MEMBERS OF Ireland’s Polish Fishing Club, Fishmaniak, dismantled a potentially lucrative illegal coarse fishing operation in the midlands last week.
Anglers from the club released scores of fish when they discovered almost 200 metres of nets while fishing in Lough Ennell in Co Westmeath. Though the fishermen saved most of the trapped fish, their arrival came too late for an otter which drowned after entering one of the nets.
Shannon Fisheries Board inspector Dermot Broughan confirmed the “fyke” nets had been confiscated. The 10 nets recovered by the fisheries board have an estimated value of €1,000.
“Up until last year these type of nets would have been used by eel fishermen and would have been legal,” explained Mr Broughan. “The fyke net is a keep net, but on the entry it would have a kind of a funnel,” he explained. No one has been arrested in relation to the find and there is no evidence of the involvement of eel fishermen.
Chairman of the Irish Federation of Pike Angling Clubs (Ifpac) John Chambers claimed a lot of poaching is taking place on Ireland’s waterways. “A week doesn’t go by when there’s not a report from somewhere.” Poaching has been quite prevalent in Monaghan and Cavan recently, he added.
Mr Chambers praised the Polish anglers who uncovered the operation and described the fishermen as very “conservation orientated”.
He said Fishmaniak members were in regular contact with the fisheries board and Ifpac, like most foreign anglers, were catch-and-release fishermen.
“It is all sort of integration of anglers because there has been so much adverse publicity about foreign nationals killing fish,” said Mr Chambers.
Fishmaniak member Maciek, who requested the use of his first name only, discovered the nets while fishing with friends on Lough Ennell.
“When we were going over these nets there was an old man watching us all the time,” he said. The man remained at the lake where he observed the fishermen from his boat until fisheries officers arrived.