Thursday

The UK Government has just published the tier structure for England. As projected, it’s fairly harsh, and there are definitely a few surprises in the listings, including Warwickshire and Bristol, which are going to have some impact on a number of anglers’ aspirations to travel around over the next month and probably beyond.

The FM has already warned us that he’s likely to bring the tier 3 restrictions in across the whole of Wales, so if that is on a county basis as per earlier in the year it will basically bring a premature end to the Season which will be no huge surprise and probably provide a fitting end to what has been a severely disjointed campaign anyway.

From a Welsh perspective, the overall impact of restrictions this year has been phenomenal

• 50 days of full blown lockdown
• 7 days of effective lockdown while the Welsh Government had a bit of a debate about whether it was OK to drive to fish
• 49 days of partial lockdown, stay local

Then followed a brief respite, before

• 32 days of regional lockdown
• 16 days of total lockdown (aka ‘Firebreak)
• 23 days of partial lockdown, no cross border travel

And now, I suspect, a further regional lockdown is coming, covering 25 days to year end. In other words, I have been totally or partially restrained from fishing as I would wish for 177 days this calendar year. The only positive is that I estimate that I have spent about £2500 less than I would have on travel, accommodation, match fees and bait.