Been looking into this for a while as i was always led to believe that all brown trout fishing in scotland was free, the permit was only to give permission to be on the land, this made no sense as there is no tresspass law in scotland, anyway after some research i have came up with the following -

If there is no Protection Order in place there is no legal requirement to have a permit and there is no law of tresspass in Scotland, so does this mean you can fish for free ???

If it is protected there should be signs about and if it is protected ... anglers are required to have written permission to fish- usually given by the land-owner or a club. Under the Freshwater and Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act 1976 it is an offence to fish without legal right or permission in any area covered by a Protection Order.

Protection Orders are enforced by Wardens who have been appointed by the Secretary of State for Scotland. They can demand to see the written permission and be given proof of identity. But unlike Bailiffs, Wardens have no powers of arrest or confiscation. But if you refuse to cooperate don't be suprised if the Warden calls for help from a Police Officer. You will then be given 14 days to produce your permit. In fact any angler who has a permit can ask to see another anglers permit.

Trout and coarse fishing is allowed on Sundays, so how can some rivers have no sunday fishing policies ?

Fishing for salmon and sea trout is not allowed on a Sunday.

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Here is a list of rivers with protection orders in place

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Rele...06/08/23163120

How does this work with hill lochs ?? can anyone fish these waters for free and without permission, from what i can gather this is the case, i hope someone can clear it up as its clear as mud to me

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No....its not an automatic right to fish for free. It simply means fishing without the owner's permission is not a criminal offence. A civil offence may still be carried out...how an owner would persue this is another matter.

Pedantic but it isn't a bylaw as it is a seperate legal system in Scotland, not legislative power devolved to a subordinate body.

It is confusing, if i went hill walking and came across a loch and decided to have an hours fishing and i was approached and asked for a permit where would i stand legal wise ?

The loch would not have a protection order on it and i would not be tresspassing, so what could be done to me ?

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If the loch was stocked and declaired a "stank" (impounded) you could be looking at crimimal charge of theft if you caught a fish.

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It is in truth not glory,nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting,but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with his life.(Declaration of Arbroath, 1320)

So in easy terms your a miserable sod who wants to poach

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Its a grey area...there are some lovely lochs up north where the owner kicks people off despite no protection order (I believe Tulla is an example). I heard of this happening on Ba the other day, when most people assume this is free fishing.

I think there is very little they could do legally....you could politely ask them to direct any civil action to your solicitors and carry on fishing

On the matter of a stank...basically this is a man made water...ie a dam. The fish in a stank are actually property of the owner and the offence you would be commiting is theft.

It does sound like that eh

Honestly i am a not though, its just something that has always baffled me, thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.

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Fully understand , When i have been going up north in years gone bye i always try to make the effort to find out about lochs in the area if nobody is forth coming i usually just go on , never had a run in yet . I remember once when we were working up near loch ness , there was 4 of us all fishers we decided to stop outside a bar/restraunt called the grouse and trout there was a wee lochan next to it about 2 acres , Well to cut a long story short it was warm we were outside having a couple of jars watching fish rising all over it , when up came the caretaker/ groundsman we asked him " if it would be possible to fish the lochan " his reply " What lochan " kind of sums it up ...

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[SIZE="4"]BRITISH BY BIRTH , SCOTTISH BY THE GRACE OF GOD..[/SIZE]

Have a read at these for more information.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Fi...rse/17519/8903

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publicati...11/20316/47362

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/s..._20030015_en_1

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