Anglers hit out at 'foreign' poachers

Despite health warnings and more than four years after the Advertiser reported the problem, illegal fisherman are still continuing to cause controversy.

Gary, of Ramsden Road, Broom, said that he had regularly been catching new arrivals, believed to be eastern European, digging fishing “pegs” out on the banks of the Fitzwilliam Canal without a proper licence.

He believes that law-abiding fisherman like himself are getting a raw deal.

“Having been fishing a local canal in Rotherham for a good few years, we suddenly get this invasion of foreign people coming down to our rivers and canals and blatantly digging the bankside out to make a fishing spot,” he said.

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"Then they have the cheek to take them home to presumably eat without anything being said to them in case of reprisal.”

Some angling experts believe that fish taken from the once heavily-polluted Rivers Don and Rother should carry a health warning.

Gary said he believed that the rogue fishermen, who often use nets on rivers and canals, were operating throughout Yorkshire. The Advertiser reported in 2006 on how new arrivals were upsetting legitimate anglers, who pay £30 for an angling licence.

As a result, the Environment Agency employs specially-trained bailiffs to tackle serious fishing crime and patrol suspected trouble spots.

Gary believes that the use of nets for coarse fishing has spiralled out of control, sparking a culture clash between European immigrants and Brits.

In eastern Europe, where coarse fish such as carp and bream are regularly served up on the dinner table, different fishing laws exist.

Gary said: “Most of these people in their own countries, fish to put food on the table and do not understand that it’s not what we do here.

“Where do fishing licence holders stand when you get people like this who don’t give a monkeys about our laws.

“And it’s law-abiding fishermen and women who pick up the pieces in the cost of there fishing licence.

“All the big fish seem to have gone, they’ll be none left to breed soon.”

Anyone fishing UK fresh waters needs to buy a rod licence from the Environment

Agency, which allows them to fish only with rod and line and restricts any fish from being removed.

But Gary claims that European anglers are flagrantly breaking the rules by using nets, with two men stretching a net across a canal or river and walking along the banks, cleaning out whole stretches of water of fish as they go.

An Environment Agency spokeswoman confirmed that a report had been received from an angler about the problem.

She added: “We are very much reliant on people contacting us if they see anything suspicious like this going on.

“The problem that we have, is occasionally we can get a call from someone, and even if we were to go out and investigate, they very well may have disappeared.

“We would remind anglers if they see anything suspicious going on to call our hotline on 0800 80 70 60.”