WILTSHIRE FISHERY ASSOCIATION

If you enjoy fishing the Wiltshire rivers, especially the Salisbury Avon and its tributaries, but are not already a member of the Wiltshire Fishery Association, it is probably because you do not know what we do, and have been doing for over half a century.

Why would I want to join?

We represent the interests of riparian owners, fishery managers and club and syndicate tenants, and an increasing number of individual anglers. All of these come together to support our work, knowing that the future of these wonderful waters cannot be taken for granted, and that the fishing we all value so highly could all too easily decline, unless an organisation existed to ensure by every possible means that this does not happen. We provide an effective and respected voice for our members and indeed for all who love these rivers, but the more members we have, the greater our ability to ensure that the very real threats that exist are kept at bay. Please join us now; we want to ensure your views are properly heard.

The rivers we fish are very special, but they are the result of centuries of modification and management, not just to provide fishing, but also to drive industries via mills, enhance agriculture, and provide domestic water supplies. The evidence of this management is still visible – hatch pools, sluices and side channels, carriers and weirs to name but the most obvious – but much of it is now history. The new demands on rivers are of a different order. The greatest single pressure is the abstraction of water from the underlying aquifers to supply industrial and expanding domestic needs. Older anglers will know that flows, especially in summer, have diminished in their lifetimes, reflecting this. Couple this with the increasing risk of pollution from a variety of sources, the cost of maintaining banks and bridges and the continual pursuit of habitat improvements, and add in the uncertainty of how the rivers will react to climate change, and the need for concern becomes clear.

We are constantly in touch:

• With those responsible for river and stillwater related matters at the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Game and Wildlife Conservancy, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, the Salmon and Trout Association, and the new national body, the Angling Trust, and its legal arm, “Fish Legal”
• With Wessex Water plc, whose water supplies derive in large part from the groundwater aquifers that feed the rivers
• With other similar Associations and Rivers Trusts who share our concerns

to ensure that the interests of all who enjoy fishing, and the environment in which it takes place, are properly recognised. We co-ordinate the regular weed-cutting programme for the Avon, Wylye and Nadder, with the Environment Agency and Natural England. We are regularly consulted on major matters affecting the future of rivers, whose well-being (“favourable condition”) under the European Water Framework Directive is a national responsibility requiring both money and wisdom if the various objectives are to be achieved – and that is something we can all do something to help with. The WFA came into existence to do these and other important things for you and all anglers across the upper Avon catchment.

How can I help?

Please get in touch with the WFA Hon Secretary,
by email at Click Here.
or telephone him at 01722 717990, especially if you would like to know more,
or send in the downloadable application form Click Here with its accompanying standing order form.