Angling Times This Week

[Kappa]

Otters? That is SO last week. I can exclusively reveal next weeks headline:

 

"Swine flu decimates Thames fish stocks"

 

and the following week:

 

"Scapegoats have taken all OUR fish"

 

nasty things those scapegoats...

 

You heard it here first!

 

Rich

[John Weddup]

I am not sure if the angling times is getting nearer the style of the Sun or the sunday sport.

 

john

[Dales]

Go Otters, eat your fill. You might as well as you are going to get blamed.

[Wag]

The last time I bought the Angling Times Dick Walker was still writing a column in it!

 

I remember why I stopped buying it now.

 

As a sport we don't do ourselves any favours with all this sensationalism - at least some on here take a more considered view.

[Worms]

I agree with what you are saying about Humans being the biggest pressure on barbel, but I'm not sure that bullying barbel with heavy rods is part of the problem. Surely anglers playing fish out on light gear would be even worse?

I'm not so sure. On one of my local rivers I frequently target barbel but I also fish the same river for lots of other species. Obviously I catch other species whatever I'm targetting.

 

I've noticed that hooking and landing a barbel on light float gear using a centrepin seems to require a shorter recovery time for the fish than when landing a similar or bigger fish on a fixed spool reel, ledger/feeder setup and correspondingly heavier tackle.

 

My guess is that the effort used by the fish is much greater to fight against a heavy tackle setup with constant heavy pressure than when the fish is hooked on light tackle. With light tackle the fish is only fighting against the effort that the angler puts in to prevent the tackle from breaking or small hooks to give up their hold. The fight is longer but 'gentler'.

 

With a heavier setup the fish is constantly battling against a sustained pressure from the angler, runs are made against the reel clutch and, when targetted near snags is pulled out with maximum effort as regards the tackle strength. All of the time the fish is 'flat out'. The fight is shorter but 'harder'.

 

The various types of muscle in fish are used depending on the speed/effort required. Sustained 'flat out' swimming can cause lactic acid build up similar to that in long distance event athletes. Breakdown of the lactic acid is slow and as a consequence the fish is not at peak form for many hours (as I recall from my study days something like 12-14 hours?).

 

Different fish have different muscular/speed requirements but as the barbel is a fish that can tolerate heavy flow conditions it is likely that it is capable of recovering more quickly from a long period of moderate exertions than a shorter period of maximum exertions.

 

My apologies!

Otters do not damage well balanced natural fisheries!

[Anderoo]

Here you go: http://www.gofishing.co.uk/Angling-Times/S...-Avon/Post.aspx

 

The AT have got a real bee in their bonnet about otters; they're even beating the sneaky immigrants into second place.

 

Not that much about pollution or water abstraction, oddly. Or crayfish. Or the 2007 floods.

 

It's almost as if it's a sensationalised campaign designed to generate sales. It's easier if the enemy has a face.

[gozzer]

Here you go: http://www.gofishing.co.uk/Angling-Times/S...-Avon/Post.aspx

 

The AT have got a real bee in their bonnet about otters; they're even beating the sneaky immigrants into second place.

 

Not that much about pollution or water abstraction, oddly. Or crayfish. Or the 2007 floods.

 

It's almost as if it's a sensationalised campaign designed to generate sales. It's easier if the enemy has a face.

 

 

I wonder who the AT blame for the reduction in intellegent reporting on the paper?

Could they have hired a load of EE immigrant reporters, who are blaming the otters, to take the heat of them?

 

I think Rich has the answer though. It's them bloody sly scapegoats.

Over the years I've seen their cunning disguises. At various times they've appeared as zander, heron, otters, pike, cormorants, goosanders, even in human form as 'strange people from over the big water'.

I find it strange that they rarely appear as something more common, like say groups of anglers, water quality, an imbalance in the food chain, invasive species, a change in habitat, etc.

 

Maybe they do, but they are so clever they pass by unseen.

 

John.

[Steve Walker]

It's easier if the enemy has a face.

 

Quite.

 

I reckon they picked the wrong face, if they want a cause that won't make the general public think we're a bunch of heartless morons.

 

 

If the general public were polled on what they would prefer to see on their local river, I wonder whether they would vote for anglers, barbel or otters? Have the AT been secretly infiltrated by PETA to inflict a PR disaster on us?

[gozzer]

Have the AT been secretly infiltrated by PETA to inflict a PR disaster on us?

 

I don't know about the AT, Steve. But I'm beinning to believe the EA have.

I voiced my objections to their 'hidden' agenda (re coarse fish removal), and the last time I looked only about 70 others had bothered, and most of them were for the legislation.

 

John.

[Worms]

Here you go: http://www.gofishing.co.uk/Angling-Times/S...-Avon/Post.aspx

 

The AT have got a real bee in their bonnet about otters; they're even beating the sneaky immigrants into second place.

 

Not that much about pollution or water abstraction, oddly. Or crayfish. Or the 2007 floods.

 

It's almost as if it's a sensationalised campaign designed to generate sales. It's easier if the enemy has a face.

Not forgetting of course the very low water levels and high temperatures at the start of the season combining with a eutrophic river (from Bristol onwards) to provide less than optimum oxygen levels for barbel.

 

Repeated catches is a common phrase!

 

"Angling clubs on the Bristol Avon are calling for the Environment Agency to survey and restock their river after claiming otters have wiped out virtually all its barbel stocks."

 

To feed the otters up?

 

Interesting that the AT is so involved in the barbel issue. Anti otter 're-introductions' but keen on barbel re-introductions. Now who was it that introduced all of those barbel into UK rivers in 1956?........Anglers Mail?...no........the river authorities?...no....................surely it couldn't have been the Angling Times.........could it?