Beach Fishermen conflict

Thanks for the positive comments.

 GK as a lad I have tacked mirrors inshore against the tide so understand your problem completely. I think the only solution in this situation is to try to be diplomatic and have someone talk to them before the race starts. My point about them being P****sed off was mainly that they cant be expected to understand that the current affects your boat speed. Likewise I havent got a clue about different baits, types of fish, where they feed etc etc.

Some statemans from history and I dont know who it was said someting like "Jaw Jaw is better than War war.

I hope you can resolve the situation but have to agree physical attacks whether its maggots bait or lead weights are very unpleasant.

Just a suggestion is it worth writing to an angling magazine to put your comments out in their world.

I to have missed most of this thread but have an oppinion to offer. A few years ago the relationship with the fishermen on our puddle was terrible, abuse both verbal and physical was commonplace. We were called to the estate office to explain ourselves and seeing as the income form fishing is around £80,000 and from our little club is less than £10,000 we felt very vulnerable.

We tried to explain that we cannot see floats etc especially when racing but came away very despondent thinking that the lease would be terminated etc.

We now have a very good relationship with the fishermen and the water bailiffs. We held regular meetings with the bailiffs and the land agent. I was appointed as Fishing Liason Officer and walked round talking to the fishermen explaining what we were doing and when it is likely to be busy. We have notices up saying when races start and that it will be busy on the start line at certain times. Also we adopted a zero tolerance to all abusive behaviour from both sides. If a sailor causes a problem the fishermen report the sail number to the bailiff and we will follow it up. We have refunded lost kit to them if we feel the sailor has caused the problem. In return the bailiffs have turned one fisherman off for his continued abuse and things have sttled down.

If you take the time to talk to these guys all they want is to enjoy their sport like we enjoy ours. By offering them help by checking where they have been laying groundbait before you put a racing mark on top of it, collect rods that have drifted off etc etc. we have found that we have reduced the problems and the estate are now much more helpful and open to help us.

We also keep an incident book of all good and bad things that happen.

As for the sea fishermen they maybe had a right to be P****d off they dont understand about tacking inshore from their point of view you have the whole ocean to sail in. I certainly dont know the finer points of fishing.

Basically it boils down to communication. How many of you are happy to shout from your boat but dont take the trouble to go and talk to them if there is a problem.