Bruno Garcia from the Charente-Maritime fishing federation answers questions from listeners from France Bleu la Rochelle and from Jean-Marc de Surgères, who, given the low levels on the Gères river, would like to catch minnows using a landing net to fish for trout or zander. Is it legal?
Bruno Garcia:
The Environment Code is very clear on this specific subject. The use of the landing net is authorized only to take out of the water a fish already hooked. That is to say a fish that you will not be able to hoist out of the water without this utensil. Implied, when we say already hooked, that this fish was caught with a line. So Jean-Marc, no catching minnows with a dip net on the Gères river.
Jean-Marc tells us about low levels on this watercourse. In the context of fish rescue, the landing net is surely one of the possible remedies.
We are here in a very specific situation where the objective is to transfer the fish from one watercourse to another for its survival. But in no way is it a classic fishing with the intention of making bait, livebaits as Jean-Marc wanted.
How to distinguish the two approaches?
It is very simple ! Even if it is a rescue operation, you are obliged to hold an administrative authorization. We have surrounded ourselves for many years now, given this recurring problem of drying up, this derogation. Representatives of Fishing Associations and those of the Federation are empowered to intervene using all means to extract fish from a context where it is in danger.
Punctual, annual or permanent this authorization?
It is annual this authorization but with one condition, that of notifying the administration beforehand by an email or a simple phone call on, the river, the place and the identity of the people who intervene during this rescue. All finalized by an annual report of all these rescues and the details of the different species extracted from the rivers.
At the end of these rescues, the fish are scattered anywhere?
No, there are different reasonings to be had. The first is the health criterion. You must introduce these fish to the same watershed. It is the rule ! We understand that we should not take the risk of transmitting any pathology problem to another watercourse. And then the second point, which goes without saying, is to introduce these fish into a canal or a river which will not, in the short term, be threatened with drying up. Which is all the same, it must be said, more and more difficult.
We have a second question from Philippe de Marans who asks if on the public domain, without a reciprocal stamp, we can fish with a line all over France. A very short answer Bruno.
Yes Philippe you can from the moment you have paid a fishing license with the CPMA and the RMA, a major or classic interfederal card, fish with a line on all the French public domain. I did say one line only, whatever the technique and I insist, only on the public domain.
At home in Charente-Maritime which rivers are in the public domain?
Sèvre Niortaise, Mignon, Marans-La Rochelle canal, Charras canal, Charente-Seudre canal, the downstream Boutonne and the Charente river.