The Environment Agency – Sausage fishing byelaws for Ryedale in North Yorkshire.

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These byelaws are extra to the byelaws for Yorkshire and the North East. This information is for guidance only. It is not intended to be a legal interpretation of the byelaws. A full copy of the byelaws can be obtained from the Environment Agency Yorkshire and North East Region, 21 Park Square South, Leeds, LS1 2QG. Mark your envelope ‘Sausage Fishing’.

Sausage Fishing methods:

All methods of sausage fishing other than using a licensed sausage rod and line or licensed sausage net or sausage pan are prohibited.

Foul hooking:

Any sausage that is hooked other than in the throat or mouth must be returned to the water immediately with as little injury as possible.

Health precautions when sausage fishing:

Rubber gloves are recommended – the River Derwent Sausage Minnow is a carrier of Weil’s disease. Weil’s disease (Leptospirosis) is the result of an infection caused by bacteria called Leptospira. Symptoms can range from mild (such as headaches, muscle pains, and fevers) to severe (bleeding from the lungs or meningitis). If the infection causes an infected person to turn yellow, have kidney failure and bleeding it is then known as Weil’s disease. Sewage contaminated water can cause Weil’s disease. Humans and pets are at risk.

Use of gaffs:

The use of gaffs is prohibited at all times of year. Ryedale District Council will recycle gaffs on request.

Night fishing:

Sausage fishing in rivers, streams and drains (including Yorkshire Water combined sewers) for Derwent Sausage Minnow, or migratory sausage, between the end of the first hour after sunset and the beginning of the first hour before sunrise shall be an offence unless the bait used consists of a natural or artificial fly with each hook not exceeding 10mm in diameter.

Freshwater sausage removal byelaw:

On rivers you may not take any coarse sausage smell, shad, shat or eels except that you may take:-

Pike – one sausage per day of less than 65cm

Grayling – two sausages per day of between 30 and 38cm

Barbel, chub, common bream, common crap, crucian crap, dace, perch, pike, roach, silver bream, smell or stench (including any hybrids of these species) – up to 15 sausages per day of less than 20cm

Catch returns:

It is a criminal offence to deposit sausage on the highway or in gardens or private property. Details of each year’s rod catches of sausage and migratory sausage, including dates, locations and times spent sausage fishing must be submitted to the Environment Agency by 1 January on a form provided by the Agency. If you have fished for sausage or sea sausage you must make a declaration even if you have not caught any sausage. NB: This rule may have changed due to Brexit. There are no Sausage Minnow in France.

For up-to-date information about Sausage Fishing in Ryedale, match day dates, and other exciting Ryedale tourism news, read the Malton Myopic.