Rumours

[Tony U]

There is a rumour going around one of the club waters in the Medway valley to the effect that:

Due to an explosion of the Jack Pike population, carp anglers lines, are being bitten off by the pike swimming in to them.

They have accordingly written a letter which they plan to unveil at the club AGM calling for a cull or removal of the pike from the water.

My reaction is that it is absolute nonsense and that it was part of a late April Fool joke that had been doing the rounds but apparently both the Carpers and Bailiffs insist this is the case.

Has anyone any ideas, surely if it was true it would need a completely unsustainable Pike population and the number of lines in the water would be more similar to a gill net rather than a few anglers.

 

Tony

[chevin]

There is a rumour going around one of the club waters in the Medway valley to the effect that:

Due to an explosion of the Jack Pike population, carp anglers lines, are being bitten off by the pike swimming in to them.

They have accordingly written a letter which they plan to unveil at the club AGM calling for a cull or removal of the pike from the water.

My reaction is that it is absolute nonsense and that it was part of a late April Fool joke that had been doing the rounds but apparently both the Carpers and Bailiffs insist this is the case.

Has anyone any ideas, surely if it was true it would need a completely unsustainable Pike population and the number of lines in the water would be more similar to a gill net rather than a few anglers.

 

Tony

 

Pike don't have teeth to bite through slack lines, their teeth will cut through tight lines, so if slack lines are being bitten through, it ain't pike.

[Dales]

Due to an explosion of the Jack Pike population, carp anglers lines, are being bitten off by the pike swimming in to them.

Tony

 

The idea of Pike swimming in to lines and then biting through them is rather amusing and a little absurd

 

But I suppose they may take a liking to some of the fish meal boilies the Carpers are using and pick them up and then bite them off.

 

Sounds like the usual blame the Pike when things go wrong story.

[Anderoo]

Complete rubbish, why do people believe this stuff?!

 

More likely to be an explosion of pea mussels or similar. I had a wander round a local (clear) gravel pit recently and there are millions of these things in there now and never used to be.

[Tony U]

It is reported that the lines are being bitten off on the mainline above the bait not even on the hook length I suspect Crustaceans or Molluscs may be the cause but can I tell them.

 

 

Tony

Edited April 13, 2010 by Tony U

[Dales]

Complete rubbish, why do people believe this stuff?!

 

More likely to be an explosion of pea mussels or similar. I had a wander round a local (clear) gravel pit recently and there are millions of these things in there now and never used to be.

 

Good explanation, I fished the Warren over the winter for Pike and lost count of the amount of times I realed in with mussels clamped to the wire trace. It did make me think about what kind of damage it would have caused to mono or braid hook links.

Edited April 13, 2010 by Dales

[Leon Roskilly]

Fishing maggots for tench on a small lake, the float bobbed, then stayed still.

 

Reeling in a while later, the line had been snipped above the hook.

 

Most likely culprit was the population of red-eyed turtles that had become quite common in the water.

[Andy Macfarlane]

Pike should make up approximately 3% of the biomass in a water and that 3% should be pyramidal or hierarchal in it's composition, with large numbers of small jacks at the bottom of the ladder and perhaps only a couple of really big specimens at the top of the ladder. A healthy pike population should make little difference to the populations of other species in the same water.

 

Tamper with the pike, by way of culls especially and you almost always end up with an unnaturally high population of hungry jacks, which will have a detrimental effect on the other species coexisting with them.

 

It should also be noted that approximately a 3rd of a pike's diet, is composed of smaller pike and they only consume somewhere in the region of 7 times their own bodyweight in a year. A 30lber might only be eating 210lbs of fish per year and 70lbs of that total is smaller pike. Incidentally, the remainder includes dead, diseased, injured or unwanted species, so the damage done is relatively limited if the pike are looked after.

 

People easily forget that pike in have been coexisting with other species in many waters for perhaps thousands of years, without wiping them out completely. In fact, the opposite is very often the case and the waters where the pike are well managed or left alone have the healthiest populations of coinhabitants.

 

....Andy....

[Dick Dastardly]

Well as always things have come complete circle! Matchmen/Match orientated clubs always blamed the pike for everything! from poor match results to a lack of quality fish (!). The PAC really had to work hard to change this attitude and help anglers and fishery managers understand the species and its important role in any balanced fishery. A a big thank you to those early founders and members for doing such a great job.

 

However due to the very nature of this issue (ie a need to apportion blame for perceived poor results without the need for any research) the idiot faction then turned its venom towards Cormorants! Good few years out of that one and a bit of a respite for old Essox! But theres only so many shock horror headlines (cant remember the word for it when all start with the same letter?) "Cunning Cormorants Cull Canal's Carp" that even AT or AM journos can come up with! But hey ho.................

 

Good old Eastern Europeans (even the name was a nice start!) came into the firing line! The boys were back! "Evil Eastern Europeans Eat Every Eel"...but alas the rag buying,blame apportioning,excuse seeking gang are fickle and even this has now seemed to have run its course (suppose its because eel is the only fish that starts with an "E"?).

 

So until aliens land,Gordon Brown cuts public expenditure on water quality or Muslims start washing their clothes in public waters its back to the good old nemesis the Pike! Also fits in nicely with the modern interest in "retro" or if your a Hoodie "Old Skool" fashion..........

 

Bloody Pike through them up the bank!

[Dick Dastardly]

Feel kind of nostalgic for the days of fishing local club waters for pike and once catching one hearing the old fellas cries of "watch out boy it'll have your fingers off!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damn just realised Im the "Old Fella" now!!!! Best get practicing " Watch out boy..............................................................