John Wilson, how could you?

[Guest Peter Waller]

John Wilson was out on Grafham water after the pike last night on TV. Fishing on telly! Great!!!! Encourage the masses! Publicity for angling!!!! But was it a good example, one to be proud of? The great man himself did not watch his float with any great thoroughness, grrrrrrrr. Early on in the session he cast a float rig out on one side of the boat and then put the line under a rubber band. Then he proceeded to lure fish from the other side. Just once did he, on TV, look over his shoulder at the float. Typical of far to many pike anglers, lob it out and practically ignore it. Why do we tolerate such slack angling practices when it comes to pike? Fish like that on a carp lake & you would probably get your marching orders. I suppose the answer would have to be that unhooking a deep hooked pike is easy, when you know how, but why risk it & why rely on it? John Wilson has proved time & time again that he comes under the heading of an angling 'great'. So why did the man, in his last programme of his last series have to go out with this, what in my opinion, was an appalling example of bad angling practice? Trouble is that it will eventually end up being repeated ad nauseum on Sky, to be seen by millions. Sad. Did you see it & what did you think?

[Guest Mick Cottam]

Peter can't agree with you more. But it is certainly not the first time John Wilson has done this on camera. I recall him fishing one of the broads (Ormseby/Filby) with pike float, lobbing it out and then using rubber band on one rod and then sink and draw fishing with another. At no point were his concentrations on the float. As an expert angling all rounder, he doesn't quite show the examples he should. Furthermore, it is this type of practice that I often see in Norfolk on the Bure. Where you get people float fishing for the general roach, etc and have a pike bung to one side of them. These people do not pay attention to thepike gear, generally do not have adequate equipment, net, mat, forceps, etc.

 

Perhaps submitting a few artciles on the subject to the general type of fishing website or general angling magazines may help.

Regards, Mick

 

Originally posted by Peter Waller:

John Wilson was out on Grafham water after the pike last night on TV. Fishing on telly! Great!!!! Encourage the masses! Publicity for angling!!!! But was it a good example, one to be proud of? The great man himself did not watch his float with any great thoroughness, grrrrrrrr. Early on in the session he cast a float rig out on one side of the boat and then put the line under a rubber band. Then he proceeded to lure fish from the other side. Just once did he, on TV, look over his shoulder at the float. Typical of far to many pike anglers, lob it out and practically ignore it. Why do we tolerate such slack angling practices when it comes to pike? Fish like that on a carp lake & you would probably get your marching orders. I suppose the answer would have to be that unhooking a deep hooked pike is easy, when you know how, but why risk it & why rely on it? John Wilson has proved time & time again that he comes under the heading of an angling 'great'. So why did the man, in his last programme of his last series have to go out with this, what in my opinion, was an appalling example of bad angling practice? Trouble is that it will eventually end up being repeated ad nauseum on Sky, to be seen by millions. Sad. Did you see it & what did you think?

[Guest Scott]

Hi Peter, was this a new episode of Go Fishing? I remember him doing the same thing in the 1st ever episode.

2 rods out,line tucked into elastic bands and saying the pike will pull the line out as they move away from the boat. If I can remember he was lure fishing when he said he heard the line pull out of the band then picked up the float rod.

This episode must be about 10 years old and has been on Sky dozens of times.

As good an angler as John is I dont think he's a good Pike angler, perhaps he should have Mick Brown or someone with him on the show when he's Pike fishing.

 

Scott.

[Guest Chris Shaw]

Hmmm, seeing as this thread about bad angling practice and John Wilson I have seen this also and more. I have seen him unhook fish with no care at all, twisting and turning the hook and then with what was more like a ripping motion to remove it, you could here it crunching as he done it. I have seen him drop fish into a keepnet rather than put them into a keepnet. I have also seen the program that you refer to where he casts the float rod behind himself then continues to lure fish leaving the float rod to fish by itself, not good is it.

 

------------------

Chris Shaw

 

They played on while the reel handles spun in unison.

[Guest Martin Salisbury]

Welcome Mick (Cottam)

 

Nice to have you on here.

 

Done much fishing recently? Not done much due to exams and stuff.

 

See you must now have access to the internet as well as email

 

Martin

[Guest trent.barbeler]

Peter,

 

I did not see the particular programe myself but seeing as I have seen Mr Wilson doing the same and similar in past programes, I must comment.

 

Using a float as a means of bite detection is probably the most sensitive way of indicating a take apart from touch ledgering.

 

To float fish, one MUST watch the float.

There are no half measures or in between's.

