Conservation is vital to protect the quality of Ireland’s pike fishing. Ireland now has the best conservation measures for the protection of pike in Europe.
The pike bye law no. 809 (2006) provides for the following conservation measures:
- a bag limit of 1 pike in any one day,
- prohibits the killing of any pike greater than 50 cm fork length,
- prohibits the possession by any person of more than 1 whole pike less than 50 cm or more than 0.75 kg of pike flesh, this provision does not apply to a person storing pike or pike parts subject to conditions,
- prohibits the possession by any person of more than 12 coarse fish for use as bait subject to conditions.
There is no prohibition on the number of frozen sea baits a pike angler can have for the day’s sport.
Copies of the pike conservation bye laws in different languages can be accessed here.
Other legislation for the pike angler to be aware of are:
Coarse Fish
CONSERVATION OF AND PROHIBITION ON SALE OF COARSE FISH BYE-LAW NO. 806, 2006
The coarse fish bye law provides for the following conservation measures:
- a bag limit of 4 coarse fish in any one day,
- prohibits the killing of any coarse fish greater than 25 cm fork length,
- prohibits the sale of any coarse fish in Ireland (excluding NI), this provision will not apply to fishing tackle dealers and fish bait suppliers who have been granted an exemption from their respective Regional Fisheries Board.
GENERAL FRESHWATER
The only legal method to catch freshwater fish is by rod and line (Bye-law No.595).
A person may fish with not more than two rods at any time (Bye-law No.595).
It is illegal to have or to use live fish as bait (Bye-law No.592).
It is illegal to transfer live roach from one water to any other waters (Bye-law No.561).
