Latimeria

Sea Otters are a completely different species, native to the Pacific. The ones on Mull are Lutra lutra, same as the rest of the UK and most of Eurasia. Mull is just one island, yet each week there are hundreds visit there, and seeing Otters is on the agenda for a lot of them. Multiply that up amongst all the other Scottish islands and you actually get quite a lot more than a "very small number", you also get people with disposable incomes, opinions and voices. I for one don't want angling to take them on for the benefit of a few blinkered bivvyrats or "annuverdubble" obsessives. "So-called wildlife reserves"? When did you last visit one? It should be to our shame that such places were, for a long time, the only places to go and experience previously-common native species. Yep, failing ecosystems, they're not even successful monocultures. Proof, of any sort? Surveys, species lists? The few I've had the misfortune to visit (including some of the best-known) just looked like turbid ratpits to me. Balance? When they have to restock, drain and lime, aerate, add supplementary food (sometimes medicated), even dye the water to control algae because the pondpigs have destroyed all the aquatic macrophytes (if they ever existed in the first place)? What about Pike? They the same? Kingfishers? Beaky little blue gits that they are. I'll never up my minnow PB with them around! No, that's why the RSPB is struggling for members, whereas the PAG has more money than it knows what to do with. No-one's stopping anyone from protecting their fish, by legal means, which means fences, sonic dissuaders, human presence etc. What other protection rights would you like? Barbel in rivers are wild animals, and so are subject to predation, like daphnia, mayfly larvae, tadpoles and everything else. Barbel is not a dirty word to me, I don't mind catching them, they pull back a bit but I'd rather have a decent Roach, Perch or Grayling, and every time I do catch a Carp or Barbel (not difficult, let's face it) I feel a little twinge of regret at the way some people behave over what are just fish. You mean an opportunistic carnivorous semi-aquatic mammal might sometimes be opportunistic and carnivorous? But that would mean that wetland bird species would have to start having large broods to combat this high level of predation! Oh, they already do, and it works, apart from when Humans have messed things up enough previously.

Where are you getting your figures from? If true (which it's not), then those dozen have done one hell of a job at persuading governmental departments and others to put in place the necessary policies and resources to return Otters to those areas of the country they were eradicated from by human mismanagement. I was on Mull last Spring, and the numbers of people I saw by the side of lochs hoping for a sight of an Otter would suggest you need to revise your figure upwards by quite a bit. The major conservation bodies all take a habitat-based approach, the Wildife Trusts, RSPB all look to manage reserves based on proven science, and seem to be doing pretty well at it, and out of it. The current objections from (IMO) a minority of anglers all seem to be based around completely artificial expectations, non-native species, or ecosystems that have been failing while under the stewardship of anglers (but they didn't care as long as as a few remaining fish could be recaptured at slightly higher weights). A poll on another forum came down comprehensively (although the total number of people taking part was very low) against seeking a cull, if the response is that a cull isn't what is being sought, then what is the aim? I don't want to see limited EA or Angling Trust resources wasted protecting the unrealistic wishes of a small percentage within UK angling. Too many people have gone fishing for Barbel or Pondpigs after reading the tale of Chicken Little I think.

Unless you've been interviewed by a journalist yourself before, don't judge. They can invent a statement, slip them in as "So, would you say that...?" and before you know it you're being misquoted. They'll decide the line they want to take before they even talk to you. I know Craig and he's a good angler, he does fish some matches as an all-rounder but he's certainly not whatever you're trying to insinuate as "a match fisher". He's also helped raise a lot of money for charity through angling, which is a huge help to public perception of our sport. It's a gorgeous fish that went back safe, and the location is being kept quiet so that the "Iz thur a firty in 'ere?" crowd don't pester it.

Shawes Arms isn't a bad place to be once you're further up, and I think it'd be more reliable for a fish-in as long as water levels are within reason. The banjo-players only really come out in Summer and I've only ever had to have a word with a couple of dog walkers.

That's what the Daily Heil reported the Wildlife Trust as saying, which may differ from what they actually said. Selective quotes or paraphrasing can make a big difference. Elsewhere in that report, "£200 albino grass carp", someone's having a laugh unless it was wearing solid gold fin piercings. I'd like to report that the blackbirds have snatched my pedigree worms from my special patch of lawn, I paid £50 per inch for those little beauties, when is someone going to do something about these yellow-billed terrors? Time for a worm defence league before we have an ecological catastrophe on our hands.

Proper Winter Dace that, the males on the lower Ribble are already getting a bit rough to the touch, few nicer ways to spend a cold afternoon than on a dropping river catching silver ingots.

So you don't object to all irresponsible introductions of species which are not native to an area? How fortunate it was that those islands we now call New Zealand were completely uninhabited when their forebears had arrived, bringing with them all manner of species from the homelands. Except they weren't. Very selective in your outrage, it seems.

Indeed, it does hint of the type of attitude that means there'll always be barriers to some anglers understanding the wider ecological landscape. However it might just be badly written, penned in haste to meet a deadline, or a clumsy attempt to create some copy for the magazine down the line. Angling for large eels will have minimal effect on wild populations (even if a small proportion of those caught are accidentally damaged), but will help to raise the profile of the species as a whole, I think the NAC is doing a pretty good job with limited resources. Most single-species groups now have worthwhile stances around reasonable protection for the entire life cycles of the species they target, while still understanding that healthy populations will be subject to natural predation (apart from the pondpig lot perhaps).

