AndyS

I'll have to get up there quick, that's a definite PB for me.

About 20 years ago I caught the same pike, a big double, three years running in the same swim, in the same month (January) on Wraysbury 1. I pike fished the swim in other months, but never caught that fish outside of January. I recently had an even more bizarre catch. In December 2006 fishing another large, low stock, low angling pressure venue during two days fishing I caught 2 low doubles and a jack from one end of the lake. Returning to fish the same area, but not the same swims this week, a month later, I caught the same two low doubles and jack again. How weird is that? Has anyone else had similar experiences and what does this tell us about pike location on big, low-pressure venues in the period running up to spawning?

What I did in my last post was to lay out the argument as many laymen, pleasure anglers and legislators would see it. I can understand why some on here would find that uncomfortable. So far as a defence of angling overall is concerned, it could well make sense to defend the right to livebait. Much better to have a lengthy debate about livebaiting than to have a debate about banning angling as a whole. The flip side of that argument is the same reason that many anglers were happy to stand to one side while fox hunting was banned. By associating with and supporting the fox hunters, anglers would be associated with the cruelty to animals brigade and tarred with the same brush (no pun intended). Livebaiting could, as I argued in my last post, be seen by many as an unacceptable aspect of angling. Certainly the Scots seem to see it that way, and because livebaiting pike anglers have little financial tourism clout when compared to the salmon fishing industry for example, they make an easy target. Personally I would prefer not to see livebaiting banned, as I think it’s an issue that should be left to the discretion of the individual and is not an area into which the politicians should be poking their noses. However, as I said earlier, I don't see an overall ban on angling as something that is likely in the foreseeable future, with or without a livebaiting ban. As for conspiracy theories, I'm just an angler who can see things from more than one point of view. I was under the impression that was what these forums were about.

Doesn't look good does it? Apart from fishing bans on individual waters (nature reserves, loony-left council park lakes etc.) banning livebaiting was always going to be the first target for the antis. Easy to see why isn't it? Apart from an arguably higher degree of cruelty being involved as a bait fish is impaled on hooks and tethered in what must surely be a state of heightened fear (or terror even?) for its own safety, there are the idiots who will insist on transporting live fish from water to water as bait with the attendant disease and other environmental risks. Added to that, we are a divided group with many regular anglers personally feeling uncomfortable with livebaiting for ethical reasons. Faced with all this, my guess is that it is inevitable that livebaiting will be banned at some point across the whole of the UK. For those who would seek to turn the campaign for the retention of the right to livebait into some sort of crusade for the salvation of angling as a whole, I would urge caution as I suspect that i) many anglers find livebaiting distasteful anyway and ii) recognising that livebaiting is hard to defend, would rather distance the rest of the angling community from the livebaiting advocates, not wanting to be tarred with same brush. Assuming that livebaiting is banned at some point, personally I would not see that as some sort of slippery slope inevitably leading to the banning of angling as a whole. There are several reasons for this opinion. Angling is too big an industry, public support for a ban would be limited, a ban is unenforcable anyway as the fox hunters have demonstrated. Many of our food fish are caught on long line hooks, who can argue that hooking fish for food is OK, but for sport and leisure it's not OK? Personal opinions.. just trying to put all this into perspective.