news/editorial

11 February 2018 News/Editorial

After an unsettled week, latterly at least, there are as yet, it seems, very few fish in the river. The total catch for the week was 20 salmon, making 30 for the season so far.

Forecasters predict another unsettled week to come, with obvious consequences for successful fishing.

Of more distant concern, there is increasing certainty of some seriously vicious cold, as we move later into February and early March.

My Times newspaper on Saturday had the following chilling, in every sense, prediction:

“A dramatic disturbance is playing out over the Arctic….this is a major event, it is almost certain to happen…... when we run the computer models over and over again, they come up with the same result. The jet stream is decelerating, our usual mild westerlies are dropping away, and bitterly cold easterlies could invade the UK later this month.”

Ah, those bitter easterlies, going straight through you, as a knife through butter. “Kruschev’s wind” we called it long ago, for it seemed to come straight from the frozen Russian steppes. We have not seen it for some time now; long overdue, you would say.

Loyal readers will know that our Lancashire Heeler, Puppsie, is a keen weather observer, and likes nothing more than staying outside in the garden, mouse hunting, as the sun warms and spring comes into view.

If my Times is correct, Puppsie will be staying inside for some time to come yet.

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It is exactly 5 years since the Tweedbeats website was conceived.

It happened because many of the main Tweed beat owners were uncomfortable at the pervading doubt as to whom their fishing customers “belonged”....in short, were the visiting fishermen and women customers of Fishpal/Fishtweed ... or were they customers of (say) Upper Floors, Middle Mertoun, South Wark or any of the other beats on which they were fishing?

For the avoidance of doubt, Tweedbeats’ only customers are the beats themselves. The customers’/visiting anglers’ details “belong” to the beats themselves, and no doubt they maintain their own databases; Tweedbeats simply provides a portal through which those wishing to let fishing can themselves contact their customers, both present and prospective.

Contrast this with the following from Fishpal/Fishtweed at:

https://blog.fishpal.com/2017/12/21/your-personal-data/

especially, under the rather mysterious provisions of GDPR (with which all readers will be familiar….. something to do with data protection), the following extract:

“Hence when booking from now on, we (Fishpal) will only pass to the relevant fishery your name and nearest town (not personal data), but NOT your full postal address, postcode, telephone numbers or email addresses.”

In other words, Fishpal/Fishtweed customers’ details would seem to “belong” to them, as they are forbidden by law from passing on any details of a beat’s customers to the owners of those beats.

I do not doubt that, technically, Fishpal are correct, but as one J.P. McEnroe was accustomed to say “ You cannot be serious!”.

Now you see why concerned beats set up Tweedbeats 5 years ago.

If we had not done it then, we certainly would now…..

….. and we would immediately be setting up a system in fishing huts for capturing all our own customers’ details, and not letting them reside solely in the hands of a paid letting agent.