Rivers....a sad state of affairs

[Neil G]

I , like many anglers enjoy a good moan about river conditions/weather or other anglers so here comes another!

 

Just need to sound off on the usual

 

Went down the river last night for a spot of lure fishing, had two jacks out on surface poppers and they certainly weren't shy...really nailed the lure! Anyway, this exciting fishing was slightly spoiled by the usual carnage that follows June 16th. Arrived at the first swim to find a spiders web of line everywhere..pulled it to find a cheap (broken) lure in the tree...no trace and with what must have been 5lb line...looked round to see fishing tackle packets and the de rigeur empty drink bottles.

 

Moved to another swim only to be pestered by the classic 'caught anything yet' scenario. Moved on to find even more rubbish, a broken landing net and more flippin' line.

 

I know this if a free stretch of water and it does produce good fish but I'm just sick and tired of seeing this on a regular basis. I also feel rather sorry for the pike (if there are any left)...it's pretty obvious there's some VERY clueless people out there

 

Now thinking of paying to fish somewhere a bit more exclusive

[Brian Carragher]

Its a common problem all over the country caused by idiots who are idiots wherever they turn up fishing or not

 

Some of my local free stretchs get plauged by the "loony" brigade just the same who think 4lb line and no trace is the way to lure fish for pike, that and the crate of lager that always accompnies them. They're everywhere , leave crap all over and then when the fishing deteriates go to some other spot and do the same all over again

 

Only one bright thing is that when the weather cools and it gets a bit nippy then the summer lager anglers tend to dissapear

[Guest Rabbit]

Fished Pershore the other evening, actually targeted 'silvers' for a change to barbel, bought some maggots at the week end so thought I would give them a go. In the car park who should pull along side me, the Polish lot I 'requested' to leave back in May when fishing the weir pool, not only fishing closed season, but of course no licenses as well as they 'thought' that there was no closed season and no licence needed. The fact that they were catching prime chub for their nearby BBQ only spurred me on and they soon beat a retreat to the car park......So I thought that I would check and see if they have bought the Birmingham AA, and YES!! they had, but not deterred I mentioned that they also need a EA rod licence, err ''what is that''? the leader asked, so I showed him , of course they did not have one between them, they asked if they could still fish I said they could if they would like to pay a fine of £2,500! which somewhat got their attention and again they left, to perhaps fish elsewhere where they would be left unmolested.

 

There's more... the first week end of the new season I fished the Teme at Cotheridge near Worcester, a beautiful river that is a barbel and chub heaven with the odd salmon and sea trout too. Walking the banks I saw litter comprising of a laundry bag full of the remnants of a picnic including soiled nappies, but further on there was at least a TONNE of househould waste that had been tipped down the steep bank, there amongst all this waste was an armchair c/w cushions, black rubbish bags strewned the tree branches. In the car park someone had dumped two large fridge freezers.

Of course I did the usual ''round robin'' Birminghan AA, EA, Police, and Malvern Council, but I am sad to say the apathty is obvious with all these bodies, with the exception of the police who rang me Sunday to ''see for himself''.

 

As far as the fishing was concerned at Pershore, very enjoyable, how nice it was to get back to catching perch small chub skimmer et all....and just before I packed in I had the nicest surprise, some lads were drinking down the next swim,I heard the 'chink' of bottles A timely reminder then not to leave the empties, they insisted I should have a bottle of Stella, and reassured me the bottles would be taken away, they were, aint 'yoof' great

Edited July 2, 2009 by Rabbit

[chesters1]

that is sad we dont even get dumpers down our secluded track any more ,a nice makita drill was found last time and i'm still waiting to find a use for 3 nice windows as well as other stuff.

look on the bright side its a form of recycling.

i remember years ago metal detecting in the verges of a road and i found a load of almost rusted away springs and some bits of wood with hundreds of copper studs in.

after clearing this no doubt ex armchair that had been dumped many years before i scanned the ground where it had been and found 3 halfcrowns, a florin and a handful of copper coins

[Anderoo]

Now thinking of paying to fish somewhere a bit more exclusive

 

It sounds like you should Neil.

 

It's a shame that the only public face of fishing is litter, drunkeness and attitude. The majority of decent anglers are nearly always on private or otherwise difficult to access land.

[blockend]

On the lure point anglers should have a damned good reason not to use a trace. Perch and chub are put off by wire (I believe) but most river venues will get you three jacks for every chub and you will be bitten off. Unless there are no pike present clubs should make non-use of a trace a booting out offence.

[Anderoo]

It's not a club-controlled stretch though, Blockend. People go fishing in the Summer as part of a day drinking by the river - especially on free stretches.

[Brian Carragher]

As someone who does a lot of summer chubbing let me assure that the use of a wire trace does not put chub off

 

Its common sense to use one as where you find chub you also find pike, some days you catch more chub than pike, in fact a lot of the times and the wire trace does'nt seem to bother them, indeed whilst the waters low and clear you can see them smash the lure

[gozzer]

Its a common problem all over the country caused by idiots who are idiots wherever they turn up fishing or not

 

I agree Brian, it's a common problem whether angling related or not.

 

There have always been a minority of idiots who have little or no regard for their surroundings, and angling has always had it's share.

 

Todays society seem to have a greater percentage of people who through ignorance, apathy, or wilful disregard have little or no 'respect' for others, or their surroundings.

Sadly when angling advertises or encourages new people to take it up, then we are obviously going to get more people with that attitude among them.

 

John.

[ColinW]

I think you might find buying your way out of the reach of scum a lot harder than you think.