On 8th August the Scottish Executive and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD) published this Green Paper.  It outlines their plans for new legislation and management structures concerning angling and freshwater fisheries in Scotland. The Green Paper can be viewed at the Scottish Executive website.   A hard copy can be obtained from SEERAD (tel 0131-244-6231; or e-mail: graeme.waugh@Scotland.gsi.gov.uk)

The Green Paper presents a challenge for Scottish coarse anglers to make our voices heard and ensure that the new legislation and management structures take account of our interests.  Unfortunately, although it makes very positive general comments about the need to embrace all branches of angling, the Paper contains less in the way of concrete proposals to achieve that.  In fact, it has some proposals which may actively damage certain aspects of coarse angling, such as the suggestion that all livebaiting should be banned, and that there should be tight controls on the stocking of "alien" species, which will might include well-established sporting species such as carp.

Much of the current - highly inadequate - legislation relative to angling comes from Acts passed in 1951 and 1976.  Coarse angling was much less well-developed and organised then than it is now, and not surprisingly, that legislation pays little or no regard to our branch of the sport.  For example, it is technically against the law in Scotland to fish with a rod that is not held in the hand at all times, or to fish with more than one rod at the same time.  Only the fact that the great majority of proprietors disregard this law in practice allows us to pursue our sport.  It is an absurd anachronism and we must do everything possible to ensure it is removed from Scottish law.

You can find detailed comments on some of the issues in the Green Paper on the Pike Anglers Alliance of Scotland Website ( The Scottish Federation for Coarse Angling is in the process of drafting a comprehensive response, and will shortly be consulting member clubs on the contents of that.  When completed, the response will appear on the SFCA Web site.

What can you do? It’s important that you do something to make your views known. The more coarse anglers who respond, the more likely it is that some notice will be taken of our interests:-

• First, please contact SEERAD and get a copy of the Green Paper. Make sure you let them know you are a coarse angler.

• If you are a member of an angling club, whether or not it is affiliated to SFCA, get your club secretary to obtain a copy of the Green Paper and encourage him or her to reply to SEERAD in support of the needs of Scottish coarse angling. This is equally applicable, perhaps more so, in the case of game angling clubs - there is no reason why we should not give support to their interests on matters that are important to them and vice versa.

• Send in a personal reply to SEERAD, even just a few lines to express your concern over key issues like the freedom to stock carp in appropriate waters, the need for coarse anglers to be permitted to use rod rests and multiple rod set-ups, and the threat to livebaiting. The closing date for replies is the end of October, so you have plenty of time to write something.

• If you prefer not to give a detailed response, you could hold off until you have seen the SFCA response, which should be around by mid-October at the latest, and then simply write to SEERAD saying you are a coarse angler and endorse the SFCA response.

• Copy any written reply, however short, to your MSP.

This Green Paper will set the scene for at least a generation.  It will be the first time ever that coarse anglers in Scotland have a chance to influence how the law views our sport, and to reverse years of discrimination against our interests, and it’s vital that we make the best of that opportunity.  We have a big task on our hands.  Please lend your support.