I used to go fishing ( 20 years or more ago ) on a stretch of the River Kennet, which was known as a 'Free Stretch' about 100yards long.

This stretch has now been 'done up' for canal boats and suchlike and has signs saying No Fishing!!

Anyone know of any free fishing stretches around/within the Newbury/Basingstoke/reading Triangle??

Also, what about fishing off bridges?? Fishing clubs have fishing rights on the banks - NOT on the footbridges!! A sneaky answer??

Reading and District Angling Association want £40 + I have to join a local club first for £x's .... and I've just bought a Rod Licence for £23:50

Where has the 'fun' in fishing gone? I like to just wander to a stretch of water and spend and hour relaxing ....... about 10 times in a year, maybe?? The costs are STOOOOOPID!!!

Pete

 

passed lots of dedicated anglers ..........on my sisters dutch barge thro france ....but canals are a fair amount wider on the continent. I gather its good to have the bottom stired up a bit ....but is there room for co-existence this side of the channel..?

 

I might be wrong now but I use to fish the local canal/river and if you fish the far bank not the tow path its was free

But you still need a license

Don't fish rivers canals anymore

I find a decent lake pay a few ££ to fish and not get pi££ed off with boats and people

 

Mr Lewis,Do YOU KNOW how much the average bargee is paying per year ...

 

Fishing rights relate to the right fish the water and not to the location from which this is done. Fishing from a bridge is no different to fishing from the bank in terms of the legal position. The owner of the fishing rights may own neither the bank, the bridges, nor the bed of the river but in many cases fishing rights come with a right of access to the bank.

This right of access is often "limited" by unhappy farmers by placing known nasty bulls in fields bounded by the river. Your right of access remains, it is just a question of whether you are brave enough to assert it.

If you are interested in some good fishing may I suggest either:

http://www.amhuinnsuidhe-castle.co.uk/

or

http://www.grimersta.com/

Access will not be a problem, sport will be excellent but it will not be free. Access to any resource in life is rarely free.

 

Actually, technically what I said is not completely true as, in some cases, riparian owners may have left or right bank fishings. However, they need not own the banks it is only a scheme to divide the fishing rights in half. Basically what I said is true.

 

My family had rights ( to charge ) .. over a pond in the new forest ,didnt own any of it although i believe they may have had to upkeep one of the banks. Gave it up in the end due to being woken up at 8am by inconsiderate anglers.....

 

I know somewhere in Amesbury thats free, but thats a little far for you me thinks.

Kintbury isn't bad just outside of Newbury. Costs a few quid to fish for the day but some nice fish in there.

Gary

 

Ah Pete, don't be so mean, a man with your money! I don't know how far away you are from the river Test, but there is some free stretch's on it, that are controlled by the local council, another alternative is to pop into your nearest tackle shop they should be able to point you in the right direction, and also most stretch's of river that run through a town are normally free to fish, you can probably check with the local council, also there is a publication (can't remember the name at the moment) that's about £20, that list's just about every fishable river, canal, and pond in the country, it give's price's (a lot are free) time's and contact number's for direction's to find the stretch's of water listed. I'm sorry i can't remember the title of the book, but i'm sure someone on here must know the name of it, or even own a copy, that they could give you some detail's from, Happy fishing.
P.S. The stretch of the river Test, i mention even has a run of Salmon, that you can take, if you can catch them, and have the proper license.

 

just another wind-up im afraid evidenced by his lack of response.

 

fishing costs a fortune! average weekend carp fishing (dont start) for me is.....48 hour ticket to fish £40,bait £30,food about £20,petrol there and back £10......plus other little odds and sods i need from the tackle
shop!

 

Can't you jump over the fence & fish the pond at the Manor House ?

D

 

Yes, probably .............. as you know AWE have taken over Portland House now - security is a LOT tighter!!

Pete

 

You wally!!

I have just got back in after fishing my old 'FREE' stretch .... sat just under the NO FISHING sign!! Brilliant!!

Pete

 

I have free fishing in every river in East Antrim - special circumstance - My Da is the water bailiff - fishing is carp BTW .................. erm crap, scuse the typo

 

Thieving chav scum can't even obey a simple instruction written on a sign in English. Vermin like you should crawl back into the town where you belong until you learn some manners in terms of how to behave outside your rat infested sewer.

 

me or him?

btw - how come you are an expert on everything? Is it all cut and paste or are you....erm.... is it all cut and paste?

 

Nothing is free any more, and it wont be long before the Campaign Against Angling starts to show after the anti hunting bill. I reckon there will be scenes of violence on the banks and that is not something to look forward to!

Best to accept the situation and join one of your local angling associations PSL, all in all you will get enough advantages to make it worth while. Associations usually do useful things like maintaining the rivers too which can only be a good thing all round. My association spends a lot of time off season clearing out the redds to improve the spawning chances for the fish for example. We also monitor things closely and report pollution very quickly when we see it as well as maintaining the banks.

Les

 

i fished at ian heaps holgan farm fishery last friday,caught a good bag of fish,the best being a 12 lb carp,the place is brilliant it is stuffed full of fish and is absolutely immaculate,and where else can you get a world champ to give you tips,advice and sit and teach you, it cost £7.50 to fish there per day.what other pastime could you do for 12 hours for that amount of cash not many i never complain about paying to fish. alot of free fishing stretches are rubbish.coarse fishing is cheap,i mostly sea fish next month ive got an offshore wreck trip and a shark trip about £40 each.my missus is going mental but its the same as paying for coarse fishing you spend the cash because it means better quality whether that means good boats or good ponds.

 

Hmmmmm, well my local Association want a kings ransom to join!! - the same price for my daughter too just too much!

Sea fishing? well, I do that off my boat on the south coast .... its totally free!! which is how I like it!

Had a good evening last night anyway - the No Fishing sign shielded my eyes from the evening sun

Pete

 

i got rid of my boat i could nt justify the cost of it because most of the time it was just sat on the mooring.now i pay my forty squid and i can relax no cleaning the boat,no worries about the thing getting nicked and then with a charter boat you can go 60 miles offshore.i think doing around a dozen trips a year is a fair bit cheaper than running a boat.the two best days of boat ownership are the day you buy it and the day you sell it!