Stuie

Circulated a press release and had this bac k from Cliff Brown at Bauermedia Stuart, we’re getting hammered on facebook – no-one believes that is a small-eyed and say it is a blonde ray. We used this in good faith as a press release from PBSBAC and we’re getting the blame!

Please read the catch report re ID

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Angling Trust & Fish Legal A meesage from Roland Caley, Acting Chief Executive, Angling Trust & Fish Legal In 2019, the Angling Trust and Fish Legal celebrated its 10th anniversary at a time when fish and fishing has faced huge challenges in both the freshwater and marine environments. That’s why it has never been more important to be a member of the Angling Trust and Fish Legal and we are extremely grateful for your support. The money we receive from your subscriptions, donations and legacies enables us to campaign on behalf of all coarse, sea and game anglers, and to protect the interest of our members. Those threats to the sport we love come from many sources: pollution from farming, over-abstraction, inadequate controls on sewage, predation, uncertainty over Brexit and the new UK Fisheries Bill, dry summers, decline in salmon numbers, plastics and litter, damaging hydropower schemes, invasive non-native species, falling rod licence sales, poaching, threats to anglers’ rights – just a few of the many issues that the Angling Trust and Fish Legal have been helping to tackle in the past year. It would be impossible to reflect on all the work we have carried out in 2019, so here’s a flavour of just some of it: Action on pollution Only 14% of England’s rivers are classified as ‘healthy’, mainly as a result of pollution from farming, inadequate controls on sewage, over-abstraction and dry summers. We are campaigning for a new payment system where farmers are rewarded for the good management of rivers that flow through their land. We also want to see tighter controls on water companies to prevent pollution from raw sewage and restrictions on abstraction, particularly from our precious chalk streams which have been seriously affected by lack of rainfall. See more Protecting fisheries from predation Through our partnership with the Environment Agency, the Angling Improvement Fund has distributed £670,000 of fishing licence money to protect fisheries from predation. In 2019, we awarded funds totalling nearly £130,000 to 31 clubs and fisheries to protect fish from predation, including otter-proof fencing for stillwaters and measures to combat cormorants and mink. See more Representation for sea anglers Through our lobbying in Westminster we have succeeded in pushing sea angling up the political agenda and will continue to protect anglers’ rights after Brexit in the new Fisheries Bill. We’ve also lobbied the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities to ban estuary and inshore netting and, only last week, successfully campaigned to increase the bag limit for bass anglers in 2020. See more Making polluters pay Whether they are rogue farmers, water companies or multinational corporations, Fish Legal has continued to win pollution cases against companies large and small on behalf of its members. That’s enabled compensation to be paid to the angling clubs and fishery owners affected so that they can restore their waters. See more Increasing lawfulness and raising awareness of fisheries crime Our highly respected Fisheries Enforcement Support Service, managed by experienced policing professionals, plays a key role in coordinating the partnership response to fisheries crime - increasing the wider support available to the Environment Agency. Our hundreds of trained Volunteer Bailiffs contribute over 25,000 patrol hours annually, sharing 500 all-important intelligence logs with the police and EA. Concurrently, our Building Bridges Project continues educating migrant anglers regarding our angling laws and rules, providing multilingual information and integration opportunities through introductions to angling clubs and hosting international competitions. See more Getting more people fishing Through our partnerships with the Environment Agency, Sport England, Canal & Rivers Trust and Get Hooked on Fishing, we are determined to see more people take up fishing and halt the decline in rod licence sales. In the past year, we’ve organised 762 events and given 36,958 adults and juniors the chance to sample fishing for the first time. See more More competitions than ever We believe that every angler should have the opportunity to get involved in competitive angling regardless of their age, sex, experience or ability. This year we have organised over 350 individual and team competitions across coarse, sea and game angling and on the international front we’ve made a successful bid to host the inaugural Ladies World Carp Championships in England in 2020. Next year, we will also be hosting the SALC Home Nations Shore Championships in Weymouth. We will also remember 2019 as a year of change for the Angling Trust & Fish Legal. In June, we said goodbye to Mark Lloyd who had led our two organisations as Chief Executive since they began 10 years ago. Next month, we welcome Jamie Cook to the role and very much look forward to working with him on his vision to build a bright new future for angling. Thank you so much for your continued support. Please help us grow membership by referring a friend to join the Angling Trust & Fish Legal – and both you and your friend could receive £29 to spend on tackle at Fishing Megastore! Find out more here Finally, may I take this opportunity to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and Happy New Year. Tight lines! Roland Caley Acting Chief Executive, Angling Trust & Fish Legal The Angling Trust is the united national representative body for all angling in England and Wales. It is united in a collaborative relationship with Fish Legal, a separate membership association that uses the law to protect fish stocks and the rights of its members throughout the UK. Joint membership packages with Fish Legal are available for individuals, clubs, fisheries, riparian owners and other categories. Please find out more. WWW.ANGLINGTRUST.NET

