Salmon Angler Pays a High Price

A MAN has been fined pounds 100 and ordered to pay pounds 300 costs after he was found guilty of fishing for migratory salmon without a valid rod icence.

John Hopper, 26, of Bradford Crescent, Durham denied the offence but was found guilty by Durham magistrates.

The case was brought by the Environment Agency after officers viewed CCTV footage of a man, who they identified as Hopper, fishing on the River Wear at Fram-wellgate, Durham.

Officers identified the fish which was caught, as a large migratory fish, and found that Hopper had no angling licence for these species. At the time of the offence, the cost of a migratory trout and salmon licence would have been pounds 65. After the court case, Environment Agency fisheries enforcement team leader Kevin Summerson said Hopper had been arrested as part of his team’s anti- poaching operation at Framwellgate Waterside. The two-month operation called Operation Nicotine uncovered 13 offences.

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