Waterway Wanderers is BW's fishy business

catching an eel at Lathom Junction on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, July 2008

British Waterways will tomorrow launch a scheme which will encourage more anglers along the banks of our canals. In a press release BW says it's "opening up 300 miles of canal to anglers".

These are excerpts from the press release:

The new Waterway Wanderers scheme launches on Thursday 15 April and will provide access to 122 previously unlicensed locations throughout England and Wales.

John Harding, who will administer the scheme, says: "Waterways Wanderers plugs the gaps between those stretches of waterway which aren’t currently being let to clubs. This scheme will make fishing canals much easier and I’m looking forward to welcoming many more anglers to the waterways."

Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of the Angling Trust said: “Britain’s canals offer a fantastic resource for anglers of all abilities, in the countryside and inner city alike. Angling Trust adult members will be able to enjoy all that fishing for just £10 a year. We hope that this will encourage thousands of anglers to get out on the towpath and join the Angling Trust.”

(The bold is my emphasis.)

An annual permit will cost £20 (£10 concessions; £5 under 17s), with £10 off for members of the Angling Trust. The Angling Trust website (www.anglingtrust.net) seems to be down at the moment; the closest match appears to be the Angling Foundation.

Now this is all fine if it swells the maintenance coffers of BW, but with annual permits costing a mere £20 at most it will need a lot of anglers to pay for a new lock gate or repair an overflow weir.

That's an awful lot of poles in the water and extending back over the towpath.


fishing match on the River Weaver in July 2008