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Post by Pete Tyjas on Mar 26, 2011 7:42:05 GMT
Was working lower down the Taw today looking for salmon. Had a half hearted pull but did have a small sea trout. Sounds like some bigger fish of 4 and 5lb have been caught a little further down.
Loads of Large Darks, Medium Olives and a few grannom with rising fish from 10am onwards.
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Post by paul on Apr 24, 2011 5:30:36 GMT
good news from the Western daily News!
Saturday, April 09, 2011, 07:01Share Bookmark with (what is social media?)Facebook Digg Reddit Delicious StumbleUpon
Prison threat for salmon poachers who were caught on River Taw
By steve grant
Two men have been warned they could end up behind bars if they are caught poaching salmon again.
Andrew Horne and Stephen Cook were spotted in a blue fishing boat on the Taw and Torridge estuary near Instow by patrolling Environment Agency fisheries officers on August 17 last year.
Attached to the stern of the boat was a 300 metre long net stretched across the River Taw towards Crow Point.
As the boat moved across the mouth of the river, Cook was spotted removing two large silver fish from the net and throwing them into the boat towards Horne.
Five fish were caught in the monofilament drift net. Later the same evening, agency officials met the two men as they came ashore at Instow Quay. Asked what they had caught Horne pointed to a 3lb bass, 2.5 lb mullet and small flatfish in the bow of the boat.
But officers searched the craft and found two freshly-caught salmon – each about 6lb – hidden under a tarpaulin.
When questioned, Horne admitted he intended to sell the fish, which currently fetches around £15 per pound.
Barnstaple magistrates heard Horne and Cook were experienced netsmen and were allowed to fish for seafish including bass and mullet, but had to immediately return to the water any salmon or sea trout they caught accidentally.
The two men positioned their net at the mouth of the River Taw on an incoming flood tide – the very time salmon and sea trout were most likely to be entering the river from the sea, the court heard.
Magistrates heard there had been a serious decline in salmon numbers on the Taw and Torridge.
Horne of Biddyblack Way, Tarka Point, Bideford, and Stephen Cook of Newton Road, Bideford were each given a three-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £450 costs after pleading guilty to illegally taking two salmon on the Taw and Torridge contrary to the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975.
Magistrates ordered forfeiture of the net and salmon and warned the two defendants they could face “severe punishment” including a custodial sentence of up to three months if they were caught illegally fishing again.
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