UKC

https://anglingtrust.net/covid-19/

Fabulous news for the anglers amongst us, still rules to adhere to but an escape for us anglers and couldn’t have come at a better time as the floods have receded and the end of the season approaches.

The main thing to consider is STAY LOCAL

Huge thank you to the work the Angling Trust has done on our behalf. 
I don’t expect the BMC to be releasing anything similar though and fishing and climbing are apples and oranges. Risk and NHS pressures etc. 

This isn’t a thread to debate the rights and wrongs of any lockdown restrictions, simply a news thread for any anglers here (and I know there are several)

Not an angler but that’s fantastic news. Recognition that spending solitary time outdoors is no risk of viral spread - it’s just a shame it was even questioned in the first place. It would also be reasonable to argue that climbing would be considered exercise based on angling being so. Mitigating added potential dangers still to be considered, of course.

The Prince Albert Angling Society closed all of their waters from midnight January, 5th.

That’s good news. It’s really important that people are permitted to enjoy their pastimes safely and that restrictions aren’t more onerous than they need to be. 

Yea my clubs too but I’m expecting a statement from them shortly, it’s all happened in the last hour or so, so early days yet. 

What are you targeting just now, pike, perch that kind of thing?

Here (Scotland) I think things were a few days ahead but that's all academic. I think most commercial coarse waters here are closed as there aren't enough 'local' anglers to justify remaining open. Where I am most still waters are frozen over so don't have a choice either way!

Last year I got back into my coarse fishing after a long break and focus on fly fishing after moving up here from Essex. I miss weekends bivvied up and blanking!

Hoping to visit England again (?) at some point to river fish for barbel - never caught one before. 

good news for you all, tight lines. 

Are tackleshops closed though? Could be a problem for getting bait, but I guess the pikers will be happy.

Do you need a special rod to join?

Indeed... It's a peculiar initiation ceremony, for an angling club, to say the least.

mail order - you can get anything delivered these days, live maggots, worms deadbaits etc  

They're more interested in their tackle than the actual fishing, though...

Pike mate, best time of the season on a lot of rivers down here, they will be gathering up in the shallows about now for spawning and hungry! End of Feb to end of season usually very productive after weeks and weeks of floods

The BMC deal with adventurous hill walking and winter mountain walking as well.

On apples and oranges, frankly being near a river with all this ice and mud and near freezing air temperature must be pretty non trivial in risk terms. I'm presuming that the roughly ten anglers who drown in rivers every year must be similar in numbers to trad climbing deaths (albeit on larger participation rates).

I'm surmising that if fishing shops were originally closed due to being non essential, they will now be permitted to open now that fishing is allowed. 

Bait wise, I'll mainly be on big lures. Deadbait supplies are virtually non existent in the shops and the fishmonger counters at a lot of the big supermarkets have been closed for a while as the staff have been deployed elsewhere in these stores due to Covid pressures. 

I see from FB groups that a hell of a lot of stuff online is out of stock and has been for a while, guessing due to non-import delivery to the shops because of the run up to Brexit and Covid19 supply problems.

Good news and I see that the quote refers to solitary watersports too. Might be OK to paddle the kayak up and down the river past my place then. 

The locals will be pleased about the clarification on the angling though as judging by the numbers fishing before lockdown there must be a run of flounder in the river right now!

Apparently so ...

https://www.britishcanoeing.org.uk/news/2021/covid-19-new-guidance-on-paddl...

(Bit of a moot point at the moment, though, or at least it is round here! Not been to check, but suspect that for any activity on the Grand Union crampons might be more use than a boat ...)

Back open again now! May have a chuck for the Lady of the Stream on Sunday.

Yep... Just received my email earlier on. 

... May target me some of them there toothy critters soon.