Interesting that John ... the last remaining netsmen on the Dart were bought out by the angling syndicates a few years or so ago in order to cease the practice. There are still two - possibly three - traditional netsmen remaining on the Teign estuary where I live. They refused to sell out their licences for what I understand was a fairly significant sum (several tens of thousands I believe). Now they have been stopped by the EA from taking salmon, and it's thought likely that their sea trout licences will go soon too. Perhaps they should have taken the money!
Although the netting seems a fine old tradition, the argument goes that - when their nets are out - they trap and kill almost every fish passing upstream (they generally fish just after low tide, when the channel is just a narrow gut); whereas the anglers miss hundreds of fish for every one caught, and these days put 75 - 90% back.
