Predator fish kept illegally

[gozzer]

The Lea and the Thames have both recorded cases of KHV that I know of.

 

Doesn't seem to flood here that often on the broads. I know it does happen occasionally though and some commercial pools do have tenuous links to the broads system itself but nothing particularly apparent has happened here in the recent past that I know of.

 

We do need tighter controls on introduced species but the problem boils down to enforcing it and the great number of anglers who are either unaware of the ramifications or just don't care can sometimes 'think its a good idea' to introduce (read MOVE) fish from place to place.

 

In the case of flooding, well, its virtually a moot point. You can't stop the rain and lets face it, the wildest and oldest of the lakes in many places are merely depressions in a flood plain.

 

In a bizarre twist of fate our non-native natives are now in the firing line from a disease that originated in Israel from imported 'pet' fish put into muddy puddles for the sake of an 'exotic' capture.

 

Renrag

 

It was the Lea that I was thinking of Cheers.

 

You're lucky if you don't have much flooding, but other places are not so lucky, and waters over stocked with fish are often built on flood plains, which should never have been allowed by the EA, (assuming that they knew about them).

I do fear that KHV could mutate and start to effect other members of the carp family, roach, bream etc. There are several mutations already known about, so the chance of more is a very real possibility.

 

John.

 

John.

[Dick Dastardly]

People are banging on about how long carp have been in our country/waters and how no harm occured..........................trouble is that "Carp Fever" has only been in full swing for 30 odd of those years.......

[lutra]

People are banging on about how long carp have been in our country/waters and how no harm occured..........................trouble is that "Carp Fever" has only been in full swing for 30 odd of those years.......

Yep and as a Northerner its only been about half of that since the real out break and only 1 year since we have been told we can't treat it for yourselves. Carp aren't native one bit up here and i don't see any reason why we should be told to put up with them in are natural rivers, lakes, lochs.

[Anderoo]

People are banging on about how long carp have been in our country/waters and how no harm occured..........................trouble is that "Carp Fever" has only been in full swing for 30 odd of those years.......

 

Exactly, and the kinds of excessive stockings that are the real problem have only been going on for perhaps the last 15 years, and have been gathering pace since then. Maybe I'm at that age when I can just remember what stillwaters used to be like before everywhere started to fill up with carp and the craze for easy/novelty fishing kicked off, bringing with it the rapid decline of many natural waters.

[chesters1]

People are banging on about how long carp have been in our country/waters and how no harm occured..........................trouble is that "Carp Fever" has only been in full swing for 30 odd of those years.......

dead right when i was a teenager those that deliberately stayed out at night solely after carp were seen to be very strange ,i remember a large water i sessioned on in 1974 could be empty at night (even in summer) but for the two of us but now you wont get a swim after mid day friday.

if the EA really cared about angling then they would have come down hard on fake "crucians" never mind imports of foreign carp where the problem lies ,the greed to catch a fish big enough to have a name and the stupidity of the club to import fish that can without the effort of having a water that can raise them naturally ,the usual "quick fix" gone bad

Edited May 9, 2011 by chesters1

[gozzer]

Yep and as a Northerner its only been about half of that since the real out break and only 1 year since we have been told we can't treat it for yourselves. Carp aren't native one bit up here and i don't see any reason why we should be told to put up with them in are natural rivers, lakes, lochs.

 

As another Northerner (but from the right side of the hill ) I couldn't agree more. I don't know what it's like on your side, but over here they're in every river now. I argued with Adrian Taylor that carp were 'alien' to our rivers, and should be treated as such, but to no avail.

The trouble is that those who started angling in the last 15yrs, don't know any difference, and commercial interests promote the idea that this is natural.

 

John.

[Tigger]

Exactly, and the kinds of excessive stockings that are the real problem have only been going on for perhaps the last 15 years, and have been gathering pace since then. Maybe I'm at that age when I can just remember what stillwaters used to be like before everywhere started to fill up with carp and the craze for easy/novelty fishing kicked off, bringing with it the rapid decline of many natural waters.

 

 

It is excessive stocking that is causing the problems and not the carp itself surely. I can remember fishing ponds etc in my yuouth and the thought of catching one of the secretive carp was a heart thumping thought. I think the overstocking in a lot of small ponds is to try and get the buisness of the match anglers enabling them to get large bags of fish.

I think if the heavy stocking was kept to purpose built waters the problem wouldn't exist, appart from the odd force of nature causing a jail break.

[Anderoo]

It is excessive stocking that is causing the problems and not the carp itself surely. I can remember fishing ponds etc in my yuouth and the thought of catching one of the secretive carp was a heart thumping thought. I think the overstocking in a lot of small ponds is to try and get the buisness of the match anglers enabling them to get large bags of fish.

I think if the heavy stocking was kept to purpose built waters the problem wouldn't exist, appart from the odd force of nature causing a jail break.

 

Yes, I agree with all that. The trouble is that after the first purpose dug commercials, established club waters and other lakes copied them.

[John Weddup]

A small commercial fishery near me has a few small ponds. One is large carp only and the others are more pleasure match type waters.

 

One pond in particular now gets match fished regularly espescially in winter. The owner, after talking to match anglers, has stocked it to silly levels of skimmer bream. So much so that in the hardest of conditions in winter you can still bag up on skimmers.

 

A week ago they lost lots of bream due to low oxygen and closed the water. The water is only 2ft 6ins deep. This weekend they still opened it for a match.

 

I have also been informed from a fish supplier that they have already ordered replacement stock for the autumn.

 

Another larger commercial concern near Ipswich will not allow keepnets to be used by pleasure anglers after roach even in winter yet although the bream and now carp are spawning they still have ar least 4 matches a week.

 

I think match fishing has now driven this explosion and match anglers are now generally as far away from the general angler than they have ever been.

 

Of course the beauty with carp is they are quite robust (unlike bream) and fish farms will move them almost any time of year.

 

John

[ColinW]

Perhaps not by carp but the Severn, Teme, Dee and Wye have all been dramatically changed for the worse through the introduction of barbel

 

Dee? Whereabouts are they? I've seen odd reports of individual small ones being caught but nothing significant. Are you sure you don't mean the Ribble?