Fisheries Rules

1. Permits: No member shall be on any water controlled by the Association, for the purpose of fishing, without carrying their current Annual Permit.

Senior members only may take a maximum of two guests on to R&DAA waters, by first obtaining Accompanied Guest Day Tickets. The member must accompany the guests and be responsible for the conduct of those persons.

When a senior member is accompanied by their partner, or a child under 14 years of age, then that person may fish free provided there is no abuse of the privilege, and at no time may the number of rods in use by the party exceed two (but see Rule 4. Such person must fish in the same swim as the Association member wherever possible, if not they must fish adjacent swims. Fishing in other swims will require the relevant permit or Day ticket

2. Conduct of Members: All members shall pursue their angling activities in a sportsmanlike manner, having due regard to the rights of property owners adjacent to waters and property controlled by the Association.  They shall conduct themselves in an exemplary manner and shall not interfere with the sport of other anglers.

(a)     Offences: The following actions constitute offences:

(i)      the lighting of open fires;

(ii)     cutting trees;

(iii)    camping - other than that regulated on Specimen Group members' Supplementary Permits or other permitted night fishing venues.

(iv)  fishing a swim which has within a five metre radius litter, such as empty tins, bottles, discarded tackle, bags etc. whether deposited by the member fishing the swim or not, which is not contained in some manner and will be removed from the venue on departure.

b) Disciplinary Procedure: When a permit is withdrawn by a Warranted Bailiff, membership is suspended and no access to any Association water is permitted.  The Association's Disciplinary Secretary includes the item on a Disciplinary Committee agenda and contacts the member's Club Secretary to advise him of the date fixed for the hearing which the member is invited to attend to present his own case.  These proceedings will take place even in the absence of the member and a decision reached. It should be noted that the Annual Permit issued remains the property of the Association. No recompense will be made for any period for which any permit is subsequently withdrawn.

Venues: Members are not permitted to fish any Association water the night before a booked match that appears on the Association's Water Booking Sheet, and must be off the water by one hour after sunset or 9 p.m.  No member is then permitted to set up tackle, break the water or fish elsewhere on the venue prior to the match commencing. Permission to fish after the commencement of the match will be at the sole discretion of the person controlling the booked match.

3 When, due to exceptional circumstances, a club is subsequently allocated a venue which does not appear on the Water Booking Sheet they must respect the rights of members who may already be fishing on their arrival and peg around them, and permit later arrivals to take up any vacant swims.  It is an offence to hold matches on unbooked venues.

Parking at venues which obstructs the access of farming equipment or unauthorised parking on farm property is strictly prohibited and constitutes a major offence.

(iv)    leaving any form of litter on a swim or venue;

(v)     damaging crops by crossing fields instead of  following authorised footpaths or banksides;

(vi)    using Association car parks whilst not displaying the car parking permit supplied with the Annual Permit;

(vii)   any member found to have entered or exited a locked car park or locked access gate or barrier, without effectively re-securing it, if in working condition, will have committed  an offence for which their Annual Permit will be immediately confiscated, and they will be automatically banned from any form of membership for a further period of three years following the end of the season in which the offence was committed.

(viii)  the use of any boat, punt, inflatable dinghy, or radio-controlled model (see  (x)), swimming, or wading in depths which require the use of anything other than thigh waders, is strictly forbidden.  No member is allowed to have a boat on any Association venue at any time, and members must not induce other parties to use a boat to distribute bait, place baited hooks,  free fish, or on any other pretext.

(ix)    radio controlled bait boats are allowed on Sonning Eye Pit only.

(xi)   using radios or similar equipment which is audible to others. This does not exclude the use of personal listening by means of headphones or portable telephones.

(xii)   no fishing within 30 metres of Overhead Power Lines (see below) .

Other offences specifically related to venues and fishing are given elsewhere.

Dependent on the nature of the offence and other circumstances, a Warranted Bailiff may endorse the member's permit with the date and nature of an offence which will be withdrawn automatically should the member be found committing a further offence which would ordinarily warrant an endorsement, for referral to the Executive Council's Disciplinary Committee.

