personally i agree with tip tornado and steerser, i have found myself, on a couple of occasions, needing to sign on, i did declare the majority of what i made, but it cost me more than i was earning, there really is no help to get back to work, except with long term unemployed layabouts, and then they don't want it !
as for the bait diggers, many i know are self employed, and will pay more tax than an employed person anyway, i should know. and no, i'm not a digger in a commercial sense,
ok, say the diggers have to pay tax and declare on there bait collections, which in principle they should, but consider this, a good digger might get 500 worms on a very good tide, say 2hrs pumping, he might get £1 per ten, thats ten pound a hundred, that's £50 for the 500,
so, he get's up at maybe 4 in the morning, to catch the tide and get the worms, so 1/2hr to get ready and onto the beach, 2hrs digging, 1hr wrapping them for the shop, 1/2hrs packing away. so around 4hrs. agreed ???
that's about £12.50 per hour, take off 22% tax and 3% Ni leaves around £9 per hour, take off the fuel and that leaves around £8 per hour (if local),
so, paperwork and all the physical effort for £8 per hour (on a good tide). not worth it. i work for £35 per hour when i charge labour out on a big job, as do most self employed people, or even more in many cases.
the diggers would either stop digging, resulting in a shortage of readily available bait, or they would charge double, hitting you in your pocket when you want worms.
when i say 500 in a good tide, this is not an everyday occurence, more often 300 would be the norm, and there's only x amount of days worth their while to dig down here, so maybe 8 out of 14 days, normally one tide a day. 300 worms would only be 6 per hour ! stuff that on a cold winters morning !
should we tax em ? officially... yes, unofficially ? leave em alone or pay the price.
as for netters, i've no idea,
as for licensed rod and line bass fishermen, i know a couple of guys that catch more 'big' bass in a day (up to 400lb), than you'll catch in a lifetime, they might only go out a couple of days a week during the summer / autumn, weather permitting, but they earn well enough out of it, neither sign on.