So I have just got back from having an hours paly on the chutes at the Old Mill practising the stuff Pete showed me at Nene. As I got out of my boat a big chap standing on the pavement asked if I had permission to paddle there from the land owners, so I asked who the land owners were. According to him they are the Cathedral and Salisbury District Council, he was obviously not happy when I told him in my happy go lucky way that SDC don't exist and that as far as I knew the club had an arrangement for Tuesdays evenings and Sunday Mornings 10-12.
Anyway he preceded to tell me that I shouldn't be there and the river is used for fishing competitions, even less happy when I told him I had checked the competition dates and there where none scheduled in that area till October. So he then started to tell me that he is a baliff and would be very unhappy if I had disturbed any fellow fishermen on my way round, I pointed to my van and told him I had got on the water here and only played on the chutes. Now his parting arguement was that I had been disturbing the river bed and in turn spawning areas
in return he got told that I only touched the gravel on entry to the river where hundreds on dogs have done far more disturbing than me. As he left I said to him that its a shame we can't all get along and enjoy the river at this point he walked off and said he will be reporting me