4.  Regulations: Permit holders are members of the Association until the 15^th June each year when the permit is renewable. Whilst this is an Annual Permit, legislation does not at present permit fishing during the 'close season' on rivers or canalised rivers, of which the Kennet & Avon is one, excepting the Froxfield Canal section which is purely canal water. The Venue page on the website shows Venue Open Throughout The Year or No Close Season Fishing, as appropriate.

These Permits authorise the member to fish from one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset or until 9 pm (darker nights) on eligible waters, see venue page on website, Members will cease fishing after the 1 hour or 9 pm and then be given 30 minutes to leave the venue. (Sunrise and sunset times are shown at the end of these rules).

Any member who has tackle (assembled or not) in his possession on the venue outside the permitted hours will be deemed to be fishing.

Senior Members only are also permitted to fish five venues at night, Hambridge Lake, Calcot A & B, Padworth Mill, Wallingford and Mapledurham. Stay must not exceed two nights with no return to the venue for night fishing within seven days. Night fishing is also available on eight other venues to Specimen Group members, see Specimen Group.

Environment Agency Rod Licences

EA annual and temporary Rod Licences for all categories of fishing are available from Post Offices and on-line.

Normally only two rods are permitted on Association waters, however the use of three rods is permitted on certain waters, see Association Fisheries Rule 4, Regulations, but the appropriate EA Rod Licence must be held in either case.

Environment Agency Byelaws

The use of lead, including any alloy or compound of lead, for weighting fishing lines is prohibited.

The prohibition does not apply to weights of lead, alloy or compound of lead of 0.06 grams or less or of more than 28.35 grams, or to weights of lead, alloy or compounds of lead less than 28.35 grams if such lead, alloy or compound of lead is incorporated in the construction of swim feeders, self-cocking floats, fishing lures or in the core of a fishing line.

Overhead Power Lines

OPL ARE SHOWN AS RED LINES ON THE VENUE MAPS ON WEBSITE.

Any angler found fishing, or reported to have been fishing within the 'NO FISHING' areas designated by overhead power line warning signs, (these should be in position 30 metres each side of OPL.  No fishing in this area whether the signs are present or not) shall be immediately suspended from membership for a period of twelve months.

Tagged Fish

Would all anglers catching fish that are tagged or marked in any way please report this back to the R&DAA Bailiff line 0796 409 5904 as this gives us checks on where the fish have migrated to or from.

The use of bloodworm, joker and crayfish (or parts of) is banned on all of the Association waters.

Only lead weights that comply with EA Byelaws shall be used.

No member shall fish with more than two rods at any time on any venue other than Pingewood Lagoon, Sonning Eye Pit, Englefield Lagoon, Farnham Flint Pit and Whistley Mill Lake where the use of three rods is permitted to holders of the appropriate Rod Licences.  No member shall use any automatic striking device, or any form of gorge, or gaff hook.

Any member leaving his/her swim must remove any bait from the hook and all tackle, except the keepnet, from the water.

Any weighing of fish must be done at the swim and the fish released with the minimum of stress.

No member shall introduce any species of fish to Association waters. It is illegal to use live bait not caught on the water being fished or crayfish at any time.

No fish shall be taken away from Association waters.  All fish must be returned alive to the fishery from whence they came.

Where the Association controls both banks, no member may fish from the bank opposite to that being fished during a booked match.

Keepnets less than 35 centimetres diameter and 2 metres long  with no knotted or metallic mesh or holes larger than 25 millimetres will not be used on Association waters (EA Byelaws).

These Rules may be subject to variation in order to comply with Environment Agency Byelaws.

Crayfish Trapping :- Our members can use a maximum of two traps whilst fishing. Licensed  tags for the traps must be obtained before use from RDAA. Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 0118 986 7430

Whilst every effort is made to make the venues under our control safe for our members, please be aware of possible high, under-cut banks along with possible trip and slip hazards.

Hazards we are aware of will be stated on the venue page, please check before entering the venue.

Sunrise and Sunset times.