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Angling Times This Week


Jeffwill

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I read somewhere recently that 'God made barbel for those who can't catch chub' B)

If an angler can't catch a chub then I think he/she belongs on a puddle chasing pasties

Eating wild caught fish is good for my health, reduces food miles and keeps me fit trying to catch them........it's my choice to do it, not yours to stop me!

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This picture of olden day otters being left in peace to eat fish stocks at will without causing any damage is pure fantasy. Here is an excerpt of a book called "Hounds in Old Days" written in 1913.

 

THE OTTER-HOUND

 

The otter has been hunted from early times,

as is proved by the references to the main-

tenance of hounds for the purpose in ancient

records. King John (1199-1216) kept otter-

hounds. In July, 1212, when his court was at

Bristol, he sent orders to the Sheriff of

Somersetshire to provide necessaries for

 

" Ralph the huntsman and Godfrey his

fellow, with two men and two horses and

twelve otter hounds as long- as they find

employment in capturing otters in your shire.

And as soon as they cannot capture any

[more], you are forthwith to send them back

to us, and any cost you may incur through

them shall be accounted to you at the

Exchequer "

 

The wording of this order makes it sufficiently

clear that the otters were regarded as noxious

beasts, to be destroyed as vermin

 

The chapter goes on to confirm a long history in which otters had the status of vermin. They weren't hunted for sport, they were hunted in the same way rats and moles were (are).

Later the book says

 

it would be in keeping with the duty a king owed his people

to maintain hounds to kill down otters, as an

example to others who were in a position to keep hounds

 

I wonder if the Royal corgies are going to be given something useful to do?

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This picture of olden day otters being left in peace to eat fish stocks at will without causing any damage is pure fantasy. Here is an excerpt of a book called "Hounds in Old Days" written in 1913.

 

The chapter goes on to confirm a long history in which otters had the status of vermin. They weren't hunted for sport, they were hunted in the same way rats and moles were (are).

Later the book says

 

I wonder if the Royal corgies are going to be given something useful to do?

It's all open to interpretation really though isn't it? Why is a mole vermin? It does no harm to crops, doesn't eat lambs or chickens but does spoil rich people's lawns. In my view they are not vermin or pests yet it has become acceptable to kill them.

 

Don't forget as well, any carnivorous (or piscivorous) animal was considered 'vermin' back then. That is why we have no bears, wolves, lynx etc. Ecology and the meaning of ecosystems was not understood. In some areas hedgehogs suckled from cattle, in other areas it was badgers! the tench was not harmed by other fish because it was the 'doctor fish'. The young of adders sprang fully formed from the mother's mouth. Then of course there were dragons, mermaids, gryphons......god sent down birds carrying the plague, witches were executed etc. etc.

 

From a C1200 north midlands bestiary:

 

"It hunts snakes and mice. There are two kinds of weasel. One, of very different size from the other, lives in the forest. The Greeks call these ictidas; the other roams around in houses. Some say that weasels conceive through the ear and give birth through the mouth; others say, on the contrary, that they conceive through the mouth and give birth through the ear; it is said, also, that they are skilled in healing, so that if by chance their young are killed, and their parents succeed in finding them, they can bring their offspring back to life.

Weasels signify the not inconsiderable number of people who listen willingly enough to the seed of the divine word but, caught up in their love of wordly things, ignore it and take no account of what they have heard."

 

Good medieval science at work there then :D

Eating wild caught fish is good for my health, reduces food miles and keeps me fit trying to catch them........it's my choice to do it, not yours to stop me!

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I'm not sure how much Hard fact can be taken from the diet of otters on Scottish rivers that have a much higher salmonids to coarse fish level than the English rivers talked about. After all as your post points out otters are "opportunist" and if there isnt salmonids to feed on........

 

Yeah, fair point, I'm sure that any fish is fair game providing it doesn't take more energy to catch than it will yield in calorific content. I read some research today that stated that they are happy eating loads of minnows, it's biomass not size that matters.

 

I still completely agree with your overall opinion though.

 

Thank you Worms! The research took two hours and I had quite a bit of beer!

 

I don't think we've ever had rivers with the high levels of big coarse fish we have today living along side otters, so we are just going to have to see what happens.

Us anglers like to think of our selves as the guardians of fish in our rivers, but they belong to nature and we can like it or not but otters are part of that in my view and obsessive barbel anglers aren't.

 

I think both points are true - we tend to be a bit inwards looking and forget that a healthy fishery is not one that is stuffed with fish, and use fish numbers and size as a measure of a healthy fishery. I don't want to see the fisheries denuded, but I don't want to fish in a stew pond either. However, there are plenty of people that do want to fish in what I would consider overstocked, and they pay a lot for it, for them the thought of the high value fish being eaten is not an easy one to swallow.

 

I suppose a heavily stocked carp lake is somewhat akin to a fox in a chicken coop - although the coop is a big one and even fish in small pond would take some chasing and catching. We just have to be tolerant, and not blow this out of proportion.

 

The most important thing I discovered is the 1kg of food per day - not much fish really! That could be a lot of crayfish and mitten crabs though. Oh and the mink population is going down as well, the otters are killing them. Hurrah!

"I want some repairs done to my cooker as it has backfired and burnt my knob off."

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