Just received - SUCCESS View this email in your browser 2020 Fishing Opportunities Decision Dear Sea Angler/Conservationist Thank you very much if you responded to our call to ask our Fisheries Minister to increase the bass bag limit and give sea anglers back the share of the total catch they had before the restrictions started in 2015. Save Our Sea Bass has been in Brussels since Monday, following the EU Council negotiations. At 6.00am this morning a final agreement was reached. In 2020 sea anglers will have their bag limit increased from 1 fish per day per person to 2 fish and the open season will be increased from 7 months to 9 months (1 March to 30 November). This is an excellent result, even more so because all EU Member States have agreed to respect the scientists' lower sustainable catch recommendation, so the bass stock should continue to make progress towards a safe level. Thank you very much for your continuing support, especially if you have donated to Save Our Sea Bass to enable us to carry on our work, or shared our campaign on Facebook or other social media. Yours faithfully, The Save Our Sea Bass Team

Out at 9.15 with Ken and headed for a well known 'equestrian' mark. Hook down and straight into a jumbo pout, followed by a keeper whiting and the ubiquitous dog, This continued for several hours until the tide stopped. By then we were happy with a number of good sized whiting, so it was back to Cobbs for a fuel up and wash down. Pleased to be able to take advantage of the drop in the wind - thanks for your company Ken - Number one anchor winch..

That's reassuring that I won't be out alone - thanks guys.

Planning to go out and see what's about in the calmer weather. Ken also attending. Anyone else tempted?

Done - just a few clicks

2020 Fishing Opportunities Meeting Dear Sea Angler/Conservationist, Please send an email to our Fisheries Minister today by clicking here. We have just heard that the EU Commission has released its 2020 bass fishing opportunities proposal: a roll-over of the 2019 rules. So the EU Commission has completely ignored sea anglers legitimately asking to be given back their fair share of the catch in 2020. We estimate a roll-over would reduce sea anglers’ share of the catch to just 16% in 2020, compared with the 25% to 30% of the catch we enjoyed before the bass restrictions came in. This is an outrage. EU law requires that restrictions on recreational fishing must be non-discriminatory. But the EU Commission, which is supposed to ensure the EU Member States respect EU law, has just ignored EU law. You couldn’t make it up! Are sea anglers second-class citizens? Can fishery managers give away the public’s fishing rights to commercial fishermen with impunity? No, we are the biggest stakeholder in the bass fishery and we demand our rights under the law. We are asking the UK Fisheries Minister to step in and fight hard for sea anglers at the Fishing Opportunities meeting on 16 and 17 December. We want 3 fish for 9 months and our Fisheries Minister must not take no for an answer. Please send an email to our Fisheries Minister today by clicking here. Thank you very much for your continuing support. Yours faithfully, The Save Our Sea Bass Team

