The CA again!!

[nature boy]

as far as iam concerned,hunting is in the front line,so why the hell should the ca spent time on angling,they have got to defend the antis number 1 target first,to try and stop the dominos falling.

[barblesss]

We don't want nothing to do with the CA. They will drag us down when they go... I hope they do. There *IS* a difference.. fish are well down the 'Chain' ... not quite the same league as Animal Blood Sports. (warm blooded, more nerves, better brains)

[nature boy]

[ 25. July 2004, 08:16 PM: Message edited by: nature boy ]

[Peter Waller]

Fish are cold blooded, don't have four legs and don't feel pain.

 

As far as joe public are concerned fish are fish, can't be cuddled. Animals on the other hand are animals, and even when wild, can be cuddled!

 

I agree, we must stop the dominos from falling. Allying ourselves to a domino that has almost fallen is hardly going to help our case.

 

Time to go out & feed the foxes. And no, I'm not joking. I have ma, pa and two cubs resident in my garden. And woe betide anyone who tries to kill them.

[Alan Roe]

good topic so far chaps lets see if we can avoid getting personal

[Guest sslatter]

I've been an angler for 43 years, and have absolutely nothing in common with other "field sport" enthusiasts.

 

Toggle writes: "It seems many 'anti' hunting types are very 'speciesist' regarding furry mammals as having more rights than 'lower' forms of life."

 

This annoys me too. I can only presume that we are not a nation of animal-lovers, but a nation of fluffy/cuddly animal lovers, which is a totally-different thing.

 

Mark Barret: "if as i do you fish in a town centre from time to time you will get comments like are you going to eat them etc all the time."

 

I've lost count of the number of times that this too has happened to me. The public awareness of angling's credos is very wide of the mark, but I think that there is something very important in this. We, as responsible anglers, should do our utmost to ensure that whenever we are asked such questions by members of the public, we take the time to explain why we put fish back, why we don't kill them.

 

A poignant scenario from Tuesday evening:

 

I went out on my local stretch of estuarine river to fish the low tide. I climbed off the local pontoon, and traipsed along the gravel "beach" exposed by the receding tide, and started to fish a very shallow hotspot for mullet, about 20 yards downstream from the pontoon, which as usual, had its complement of passers-by feeding the swans. A mullet pal of mine was watching from a bench on the riverbank.

I was fortunate enough to hook a nice thicklip, which I played for about ten minutes before landing it, measuring it, weighing it, and then carefully putting it back. As I watched the fish to see if it was okay, I became aware of the sound of people clapping and some cheering, so I turned around to see that I had an audience of about 25 people who had been watching the contest. I couldn't understand why they were clapping, so after they had dispersed, I asked my mullet pal what had been going on, to which he replied that the passers-by had been saying that I would kill the fish and take it home because it was such a nice one! He did his part in explaining to the passers-by why I'd put the fish back, and they were so impressed by this that they actually clapped me for doing it!

 

So.. I think it's important we should all take the time to help raise the public's awareness of what we actually do as anglers.

 

Otherwise, they might think we're just as callous as the Foxhunting fraternity is perceived to be.

[wearyone]

I agree entirely Graham, but we are also fighting those amongst us who should know better.

Whilst walking a stretch of my club water on Saturday with a game angler, he told me of a time last summer that whilst just starting a session after sea trout he came across a big fish flapping about in very shallow water. The fish turned out to be e barbel of about 10lb's and was obviously in a poor state. A little while later whilst trying to revive it a young chap came asking if he had seen a barbel as he had lost one out of his keepnet. Turned out he dropped it when showing off his catch to a mate. Bloody a*se hole.

Sadly the fish did not recover.

[Guest sslatter]

[Weary sigh] Yeah. We've got our local idiots too. The roach "angler" who also goes mulleting in the summer, and kills every fish he catches. Allegedly does the same with the local grayling when he's roach fishing.

 

I know that we as a corporate body are not without our own failings, which makes it all the more important that the responsible anglers among us ensure that we keep up the standards of coarse angling's credos, and are seen to do so.

[wearyone]

Have a look HERE

[Newt]

That link and the back-link to the BLTC home page may not be the biggest crop of crap I've ever read but it has to come close.

 

And I imagine that parts of the linked piece do constitute libel against the The British Field Sports Society unless the author has proof to back up accusations.

 

Not real sure how a piece of sensationalist clap-trap from 1996 fits in here though.