A massive thank you to the Surfers on Rossnowlagh yesterday.

It might sound a bit selfish and dangerous lads but my attitude has always been F**K em. Had trouble with them before so don't even bother moving now. Just keep flinging 5 and 6 oz leads out in their general direction. They won't be long moving on when a couple of those go sailing past them. Why should we be the ones put off the beach by ignorant, selfish yobs. I do however wait or move on if surfers are there before me.

plenty more fish in the sea, as they say!
We can fish anywhere but they are kinda limited on where, I'm a bit surprised at the launching lead at them comments.

launching leads at them and property damage is NOT the answer, that's how anglers get a bad name, and it only takes one person fishing in the wrong place at the wrong time to get all anglers banned from that area permanently!!
if they are there when you arrive, either move over out of the way, wait till they go home or move to another mark.
If you are there first, and they stroll past you, ask them if they can move down a little and point out why i.e. casting out with hooks and getting tangled in lines is not good for their health, and they will scare the fish away.

you want to enjoy your sport as much as they do so sometimes a compromise may work!! but there is no point getting that Gardai called on you because of intention to harm another person, don't forget a lead weight is a projectile, if you accidental hit someone with it it does have the potential to kill someone, and if that was to happen then our beloved sport would go under the microscope and maybe banned, much to the delight of them animal hugging hippies.

it all comes down to respect, there are many anglers who respect the fact if they were there first well its time to move over or away, in the same way a few of them will move away, but there does seem to be a few from each group who are adamant to stand their ground and become a nuisance for both sports. So don't become a nuisance and get fishing banned.

Agreed Steve. Threats to and/or physical damage to others property is not the answer. Even some posts in open threads such as this one can be used by them as ammunition against anglers (scomber's closed, right??? ). It's fairly clear to see from their posts which individuals are not willing to logically discuss compromise. I don't think there's anything that anglers can say to them that will change their minds. If they fail to recognise common sense and courtesy, then it's difficult to see a way forward with these individuals - we're obviously not talking to the right people in this instance

Perhaps, as I think has already been suggested, it's time for representative bodies from both sports to get some discussions going to agree some mutually beneficial etiquette. If such agreed etiquette was drilled-down to their members, it might help to bring the closed-minded individuals to more rational thinking. (Any subsequest breaches of the "unwritten rules of conduct" could at least be channelled back to the appropriate organisation). Afterall, I think there's a better chance of them listening to other surfers or their representative bodies than to anglers (once again reinforced by the last few "anti-sharing" posts I've read in the surfing forum today!).

However, it was a little encouraging to see at least some of the surfers state their understanding and willingness to respect the anglers' situation. There is hope - not all of the surfers on that particular board (no pun intended!) have themselves sitting on a pedestal or fly the "Divine Right" flag.

Despite the frustrating nature of some of the arguments and counter-arguments in that surfing thread, if only a handful of surfers were enlightened with respect to what anglers have been enduring, then I think it was worthwhile...

Keep on talking...
-Martin.