Otters Force Out Fishing Club

[poledark]

As someone who has been to the lake in question, what may not have been explained is that it runs merely a hundred yards or so from the river. The lake, coincidentally, is also only a few miles from the old 'Otter Trust' establishment. The lake is only a couple of acres in size and was home to several 30lb+ carp - easy pickings in winter for Otters, which have since moved on as the lake is all but depleted of fish.

 

And for the record, it's a very rare occurrence when I don't see an otter when out on the river around here.

 

Careful Rob...no one on here believes you except me You wait, I give it a couple of minutes and the doubters will be challenging you

 

Den

[Guerilla]

Careful Rob...no one on here believes you except me You wait, I give it a couple of minutes and the doubters will be challenging you

 

Den

 

[poledark]

 

Don't be silly Rob, that proves nothing, just a pile of bones....natural causes......dragged out by foxes/crows. There you go lads, I have saved you all the trouble

 

Den

[Dick Dastardly]

And here we go again just as I said in Post 27 No apologies for repeating it-

 

Jeff you've inadvertently raised a very important point.

 

For the guy who has no otters he just cant see the problem The guy whose fishery is over run with them thinks guy A is off his rocker not worrying!

 

Guy B has only roach poles on his water and no Eastern European ones why is Guy A so paranoid,racist and nasty? Guy A is incensed that a fellow angler is prepared to let things go on like this as when he goes fishing all he sees is people putting fish in plastic bags!

 

Just two examples of many modern day "issues".

 

Why don't we accept the others observations/fears etc at face value and support them? Simply because over the years weve become hardened and jaundiced by all the over reacting and scaremongering that we see amongst anglers.So much to the stage that we are now probably ignoring some very serious issues.

 

If only we had a single unbiased body/source of information that would correctly research and assess such issues enabling us to know what is going on?

[poledark]

Your not "softening" are you Budge?

 

By the way, I have just had a text, guess where I am going tomorrow? Someone has spotted a bittern...............

 

Den

Edited January 19, 2010 by poledark

[Anderoo]

Well, I have tried to be fair and put acrosss my views based on my experiences, but I don't think anyone's going to change their minds so I'll leave it at that

 

Final thoughts are that although many would see an 8oz dace as a tiddler and not worth the effort, I don't. And if someone tipped a load of 5lb chub and 3lb perch into a lake and then charged people a tenner a day to fish it, I would have exactly the same opinion of it as a carp commercial.

 

I don't doubt that otters ate those fish. If lake owners (business owners) decide that otters have no place on their lakes, they will need to protect their investment with fencing.

 

(By the way, when otters were reintroduced to the river Windrush here in Oxfordshire, mink populations almost immediately fell by 75% which enabled the endangered water vole to stage a dramatic comeback, and they are now relatively common. And I still manage the odd fish out of the river too )

 

OK, sorry, that's really it now!

[Dick Dastardly]

I scincerely hope not Den! But its right isnt it and equally understandable! Like I say its a shame we havnt got just the one reliable source.

[Steve Walker]

I think we already knew that otters eat fish.

 

Otters don't belong on artificial fisheries and should be fenced out - I don't think anyone is saying that they should be allowed carte blanche to feed at those lakes.

 

Is it just whether rivers should be natural or artificial fisheries that we are disagreeing about?

[Worms]

Do yopu remember all of those otter kills of carp at a lake in Darlington I believe a year or two ago! Anglers blamed otters for ages as thet got fed up with them killing their 10-15lb carp.............until somebody saw one pulling a 10lb carp out of the water and skinning it........it was a mink!

 

Dead fish equals predation. It rarely proves what killed it. Fence the farms and let wildlife get on with it. Don't fence the farms and stop moaning!

[Kappa]

Don't be silly Rob, that proves nothing, just a pile of bones....natural causes......dragged out by foxes/crows. There you go lads, I have saved you all the trouble

 

Den

 

Exactly Den, you keep banging on about evidence, where is the evidence that they were KILLED by otters rather than anything else?

 

I've no doubt otters eat fish. I also have no doubt that they will eat any dead/dying fish that they happen across. People find eaten fish and start shouting, fish die all the time and aren't neccessarily found but be damn sure if they are found by otters and eaten the carcass will be found. Everyone has a story of a fish kill, if this lake is close to a river the otter probably do come here but who is to say they didn't just make use of easy meals of dead or dying fish?

 

If you make waters that are like shooting fish in a barrel every predator will be attracted to it. If you want to protect your business/investment do so.

 

Maybe someone can answer this question, if nine otters somehow manage to catch, kill and eat every fish in a lake what do they then eat? If they breed what do the young eat? Predators are not in the habit of eating all the prey, it means they will die, simple as. If an ecosystem cannot support an apex predator it will go extinct. Once again every predator will not refuse an easy meal but the law of deminishing returns dictates that there will be plenty of fish left before the otters/predators starve to death.

 

Moan all you want about otters. start shooting them if you want! You will almost certainly acheive nothing positive, except giving PETA etc all the ammo they want. Otters are not a massive problem compared pollution, water abstraction, habitat destruction etc etc.

 

I guess just one last question aside from moaning, what do you actually suggest should be done? The EA should shell out? Is this the the same EA you don't feel you should have to pay for?

 

Rich

Edited January 19, 2010 by Richard Capper