Hi Colin,
Yes I stand corrected, there are byelaws throughout the UK governing size limits on brownies. However if one looks very closely at the small print & addendums the rights of the riparian owner supercede those of the EA. So one must assume that far from being absolute law, the limits are to be treated as recommendations, which is a good thing to a certain degree but I also have serious misgivings about any standards laid down by government agencies most of whom are now seriously understaffed and on the whole comprise administrators and statisticans working with supplied data. Pretty much like the commercial sea fishing laws which result in thousands of tons of dead fish having to be thrown back every week!
In my experience (& I'm pretty long in the tooth now) byelaws are enforced on certain waters purely for the sake of profiteering with no actual thought or benefit to the environment. One typical case I came across just this year was on the river Bladnoch in Galloway where the byelaw states that all Pike caught must be killed to protect the indigenous and migratory trout. Why ? According to the farmer from whom I purchased a day ticket, "the less trout caught, the fewer permits would be sold". Ridiculous! I actually caught two superb jack pike that day of about a pound and a half. I also caught seven lovely brownies to about a three quarters of a pound which I had to return to the water because according to the local byelaw were undersize but far exceeded the size limitations of other waters close by. The Pike, I did actually dispatch because they are good eating but I would have returned them to the water if Pike weren't to my taste.
I am a great believer in nature. One shouldn't interfere with what is going on in our waters unless it's man made. Nature finds it's own equilibrium. In recent times the damage to our trout streams has been brought about by greed and indiscriminate netting of our estuaries.
For thousands of years man has fished in order to eat and survive and it wasn't until mid 1900's that the government and landowners found out they could make an extremely good living from imposing laws and fees to enable one to fish.
The rod licence fees throughout the UK is an absolute disgrace. If this licence fee had been imposed in the 18th or 19th centuries there would have been an uprising.
But like everything else these days, if it's popular then it's a simple way of raising tax. I'm just waiting for the law requiring me to have a licence to fish off the rocks in the sea when I'm on holiday!
Pretty soon there will be a law preventing us from taking any fish home to eat - regardless of size.
We need to start getting things in perspective. Anglers with rod and line have very little impact on a waterway most of them paying a fortune and going home disappointed.
There are very few pleasures these days, and fishing is mine and yes I do sometimes get extremely emotional about the subject but feel it is the right of everyman to go and catch a fish to feed his family without restriction. Our rivers and our seas are God given, - not to make someone even richer!