Angling Trust getting around the Regions We’ve been out and about this month meeting members and listening to their concerns. Forums were held in November in Cornwall, Portsmouth and Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex. A final forum for 2019 will be held in Brixham, Devon, on December 12th. The Angling Trust’s Marine Regions Coordinator, Nevin Hunter, will be organising more forums in the New Year at different locations. Keep your eyes out for news of these in future Sea Updates and if one is being held in your area, please come along. We’d love to hear from you. Register for our free Sea Fishing Forum at Brixham Good news for blues - bad news for makos The future of UK blue shark angling looks a little more secure after ICCAT (the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, which also manages shark species) agreed science-based catch limits for both southern and northern blue shark stocks for the first time. However, the outlook for mako sharks is bleaker than ever. The EU and USA prioritised short term fishing interests and blocked calls by other ICCAT members for a ban on retaining short fin makos which are now critically endangered in the Atlantic. Read more Where to recycle your line Are you recycling your fishing line and spools? There are now hundreds of recycling bins located across the country where anglers can take their unwanted line. And if there's not one convenient to you, there's the option to post it. All the information about how to get involved can be found on the Anglers' National Line Recycling Scheme website. More info Making your voice heard in Europe Last week David Mitchell, the Angling Trust’s Head of Marine, went to the European Parliament in Strasbourg with colleagues from the European Anglers Alliance for the relaunch of the Forum on Recreational Fishing and the Aquatic Environment. EU legislation is increasingly including recreational fishing – but not in a positive way – and may continue to do so even after the UK leaves the EU. At the forum, David also took the opportunity to highlight the importance of shark fishing in South West England and Wales. Read the full story East Anglian anger over REAF report The Angling Trust has slammed the findings of the report from Renaissance of the East Anglian Fisheries (REAF) amid fears it is setting out to drive a wedge between commercial fishing and recreational sea angling interests in the region. Read the Angling Trust's full response Specimen Award Scheme: Luke and Rob our monthly winners Congratulations to Luke Johns, of Castaway SAC, junior winner of this month's Specimen Award Scheme with a conger eel of 15lb 14oz from the shore at Minehead, which gave him a percentage of 127.08% for Area Q. Senior winner was Rob Stammas, of Specimen Hunters Angling Group, who caught a small eyed ray of 10lb 2oz from the shore at Witches Point, Glamorgan, which gave him a percentage of 202.5% for Area P. There were a total of 82 entries. Both win this month’s vouchers courtesy of Fishing Megastore. Get Fishing in your Christmas stocking! The Get Fishing ‘how to’ guide to coarse, sea and fly fishing has been a huge hit. Trout Fisherman magazine say “it is difficult to imagine a better presentation of angling to children than this”. The book has been written for children up to age 16 but has loads for beginner adults and families too. It would make a great present for anyone you want to encourage to give fishing a go. Find out more. Follow us on Instagram Join the Facebook group Matthew and Luke lead way Matthew Phillips has opened up a six-point lead at the top of the seniors table with a whacking 58 species so far this year. Luke Bowerman is heading up the juniors with an impressive 43 species. Well done to both Matthew and Luke. Congratulations to Jason Warne who was this month’s specimen winner with a 13lb 8oz undulate ray taken from Sandown on the Isle of Wight. Sea Competition Squads announced: England International Casting squad for 2020 England International Pairs Shore Squad for 2020 England Boat Squads for the FIPS-Mer World Championship & SALC Home International for 2020 'Manifesto for Angling' challenge to politicians The Angling Trust has challenged politicians and political parties seeking election on December 12th to demonstrate their support for recreational fishing with the publication of a 2019 Manifesto for Angling. All the parties representing English constituencies in the House of Commons have been sent a copy of the manifesto and invited to indicate the extent of their support for angling. Find out what the Manifesto for Angling calls for Fish of the month: Whiting The whiting are biting at this time of year. Whiting form a large part of sea anglers’ catches over autumn and winter – both from shore and boat. They are a member of the cod family and have firm white flesh which is perfect for fish pies, battering or turning into fish cakes. Small whiting are called ‘pin’ whiting due to their small, sharp, pin-like teeth, while along the south coast large specimens are called ‘Channel’ whiting. They are voracious feeders and will take many baits but lugworm is probably the most effective. The British records stand at 6lb 7oz from a boat, caught in 2012, and this 4lb 8oz specimen from the shore, caught in 2014. Last few days! Win £2,000 plus fantastic tackle prizes ... enter online today

