 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
IMPORTANT
SITE UPDATE:
Visit the relaunched
Fish & Fly at fishandfly.com
Access to Scottish Angling
Our April 2001 contribution from Lesley Crawford
The
chain of catastrophes hitting the farming industry since foot and mouth
disease was first confirmed has been distressingly evident to everyone.
However, the disastrous knock-on effects relating to other rural businesses
are only now becoming apparent. It would seem our esteemed government
have seriously underestimated the number of British citizens (and visiting
tourists) who want to use the countryside for recreational purposes. The
act of 'closing down' the countryside has not only affected the farming
community, it has hurt all those who live, work, visit and play here,
fisherfolk included. The inability of government agencies to recognise
that by appearing to 'shut' rural areas they have lost billions of pounds
of tourist revenue and future goodwill beggars belief.
Loss
of trade has been bad enough but the extraordinary inconsistencies over
sporting pursuit access to the countryside make it even harder to bear.
In Scotland we've had football, golf, rugby, skiing and some horse racing
continuing more or less as normal since the first outbreak. The maintenance
of the status quo of these sports allowed huge numbers of people from
all over the country (including infected areas) to travel the road network
and potentially spread the disease. All this while ramblers, dog walkers,
mountaineers, countryside loving tourists, fell runners, cyclists, orienteers
and some, though not all, anglers have been either asked or told to refrain
from accessing the country bound fishing they so love. As I write, the
brown trout season has just got underway and under normal circumstances
I would have been out wetting a first brief line and enjoying saying ‘hello’
again to my beloved fish. March 15th is normally a time for
rejoicing but instead I am at home, morally obliged not to fish and show
support for the local farming community. After all, many farmers here
are owners of riparian rights on trout lochs and they are the ones who
supply us with permits to fish - solidarity is therefore vital in their
hour of need.
Though
the highlands has not been affected by F&M, the vast majority of local
anglers are at present not fishing thereby respecting national NFU/MAFF
advice not to cross land grazed by livestock. But therein lies the rub
for there are very few Scottish trout lochs and rivers which do not at
some point require access through livestock fields or grazing moorland!
Unfortunately, while there has been no ban on angling in Scotland, we
are now stuck between a rock and a hard place. To add to our woes the
Scottish Executive response on countryside access has frankly been pitiful.
So far all they have done is issue sometimes conflicting advice on general
access to rural areas with little or no recommendations on access for
the purposes of fishing. Now I fully agree that in an 'infected' area
i.e. one with the disease present, there should be NO angling until the
situation stabilises. Anglers could very easily spread the virus from
one part to another as they walk beats and shorelines and drive in and
out of the area. In Scotland this has meant the virtual cessation of fishing
in Dumfries and Galloway (the Border areas infected). However in the vast
areas of the highlands unaffected by F&M, a veritable minefield of
open/closed/ half open waters exists.
The
foot and mouth crisis has raised many ethical questions within the Scottish
angling fraternity. Shall I fish and be damned? Will I risk it? What have
I got to lose? The real issue hinges around the fact that, unlike walkers
or mountaineers, fishermen and women pay to gain access to their sport.
The decision by some local district salmon fisheries boards to temporarily
close many of the prime salmon river beats in Scotland could not have
been taken lightly. Loss of revenue would have been quite significant
and compensation non-existent. The Scottish Executive's reluctance to
advise on whether or not to close fishings also hinges around money. Make
'no fishing' a statute and expensive law suits from landowners for compensation
from loss of earnings could be the possible outcome. Not that those rivers
who stayed open during the first heat of the crisis did themselves many
ethical favours. They were frankly seen as little more than money grabbers
unwilling to shut unless compelled to do so by government.
Sadly,
the moral questions did not begin and end with money. It now appears some
landowners may be tempted to use F&M as the ideal stepping stone to
closing off access to trout fishing particularly when its carried on in
close proximity to salmon angling. Brownies are after all of little financial
value to a land owner when compared with the revenue brought in by salmon.
In fact on some of the more expensive rivers, trout anglers are seen as
a nuisance only to be put up with if needs must. Even today on a small
number of Highland estates, lochs trouters are only marginally more tolerated
than hill walkers, and only then because they are willing to pay for access.
Thus in the months ahead it may well emerge that some of the more belligerent
owners of land in Scotland (my home is my castle, keep out!) have decided
to rescind trout fishing access altogether. You might say this is worrying
over something that might not happen, I certainly hope so. However, be
warned that access to river trout fishing is a fragile and thorny issue
in Scotland.
So, as the crisis lurches on where does it leave the humble trout fisher?
Well as I write in mid March the indications are that some fisheries will
open/reopen fairly soon after appropriate 'risk assessment'. Obviously
those who have continued to enjoy their outdoor recreation unimpeded;
travelling golfers, skiers, football fans and the like, have never needed
their risks assessing. My home waters in the Scottish highlands should
return to normal perhaps as early as April 1st but its all
very fluid. If this seems vague then that’s deliberate, for it is
almost impossible to predict what will happen next. The fact that a virus
affecting farming livestock can cause so many tourist related businesses
(including angling) such long term financial devastation is frankly extraordinary.
This is a colossal debacle from which some may never recover. Things,
as they say, can only get better...
About Lesley Crawford
Lesley has fished for brown trout and sea trout from a very early age
and her enthusiasm for these beautiful Scottish fish shows no signs of
diminishing. She is well known as a leading angling writer and photographer
with prodigious articles in a wide range of publications including Salmon
Trout & Sea Trout and the Scotsman.
Lesley is a REFFIS qualified fishing guide and arranges bespoke wild trout angling holidays in the Northern Highlands. Her first major book 'Fishing for Wild Trout in Scottish Lochs' (Swan Hill 1996) was a runaway success and the long awaited follow up 'Scotlands Classic Wild Trout Waters' (Swan Hill) was published in 2000. Order your copy now. Read more about Lesley at www.wildtroutfisher.co.uk