As a local community councilor, long term member of the community, and local business owner,
It has come to my attention, that there is a growing lack of respect between fellow anglers,
and between anglers and Bailiffs.

There are some anglers do not to abide by the rules and regulations and there are some officials
who believe they can bully and intimidate said anglers.
 
This I find very sad in what should be a celebrated and enjoyable sport,none of us should feel intimidated
by another angler or Bailiff for that matter,when we are all out there to enjoy ourselves.

On the whole I believe there is a comradeship between the anglers
and it's only a minority who want to cause problems,however it's only when a situation gets out of hand that the nastiness
erupts and this brings with it bad press, which can tar us all.

unfortunately it's this minority that can spoil the sport for the whole.

I recently heard of a very distressing situation on our local water,where an angler after catching and releasing two fish
(admittedly the 1st one got off, mainly due to the fact that the fish was so large 25/30lb
and he did not have a big enough net to haul the fish out ) caught a second, about 9lb, which he released,
and then a third,at around 22lbs (what dreams are made of!) and after dispatching it,he was then given a tongue lashing by the local Bailiff.

Now this Gentleman was within his rights,he had a valid permit costing £255.00, he had tagged the fish,it was his first outing of the year,
he was chuffed to bits after having had a wonderful couple of hours. He was then accosted by the Bailiff,given a verbal dressing down,
using disgraceful language, and spoiled, what was for him,a fantastic day, he left the water feeling distressed and rightfully upset.

His question to me was, "what had he done wrong?"

So now I'm put in the position of having to assure him he was well within his rights, he had obeyed the rules of the water
and that the Bailiff should not have reacted in the way he did.

Respect is what it's all about, respect for the fish, brings with it respect from and for fellow anglers, and respect from and for officials.
We should realise by now, that this world that we live in, has only finite resources,and they need to be carefully managed, gone are the days
when you can continually plunder natures resources and expect to carry on as if this were acceptable. 

It dose not help our future and our economy if this sort of attitude continues.Unfortunately this is not the first time,
I have heard of this sort of incident.

If you have had any similar incidents, please feel free to email me with your story and we will post them on our site
please be assured your identity will be kept strictly confidential.

Respect and Tight Lines.