New Group and A TIME for CHANGE

For all those paranoid schizophrenics out there beware we hear that a new organisation is being formed to take the River Clyde from the dark ages into the new era. We know of at least 5 organisations with fishing interests who have already agreed to join the new Association of Clyde Anglers. They are the pro-active clubs and organisations within the Clyde catchment. We also hear that any club, association or Still Water fishery can become involved. Apparently a new web site is under construction and will soon be posted giving details of membership etc.
The new group will not be sitting on their backsides raking in money from anglers and paying inflated expenses and honorariums to committee members and bailiffs. They will be campaigning to have all the barriers removed or fish passes constructed. The main aims of the new association are the protection of the fish and promotion of angling for the benefit of all.
Grass Carp wish the new organisation good luck for the future and we are sure that there are many out there who will support such an organisation.

Do the Idiots at Scottish Executive think Clyde Bailiffs are geniuses!

Apparently the Scottish Executive think that the new bailiffs on the Clyde are some kind of geniuses. Some of the lads were issued with their warrants around the 28th of February 2008 given the standard booklet issued by Executive and expected to pass an exam a couple of weeks later. Should these lads not have been issued with the Institute of Fishery Management training manual? The executive have now withdrawn these warrants saying that the guys never sat the exam. Does it not say on letter from Ian Robertson that bailiffs are required to attend and pass the IFM training course at first available opportunity.

Apparently Mr Robertson feels that these bailiffs have powers of arrest and should have passed the exam. The police have powers of arrest when the first join the job but are not expected to sit and pass their final exams within a couple of weeks. We bet Robertson could not pass the exam.

We have also heard that 80% of the bailiffs that did sit the exam failed it! Does that mean that they are thick or that the exam is set by academics who don;t have a clue what bailiffing is all about. Or that the Course run by the IFM was so vague that the guys did not learn anything. Not a good advert for the ability of the IFM as a training body.

The guys on the Clyde System are all volunteers dealing with some nasty people at times when doing their duty on the river. Do you think the poacher cares if the bailiff has passed some poxy exam or not. Look at the Biologist for the Clyde River Foundation he passed all his exams to get where he is but he seemingly doesn't understand the terms and conditions of licences as we have heard that some of his staff were found taking illegal samples on the River Nethan. What is Mr 'Goes By The Book' Robertson going to do about that ? We would like to challenge Robertson to accept a Manual written by us, study it for three weeks and see if he can pass the exam we set him.

To our knowledge there has never been a case where a Clyde bailiff has made a false arrest or had a complaint registered against him. Thing is Mr Robertson the Clyde bailiffs have what you do not and that is commonsense and know what their powers are without sitting exams. Their are people in high places who have sat and passed many exams but who don't have one ounce of common sense which is apparent in this case.

We could not believe the information that was sent to us. it appears that a lot of bailiffs from the Clyde catchment have had their warrants revoked because they have not sat the exam. The Scottish Executive have in effect stripped some association of 80% of their bailiff force and declared open season for poachers on the Clyde. We hope Mr Robertson is prepared to sit and pass the bailiffs exam and instead of sitting on his fat arse go out and assists the other bailiffs who have warrants and who work for free. probably not we don't think he has the bottle to do the job these guys do.

Why are the IFM training courses held in some obscure places which are difficult to reach by public transport? Not everyone is as affluent as Mr Robertson and cannot afford a car. Given that the Scottish Government are always harking on about cutting down our carbon footprint they should ensure that the IFM set their sights on place that can be easily reached by everyone. The Clyde Clubs do not have the cash that District Boards have to book accomodation for their bailiffs to attend the IFM course and the IFM rake in a fortune from this set up. Do they think that some of the pricey hotels they pick would allow the poorer bailiffs to pitch a tent within their grounds. It becomes more and more apparent every day that those who are in control of fishing's are not interested in protecting the fish but are more interested in the fact that a bailiff can answer a question in some exam. We are becoming a nation of over qualified under experienced academics. It takes balls to do a bailiffs job not some scrap of useless paper, which will not protect the bailiff if he is attacked.

Institute of Fishery Management should change the name to Institute of Flipping Muppet's.