14 | 9 JULY anglersmail.com
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the Close Seasonthe Close Season
I
WAS in a lecture once where
someone made a point and
got a bit tongue-tied when
questioned on their opinion.
The lecturer put them at
their ease with the following
sentence: “Never be afraid to
have an opinion. I might not
always agree with your opinion,
but I would fi ght to the death
for your right to have one.”
This made a great impression
on me and my way of thinking.
What a better world it would
be if those who have opinions
allowed others to have opinions
as well, instead of thinking
theirs is the only opinion worth
having.
He followed it up with
another phrase: “Remember
that opinions are only opinions,
not necessarily facts.”
Steve Collett in his disgust
at the vote against the Close
Season not going his way
(AM, June 18), goes rabbiting
on about it being a pointless
exercise. Would it have been
pointless in his opinion if the
result had been reversed?
Then he complains about social
media and ‘gobs on sticks’, no
mention of him and John Bailey
banging on about keeping the
ban at every given opportunity
in their columns.
The majority of us who voted
had no way of infl uencing
others. The people with
fi nancial interests had one vote
like the rest of us that voted.
And if you multiply 13,000 by a
thousand, the result is still likely
to be the same.
Steve also said: “Let’s not
even get into Brexit-type
talk.” I hope the Environment
Agency take note of what has
happened to the Conservative
Party over Brexit, and heed
what happens when you ditch
democracy and ignore the
wishes of the majority when
you have asked them to vote on
something.
So, what are ‘the facts’ rather
than ‘opinions’ in this case.
The majority voted to leave
even after you aggregated the
two keep votes together.
It was a small majority, but it
is ‘the majority.’
We were not given any false
information written on the
side of a bus to persuade us in
either direction. We voted for
OUR personal preference.
Those who did not vote,
chose not to vote. They were
not prevented from voting.
They chose to exercise their
democratic right not to vote
for whatever their reason. Even
if that reason was apathy or a
protest against been told what
to do.
If the anglers who want to
get the great pleasure they
talk about on June 16th, they
still can, and without affectingmy fi shing pleasure. No one
is forcing them to fi sh from
March to June. That’s unlike
the present system, which has
forced generations of anglers to
cease fi shing for three months
of the year.
A fi sh is a fi sh, no matter
whether it lives in a lake, a canal
or a river in Ireland, England,
Scotland or Wales. And there
is no scientifi c reason to treat
them differently.
Commercial lakes and canals
have been fi shed on 365/
days of the year for enough
years to establish that it makes
no difference to the fi sh’s
breeding pattern or welfare.
Visit any commercial water and
observe the small fi sh in the
margins.
Fishing the rivers for an extra
three months of the year willnot affect the environment in
any way.
The Close Season was
introduced at a time when
both match anglers and leisure
anglers killed their catch to
take home and eat. This did
affect fi sh stocks, and if it were
still practiced today, I would be
leading the campaign to have a
Close Season.
Rivers are underfi shed
compared to commercial lakes.
Fishing licence sales have
been dropping year on year.
John Bailey and Steve
Collett’s opinions are just
opinions, are no better
than yours or mine, and are
infl uenced by what they think
is best, not what they know to
be best.
Kev Wright,
East Riding of Yorkshire.Opinions matter – Mail columnist Steve Collett expressed his views and Mail reader Kev Wright replied. We
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