On being asked for a permit..

The river remains best suited to Salmon fishers after another downpour of rain.

Just to show that a committee members life is not all cocaine fueled wild parties here is an image of a meeting in the Islay Inn involving some of the committee members discussing recent events on the river. The Islay Inn in case you did not know is the Associations adopted local boozer as it is in walking distance of the river and give us free sandwiches when we book it – result!

The Secretary forgot to book it so I made him buy some crisps.

The head bailiff was present as well as a new chap with some great experience who wanted to get more involved in the bailiff side of things. We ended up having a chat about the various characters we meet on the riverbank.

I will not deny that Glasgow has a bit of a reputation as being a bit……hard. Well, something that really gets to me is the inability of some of the Kelvin fisher’s  to appropriately respond to a request to see a permit. What should happen is that a member asks another member if they have a permit and the member says yes and shows them it – job done. If the person does not have a permit then a quick explanation of the reasons why they should have a permit are explained and then a quick call to the bailiff to let them know someone is fishing illegally – job done!

Sounds simple doesn’t it?

Alas, it is not that simple. A simple request to see a permit is often met with suspicion and a frown from guys that legitimately have a permit. Questions about who you are and why you are asking often happen and I always wonder why this is from guys that actually have a permit. I have heard some guys getting a bit extreme with their defense and I have experienced it myself. Last year one chap refused point blank to show me his permit and told me to get to fuck lost despite asking him in a nice way. When I have been out running along the banks of the Kelvin I always stop and ask guys I see fishing whether they have a permit, most are happy to show me however some are clearly unhappy and one guy asked if the bailiffs were now “sneaking up on members” as I did not look like a bailiff with my running gear on. Quite frankly, yes, it is sneaky to ask people when I am out running however is that not a good thing?

Maybe we should ensure that members display their permits at all time, we give out permits with a clip to attach them to ourselves. I am aware that some states in the US insist on this and some baseball caps have built in see through pockets to display permits. It means that if someone is in the river and you do not want to drag them in to see their permit then a quick look through a pair of binoculars solves the problem.

Anyway, after we discussed the business we made a stop at the Sea Pool which we thought might be busy with Salmon anglers – as it was we met one regular who was in the process of packing up.

I would be interested in hearing whether this is just an urban issue?

In the meantime here is a book that might be worthwhile #grin#

[amazon_image id=”1845021320″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Glasgow’s Hard Men: True Crime from the Files of The Herald, Evening Times and Sunday Herald[/amazon_image]