Is it illegal to take home coarse fish and eat them

Why Gudgeon???
"Derek.Moody" wrote in message
...
In article .com, Russ
wrote:
So if you are fishing a, "free" water, i.e. a stretch of water which
isn't owned by a club/sole owner etc, then theoretically you can take
home any fish you catch. Or would you have to contact the environment
agency instead as i would assume they become the default owner?

Ianal

Paraphrasing from "Anglers' Law", Millichamp, Black. 1987.
(I don't know whether any more recent legislation applies)

Fish in a completely enclosed water in single ownership belong to the
owner
of the water. Taking them without permission is theft.

Fish in a water that is not completely enclosed - eg, a river, a lake
connected to a river without a fish-proof barrier, the sea - belong to
no-one, even if stocked they become creatures released into the wild.

As they have no owner it is impossible to steal them. They belong to the
captor. Laws, bylaws and local regulations may restrict what you can do
with your property just as they restrict what you can do with your car.

When you are given permission to fish you agree a civil contract with the
proprietor and that will include further restrictions - breach of these is
a
civil law matter.

/Ianal

As far as eating coarse fish goes - about the only one's I'd bother with
now
are gudgeon.

Cheerio,

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