Unhooking Mats

[Sportsman]

Yet you are totally incapable of doing what you actually suggest I do...grow up and get real...just try becoming a man and stop acting like a spoilt brat of a child who cannot get their own way, who cannot shut me up because I have just the same right to my voice and my opinion as you have to your voice and your opinion.

 

Nobody cares what I say

Nobody cares what you say

Nobody is worried what my opinion is

Nobody is worried what your opinion is

 

Except I care what I say and I care what my opinion is

Except you should care what you say and you should care what your opinion is

 

You are perfectly entitled to your opinions.

You express them on here.

Endlessly

That's the problem.

Not the opinions, they are of no interest to me.

It is the repetition that is tedious. (tedious by the way means boring in case you were wondering)

[AddictedToScopex]

Wow and they say us young folks need to grow up.

 

It's like a playground argument in some of these posts and everyone gets so riled up. Everyone has an opinion so why can't people just say "ok, that's fine but my views are this". I know we are mostly stubborn in our views of fishing practice but we are not kids.

 

I fish carp waters when I cannot get onto the river because I cannot go a week without fishing. Im hopelessly addicted to wetting lines. And you know what I actually really enjoy it. It is a change from trudging down a river bank and it allows me to take my fiance without her getting bored waiting what could be all day for that one barbel that I would happily wait a week for. Plus it allows her to sit and learn and have a go herself with a quarry that may be easier to catch. I don't mind if someone disagree's with it. It's my choice to do that and when the river is closed Im sure as hell not sitting in my house polishing my reels for months. Live and let live i say and stop getting on each others backs for it.

This is supposed to be a friendly forum and I dont think new comers want to read arguments about things that are so ridiculous. It would just drive them away from what is otherwise a fantastic place to come for advice and help.

 

Come on guys chill out.

Edited June 7, 2010 by AddictedToScopex

[watatoad]

In this enlightened age, why is it, that some posters with a lot to say, don't seem to be using Unhooking Mats in their attached Photo's ?

 

Do they think it's only Carp Anglers that use them or is it the fact they think they know better than everyone else.

 

Or could it be that Fish Care comes low down on their list of priorities ?

 

Bob

 

Your thread as you choose to have a dig. Yet again a select few on here give it out and want to keep giving it out and think they can give it out without response, but they just cant take it.

Edited June 7, 2010 by watatoad

[Dales]

Your thread as you choose to have a dig. Yet again a select few on here give it out and want to keep giving it out and think they can give it out without response, but they just cant take it.

 

Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, same old rubbish and hate

[Sportsman]

As you know Dave, I detest commercial carp waters, and I don't fish them. In fact for a year now that has been the only thing available to me, so I've forgone my angling.

I have no beef with most carp anglers, only the media and commercial obsession with carp, and that is because I have seen too many good waters ruined by these stocking practices. In fact this obsession has brought about an equal (maybe stranger) obsession in me. If I look at the details of a water and I see carp mentioned as the main fish, I don't look any further. My family know that if they are going to buy me an angling mag or book, if it has a picture of a carp, or the word carp on it, don't buy it.

I used to love fishing for carp, but over the last 20yrs or so, carp have been promoted as some kind of superior species that (in your words) "it's become tedious" and that's putting it mildly. A part of the carp fishing fraternity, with the backing of most commercial enterprises has brought this ridicule on itself by it's promotion of the fish. The same can be said of many members of single species groups who take their obsession to extreme, be it barbel, pike, chub, perch,or what ever. Carp anglers are the main recipients because that is the most published fish. I feel sorry for some carp anglers who don't 'follow the trend', because they are victimised for the actions of others. You only have to look at some of the carp related news articles of the last few years to see that it's become a joke of it's own making.

 

John.

 

 

Hi John

I am afraid that I don't have your will power.

If I want to fish for coarse fish at all I only realistically have the choice of two venues. 80 miles south to fish for predominately carp or 65 miles north to fish for predominately carp. That's it. Neither fishery is particularly challenging but it does get me out and allow me to fish.

Later in the year when I move to France I will have a river (the Lot) just down the road and I will be able to fish for Barbel, Chub, Roach and all sorts. I might even buy a centrepin

Until then I will just have to content myself with the fishing I have, and to be honest, a day out that I, along with tens of thousands of other anglers, actually enjoy.

