At the annual Parish meeting, this evening, we were told that new signs have been put up in the last year round the Abingdon Fisheries.

Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council issues permits to fish the rivers in Abingdon from 16th June to 14th March each year. The season ends at dusk on 14th March and commences at dawn on 16th June. The close season is there to reduce the risk to fish while they are spawning. The Abingdon-on-Thames fisheries web page has more details.

The signs show that people should not remove fish from the river at any time. I asked at the meeting what people should do if they see people taking fish from the rivers. The answer was call 101. I was also told that Town Council staff have patrolled the fisheries over the last 2 years. (More news from the Parish Meeting tomorrow.)

Fishing permits are free for Abingdon residents. However everybody over 13 also needs to get a rod license from the Environment Agency. Rod licences for children aged between 13 and 16 are free.

I have been told by some anglers that Abingdon’s medieval fishing rights have been given away cheaply. I have not found the full history yet (you may know more), but the following two stories in the Herald show that these rights have been eroded over time, and the battle ended in 2007.

Until 2007, Abingdon was unique in controlling its own rivers and anglers only needed a resident’s licence. Then the Environment Agency ordered that town anglers must have a rod licence, and, according to the Herald, the Town Council did not find legal grounds to appeal against that decision. (Abingdon Herald 28/6/2007)

Before 2007, Abingdon Town Council had negotiated with the National Rivers Authority to buy a general rod licence to cover people who had a resident’s licence. (Abingdon Herald 4/6/1992).