I ended the coarse fishing season with two outings in the company of members of the All Party Parliamentary Angling Group. The first was a trip to Kings Weir on the river Lea to meet with Environment Agency fisheries staff to discuss problems with bailiffing and illegal fishing. We also wet a line for a few hours but apart from a few pike very little appeared to be feeding. That was until the light began to fade and my quivertipped lobworm appeared to have attracted some interest in the form of a hesitant bite. I stuck more in hope than expectation and was soon rewarded with a personal best chub of 6lb 2oz rolling over the net after a somewhat strange fight. Unfortunately the pleasure was short-lived as the fish turned out to have been foul-hooked!

I suppose I am spoilt for choice living in the Thames Valley with the beautiful river Kennet on my doorstep, but I find that I can’t get excited about the Lea. It flows through some pretty desolate landscapes, is horribly over-abstracted and the lure of the occasional big fish is never quite enough for me to completely enjoy the experience.

The last day is the season saw me join my Conservative Vice-Chair of the Parliamentary Angling Group, Charles Walker MP, on a trip to the beautiful river Evenlode in Oxfordshire. The fishing was hard but a few nice chub and roach were landed and we ended the day joining veteran big fish hunter Frank Gutfield for a drink in a pub in Peter Stone’s old village of Wolvercote.

Last month I referred to the sixth National Angling Summit and the strong representations from sea-angling organisations to Fisheries Minister Jonathan Shaw over the proposed new sea angling rod licence. It showed that occasionally politicians do listen to what people, other than their civil servants, tell them, when Jonathan announced, in reply to my Parliamentary Question that he was not pressing ahead with a sea licence. He made it clear that he accepted the arguments put by the National Federation of Sea Anglers and others that it would be unreasonable to seek to charge sea anglers before the new conservation measures to boost coastal fish stocks have been put in place.

Jonathan Shaw said:

“I met sea angling representatives at the Angling Summit on 18 February where a number of concerns were raised with me regarding the introduction of a chargeable licence for sea angling. I have also discussed the issue direct with anglers around the coast, as have my officials. In view of the concerns expressed, including the extent to which sea anglers expected to see benefits from the charge, I have decided not to proceed with enabling powers in the Marine Bill to introduce a sea angling licence.

“I will reconsider the arguments for introducing a recreational sea angling licence at some stage in the future in the light of progress on the above measures.”

Recently Jonathan Shaw announced his intention to create more nursery areas to aid recruitment and further restrictions on inshore netting.  The Marine Bill published last month also included measures to establish Marine Conservation Zones.  The National Federation of Sea Anglers (NFSA) has long argued that a sea angling licence should only be acceptable once anglers saw tangible improvements in fish stocks.

Whilst I remain committed to the principle of a rod licence for all forms of recreational fishing I congratulate Jonathan Shaw on having the good sense to listen to what sea angling organisations have been saying.  Let’s first get in place the conservation measures necessary to stop the over exploitation by the commercial sector and give Britain’s sea anglers a chance of a decent day’s sport before we ask them to pay to catch fish that might not be there.