Cheers

Dave

[Anderoo]

Your thread as you choose to have a dig. Yet again a select few on here give it out and want to keep giving it out and think they can give it out without response, but they just cant take it.

 

The thing that marks AN out from the other forums, in my opinion at least, is that there's hardly anyone who wants to 'give it out'. Calm down, Mr Toad. You've gone all angry again.

 

Maybe go fishing

[gozzer]

Hi John

I am afraid that I don't have your will power.

If I want to fish for coarse fish at all I only realistically have the choice of two venues. 80 miles south to fish for predominately carp or 65 miles north to fish for predominately carp. That's it. Neither fishery is particularly challenging but it does get me out and allow me to fish.

Later in the year when I move to France I will have a river (the Lot) just down the road and I will be able to fish for Barbel, Chub, Roach and all sorts. I might even buy a centrepin

Until then I will just have to content myself with the fishing I have, and to be honest, a day out that I, along with tens of thousands of other anglers, actually enjoy.

Cheers

Dave

 

I know your position Dave and I sympathise with it. As for will power, I wish I had more, I would never have started smoking again.

It's not a matter of will power really, it's just that I don't enjoy fishing the places. I find them wholly unethical, and can't understand how some of those that say they are greatly concerned about fish welfare, still fish them.

I must admit that my personal feelings are coloured by the fact that some of my favorite stillwaters, (where I used to have good days fishing for the roach, tench, bream, and yes the occasional carp), are now so overrun with the things that it's carp, carp, carp of varying strains everytime you go. So on a personal, as well as an ethical level, I feel I have some justification for my dislike of them.

 

 

John.

[John S]

What started off as a reasonable thread has just degenerated into namecalling, either between forum members or at a group of anglers in particular. If it continues, I will simply close the thread

[weirwulf]

What started off as a reasonable thread has just degenerated into namecalling, either between forum members or at a group of anglers in particular. If it continues, I will simply close the thread

 

Have to agree. I am sure most posters using the AN forums did so initially because it was a sensible place to have a sensible discussion. I have seen some angling forums get into complete disarray over some very trivial things which if you analysed it you would suppose it was not written by anglers at all. I have only been here a few months but each of you up until now have made some great discussion. Having met some of you also at Wingham just reinforced my decision to remain part of the group. We all have something to give and also something to learn but the one thing worth learning is that although we are all different our aims towards fish care should be united even if our methods of catching vary. Getting heated will not achieve that unity and neither shall thinking your opinion counts more than anothers. Rant over!

[arbocop]

I do have an unhooking mat and consider using it often, but when I'm on the bank - at a river usually - there isn't the space to put the mat. I lift the fish out onto the soft grass, in the net, and deal with it as quickly as possible. I normally only lift it out of the net to put it back.

 

If I had an unhooking mat to hand I would use it but it's invariably more time consuming, and therefore probably more stressful for the fish to start getting it out and onto a mat. The ground is often tooo steep for the mat anyway, or often the bank is up high. With an even bank, a clear 'peg' and I'm not wading, I do use one. I'm invariably not in those situations though.

 

Occasionally I have taken a photo of a fish on the bank, out of the net and just on wet grass and I've always regretted it, but it's not that I think that the fish has been particularly harmed - although it's obviously not ideal - it was just that I was roving and only had a net and a pocket of stuff.

 

Conversely, I quite often don't take the fish out of the water at all. When fly fishing I have often unhooked fish with the tip ring of the rod when using barbless.

 

I personally don't think that a mat should be compulsory, and the rules about having to have are excessive. Good fish care doesn't require one, but having said that, I will try to use one more this year - especially for barbel - and think about where I can place it before I start to trot/freeline/whatever.

 

Edit: I'll just add that rough handling is probably, on balance considerably worse for the fish than wet soft grass. For instance, I think some of the bigger fish might get damaged tissues by being lifted up. I've never caught a catfish, so I've no idea, but some of the pictures I have seen where they are draped over the arms of an angler do make me wince a bit. I'm not suggesting that anglers shouldn't do it, but I would be itnerested if anyopne knows if this is harmful to their soft tissue.

Edited June 7, 2010 by arbocop