Sir, - Anyone interested in salmon fishing will be aware of a Departmental ban on the use of prawn and shrimp as bait until June 1st. One of the reasons given for the ban is that these baits are the deadliest and most effective and that their non-use at this time of year would ensure the conservation of salmon stocks.
The Minister for the Marine has his heart in the right place, but his objective cannot be met, realistically speaking, unless he decides to criminalise all other types of angling over the same period. Otherwise, the Department is discriminating in the most blatant and arbitrary way against anglers who favour shrimp or prawn fishing.
And what about the great factory ships decimating salmon stocks off our coast? Will the Minister outlaw the use of drift-nets at sea or snap-nets in tidal rivers? The logic of his position should lead him in that direction.
The plight of prawn-bait fishermen like myself is not helped by the fact that angling in Ireland is largely controlled by clubs owning or leasing fishing rights. And these clubs are bedevilled by snobbery and elitism. Many of them refuse to allow the use of spinners or worms for the most eccentric of reasons. Some permit fly-fishing only.
I respect the right of people to join such clubs and abide by these crazy restrictions; but I think it is outrageous that the Minister, yielding to pressure from this elitist element, has seen fit to target anglers who deviate from the "snob mentality".
The Government has been badly advised on this one. The role of prawn-bait in depleting stocks has been blown up out of all proportion. Take the river Slaney, for example, one of the best spring rivers in the country. This year, it yielded at most 5 to 10 per cent of its catch to prawn and shrimp fishermen.
I hope the Minister and his Department will recognise the present ban for the draconian measure it is and reverse it immediately. - Yours, etc.,
Nicholas Fitzgerald, Hatchery Lane, Inistioge, Co Kilkenny.