 

To cast out a float fished bait then pull the line under a rubber band is mind boggling. Why do such a thing?

 

Does this stupid technique rely on the angler hearing the line pop from under the rubber band?

 

If it doubtfully does, then what about the times when pike eat a bait almost on the spot? A trembling float is the only indication one gets in this circumstance.

 

What if the pike picks up the bait and swims towards the angler? If the angler is busy fishing with a second rod with his back turned from the float, how the hell does the angler know he has a take?

 

One would have thought that showing viewer's how to fish for pike with a float first and then show how to catch a pike with lure's in seperate scenes would have made for a much more interesting programe.

 

Such a practise coming from one who is supposed to be a "GOOD" angler is beyond belief.

 

As for unhooking deeply hooked pike, this is NOT a practise to be undertaken by a beginer or by an angler with no proir experience.

 

Aurthur Chambers, a very experienced pike angler from Grantham once caught a very large pike with another set of hooks in it.

So deep were they that only the top of the broken trace was visible. In front of me, Aurthur very skillfully and gently, pulled out the pikes throat membrane, removed the hooks and trace then replaced the membrane.

That pike went on to live for many years after that but such endevours should not be neccessary if pike fishing is undertaken properly. Obviously, Aurthurs pike was left to gorge the bait. This could have resulted from a run being left to long, or most probably, someone was not paying the proper attention required whilst fishing for pike.

 

Peter is wholly correct for bringing this subject to all our attention.

 

What a sobbering thought though, that such a high profile angler left himself wide open for such deserving critisism in the first place.

[Guest David Johnson]

Going to stick my neck out here but my fiancée, grandmother and many non-fishing friends all watch John Wilson and love his enthusiastic style. It's one of the few times they can actually start to understand why I fish.

 

Watching last night's episode I knew immediately that his pike fishing would cause some negative comments on here. I'm sure you guys are all correct about leaving a deadbait out for Pike unattended… it is wrong. However, he's a great ambassador for our sport and this kind of self righteous criticism may improve an individuals caring image on Anglersnet, but it does nothing but harm to our sport. None of my non-fishing friends/relatives had any problems with John Wilson's treatment of fish and certainly none would have noticed the potential problems until you guys just pointed it out to PETA etc. Lets not give PETA and the antis any more help by attacking one of the few people who are popularising our sport amongst non-fisherfolk.

 

United we stand, divided we fall.

 

Dave Johnson

[Guest Peter Waller]

I just knew someone would come up with a comment such as from David Johnson. Self righteous critiscism! If this wasn't an open site read by youngsters I should say exactly what I think of David's comments. John Wilson was, quite simply, wrong to have given the thumbs up to poor angling practices, as surely that episode was. Especially as it was seen by impressionable people who hang on to every word from John Wilson. As for Peta & Pisces, let them see us improving our practices, provided we recognise and respond to such instances when they are brought to our attention. That we are able to improve things, eg. we no longer use gaffs, that, surely, is a feather in our caps. I'm sorry, David, putting bad angling practices under the carpet doesn't make them go away. Bringing them out into the open is far more likely to be successful. I am a great admirer of John Wilson. To my mind he is the Bernard Venables of today. Putting him up on a pedestal is fine, but saying he can do no wrong helps no one.

 

[This message has been edited by Peter Waller (edited 20 June 2001).]

[Guest trent.barbeler]

David,

 

Self righteous critisism!!!

 

May I remind you that the fishes well being and safety should be of prime importance to all anglers.

 

If you personally feel that on this occasion John Wilsons exploits furthered his status as an ambassador for angling then that is your opinion of which you are entitled.

 

We all, or most of us, try our utmost whilst fishing to look after and care for the fish we are fishing for. This is the first and most basic principle of angling.

 

If John Wilson employes methods that could be unsafe for a pike's well being, does his name or status prevent him from being critisised? Is it in the interests of angling if we turn a blind eye because of who he is?

 

As for the PETA theory, I have my doubt's.

 

PETA will continue to attack angling and a massive number of things that are not to it's liking. No matter what we say or do will ever effect PETA's opinion of us apart from us all stopping fishing of course.

 

Sorry David, cant agree I'm afraid.

[Guest sevinpies7]

Well Pete

What a load of nonsense you wrote.

John has forgotten more about fish care than you will ever know.It's the Carp anglers you should be knocking,asleep in their bivvies while a carp catches itself,and then wakes them up by setting off their alarms.

They should all be banned from angling.And don't doubt John's ability to hear the line being pulled from that elastic band,the float is only there to suspend the bait,but you already know that,being aworld famous angler that you are (NOT).