Coarse & Pike Conservation and Legislation
Conservation is vital to protect the quality of Ireland’s pike fishing. Ireland now has the best conservation measures for the protection of pike in Europe.
The pike bye law no. 809 (2006) provides for the following conservation measures:
- It is illegal to have or to use live fish as bait (Bye-law No.592).
- a bag limit of 1 pike in any one day,
- prohibits the killing of any pike greater than 50 cm in length,
- prohibits the possession by any person of more than 1 whole pike less than 50 cm or more than 0.75 kg of pike flesh, this provision does not apply to a person storing pike or pike parts subject to conditions
- prohibits the possession by any person of more than 12 coarse fish for use as bait subject to conditions.
- No License required.
- A person may fish with not more than two rods at any time (Bye-law No.595).
- It is illegal to transfer live roach from one water to any other waters (Bye-law No.561).
One aspect of the new bye law is that a pike over the specimen weight of 20 lbs. (9.072 Kg.) for a river fish and 30 lbs. (13.608 Kg.) for a lake fish are now protected and cannot be killed as in the previous bye law. There is no prohibition on the number of frozen sea baits a pike angler can have for the day’s sport.
Copies of the pike conservation bye laws in different languages can be accessed here.
Other legislation for the pike angler to be aware of are:
Coarse Fish
The coarse fish bye law provides for the following conservation measures:
- a bag limit of 4 coarse fish in any one day
- prohibits the killing of any coarse fish greater than 25 cm in length
- prohibits the sale of any coarse fish in Ireland (excluding NI), this provision will not apply to fishing tackle dealers and fish bait suppliers who have been granted an exemption from their respective Regional Fisheries Board
- No License required.
Click here for Trout Fishing and more information on the Erne Waterways around Belturbet.