Angler cautioned for illegal fishing methods

[mark barrett]

oh gawd pete i am under no illusions about getting any EA officers out, personally i have yet to see any evidence that the EA are effective around this area but i am willing to be convinced.

 

got to give it a try at least.

 

personally my goal is to get the zander off the open list. in that at the moment you can take as many zander as you like for the table, but only two of other species. its about time zeds got the same "protection"

[Nugg]

Originally posted by fenboy:

[QB] As usual I have logged on a bit late, when the original topic has sidetracked to all sorts of interesting stuff. But if I may be allowed to return to the original topic - ie Peter Collins...

 

1. I thought the EA took exactly the right action, in as much as nobody can complain at their stance on this... except for blood-thirsty zander anglers.

..........................................................

 

I complained, and still do, at the E.A. intransigence over this matter.

Was it only Zander that was captured? Those lines could have caught any manner of wild life.

Why were they outlawed in the first instance?

............................................................

 

 

2. Peter Collins did one hell of a lot for angling in his day, including fighting harder than anyone to show how boat traffic was destroying the Norfolk Broads. That was in the early 1970s, when his family just happened to be one of the major boat builders on the Norfolk Broads. (And that, I suggest, is a very much braver thing to do than trying to lynch an old man over the internet).

................................................................

 

Internet or not lynching is illegal, as were his actions. Did he sink any boats whilst bringing this out into the open?

 

 

.................................................................

3. During his reign as editor of Sea Angler he again fought long and hard to prevent commercial fishing and Euro nonsense wrecking sport for anglers around our coasts.

 

...............................................................

 

For which he is to be commended.

..............................................................

4. I'm privileged to have know him as a younger man, in his prime, when he had no axe to grind against pike (although he certainly hated zander from the very start - something I often argued vehemently about with him).

 

..............................................................

 

A great shame you couldn't persuade him that the Zander were there to stay, no matter what.

 

..........................................................

 

5. He was returning big pike to the Broads in the 1950s and 60s when the majority of anglers were killing them. He regularly fished with such greats as Denis Pye and Ken Latham, I understand (a bit before my time).

 

.............................................................

 

I wonder how many big Pike took his baits.

 

..............................................................

 

6. He was a great angler as well as angling journalist in his day. One of the very best, in fact.

 

...............................................................

 

I'll take your word for that.

 

...............................................................

 

7. He is nearly 80, disabled and in recent years became a widower. May I humbly suggest that just maybe he isn't thinking quite as clearly as he did in his prime?

 

..............................................................

 

A touch over 75, when he says he began to set these lines.

 

................................................................

 

Seriously, the baying hordes out there out for his blood sicken me. Grow up, get off the internet and go out and do a quarter the good for angling that Peter Collins did in his prime.

Then I might take you seriuously without getting embarrassed by some of the postings I've read.

 

................................................................

 

Who wants his blood? Where is the equality of justice? If it was Geo Bloggs that was caught doing what he did would you defend their illegal actions in the same way?

In my opinion most, if not all the good he has done in the past may well have been undone by his actions.

The decision has been made and will not be changed, neither will my views on what has gone on concerning this matter.

[guernseybass]

I have to come down on Chevins side here.

 

1. Peter collins has done a lot for angling in the last 50 years.

 

2. Zander are a parasite, sorry - they are a beautiful fish, great fight, sometimes hard to catch but they are inroduced in most rivers ( the severn ?), they killed our perch and pike fishing on the mid Thames in the '70's.

 

i think we should listen to nature for this one -Peters just hurrying it along.

[Newt]

Parasite: an animal or plant that lives in or on a host (another animal or plant); the parasite obtains nourishment from the host without benefiting or killing the host.

 

Sorry but Parasite just doesn't fit a pred.

 

And I'd really have to question zander being the sole cause, or even the main cause, of low populations of pike and perch if that is what you were seeing on that section of river 30-40 years ago.

 

[ 08. August 2004, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: Newt ]

[fenboy]

Obviously we will have to agree to differ on some aspects of this issue. Although I suppose I can seen as a bit soft for congratulating the EA for its sensitive handling of this specific case, I just want to stress that I am NOT soft on abuse of fish. If what Peter Waller says is correct, and there are loads more setliners out there, I hope the EA clamps down on them.

Sadly, Peter Collins is still living in the 1970s when a misguided few (which included the then Anglian Water Authority) believed zander were to blame for wiping out cyprinid stocks in the Fens. They weren't, of course, as can be proved by the low density of zander in most venues today. They have achieved a natural balance... and the crash in fish stocks in the late 70s was not caused by zander.

Incidentally, I was a committee member of the NASG (the old National Association of Specimen Groups) at the time and I resigned because the NASG was supporting AWA and its infamous predator cull. I say that only to underline that I am, and always have been, a fervent predator conservationist.

It's just that I knew Peter Collins in his prime - just as Peter Waller did - and it saddens me to see a great man in this bother at this stage of his life.

Please note that the EA have not let him off the hook. He has been reprimanded. That suggest the EA will come down hard on future offenders.

Finally, it has to be said that the publicity afforded the case practically ensured that Peter wouldn't be prosecuted. It was already too controversial and I'm sure if it had gone to court his lawyers would have argued, probably successfully, that he wouldn't reeive a fair trial because of the pre-judging.

Anyway, It's over now. I'm happy, a lot aren't, but let's all fight together to ensure that it doesn't happen again. And remember PC as he was, when he was at his fighting best.

[Peter Waller]

'If what Peter Waller says is correct', wouldn't have said it otherwise Fenboy .

[mark barrett]

geurnseybass you are completely and utterly wrong with your moronic statement. perch numbers were low everywhere in the seventies, it was down to the perch epidemic, not zander.

 

in fact i would have to look it up for certain, but i think it was the late seventies or early eighties before zander appeared in the thames and even know there are very few.

 

it would be better to deal in facts not cobblers fella.

[Dick Dastardly]

Since when have the facts ever bothered a lot on here Mark?

[mark barrett]

know what you mean budgie!!!LOL

 

 

however just to give some insight. the first recorded capture of zander fromthe old nene and the twenty foot were not untill 1975. when "zander" was written by rickards and fickling in 1979, there hadnt been a reported capture from the Thames, so its interesting how they have managed to get the blame for the quality of pike and perch fishing going off in the mid seventies, when most documentary evidence suggests they were either not there or in such small numbers as to have never been caught!!

[fenboy]

You're right. Mark. There has been constant paranoia about zander ever since they hit the limelight in 1968, when Relief Channel captures became commonplace. They have been blamed for everything. Back in the 1970s, some anglers were fearful of the impact of another predator, whic is why AWA ordered a cull... and anglers like Peter Collins hated them. Those of us who were catching them at the time knew different. Their spread was only marked when fish stocks crashed through no fault of the sander. But they were an easy scapegoat for the AWA. Unfortunately, bodies like PAC and NASG went along with that crap.

Even today, I understand British Waterways continues to electrofish zander from the Midlands canals... when they are probably one of the few species (carp excepted) worth catching in those venues.

Zander could never do the damage that British Waterways has done in vandalising some great mixed fisheries - Drayton Res, Naseby, Boddington, etc - in the pursuit of the bag-up anglers' fivers. In other words, they have been overstocked with horrible little carp.

Carp have done more damage to coarse fishing in this country than zander could have done even if the fantasists' claims about the species were true.

Personally, I'd like to see zander in every river system in Britain - plus catfish. They are no more alien than carp and rainbow trout.