Monday, I’m willing to say over 500kg of bait went over the weekend, Monday I didn’t get a single indication day and night…… Maybe it wouldn’t get as busy all at once and less pressure and less bait going in everyone would have a better chance……

As fisherman since I was 8 in 1959 I am a firm believer that the Close season has had its time. As a fore instance no one has ever been able to establish that the close season has ever really benefited the Rivers and other waters subject to this event. I think your comment regarding does it really matter as it would appear that we dont visit "Running" Water any more that now and in the past. I think the Climate changes have started to have certain impacts on the rivers which make the actual dates for a Close season subject to change. (Spawning etc). I think get rid off.

As you say the rivers are almost devoid of anglers through most of the year let alone in the colder months . I personally feel the statuary close season is now out dated & serves no effective purpose.

It should be down to the person or organisation in change so if the fish are sparning close the fishery or river ,canal till the fish have finish

Needs a revamp but, as for river needs to be able to bring revenue in for the tackle shops with the climate change it is its very hard to do.

The excuses for the close season on rivers are all proved baseless due to the fact these laws don't exist anywhere else but Britain and no problems exist whatsoever

I live near the river Itchen and if your lucky you might find a space because its full of weeds fallen trees collapsed banks the rivers are in a mess maybe if they were cleaned up you might find more people fish them. Keep the close season

Yes, river anglers get a raw deal from their licence fee , most rivers are flooded constantly from October come shutdown they look spot on.yes keep them open.

Should be down to local clubs and angling associations to look after their own waters and stocks.

Seems like the E A just wanna make up excuses of why it’s still has a close season . No real excuse is there get shut of it and concentrate on real issues like pollution water extraction and flooding . As for people on the river bank you try an get a peg on the Ribble by us and it’s not match fished . Great topic by the way .

No close season l flsh the Dorset stour and the Hampshire Avon been on flood for 4 months

get rid of it on all free waters,private and club waters it should be down to whoever controls them.

I've been saying it for years. We anglers pay our licence fee and yet we can't go fishing in rivers for three months of that year. Joe public have access ALL year for nothing. Abolish it NOW.

Think it should be open all year round started to love my river fishing more and more i still go walk the river in close season

If the fish are not spawning What is the point of close season ? Apart from giving highly fished venues the chance for the banks to recover Most lake owners now ask you not to fish when fish are spawning as it has become so variable

No need for it these days. Most anglers are on commercials and not on the rivers. As for protecting spawning fish pah! Theyre not interested in food or anglers just spawning (to feed the buddy ducks 😡😡)

It has no basis at all now and let’s be honest it never did

Its the commercial fish that need a break

So many times this has been discussed yet a few years ago the vote was given to closure as somehow they sent votes out to 6000 people , why , were we licence holders not fully given the option to vote ? However there are certain elements in the AT who overturned the vote (where did they get that voting strength from , who organised their vote ?) The AT wanted protection to the Barbel and Chub. England and Wales is closure , Ireland and Scotland are not (with some rules for Salmon and Trout). In Sweden they are mostly open 365 of the year with some exceptions due to Trout and Salmon. What the authorities do not realise is that the 'trade' would love to sell for 3 months extra on rivers . Dave Harrell has tried his best and others have , the whole situation is a farce as the EA (with AT) will inform you that fish need a quiet period for spawning !?!?!? But canals and commercials do not matter , joke , clowns !

Think the river close season should be abolished, it doesn't serve a purpose anymore, more income for tackle shops, day tickets etc

The powers that govern (badly) are reliant on financial input from the water companies for their own gains and are therefore unwilling to do anything. The water companies see the rivers as free spillways for their toxic outputs because they'd rather pay their executives huge bonuses than fix the problems they cause (when they do get caught it is just a fine, when they don't they're laughing at getting away with it). 2 million anglers paying £30 each is a drop in the ocean to how much the EA need annually, and they'll never see as much as they need, ever. Pointless and fruitless to fight them, because the politicians just lie when asked anything and divert the conversation and their tthoughts towards something that only benefits them as individuals, like expense claims. The "haves" don't, while the "have-nots" can't. Its just like fishing with no bait and no hook - a guaranteed blank.

Great topic Joe, for me a closed session is important, it gives a spell for the fish to recover/breed without to much pressure, and surely for all anglers healthy replenished fish stocks is the future. I do agree that with the change in weather trends has caused a wide spread in fish breeding so maybe the time of year needs to be adjusted to the main species in any one river, for my local river it's mainly chub/dace & barbel so adjust the close season to give these species a break during the main breeding time .... What do I know 👍

Get rid of it , the fish spawn at different times of the year , they need feeding when they've done spawning , so I can only see it as a plus to not having a close season .

get rid of the close season mate if anglers are not fishing the rivers then no point in close season

Hi Joe bang on with your thoughts, my issue is now when you go to commercials their bait only pellets, most sell maggots,casters etc. No need for high street tackle shops anymore. If we have a close season it should be based on local conditions not a blanket ban, but it was not just for fish, it was for general environment, nesting birds, vegetation to re generate. Most of all no one wants to walk a mile down a river with all their gear get back to car and it's been broken into

You can fish canals and lakes and ponds so what a bloody joke. It's something certainty not based on science

I would bring it back on lakes too

its not just about the fish spawning its about protecting birds nesting that are in decline

No because it gives the fish the chance to spawn relax etc . Over fishing causes so much damage not just to the fish but the surrounding environment. We should still have a closed season on stillwaters and especially commercials keep the fish , wildlife and environment healthy...

😕 Promo'SM

Pointless get rid of the close season