Taking a coarse fish for the pot

[Dick Dastardly]

It seems that the real point being made is being totally missed!

 

WE ALL want catch and release to continue,NO ONE wants to kill and eat every thing they catch nor see others allowed to.The country is NEVER going to turn to coarse fish as a common food source.

 

The REAL issue is keeping the RIGHT to take course fish if we want to,(wont go into why this is important as its a massive subject that if anyone really is that interested in they can get a far better understanding of it by reading the countless posts on AN about it).And it has very little if anything to do with actually wanting to kill or eat them anyway!

 

But for me the bottom line is the MINUTE amount of fish taken by MOST anglers from NATURAL waters will not make any difference at all.

 

Just think there are far more relevant and realistic issues to worry about.

[Worms]

Why should that be a problem for you? Tell 'em you do it for the sport, tell 'em if you want to eat fish you could go to a Worcester Chippy and have Catfish and Chips

BECAUSE IT'S ILLEGAL!

 

Anyway, why drive 25 miles to Worcester when I can catch a nice grayling or trout from the river 100 yards away?

[Sportsman]

Interesting that this should coincide with me watching a rerun of Three men in a boat on one of the Sky channels.

It was the one where three well known comedians (so well known I can't remember their names ) were rowing up the Thames toward Oxford.

The bit that interested me was filmed as they sat in a bank side pub. There was a cased fish over the bar and it started them on the topic of fishing. The big Irish one was saying how incredible he found it that someone should want to hook a fish, land it and put it back or as he put it "maim it just for fun and then return it so someone else can do it again"

Griff Rhys Jones then remarked on the stupidity of posing with the fish for photographs whilst the fish gasped for it's life.

It was an insight into how some observers see angling, and particularly catch and release which they consider to be cruelty just for the sake of it. In many people's eyes taking fish for the pot at least gives it some sort of credibility.

When catch and release fishing for Salmon was made more or less mandatory on the Aberdeenshire Dee many anglers stopped salmon fishing, or at least fishing on the Dee and I know of one professional ghillie who gave up his job (and his house) because he couldn't come to terms with, as he put it "tormenting fish for fun"

Re the article in the Gaurdian, it is extremely unlikely that a guardian reader would ever go fishing let alone kill a fish and eat it so no problem there.

[Andy Macfarlane]

It seems that the real point being made is being totally missed!

 

WE ALL want catch and release to continue,NO ONE wants to kill and eat every thing they catch nor see others allowed to.The country is NEVER going to turn to coarse fish as a common food source.

 

The REAL issue is keeping the RIGHT to take course fish if we want to,(wont go into why this is important as its a massive subject that if anyone really is that interested in they can get a far better understanding of it by reading the countless posts on AN about it).And it has very little if anything to do with actually wanting to kill or eat them anyway!

 

But for me the bottom line is the MINUTE amount of fish taken by MOST anglers from NATURAL waters will not make any difference at all.

 

Just think there are far more relevant and realistic issues to worry about.

 

Sometimes I think we have telepathetic skills.

[tiddlertamer]

Sometimes I think we have telepathetic skills.

 

 

Erm - telepathetic? Surely telepathic?

[Andy Macfarlane]

Give me credit for having

 

A) A sense of humour....and

A spellchecker

 

I knowed what I thunk ta.

[tiddlertamer]

Give me credit for having

 

A) A sense of humour....and

A spellchecker

 

I knowed what I thunk ta.

 

 

Fair enough. Let's get back on topic.

[barbelbarmy]

Oh my god! You are all mad and all not looking at the larger picture.

 

There is far more effecting the natural balance of our river systems than you have described here and far more to nature than most realise. Whether we like it or not everything we do effects the natural balance and we are all quilty of it. Unfortunatly we then have to play with nature again to re-address the balance.

 

Firstly the new rules on not taking fish wont make any difference because most of the people taking them couldn't give a **** and havn't a rod liscence anyway. Also, no one wants to stop commercial fishing so it doesnt go far enough.

 

Secondly, natural predation isnt always bad as more often than not it removes ill and diseased fish first or those genetically weaker.

 

Thirdly, fish on natural waters are not fished for as much, get less food from anglers, see more natural preditors as less fisherman are there to scare them off. Therefore, less food (bait) means less able to sustain fish life and numbers go down. Also, any water can only naturally sustain so much life. We all want to catch the bigger fish which means less smaller fish are able to live in that water as bigger fish need more food and oxygen and create more waste.

 

The real problems our waters face are the fact that natural spawning areas are harder to find, our rivers are being straightened, altered to stop flooding, brooks are being built over, water is being pumped in from estates etc and causing quick fluctuations in water levels, water abstraction and Eutrophication effecting the species of fish able to live in the river systems.

 

Unfortunatly most of these things are caused by people who dont give a fiddlers f**k what is below the water surface and think its the anglers that are cruel.

 

If all anglers got together to try to do something about this instead of being abusive to people like TM then angling in this country might improve. Unfortunatly that wont happen as most anglers prefer to sit like garden gnomes, looking at each other, round a little pond, as long as they can catch without any effort.

 

Its all very sad.

[Dick Dastardly]

"ALL"?

[barbelbarmy]

Yes, were all mad.