Can't see this email properly? View in browser Forward to a Friend or Club Members CLUBLINES CLUB NEWSLETTER OF THE ANGLING TRUST & FISH LEGAL NOVEMBER 2019 This year’s annual Christmas Raffle is bigger and better than ever! There are more fantastic prizes to be won and for the first time tickets are available online - making it even easier to take part! Ticket prices are still great value at just £2 and raffle tickets are available until Monday 16th December or until they sell out! You can purchase tickets online or using the tickets included with the Angler magazine. You must be 18 years or over to enter. Winning tickets will be drawn on Friday 20th December! Please help spread the word about our vital work by sending a copy of this email to your members! Buy your raffle tickets online today! Look at these great prizes! 1st prize: £2,000 cash 2nd: £1,500 of Daiwa tackle 3rd: £750 of Daiwa tackle 10 x £100 of Daiwa tackle 10 x £50 of Fishing Megastore vouchers Volunteering Best Practice Guide: download a copy today! We know how important volunteers are to angling clubs. Most clubs are non profit making and heavily reliant upon volunteers for essential personnel such as committee members and bailiffs. But while volunteers are essential, they are also subject to certain legislation. That's why the Angling Trust has produced a Volunteering Best Practice Guide in partnership with the Environment Agency and funded by fishing licence income. An awareness of Best Practice will better equip clubs to provide the best volunteering experience. This guide is essential for anyone in angling who works with volunteers - download your copy now! Download Volunteering Best Practice Guide Reminder: AGM and Annual Conference Are you going to the Angling Trust and Fish Legal AGMs and Building a Brighter Future Angling Conference? They take place on Saturday, 30th November at West Midlands Golf Club, Barston, Solihull and are now fully booked. It will be the first opportunity to hear and speak with our incoming CEO Jamie Cook. To go on the waiting list for a place email richard.morley@anglingtrust.net Clubs urged to respond to consultation on fish-eating birds The Angling Trust and the Avon Roach Project are calling on angling clubs to respond to the current licensing review and press to have cormorants added to the Wild Birds General Licence so that we can better protect fish stocks from unsustainable predation. The online public consultation is open for comments and responses until 5th December 2019. To help anglers with the process, we have produced guidance notes and suggested responses you may wish to use. Find out more Exclusive Member Offer! Sign up to Clubmate and get 20% off Angling Trust clubs and fisheries can claim 20% off when they sign up to Clubmate, a secure online membership management platform. It is designed to help clubs and fisheries reduce admin, simplify the renewal process, attract new members – and join the 21st century. Clubs already signed up to Clubmate have seen an average 17.3% increase in membership in their first year! Want to find out more? Just click here Pollution: Can your club afford not to be a Fish Legal member? The latest Environment Agency report into water and sewerage companies makes grim reading. It confirms that performances have deteriorated and serious pollution incidents have risen. Even more recently, Natural Resources Wales announced that it would not be prosecuting those responsible for the pollution which killed tens of thousands of fish on the River Teifi - one of Wales’ most famous sea trout or sewin fisheries and a European-protected site. The environmental regulator instead accepted an offer from the polluter to pay £15,000 to a local rivers trust and £5,000 to the Countryside Alliance, plus £20,000 to Natural Resources Wales towards the cost of investigating. Quite simply, regulators are letting polluters get away with killing fish and damaging the water environment. One organisation fights polluters when others fail to take tough action. In the last 15 years, Fish Legal has forced polluters to pay out £1.5m to member angling