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EATING PIKE


Houghton

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If you've got four or five Rabbits in sight with a half decent scope and one of them is heavily or even reasonably pregnant it's fairly obvious to spot which one that is, it's possible to tell with the naked eye too at close range. Rabbits breed all year these days and with a pretty fast gestation period it's quite possible to spend your time shooting the ones carrying young if you've got crops or a smallholding to protect..

 

If you say so.

 

Back in the real world I think you will find most farmers shoot on sight, easiest first more often than not with a shot gun and no scope.

 

A tiger does not lose sleep over the opinion of sheep

 

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If you say so.

 

Back in the real world I think you will find most farmers shoot on sight, easiest first more often than not with a shot gun and no scope.

 

Most do Lutra but it's not the most effective way of doing it. You only have two cartridges in a shotgun and if you're a half decent shot you might get two Rabbits before they scarper not to be seen again that evening.

Where as on the other hand a farmer employs, or just lets someone who enjoys shooting, shoot his land with a live .22 rifle with a scope, that person will be able to take five times the amount of Rabbits with far less fuss and is able to pick out the carriers. I did it for a number of years in Norfolk.

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Most do Lutra but it's not the most effective way of doing it. You only have two cartridges in a shotgun and if you're a half decent shot you might get two Rabbits before they scarper not to be seen again that evening.

Where as on the other hand a farmer employs, or just lets someone who enjoys shooting, shoot his land with a live .22 rifle with a scope, that person will be able to take five times the amount of Rabbits with far less fuss and is able to pick out the carriers. I did it for a number of years in Norfolk.

 

Sorry thought we where talking about most. Anyway getting off topic.

 

A tiger does not lose sleep over the opinion of sheep

 

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so i should give up eating sea fish as well then? unless you know a way in which they have been "monitored"

we should all be living courtesy of tescos ready meals by your argument!lol

 

I was just speculation. I should hav added 'unless cooked thoroughly'. My house hold is free range. We only eat free range animals and eggs. We also bearly use anything from packets apart from the obvious like margerine. I enjoy cooking so I make my own sauces etc. We have a very powerful air rifle in the house and I wouldn't mind picking off a few of these rabbits i've seen. The disease I was concerned about was myxamotosis if that is how you spell it. I've never seen a ready meal in my life

 

Do you have to bleed the rabbits on the spot so the meat doesn't ruin?

Edited by SPSwallow
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Dont worry Anderoo Ive got it sussed! Ive just emailed Hugh F-W and he is going to make a River Cottage/Cook on the wild side episode where he hunts down and kills an Eastern European imigrant.He will show us how to clean and prepare one,stuff it with cormorant and cook it.

 

If by "Eastern European immigrant" you mean carp, then I'm all for it. ;)

 

John.

Angling is more than just catching fish, if it wasn't it would just be called 'catching'......... John

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Do you have to bleed the rabbits on the spot so the meat doesn't ruin?

 

No. Just press the abdomen with your thumb to empty the bladder. Gut it as soon as possible after killing, slit the belly open and shake the intestines out, cut them away, Its useful to slit beteen the tendons of one leg and pass the oyher foot through the slit. Hang it up to cool like that.

"Some people hear their inner voices with such clarity that they live by what they hear, such people go crazy, but they become legends"
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No. Just press the abdomen with your thumb to empty the bladder. Gut it as soon as possible after killing, slit the belly open and shake the intestines out, cut them away, Its useful to slit beteen the tendons of one leg and pass the oyher foot through the slit. Hang it up to cool like that.

 

Christ. On second thoughts I don't think I have the stomach for it. Im getting flashbacks of freddie kruger heheh

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You may get all sorts of worms, desease etc from coarse fish and wild food that isn't monitored.

 

You "monitor" your wild food by being well informed on what to look for, observing it carefully when you prepare it, and making sure it is properly cooked.

 

On the other hand, you might ingest all sorts of chemicals and additives from the foods on offer at the local supermarket, and without laboratory facilities and a degree in analytical chemistry you would be quite unable to detect them - nor is the long-term effect of many of them properly understood (think of all the food scares, product recalls, U-turns in policy etc that one hears almost on a daily basis)

 

I could post a list of wild creatures, wild plants and wild fungi I have eaten during my lifetime that would be even longer than Sportsman's impressive list and, having come to no harm, am still eating them at age 74.

 

As for the sustainability of pike, I would think it nigh impossible to eliminate pike from a water by means of hook and line.

 

Of course, whatever wild product one eats, sustainability is the keyword. In my teens and twenties I and my family must have eaten thousands of trout from my Wealden streams. Perfectly sustainable - no-one else could catch them :P

 

 

RNLI Governor

 

World species 471 : UK species 105 : English species 95 .

Certhia's world species - 215

Eclectic "husband and wife combined" world species 501

 

"Nothing matters very much, few things matter at all" - Plato

...only things like fresh bait and cold beer...

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It may be of interest to some of you, but one of the arguments put forward in the late 1800's in favour of a statuatory close season, was the percieved decline in the pike stocks on the R Thames. Much concern was also voiced about the huge numbers of Roach that were also being taken for the table by the Thames pole fishers.

 

There was a time (not so long ago) when you were allowed to "take" any fish over the set size limits, there was no shortage of pike then, and certainly,on the waters I fish, no shortage of them now.

 

Den

"When through the woods and forest glades I wanderAnd hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,And hear the brook, and feel the breeze;and see the waves crash on the shore,Then sings my soul..................

for all you Spodders. https://youtu.be/XYxsY-FbSic

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