The return of perch disease?

[Anderoo]

It's ironic really that in a bid to drive up sales by offering 'juicy' stories, angling papers can end up alienating and losing those people who should really form the core of their readership.

 

I know, it's a sad state of affairs. I'm afraid I lost respect for them some time ago, and have seen nothing since to make me change my mind.

 

I can't see any mention of the Farmoor incident on their website, which seems odd if it is genuine news...

[Kappa]

I know, it's a sad state of affairs. I'm afraid I lost respect for them some time ago, and have seen nothing since to make me change my mind.

 

In this case their poor journalism hasn't real 'hurt' anyone or anything. However the normal fare of otters, poles etc etc actually seems to take hold in anglers minds. The problem is people really believe the bullsh*t they print...

 

Rich

[Anderoo]

AT in particular is getting worse and worse. Since they relaunched as a 'proper fishing newspaper' they've taken the very worst aspects of the UK press and really run with it. Genuine weekly fishing news with some catch reports (where the claimed weight of the fish doesn't make you laugh), some useful all-round instruction and some good stories would be fantastic. But unfortunately it is nothing like that.

 

In this case we are lucky in that several ANers are local to the incident and can provide a framework for the little facts that we do know (courtesy of the EA), and several here are friends with Steve and can get a second opinion of what he reportedly said. But for goodness sake, we really shouldn't have to.

 

Sorry for the rant, but this particular subject does wind me up.

[Dick Dastardly]

I'm not quite so worried about it being the "return of perch disease" now Ive seen other reports and the pictures.The fact that (although mainly perch) other species ie roach were found dead as well points more to a localised pollution incident.

 

Bit off topic but re the press I honestly believe that they are not just giving their readership "what they want" but have now engineered the situation to being that they actually dictate/influence what they want.

 

Producing the "juiciest" copy to sell the publication is certainly what its all about............but isn't it a great shame that these "journalists" cant produce good enough stuff to get people to buy/read without having to resort to such? I'm afraid that for a long time now the staff members of the two main papers seem to be pretty lacking in both/either journalistic ability or angling knowledge.

[denzil]

am i the only one who cant see a problem with this article?

[Anderoo]

With perch disease, are all age groups and sizes equally affected? The fact that all these fish are tiny looks to be significant. There are a lot of small perch in the Thames, but there are also a lot bigger than this!

[Chris Plumb]

With perch disease, are all age groups and sizes equally affected? The fact that all these fish are tiny looks to be significant. There are a lot of small perch in the Thames, but there are also a lot bigger than this!

 

Does look a bit like a 'slot kill'. Same thing happened on the Itchen a few years ago - a pollution incident killed the very smallest AND the very biggest grayling. I guess those in between were the very healthiest individuals - best able to survive a temporary worsening of water conditions.....

 

 

C.

[Dick Dastardly]

I guess those in between were the very healthiest individuals - best able to survive a temporary worsening of water conditions.....

 

Exactly Chris.

 

If there had been just perch found and over a wider area I would have been more worried.

[Anderoo]

Hmm, so the biggest may have possibly been affected too?

 

I wish the EA would hurry up and let us know what's going on! For the first time this season the river is in perfect nick at the moment too, I practically salivated when I went over it this morning... it's a very frustrating situation.

[gozzer]

It's just speculation, but it's similar to an incident on the Yorks Ouse a while ago.

A farmer had let some fertilizer or slurry (I can't remember which), leak into a side stream. It killed of the resident fish, (mainly small because of the size of the stream). The fish came into the main river all in one mass, and it looked like something worse. Once the pollutant entered the main river, it dispersed and was diluted to an extent that it caused no more problems.

 

I only hope something similar happened in this case.

 

From what I remember of the perch disease in the 70s, it seemed to hit perch of every size on the waters I fished. But a few years later we started catching the odd fish up to about 1lb in weight, so some must have survived to reach that size.

 

John.