clubs and fishery owners affected by pollution so that they can restore their waters. As a Fish Legal member, clubs also have access to a range of free legal factsheets. If your club is not a member of Fish Legal please consider joining. You can find out more HERE or give our Clubs Advisor Sam Wickham a call on 01568 620447 or email samantha.wickham@anglingtrust.net We are Undefeatable! Angling has joined a new campaign to help people with long term health conditions find activities that inspire them to get active. We’d like to hear from anybody in your club who has a long term illness or condition which has been improved by fishing. They just need to send a few words and a picture or two to will.smith@anglingtrust.net so that he can use them to let people know how angling is a great way to help with mental or physical health issues. Find out more Free fisheries enforcement guides for clubs Our Fisheries Enforcement Workshops have now finished and it was great to see so many clubs represented at the six events. We have recently updated our series of FREE fisheries enforcement guides containing essential information for all clubs and fisheries. Find out more and download the guides Protection from predation Does your club have a problem with predation? Our Fisheries Management Advisors may be able to help you protect your waters. Just download this useful leaflet containing contact details. Can your club help? Can your club help us this autumn and winter? We're looking for suitable venues and organisations to help run events to encourage more people to take up fishing. Please contact: dean.asplin@anglingtrust.net SPECIAL MEMBERS OFFER! CREATE A NEW WEBSITE FOR HALF THE PRICE - IDEAL FOR CLUBS AND FISHERIES! Find our more - and save £300 Can you help? Let your members know about the work we do Can you help us do more and support our 10 year anniversary? Our club, fishery and trade members represent over 400,000 anglers between them – if we could just encourage 1% of those anglers to join as individual members and support our work we could do so much more for the sport we all love! SPECIAL OFFER: New individual members joining before the end of the year will receive their money back to spend on tackle at Fishing Megastore! Find out more There are lots of easy ways to get involved! From posters and leaflets, through to emails and website promotion - we've got the tools for you to make it as easy as possible. You can access these on our dedicated portal we've created for you. Please can I ask that you discuss this with your committee to see if you can help. Any questions simply reply to my email. Samantha Wickham Club Membership Advisor Our 10 year story It’s people like you who have supported our fight for fish and fishing over the last 10 years. You can read more about the work you have supported and how you have helped to protect and grow our sport. READ MORE Resources to help you spread the word There are lots of ways to get involved and help us do more. We have provided a range of resources to help you get started – if you wish to speak to a member of our team about this initiative or need further support please email samantha.wickham@anglingtrust.net. READ MORE Make a donation and support our fight to protect fish and fishing You can now make online donations to our cause – please consider supporting our ongoing fight to make polluters pay and to campaign and lobby for protection of our fish and fishing. Make a donation HERE WWW,ANGLINGTRUST.NET The Angling Trust is the united national representative body for all angling in England and Wales. It is united in a collaborative relationship with Fish Legal, a separate membership association that uses the law to protect fish stocks and the rights of its members throughout the UK. Joint membership packages with Fish Legal are available for individuals, clubs, fisheries, riparian owners and other categories. Please find out more. Angling Trust Limited is a company limited by guarantee, company number 05320350 Angling Trust & Fish Legal, Eastwood House, Rainbow Street, Leominster, HR6 8DQ Telephone: 01568 620447

