Conservation

Leave no Trace

Make none and leave none.

Leave no trace

I have spent a long time learning how to catch fish, and bass in particular. I have spent nearly as long learning how to put them back properly. That is not always possible, and I know it, but trying is part of the daily process.

What I have been looking at for years now is everything else — the other marks an angler leaves on a coast that has nothing to do with the fish. In a world under ever-increasing recreational pressure, every bit of effort counts. No matter what else is happening, or who else is responsible, it matters to try to do something better, to be seen trying, and to be able to say plainly: this is what I am doing to help.

On the record

I am a Leave No Trace trainer. In November 2013 I presented at the Inland Fisheries Ireland AGM alongside other Leave No Trace members, on applying the seven principles to a working guiding business and to angling tourism more widely. The note from the time is still here.

At the heart of Leave No Trace are seven principles for reducing the damage done by outdoor activity. Angling is one of those activities, and it touches nearly every one of them. These are the principles I try to hold to, guiding in the past and fishing on my own account now. Make none and leave none. Make it difficult for anyone to see or hear you, and leave no trace of your having been there.

The seven principles, from a shore angler’s side of it

  • Plan ahead and prepare. Know whether access is allowed and angling permitted before you go. Read the signs. Have the skill and the kit for the conditions, and for the emergency. Check the forecast. Keep the group small — split a big party into smaller ones.
  • Be considerate of others. Respect the people who live and work on the coast. Park so you block no gateway, lane or field entrance; farm machinery and emergency services need through at any hour. Damage no wall, fence or crop. Let the sound of the place prevail.
  • Respect farm animals and wildlife. Watch birds and animals from a distance, and leave them well alone in spring and early summer when they are mating, nesting and rearing. Keep dogs under close control, and off farmland without permission. Don’t feed anything wild. Farm animals are not pets.
  • Travel on durable ground. Stick to established tracks where they exist — walk the middle of them, even when wet, rather than widening the edges. In remoter places, spread out instead, so no new track forms. Camp well back from water, keep it small, leave it as you found it.
  • Leave what you find. Leave gates as you found them. Examine old walls, wells and monuments without touching. Leave rocks, plants and habitat where they are — a fallen tree is somebody’s home. Introduce nothing non-native. Build no cairns, structures or shelters.
  • Dispose of waste properly. If you bring it in, take it out — including tea bags and fruit peel. Bury solid human waste deep and well away from water and paths, and carry paper and hygiene products home. Wash yourself and your gear away from streams.
  • Minimise the effects of fire. Use a stove. Where fire is permitted, use an established ring and keep it small, burning only loose sticks you can break by hand. Never burn plastic. Burn it down to ash, put it fully out, and scatter the cold remains.

The principles in full

The summary above is mine. The principles, and the guidance that goes with them, belong to Leave No Trace Ireland — read them there in full.

Alongside these, fly anglers are asked to hold to a code of angling ethics of their own. The two overlap almost entirely, which tells you something. What all of it comes down to is set out in the principles I fish by.