Are you cheating if you use a bait boat?

Bait boat vs rowing boats

Are both a form of cheating or does one require more skill than the other, or is there more skill in using either over traditional casting?

Simon Crow: Bait boat user

This is a crap topic to be commenting on because cheating at angling is netting fish and claiming you caught them, not using a bait boat/boat instead of casting – it’s all down to personal choice, and if someone wants to waste years of their life casting and getting it ‘near enough’ instead of ‘bang-on’ with a boat, that’s their choice.

“We all know that people who say boats have no place in angling are either too poor to buy one, too old to accept change or too much of a sheep that they listen to planks who say they are cheating. I’m sure they will think differently when someone on the far bank gets killed by a 4oz lead that’s just cracked off from someone trying to reach the horizon because it’s only a matter of time until that happens… and then angling will really be on the back foot."

Steve Briggs: Overseas expert

“I guess my hackles always rise when I see this subject brought up – more from the way I see other people react to boats more than anything else. First, let me say that neither are cheating unless one person is using them when no one else is allowed to. I’ve used rowing boats for nearly 30 years on venues such as Cassien and you would be severely disadvantaged without one.

“With bait boats I took a lot more convincing though, and for many years I wouldn’t use one until I finally realised that my own results were suffering if I wasn’t using one when everyone else was. Certainly using a rowing boat requires a bit more skill and yes, there is more skill in casting but it doesn’t mean that all carp have to be caught that way.”