The incident took place in Norfolk but because of the publicity the story generated it may as well have been on any lake in the country.

The swan in fact picked up a pike lure of all things and got treble hooks embedded in its mouth. Thankfully after an operation the bird is now recovering and will soon be released into the wild once again.

I don't know how many times anglers have to be told to take litter and, more importantly, discarded fishing tackle home with them but the point will never sink in to some.

I would like to think that this incident happened because the lure was left by mistake or perhaps fallen out of the angler's bag as he left for home, but perhaps that's just wishful thinking.

At times we anglers do come in for a lot of unfair criticism but it's also very hard, no impossible, to defend such stupid irresponsible action.

So once again I implore all anglers to ensure the bank you are about to leave is clean, tidy, litter and tackle-free each and every time you go fishing.

OVER the past few weeks I have been encouraging everyone who goes fishing to purchase a rod licence.

Not only is it the law of the land but it helps to sustain the quality of fishing we have on offer in this country.

At first glance they are not exactly cheap but when you work out the cost per week, I do feel that on the whole we get reasonable value for money.

However I have had quite a few calls from senior citizens up in arms at the massive increase in the price of their licence.

I have been told that well over 100,000 of the rod licences sold are for 'concessionary' licence (pensioners and the disabled) and they have seen a price hike from £12.25 to £16.75, yet by comparison full licences for adults have risen by just 50p.

Protests have been made to the Environment Agency, the national press have also given the story an airing and the increase was even brought up in Prime Minister's Questions last Wednesday.

Unfortunately the Prime Minister didn't know much about it but said he would look into it.