As I write the end of the traditional fishing season is looming fast. The parliamentary diary allows precious enough time to be spent on the river bank and I always start to panic at this time of the year about how few sessions I’ve got left to catch that 6lb chub or 2lb roach. This season I’ve come nowhere near these winter targets as my best roach so far is 1.12 and the best chub was a fat river Loddon fish of 5.09. That said I have caught a fair few nice fish this winter, it’s just that this year the biggest specimens have avoided me.

Last month it was my pleasure to organise and host the 6^th National Angling Summit in the House of Commons with new Fisheries Minister Jonathan Shaw MP. These summits bring together representatives of all the major angling bodies and give our sort unparalleled access to government ministers. Unfortunately, no summit took place in 2007 due to the DEFRA reshuffle of ministers, closely followed by the foot and mouth and bluetongue outbreaks and the summer flooding. All of this meant that Jonathan Shaw was experiencing something of a baptism of fire in his first few months as a government minister.

The Angling Summit covered a range of issues, some of which I can briefly summarise:

E.U Fish Health Directive

We thanked Ruth Lockwood of the English Carp Heritage Organisation (ECHO) and Mike Heylin of FACT and the Fish Welfare Group for their sterling work on ensuring that DEFRA would implement a ban on the import of live fish from KHV compromised sources. The real threat of KHV infection from unregulated ornamental fish stocks was also highlighted.

DEFRA Water Strategy and the Blueprint for Water

Mark Lloyd of the ACA outlined the main parts of the review of the Blueprint’s first year, and broadly welcomed DEFRA’s recently published water strategy. He also called for more of a focus on Rivers Trusts for achieving the government’s objectives. Paul Knight from the Salmon and Trout Association welcomed the government’s move from a focus on ‘water quality’ to ‘ecological equality’.

Marine Bill and Fisheries Legislation

We received a presentation by Adrian Taylor, of the Environment Agency showing the numerous routes for fisheries and marine legislation. The Head of the Marine and Freshwater Biodiversity Division at DEFRA, Richard Cowan, confirmed that virtually all of the Warren Report is being delivered through a number of legislative means. There followed a discussion on fish thefts, with both DEFRA and the EA stating that powers will be introduced in the Marine Bill to rationalise the current situation. Richard Cowan confirmed that it will be possible to introduce new catch and release bylaws for coarse fish, and to set an upper limit on fish size. I thanked Richard Cowan and his staff for their work on the legislative strategy on behalf of anglers and advised the summit that we hope to have the new laws in place by 2009.

Bass Management Plan and Sea Angling Committee

John Leballeur from BASS gave a presentation on bass management plan, which led on to a discussion with Jonathan Shaw on the minimum landing size decision. Jonathan pledged to revisit his controversial MLS decision. The National Federation of Sea Anglers’ Richard Ferre welcomed the government’s consultation on sea angling, and broadly welcomed the new powers for sea fisheries committees. A discussion followed on sustainability and sea angling licences. Jonathan Shaw confirmed that in discussions with sea anglers he had received a mostly negative reaction and stated that if they were to be introduced, there would have to be a long lead in time. He stressed that no final decision had yet been made.

All in all a productive and useful meeting with government on some of the key issues facing our sport. The next Angling Summit will be held later in the year with the new Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe MP to discuss participation and coaching programmes.