Thursday, November 30, 2006

I didn't call for livebait ban, says Bill

PAC founder Bill Chillingworth today insisted he did not call for a livebait ban.

There was anger after the former president appeared in print, purportedly calling for a livebait ban.

But when contacted by PAC secretary Mark Barrett today, he insisted: "The reporter asked me for my opinion on how a ban on livebaiting would effect me.

"I replied that it wouldn't affect me very much as I only livebait on occasion these days, but when conditions warrant it, I will as long as it is legal reserve the right to do so.

"I did not call for livebaiting to be banned and I will quite happily go into print or blow the trumpet for livebaiting where it is carried out to the current law.

"The reporter tried on several occasions to put words into my mouth but I was not biting on that one."

The paper said Bill had abandoned livebaiting and had recently caught three twenties on paternostered sardine.

But he told Mark: " I have never, as reported, used a paternostered sea dead bait, I only use a paternoster for live or dead natural baits, and the big pike that is mentioned in the story, I told the reporter quite openly was caught on a small, live roach."