Bass protection - an encouraging milestone - Re: Min Connick

I received some encouraging news today. It was information and a photograph that was part of the group 'Irish Bass' and their most recent newsletter. Apart from bass fishing updates there was a report on a recent short meeting that the chairperson of Irish Bass held with Minister Connick. Although there is still lots of campaigning and hard work ahead I felt very encouraged and enthusiastic that a fisheries Minister took the time to meet with an angling bass stocks stakeholder.

Here is some of the information and a picture of Irish Bass chairperson John Quinlan alongside Minsiter Connick.

The report starts with the text 'Time to give yourselves a pat on the back... '

The following picture is shown:

Irish Bass & Minister Connick.jpg

The report then continues with the following text:

To all of you who have helped by sending in letters and emails to the Minister of fisheries and any of the other ministers involved, your efforts have not been in vain. On Friday 23rd July I travelled from West Kerry to Kilmore Quay in Wexford in the hope of meeting the Minister for Fisheries, Sean Connick who was there to launch an angling promotions booklet for the Wexford area.

The eleven hour round trip was worthwhile because with the help of Josie Mahon from the ERFB I managed to get a good 10 minutes of Minister Connick’s time. He said that the Irish Bass Group and bass anglers had been giving him a very hard time about his stance on commercial bass fishing. I told him that I was very pleased to hear this. He said that he was under severe pressure from the FIF to have their proposal accepted and also he was under pressure to allow an inshore commercial line caught bass fishery. However, critically he said that no decision to change the legislation would be made quickly and there would be more consultation on the matter. Coming from a minister who is already on record as saying he was in favour of a commercial bass fishery in Irish waters this clearly shows that all the efforts anglers have made have paid off.

If we had not made such a big effort this would be all over by now. So well done and thank you to you all. It shows that if we can stick together we can really make a difference. Minister Connick has suggested a meeting with Irish Bass about this issue so we will keep you informed about how this goes. There may never be a time when the commercial sector will not be looking for the quick buck with the bass stocks that we have looked after so well, but if we can stick together and keep the pressure on, we will show that we are not prepared to let the bass resource that we love be tampered with.

The proposal to change the Northern Ireland bass regulations to match those of the south is still at the consultation stage but time is fast running out to have your say. The process ends on the 24th August.

If you haven’t already done so, please click on this link (this link won't work from this report but can be filled out in another thread on this site): NI Bass Conservation - then cut and paste to your email. Agree to all the points and send it to myrtle.ferguson@dardni.gov.uk.

It only takes a few minutes and could go a long way in helping protect our bass stocks into the future.

The UK BASS group were at the big CLA Game Fair in England last week. As well as trying to get support for the NI bass proposal they also did a great job in promoting the Irish Bass Group and our campaign to protect our bass stocks.

With the bass season in full swing now is the time to get out there and enjoy the bass fishing that we all love so best of luck and tight lines.

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Very encouraging hopefully we can get our ideas heard and stop this nonsense

well done all.

Thanks lads!

But let us all remember that this is by no means over.

It is in fact just beginning.

The dangers that are posed to the bass stocks are still very present, real and srtong.

We can not take our foot off the pedal.

This post was simply an effort to show people that all their efforts over the past couple of months brought us to this point.

A lot more work is still to be done!

Keep it up everyone, even if you are getting sick of it all and feeling blue about it.

Remember that real change only comes about by going through the hard working and suffering that is required!

Tight lines all,
John D.

Very true John, we can’t stop just because we have voted, I have been actively telling anyone I know who is not part of this site to vote and get our voices heard.

Too long have we been ignored this is a real opportunity for our case to be taken seriously and have some benefit to fish stocks and the economy.

I cannot wait for the day where I don’t have to travel 4~6 hours to a location I would be guaranteed to catch a Bass. In saying that some of the locations I have fished for Bass have been absolutely breathtaking.

We cannot take our finger of the pulse as this is a critical time for fishing in the north.

good man john ,keep up the good work .