[boopinter]

aye aye a'body,busy day posting(stuck in my hoose,nae weel )got a wee question for you all.ive got a friend whos quite new to flyfishing and when on the river goes straight in to a pool near the bottom of it,faces down stream and fishes his fly basically straight down stream.he catches alot of wee salmon parr and the odd tiny wee troot.he will not change even after telling him its not the best way to fish.my worry is that, is it not illegal/wrong to fish in a way to catch salmon parr?morally i find it difficult because of the damage he might be doing to the young stock of parr and troot.can anybody give me advice on what to do? better try and find something to do other than writing posts???!! cheers,bruce

[Rob Brownfield]

Thats an interesting question.

I was out the other night fishing with a medium sized double for Salmon. I hooked two small trout so decided enough was enough and switched to a trout rod and trout flies. Although the double was barbless, it was still a large mouthful for a wee trout. So, morally, I would not fish an area where Parr/wee trout were hitting big flies.

I do not not the answer to the legal side of things. I suspect it is illegal to deliberatly fish for Salmon Parr. Catching one by mistake...and I have seen them take 3 inch tubes!!...well thats a different matter. I know you have to return it, even if dead as it is most certainly illegal to have a salmon parr on your person.

Perhaps a quite word to him suggesting that the wee ones might be fun, but there are bigger ones for the taking?

[boopinter]

cheers for that ,i will try to persuade him but if there are any other good or strong arguments for him to stop i would be very grateful.i will keep on trying though.im sure i read somewhere that if you are fishing in a manner likely to catch salmon parr and/ or catching salmon parr it is illegal but somebody oot there will tell me ,thanks,bruce

[Rob Brownfield]

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2003/15/section/23

23Young salmon and spawning bedsS.(1)Any person who— .
(a)knowingly takes, injures or destroys; .
(b)buys, sells, exposes for sale or is in possession of; or .
(c)places any device or engine for the purpose of obstructing the passage of, .
any smolt, parr, salmon fry or alevin shall be guilty of an offence

The above in bold might give you some leverage. But if we define hooking a fish as "damaging" it, then we shoulod all hang up our rods and stop fishing.

[boopinter]

thanks for that rob,as you say it might give me some way of changing this habit of his and get him onto trying other ways.i have another lad who just started fishing this year and hes a dream to pass on some fishing techniques,cheers,bruce