lake district live/dead baiting

[aledrinker]

Hi folks, am new on here, recently got back into fishing but immediately found out that this sport seems to have a few strange rules about.

 

Was away camping in the lakes last weekend with some friends and we decided to take our fishing gear up there. I'd read a book on the lakes and knew about the no deadbaiting with freshwater fish and no livebaiting at all rule so was all up for a day on maggot and worm and a bit of spinning. Was hoping for some trout but as it's been so long anything would do.

 

We found a nice spot on Ullswater and spent the afternoon and evening there with not much success apart from a few small perch which was better than nothing. Some friendly local guys fishing nearby came over and after a bit of a chat informed me I was wasting my time with my bait and should hook a few minnows to use as livebait. They seemed to be of the opinion that whoever made up the byelaws were a bunch of, I quote, 'to**ers'.

 

I carried on with the maggots and watched them pull out a number of significantly larger perch, but couldn't persuade myself to adopt their tactics as rules are rules etc. etc. and I didn't fancy getting on the wrong side of anyone on my first outing in 15 years!

 

Anyway, I understand the fear that some of the fish there are rare and could be vulnerable to other species if they were introduced, but what I don't get is why it is not permitted to hook a few minnows or other small fish from the same water and use those? After all this is exactly what the predator fish in the lake are feeding on anyway.

[Steve Walker]

I wasn't aware of any specific rule when I lived there, and I've used Ullswater minnows to catch Ullswater perch and trout. I found that they were the only things the minnows wouldn't devour.

 

There have been problems in a number of lakes with species accidentally introduced as livebait, and I suspect that any blanket livebaiting ban which is in force has to be a complete ban to be enforcible.

[Dave Lumb]

The list of affected waters and baits can be found here:

http://www.pacgb.co.uk/pressreleases/press...sreleases2.html

[Steve Walker]

2002? That would explain it, I lived in the Lakes from '94 to '97 (ish).

 

The ban sounds a lot like stable door slamming. Certainly Bassenthwaite and Windermere supported large populations of coarse fish at that time. Lots of roach in Windermere and lots of roach and disgusting ruffe in Bass. God knows how ruffe got in there, they'd hardly be my first choice for pike bait, and I can't imagine them being stocked deliberately.

[StuMac]

The ruffe issue has been debated endlessley but, for what it's worth.....

 

I can't see anyone using them as a live bait either *but*, when I was a boy and used to livebait, if I'd have caught a ruffe whilst bait fishing it would have gone into the bucket with the rest. It also would have been the last bait I'd used, which means the chances of it going back in the water alive were quite high.

 

Populations of ruffe have appeared in waters frequented by pike anglers, and many of these are a long way outside the species normal distibution so it is hard to see how they could have got there apart from in the back of someones' van. Having said that, ruffe have made it acrioss the North atrlantic and into the Great Lakes with no assistance from pike anglers.

 

There is something odd about ruffe which lets them colonise new waters very effectively. There are all sorts of coarse fish swimming aoround lomond that weren't there 30 years ago, but as far as I know none have reached the numbers achieved by ruffe. I've seen photos of several bucketloads of ruffe taken in a single sweep of a net rowed out from the shore. Literally 20 - 30 lb of the little sods.

 

This may sound dramatic, but I've also seen similar numbers of small perch. I have personally helped haul nets on Northumbrian reservoirs that have had 30 - 40 lb of perch in a single sweep. If you knew the right spot, you could have probably done the same on Lomond in the 1960s. Ruffe seem to've taken over the biological niche occupied by small perch.

 

What I find odd is that I used to fish a lot in waters that had natural populations of ruffe (in Holland), and my experience was that they were pretty scarce. Certainly nowhere near as prolific as perch or roach. Why they're populations should rocket when they get into new waters is beyond me.

 

[ 30. June 2005, 05:49 PM: Message edited by: StuMac ]

[Steve Walker]

Australia and rabbits over again, I should think. Either that or the enormous populations are transient and eventually settle down at a lower stable level.

[toby2]

Hi folks, am new on here, recently got back into fishing but immediately found out that this sport seems to have a few strange rules about.

 

Was away camping in the lakes last weekend with some friends and we decided to take our fishing gear up there. I'd read a book on the lakes and knew about the no deadbaiting with freshwater fish and no livebaiting at all rule so was all up for a day on maggot and worm and a bit of spinning. Was hoping for some trout but as it's been so long anything would do.

 

We found a nice spot on Ullswater and spent the afternoon and evening there with not much success apart from a few small perch which was better than nothing. Some friendly local guys fishing nearby came over and after a bit of a chat informed me I was wasting my time with my bait and should hook a few minnows to use as livebait. They seemed to be of the opinion that whoever made up the byelaws were a bunch of, I quote, 'to**ers'.

 

I carried on with the maggots and watched them pull out a number of significantly larger perch, but couldn't persuade myself to adopt their tactics as rules are rules etc. etc. and I didn't fancy getting on the wrong side of anyone on my first outing in 15 years!

 

Anyway, I understand the fear that some of the fish there are rare and could be vulnerable to other species if they were introduced, but what I don't get is why it is not permitted to hook a few minnows or other small fish from the same water and use those? After all this is exactly what the predator fish in the lake are feeding on anyway.

 

 

 

ye i totally agree with you. i have heard of great success on ullswater by fishing with minnows surely it wont do the lake any harm