Paying your dues

We all have to pay our fishing licenses, its a part of life. If you don’t then you shouldn’t be fishing. We have two separate annual licenses here in Finland. The 1^st being the Fishing management fee which sets you back all of Є20,00 p/annum or Є6,00 p/wk and the 2^nd is the Provincial lure fishing fee which costs Є29,00 p/annum or Є7,00 per week, which to be honest is very reasonable to say the least. Angling with a hook and line and ice-fishing is free all year round & also Lure & fly –fishing is free for those under the age of 18 yrs of age.

So for the last four years here, I’ve stumped out quite willingly for my annual subscriptions while I lived in Kuru. On top of that I occasionally would have to buy a day license for fishing on either privately owned waters or stocked lakes (this charge varied between Є6 – Є8 per day …..which in hindsight it isn’t worth banging on about but now since moving here to Replot I have cause for concern.

3 weeks ago while in a meeting with the Ostrobothnian fishing association I learned that although I am free to fish along all of the shoreline of Replot island, the island is divided into separate fishing right zones……and Replot island has no fewer than 13 separate zones…….And so a separate license needs to acquired before being able to fish in each of these areas…………….Hang on a minute rewind that back! 13 you say! ………I don’t know about you but that’s taking the piss……..innit!

Apparently these rights were set up from what seems the begging of time (Neanderthal if you ask me) and were put in place to stop outsiders coming into the area and depleting the local communities fish stocks……Okay fare dinkem, but tell me this, If I only practice catch & release within these zones and don’t take out any fish from their areas why should I have to pay their zonal fishing fees….Granted they aren’t charging exorbitant prices for them, but It looks like I’m gunna need six zonal licenses on top of the Є 49,00 I already pay, and that could be anywhere in the region Є120,00……..I don’t Fekin think so, me old sunshine!

What makes me sick though is that these land owners show scant regard for pike and think nothing of it in throwing them along there shorelines purely because they think the species is typically rubbish vermin. Yet want to charge me for practicing catch & release…go figure! Many of them wouldn’t believe me if I told them I was practicing catch & release and would probably get a stoning from them if one saw me slipping a pike back into the water…………….Ignorant twats. Old men with equally old and outdated views and morals.

Click on the map and it will take you to a larger map on my Picasa albums. Click enlarge - then left click and scroll around where you will be able to see all the different fishing areas so you’ll have a greater understanding what I am talking about.....