Taking a coarse fish for the pot

[Hopinc]

No, it's not.

 

I personally get an awful lot of pleasure out of being close to nature when I am fishing. If the fish weren't there, I wouldn't be either. I also get a great deal of pleasure from seeing my quarry swim away again to be able to be caught another day. That's why you put them back too, isn't it?

Edited January 17, 2011 by Hopinc

[Worms]

Yes all well and good, but of course if all anglers took their catch.. .well I guess you might want to change your signature...along the lines of why didn't anyone stop me

 

Seriously, the Roach population on the Severn had been dcimated by the Black Death Cormorants, Iron Bridge used to be full of Roach now they are a rarity, there are of course many more examples..Teme, Otter / Mink predation on a huge scale, add to that the Ouse and many other Rivers, fish stocks are in decline, I am afraid eating what we catch ain't gonna help much is it?

Cormorants are native freshwater fish predators........contrary to what the Angling Times says!

 

Teme? problems with otters and mink? You must fish a different River Teme to me mate. The fishing in the Teme is better now than it was even 35-40 years ago. More and bigger fish of all species. There is one problem in some parts of the Teme though......bloody specimen barbel anglers and guides targeting individual fish day after day and then wondering why the poor knackered fish get predated by natural predators!.....Mink numbers are declining rapidly on the Teme near Worcester since otter numbers started increasing slightly (they've never been absent!).

[Tigger]

Oh not a celeb like you Well you must be Rusty said so

Anyway I dont fish fot the Ironbridge Roach never have done, just going on the facts that have been presented to me by good anglers that I trust. Cormorants do an awful lot of damage to fish stocks, ask any owner of a commercial water, why this should escape you I don't know, I did not mention Gooseander so why would you put that up as an example of my ignorance...Gooseander are a established part of the balance, Cormorants are not, deal with facts mate not your jerky knee problem.

 

 

Maybe you didn't mention goosander (I don't know why as they eat fish just the same as cormorants, herons, kingfishers, waterhens, coots, etc, etc the list goes on) but you did mention mink....which in reality eat ball all fish. TM, obviouly you have no idea about nature and are just spouting crap what you've heard on the net and off other scaremongering anglers looking for excuses for not catching due to them being average joe anglers like you

[Tigger]

Cormorants are native freshwater fish predators........contrary to what the Angling Times says!

 

 

 

That's absolutly right, but it seems most people are totally ignorant of this.

[Dick Dastardly]

A lot of people (myself included until I attended a very interesting seminar on the subject in the 90's) don't realise that there has allways been an "inland" population of cormorants.

 

However the numbers of them feeding and then subsequently living/predominantly staying inland has increased.Its thought by the scientific community that this is partly due to a decline in fish in the sea but more so because of the increased ease of availability of food supplied by the increase of densely stocked ,shallow waters (in other words commercial and commercial management style run waters).

 

There is now a problem with cormorant numbers inland but this has been a man made problem.The waters that are most affected are in deed the ones that have helped create it. Cormorants can indeed decimate commercial waters but even in the higher numbers they are now present in its highly doubtful that they will natural waters!

[Dick Dastardly]

I honestly believe the most effective way to prevent any future threat to the freshwater coarse fish stocks is to simply address the existing problem with saltwater stocks and the associated fishing industry problems!

[Worms]

Anyway, back to the subject!

 

I've always eaten the occasional coarse fish, as I eat (as Andy said) the occasional trout, grayling and then of course....sea fish!

 

I honestly don't think that an article in the Grauniad is going to make 3 million anglers dash off to rivers and start eating everything thay catch (especially as it seems there are even fewer fish in rivers than there are in the sea these days).

 

The recent boll0cks that was the EA and Angling Trust's Debacle that has effectively made coarse fishing compulsory C+R has stopped that and, who wants to go to the effort of filleting a dozen or so sub eight inch perch or dace to make a decent meal. No, anglers have been legally stopped from doing what they have had the choice of doing since prehistory by a bunch of fools, backed by the bunch of fools they asked to back them...readers of the Angling Times and various specimen groups.

 

I think the article shows how stupid anglers must look to non anglers if they don't consider feasting occasionally on what they spend hundreds of pounds a year to catch

[Tigger]

Very much what I said Budgie, but I was called and idiot and was talking crap, don't suppose Tigger would take up this with you (Alpha Male) would he ?

 

If I thought Budgie or anyone else was an idiot and felt it needed mentioning I wouldn't hesitate to say so.

Difference is TM , after meeting Budgie and having many conversations via AN for over 5yrs I respect him (as I do 99percent of AN members) but I'm not to sure about you and wierd posts like this one don't really give me a reason to have any for you. I think most of the time your more interested in mixing a bottle rather than talking fishing.

[tiddlertamer]

Thinking about it like that your right , our sense of adventure around food is very ignorant indeed and we tend to stick to what we know . Any talk of muddyness to coarse fish will put people off for sure. If it sounds wrong and looks wrong then it will taste wrong is the general opinion .

 

Panic over

 

Well I for one disagree. I just hope I don't get the vitriol being handed out to Teme Man for speaking out against the views held by some of this forum's veterans.

 

I like the tradition that has developed in British coarse angling of putting all the fish back.

 

I especially like this with regards to rivers which are often not stocked.

 

Twas not always the case that coarse anglers returned their catch alive.

 

In the classic ‘My Fishing Days and Fishing Ways’, by J W Martin, he writes about one of his first fishing sessions in which he caught a 100 roach and a brace of tench in a single session which he sold to a fishmonger...

 

The problem with fighting for your right to take a fish for the pot, is that logically you need to give that right to everybody else. Other Anglers Net members but also people who take fish for the pot week in week out.

 

I’ll admit to a bit of hypocrisy on this issue myself. A colleague once visited Finland and perch was on the menu and he ordered it. I’d have done the same though in my defence, the other choice was bear!

 

I know that hard working river keepers such as one I know on the river Avon would be appalled if they saw an angler knocking a perch on the head.

Stocks of fish go down and other fisherman are denied the right to catch it.

 

Let’s not forget this new age of fish welfare is one which replaced an age where pike were often left up the bank and even if they were lucky enough to go back, they’d be in pretty poor condition after being gaffed and the victim of a sprung gag. Attitudes do change.

And attitudes could also change for the worse in terms of more people regarding the eating of coarse fish as being entirely acceptable, normal and everyday.

[poledark]

Just to add fuel to the fire, it's not just heavily stocked shallow man made holes in the ground that the corms feed on. Ask Steve Burke about Wingham, and come to the large relatively deep gravel pits I fish and watch them at work on a daily basis. Up to 20 at a time systematically munching their way through roach and rudd, pike and eels.

 

And when it comes to taking fish for the pot, it wouldn't take long for all the decent specimen sized fish to be gone from any well fished lake.

 

Den