The circus marches on?

[Peter Waller]

I have a sneaking suspicion that the Boy bit of Fenboy is to throw us off the scent. Its Lyn back from the depths, you know, Des Taylors biggest fan . (in-joke for old timers.)

[Peter Waller]

Lid:

Can some-one please explain to the uninitiated what actually happened please?

Go to Fens 39 pounder comes out to Nige Williams. That will go some way to explain whats going on. It really is a pike thing but many barbel anglers feel the same way.

 

[ 21. January 2004, 10:58 PM: Message edited by: Peter Waller ]

[Cranfield]

I think most anglers perception of the group that refer to themselves as, "Specialist Anglers", is that they do concentrate on big fish venues, with specific big fish as their targets.

This doesn,t just apply to carp and pike, but in recent years, barbel as well.

 

Perhaps someone needs to invent another group title.

[fenboy]

Bl00dy hell, Pete! All these testosterone-charged postings and you reckon I'm female? I know you're from Suffolk, but surely you can tell the difference?

[Peter Waller]

Thought it was a good cover on your part Fenboy! Okay, so we still go Ohhhhhh Ahhhhh when a large part of the USAF flies overhead. So we still say Hi cousin to everyone in the street. But let me tell you this, you young whipper-snapper you, we can clearly see through testosterone charged postings at half a furlong, even half league, even on a cloudy day, even whilst sat in the privvy with the door locked. We're not thick, we can even drive our tractors.

[Bruno Broughton]

Peter Waller:

we can even drive our tractors.

... onto that Carrow Road dung heap, your new tagline would suggest, PW.

 

You have twigged that the 'M' initial was my ruse to help Fenboy hide his i.d.; I should have inserted a 'B' instead, of course

[Andy Nellist]

Cranfield,

 

A lot of specialist anglers myself included prefer to make the news rather than chase the news.

 

I've had a lot of big fish this season and they have all come from waters that i have fished for at least a decade and all are within an hours drive of my home.

 

On top of that I have not sat on one water and kept catching the the same fish repeatedly.

 

Some anglers choose to chase known big fish be they pike, Carp, Barbel or any other species. Whilst ego may play a big part in that you should not forget that those anglers get to see some of the most amazing fish in the country at first hand not just through a photo.

 

To that end if someone phoned me to ask if I would go and photgraph a 20lb barbel from Adams Mill i would be off like a shot. i would love the chance to see such a fish. However, i wouldn't want to fish for the Adams Mill/kickles fish as that simply does not float my boat.

 

My attitude these days to anyone who chases fish is that its fine as long as you don't damage the fish or cockupthe fishing for those whowere there before the news broke.

 

I suppose the same is true of anglers who are happy to make repeated captures of the same big fish. it must be interesting to see them fluctuate in weight etc. but again that is not something that really floats my boat.

 

The reality is that Circuses are fine as long as they don't hurt the animals and don't cause too much of a nuisance to the community in which they are temporarily resident )

[fenboy]

I'm not trying to elevate pike to a higher plane than other species, but like other pike anglers on this forum I do feel they are a special case when it comes to targeting individual fish.

 

Pike suffer from repeat capture. They often die, even when handled by competent anglers. And it's not just deep hooking/bad handling/summer fishing that causes it. They just happen to be delicate and can't take angling pressure.

 

Friends tell me that even the Anglian trout reservoirs like Pitsford, Grafham and Rutland have gone downhill following the limited amount of restricted pike fishing allowed on these massive waters. I understand the same situation prevails at Llandegfedd. And I daresay exactly the same will happen at Dam Flask, if it hasn't already (and clearly messrs Williams and Fickling will therefore need a new target for their ambitions).

 

I would be lying if I said that never in my 37 years of pike fishing have I targetted a specific fish. I did just that one season after a friend caught a huge pike while we were fishing together - exploring a stretch of a little-fished venue that nobody even suspected held fish of that size. That pike had the potential to break the British record, but alas it never turned up again to anyone. A one-hook wonder, if you like.

 

But I hae found that I get better results when I find my own pike waters/stretches. SImply because you get the best results by being first there. Once other anglers cotton on, it's time to move on. In fact I like to move on anyway, as I don't like repeat captures.

 

ANglers like Nige know that. Nige has every right to fish that drain, of course, but it would have been nice in my opinion if he had resisted the temptation. He could have set a good example by staying absent.

 

And as the weekly pike expert in Angling Times, the biggest-selling angling newspaper in the world, he really ought to be a role model for his readers.

 

Nige has, in my opinion, put the editor of Angling Times in an awkward situation. Richard Lee's a smashing bloke and a caring, capable angler. He's the best editor AT has ever had, in my opinion. Richard would have meant every word he said when he urged anglers to keep away and give the poor 39 some respect. It must have been very embarrassing for him when his new weekly pike contributor was posing with the said fish a few weeks later.

 

Hopefully all concerned will have learnt a few lessons here. And, looking on the bright side, the episode has helped to highlight the problem pike fisheries face - namely angling pressure.

 

My advice is to forget the circus and have all the fun of the fair by exploring waters other anglers haven't tried. Eventually you'll strike gold and catch a great fish of your own. And you'll feel better about it than than any fish you've ever caught in the past... because you did it all by yourself.

 

Give it a try.

[Peter M]

Some may say that chub are river fish where the they have to fight the flow and use up energy, which they don't then put into putting on weight. In a lake they have an advantage as they don't have to use up energy like they would in a river, therefore can become really big. Some may say this fact devalues the caliming of a record. (I don't really mind about this chub and am just being devils advocate, although I may have more to say if it was a Barbel).

[Peter M]

oops put that on the wrong thread