Anglers protest to halt carp cull

David Hodges (R) has pledged to remain chained up until he is arrested

Anglers angry at plans to cull fish from a lake in Bristol have chained themselves to the boundary railings.

Henleaze Lake, which is owned and managed by the Henleaze Swimming Club, is also home to a stock of coarse fish.

The club management committee said the lake is massively overstocked and numbers need to be reduced.

Club trustee Mark Thompson said the action by the fishermen was "pretty disgusting" but the anglers say they have not been consulted on the plans.

This chain is staying on my neck until it's cut off David Hodges

There are some 200 anglers registered to fish from the lake.

Mr Thompson said the decision to cull the fish had come at the end of a long process of consultation with experts.

"This has been 18 months of consulting fishery experts and the Environment Agency," he said.

"We have issues with the fish stock and we're having to take action to protect the stock and also to improve the water quality," he added.

'Arrest me'

David Hodges who has been a member of the fishing community at the lake for 11 years said: "It's the way the swimming committee has decided to do this fish cull.

"Mark Thompson said this process has been going on for 18 months but it's only in the last six weeks that we've had any notification whatsoever of this happening.

"This chain is staying on my neck until it's cut off with an angle grinder and to do that the police are going to have to arrest me so I'm prepared to stay here as long as I can," he added.

"We're trying to stop them de-stocking. There are other ways around the problem and the fish that have parasites can be treated," said another angler.

"We don't feel there's too many fish in there at all," he added.