I hear that te EA are meeting in July 09 to decide if they should make it optional if there is a close season for impounded triploid brownies or not.Early indications are that the close season WILL be scrapped.
Personally i'm in favour of a close season.I know it's old fashioned but i just think that eveything benefits from a good rest even if the stock is non breeding.
Would like to hear your thoughts on this.

The key words in your post are "impounded" and "triploid".

If the fish are trips, so incapable of breeding, and there's little danger of them escaping into rivers, what's the problem with fishing for them in winter ? I have found winter lake fishing for triploid rainbows in the sunny South to be well worth doing, with well conditioned fish catchable using an imitative or semi-imitative approach, why shouldn't the same be true for triploid browns ? About the only drawback with this winter lake fly fishing is the short fishing day, 9:30am to 2:30pm is just about the full extent of when the fish are interested.

But...the factor likely to mitigate against anything other than token stocking with these fish is cost, see Warren Slaney's post on the "stocking" string elsewhere in this section of the site.

I know where you are coming from with the closed season, but the sorts of places likely to stock these fish are commercial ventures that need every penny of income at any time. Let alone in the looming recession, when the first outgoing folks will cut if they have to is discretionary spend on leisure activities

__________________
"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." - German proverb
JH based near Southampton

I've been following this with interest, because primarily i fish for 'impounded' fish. Personally, i'm against the proposal. I love fishing for brownies, be they wild or 'trip' and look forward with relish to the beginning of the 'season'. It's as though when the browns are in season, the summer is with us! nothing more than that. during the winter i still fish, but target rainbows instead, releasing any browns that i may be lucky enough to catch. If theyre in season all year round, somehow it'll detract from the pleasure of catching them. IMO obviously.

I don't have a problem with this as I don't the see difference between triploid rainbows and Browns, I would quite happily lump both. I wonder how the commercial fisheries will feel about this though, as most of the ones I visit always seem to want to protect the brownie numbers and therefore limit the brownies per bag.

Springtime is brownie time for me but....early April on a big reservoir - temperature never above 7 degrees C all day - force 5 north easterly blowing in your left ear - intermittent sleet showers - sulky fish shoaled up and lying deep - all day (between mugs of hot tea and pulls from the hip flask) spent twitching back a booby on an ultra fast sinker for 5 takes and 2 fish caught

__________________
"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." - German proverb
JH based near Southampton

As far as im aware ..its still at the discussion stage.. and very much open to debate...Im lucky enough to be invited to the fishery forums that the EA run occasionally ..If you too are lucky enough to be invited to one of these occasions (not everyone is ) you could raise this at the meeting ...if not if you know your local Rferac member ask them to raise your concerns..

It is time we all re-learned to give things a rest once a year.

richard

__________________
Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

Yes, Richard, the seasons give nature a break -- a time to rest, to heal or to rejuvenate etc. Mankind is not always that thoughtful and considerate. All-year-round fisheries sometimes bear the scars of twelve months of booted feet eroding their banks -- not a pretty sight. I slipped on a bank denuded of grass one winter's day, about 5 years ago, and failed to break my fall with my outstretched arm. The damage to my left wrist was responsible for a recent 'flare-up' that kept me off the water on the Cumbria FFF day at Bessy Beck. Consequently, I remain wary of muddy banks -- that should read muddy slopes. TC