Salmonids to Patagonia and New Zealand, wels into the Ebro system, allsorts into Malaysia, various nasties into Madagascar, Nile perch into Lake Victoria, there's a long list of morally indefensible acts where fish introductions are concerned. Tender, self-basting with a hint of false piety, best use for them. As for the actual story, it's hard to blame the marketing team at Icon for looking for a way to raise the profile of the River Monsters series, it's their job. You can tell people anything to sell people anything, if they fall for it it's their problem. Better that angling is on TV with the use of a bit of hyperbole than not at all.

Sad to say, they were introduced by those idiots from the FAO (UN) in the name of "progress", along with a number of other species from Africa (Tilapia), Asia, (snakeheads, giant gouramis and various large barbs), and South America (bocachicos), the idea being that people who have done just fine as hunter-gatherers for the past 20+ thousand years somehow need to alter their lifestyle to suit western ideas of economics, eagerly assisted by missionaries looking to destroy native cultures. In the process a number of fish found nowhere else on Earth but PNG have been driven to the verge of extinction. http://www.fao.org/fishery/introsp/3500/en

Oddly enough, there are no such rumours from the home range of these fish, so it's either that they don't like the taste of the 'nads of South American blokes or it's complete nonsense. I know which I think it is.

I've wondered about this one for a good few years, the big Lancashire ressies should be good for thisl, they nearly all have native stocks of brownies in the feeder streams and ample food. You've got fairly deep, well oxygenated water, and given that the Irwell and its tributaries are producing some pretty big trout there's no barrier from the climate or genetics. They must be there, perhaps in low numbers, Ant Glascoe had a superb fish while piking a few years ago (can't remember which ressie). Might be competition from pike meaning there's no exclusive territory, might be an absence of food at depth during the Summer meaning they have to come shallower and compete with pike (but don't think so, the ressies fish well for coarse fish at all depths for me in Summer), might be that angling pressure means that most of those that move down out of the feeder streams get caught while still in lower single figures (and it might be a one-way trip to the bank). The feeder streams might be unsuitable for large fish to run back up to spawn which prevents those individuals from increasing the genetic tendency to go big and bad, might be that they are there but people are not fishing right for them (dropped runs for pikers or getting bust up on feeder gear and blaming a pike for grabbing a hooked fish), might be that they are in such low numbers (might only be one or two a year that make the switch from the streams to the main body of water) that the chances of encountering one are low, Summer draw-down might lower oxygen levels and territory below a critical level for them. There are probably a few more potentia reasons I've thought about in the past and forgotten.

This time of year a snapping turtle wouldn't be feeding, even in the unlikely event that one were present. Suggestions of a crocodilian just show how gullible people are. My money is on this being people who had never before seen a Canada ratgoose duckdive completely under the water. While they're watching the spot, wondering what mythical creature was responsible, the goose bobs up ten yards away and paddles off.

Grass and Redfin are subspecies within E. americanus.

Tough ask. What suits me for walking for 30 minutes to a river won't suit someone who uses a barrow, who does long-stay with all the bells or who likes accessory-type chairs. I currently use a Korum Light and a Nash Nomad (Mk. 1), and the Nash is the best chair I've ever used. Light, comfortable enough, sturdy, I don't want or need anything else. The only improvement would be possibly a shaped back to give a little support to the back of the neck, the slight extra weight would be worth it.

Mysid shrimp, amphipods, copepods, stuff like that.

This species isn't available through the aquarium trade as far as I know.

Here we are, new headline "EA staff struggle to keep straight faces as 'cat-blinding satan shrimp' fears prove groundless". http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2011/08...-not-blind-cat/ £10 says she gets her view on the world via the Mail or the Express.

It's not April 1st again so soon? This story should read "Gullible woman with no understanding of science seeks attention".

http://www.radac.org.uk/html/day_tickets.html http://www.aspinallarms.co.uk/fishing.html (food and beer here is excellent!)

Where were you? The Ribble (for example) is tidal up past Church Deeps, but that doesn't mean it's a free-for-all.

What sort of fishing d'you like? What dates are you going to be around? Plenty to go at, there are commercials like everywhere but there are also some cracking reservoirs and lodges around on day tickets, there are also some pretty good small rivers.

Those pesky spawning carp, spotting someone stupid on the bank and swiming in a line. Hey presto!, long scaly thing in the water, let's see, a lake in Numbfolk, must be alligators!

Have you contacted the fisheries team to ask what the purpose of the exercise was?

Not too sure about this statement in that article "The absence of any angling pressure should give the species a very good chance of re-establishing itself as part of the river’s ecosystem". Roach seem to do just fine in areas with angling pressure, if anything it'll help avoid them being nobbled by avian predators. Seems that the Axe is pretty well sewn up by game interests, so I can think of a number of places where these roach would have been of more use (unless they are sacrificial fish for predators to try to increase the number of smolts leaving the river, in which case I hope the game clubs or the farms originally responsible for the pollution paid for it).