Angling Trust Rules – what a joke!!

[TF_dave smiff]

I’ve just heard the BW Stillwater Masters match at Earlswood was won by Kev Hewitt on the spodicopter (this isnt having a go at Kev, I applaud him for being different and not a sheep like most anglers). This series is organised by The Angling Trust and fished to Angling Trust Model Match Rules and each competitor is sent a copy on entering. How come the same set of rules had Spods banned at Barston??? Are spods allowed or are they banned?? And who comes up with the rules in the first place??

[TF_FBlues]

Nigel Harrhy of Barston Lakes helped draft the latest Model Match Rules and banned spods ON HIS OPEN MATCHES – they’ll be allowed in carp matches – because he defined them as different to feeders because they were used without weight and hooks. Put a hook on it and it becomes a feeder! There is nothing in any nationally accepted rules that says feeders have to be weighted, it’s just common practice. There’s nothing wrong with the rules, it’s the way people are allowed to interpret them. How do you prevent someone fishing with a spod + hook and not a bagging waggler or feeder?

[TF_carpmagicParticipant]

To confuse the waters even further spodding is banned at Earlswood in the BWB matches yet you can use a spod with a hooklength attached. So what Keith says is pretty much spot on as in once you put a hooklength on then they class it as a feeder as opposed to a spod.
Kev was second by the way.

[TF_James_H]

Dave, there are a few rules which are controversial.

Apparently the spod is allowed on the BW Champs so long as it has a hook length, i.e. you can still use the spod as a spod, and spod all day long if you like, so long as the spod has a hooklength attached.

There’s also a rule about no use of handling the elastic while playing a fish due to ‘bullying’ the fish, making specific reference to no use of pulla bungs, which in many cases pulla-bungs allow softer elastic to be used. This will be a very controversial rule come the qualifier at Blythe Waters later this year.

Also the rule about no wading above knee depth, yet at Earlswood on Saturday most anglers went to thigh depth, and also the rule about no keepnets to enter the water until 15mins before the whistle, the list goes on…

The Anging Trust is trying to do the best for the sport & fish welfare in my opinion, but it all comes down to how strict organisers want to be. In my opinion, the spod is another way of catching fish and should be allowed, but someone somewhere no doubt has some good reasoning for the rules. The organisers do a great job on these matches, so it’s a little unfair to point the finger at them, but I do understand your point completely.

[TF_NW Cut Angler]

Spods should be allowed. We (anglers) are our own worst enemy whining and demanding for X, Y and Z to be banned because we are too lazy to make the effort ourselves.

[TF_BazzaParticipant]

Doesn’t say in AT model match rules that you can’t use pulla bungs. Refers to trapping the elastic down the pole, as in handling the elastic that comes out of the pole tip.

[TF_dave smiff]

Keith, Nigel banned the Spod in the Barston Masters because the Angling Trust rules don’t allow it, in his opinion. This wasn’t his personal choice but one made when somebody pointed out the ruling that states something like: apart from your own hands and a pole cup only feeders should be allowed to introduce bait. No other means are allowed. This doesn’t definitely ban or allow spods though.
But if you put a hooklength on the Spod, then it should be allowed, no matter what? Is that what you are saying?

Maybe the rule should be amended and it either be banned or allowed full stop! It would certainly resolve a lot of issues.

[TF_NW Cut Angler]

Neil reacted to whiners. The original outbursts to spodding were pathetic. I am old enough to remember people wanting hempseed banned, B&J banned and in recent years all and sundry banned.

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