Fantastic news - there will be no net based fishery in the Salcombe estuary, well done to all of you who got involved!

Around yesterday afternoon the news broke that any angler would have wanted to hear - “There will be no net fishery within Salcombe Estuary!”. If you are wondering what on earth I am on about then you didn’t get involved - have a look at my blog post here for the info - but if like me you have been crossing all your fingers and hoping that common sense would prevail, then we have got the result we all wanted. A number of people have done a huge amount of work to prevent a net fishery from happening in the beautiful Salcombe/Kingsbridge estuary, and I would like to say a profound thank you. This stuff doesn’t just happen and it proves that if we get involved, we can affect change………….

The sort of beautiful Salcombe/Kingsbridge fish we do not want to see ending up in an estuary based net………….

I have grabbed this from the Wyvern Sea Angling page on Facebook: “Today two members of Wyvern plus Grant Jones from the Angling Trust attended the big meeting at Exeter racecourse for the Devon and Severn IFCA’s vote on allowing netting to return into the Salcombe estuary for six months every year.

We are very pleased to announce the vote went as follows:

11 votes in favour of maintaining the prohibition of fixed and drift nets within the Salcombe Estuary.

2 voters abstaining.

There will be no net fishery within Salcombe Estuary!

Congratulations to everyone of you that took the time to write into this consultation. Plus an amazing bit of work led by Grant Jones and all at the AT” (Angling Trust).

And then I have grabbed this from Grant Jones’ Facebook page: “An incredible result today as the D&S IFCA voted unanimously, save for abstainers, NOT to net Salcombe Estuary. It’s been a massive amount of work leading an opposition to the proposal on behalf of the Angling Trust, but it’s been worth it. The thanks I’ve received from many organisations, the majority outside of angling, plus individuals, is very humbling. I’m sorry if I’ve not acknowledged everyone yet, I’m working through it. The officers at the IFCA were incredible, they run a very professional organisation on a shoestring, and the report they furnished their members with left no stone unturned in laying out why this proposal should not proceed. Several other votes also took place, all going in the direction anglers would wish to see. A very productive and progressive day. Thanks to Mike Spiller and Alex Parker for joining me there today and your support throughout the whole process”.

There will be a news piece on the Angling Trust website in due course, but I wanted to jump the gun and get the news up on here. My thanks again to some good people for all their amazing efforts. Stuff doesn’t just happen, and of course my thanks to any of you here who took the time to follow the instructions and send those emails and letters. It was more than worth it. You all have a good weekend, here’s hoping that England v Scotland on Saturday afternoon is somewhat better than the turgid crap which was England v Wales the other day………