Well done Steve & Andy - target species at last then.. Well done.

Have a good day... afloat or otherwise

Good luck to all the stalwarts tomorrow. Surely someone will find a cod!

I see the predictions show almost no tide in Freshwater Bat between 10 am and 4 pm. Is this beneficial or detrimental to fishing? Fishing on the drift?

Belated greetings Terry

Reminder from AT for this meeting,

Thanks for all you do for us - i hope you have an enjoyable day.

AT reminder re this meeting

Sal spoiling you I trust?

I'm guessing you're not taking your boat out. Have a great day 🎂🍷

Welcome to your Sea Newsletter Super trawlers in the Channel: how worried should we be? There has been a lot of noise over social media, and elsewhere, about a super trawler spotted operating in the English Channel off Worthing in the past month. At 150 metres long, the Margiris is huge and presumably fishing for mackerel. Not far away is the Annie Helina, a Belgian factory trawler of a similar size. With both boats hoovering up vast quantities of fish daily, Angling Trust Director and passionate sea angler Tim Macpherson comments on what it could mean for fish stocks and how it could affect sea anglers in the south. Read: Tim Macpherson's view on super trawlers in the Channel Survey reveals sea angling priorities Respondents to our Marine Survey say they would like the Angling Trust to make communication, supporting campaigns, helping to get more people fishing and hosting of sea angling forums as our main priorities. More than a third of the people invited took part, with 747 respondents partially or wholly completing the questions. Read the full story Where to recycle your line Are you recycling your fishing line and spools? There are now hundreds of recycling bins located across the country where anglers can take their unwanted line. And if there's not one convenient to you, there's the option to post it. All the information about how to get involved can be found on the Anglers' National Line Recycling Scheme website. More info Book now for free Sea Angling Forums Have you registered for one of our new Sea Angling Forums being held across the South of England over the coming months? The forums will be an opportunity to hear more about issues and events going on in your region. Places are still available for the following: Cornwall, Monday, 11 November 2019, Indian Queens Victory Hall, St. Francis Rd, Indian Queens, TR9 6PN. Register here Wessex (Dorset and Hamshire) and Isle of Wight, Thursday, 21 November 2019, Eastney Cruising Association, Ferry Rd, Portsmouth, PO4 9LY. Register here Sussex, Thursday, 28 November 2019, The Schooner Inn, Albion Street, Southwick, BN42 4AU. Register here Wyvern (Devon and Somerset), Wednesday, 11 December 2019, Brixham SAC, Castor Rd, TQ5 9PY. Register here Specimen Award Scheme: Aaron and Andrew are pick of the month Congratulations to Aaron Chambers, of Teignmouth SAS, junior winner of this month's Specimen Award Scheme with a thin llipped mullet of 3lb 2oz, caught from a boat off Portland, which gave him a percentage of 125%. Adult winner was Andrew Collett, again of Teignmouth SAS, who caught a small eyed ray from the shore in South Wales, which gave him a percentage of 240%. There were a total of 89 entries. Both win this month’s vouchers courtesy of Fishing Megastore. On sale ... the 'how to' guide for coarse, sea and game fishing - order yours now! Get Fishing is perfect for beginners and those who have been fishing a couple of times and want to take it further. The book outlines what you need to know to experience the joy of getting out there and enjoying a day or a few hours fishing – whether it’s catching mackerel, pike, trout or carp! Written by Allan Sefton and endorsed by the Angling Trust and our Go Fishing campaign, you can order your copy online for just £9.99 from Merlin Unwin Books – and Angling Trust members will receive 20% off. Alternatively, clubs and coaches looking for multiple copies should get in touch with the Get Fishing team via their website here. #FishingHour - join fellow anglers on Twitter every Friday at 4pm There are lots of 'Twitter Hours' for sports, hobbies, places and communities, but not one for anglers and the angling industry. If you’re on Twitter, our Participation team at @getintofishing are asking for your support for #FishingHour – a time to bring the angling Twitter community together between 4-5pm every Friday with questions, tips, stories and just general fishing chat. To join the conversation each Friday between 4-5pm simply post your question, advice, products, news, events or ideas on where to go fishing (or anything else!) with the hashtag #FishingHour. Follow us on Instagram It's tight at the top Matthew Phillips continues to lead the seniors board with 55 species. Luke Bowerman is joined at the top of the juniors leader board by Tomos Pendlebury. Both have 37 species. There were no specimen submissions in September so the £50 Tronixpro prize rolls over! Instead, we've chosen our favourite picture from the month - Martin Jones and his blonde ray (sorry, no prize though). Join the Facebook group Sea angling competitions round-up Double Medal Glory for England Junior Shore Team at FIPS-Mer World Shore Championship 7th place for England's U21s at World Championships Under 16's wanted for Team England Shore Calling All Under 16 Junior Shore Anglers … would you like the chance to be selected to represent Team England at the World Junior Shore Championship in Wicklow / Wexford, Ireland in October 2020, or the SALC Home Junior Shore Championship in England in 2020? Find out more Apply now for England Sea Angling Squads Species of the month: Bluefin Tuna Since 2016 Atlantic Bluefin have been regular, seasonal visitors to the Western waters of the UK. They are the largest of all the tuna and can grow to over 700kg (1,500lbs) and live for up to 50 years. Bluefin Tuna are capable of speed up to 75/80kph, diving to depths of beyond 1,000 metres. They undertake great migrations each year. It is currently illegal for anglers to target tuna in UK waters. However, this autumn, a limited number of anglers are involved in a project to help catch and tag tuna as part of a scientific project. We are campaigning for a live release recreational bluefin tuna fishery in the UK. Click for more details Chance to win £2,000 plus fantastic tackle prizes! Enter online here today

Full regulations here - with commercial restrictions too https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bass-industry-guidance-2019/bass-fishing-guidance-2019 We are areas V11d and V11e or 7d and 7e.

Nearly missed you - hope you are having a great day.

Reminder received from AT -attendees need to register. Anyone planning to attend?