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EATING PIKE


Houghton

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I wonder if there's a bit of a north/south divide problem here, skewing people's perspective? I don't believe that small pike (or perch for that matter) are in short supply north of Manchester, which I remind some who might not to be aware of the fact is far more than half of this country. In many waters up here they are still regarded as vermin. The days of match anglers slinging pike into the nearest ditch might have gone, but the trout fishermen certainly won't thank you for putting them back.

I know waters in the Lake District that could probably support commercial fishing for perch, never mind anglers taking a few! Windermere pike were gill-netted for fifty years, they are still there.

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Sustainability of stocks would be my first reason. Can we afford to regularly lose our biggest fish? Why not put them back for someone else to catch? I'd be miffed seeing someone taking something for the pot... the 2lb stripey that in a few years time might just be the fish of a lifetime...

 

Recent years has rightly seen a move towards looking after fish - fish mats (I confess I don't use one but might just by one after a 12lb 1oz barbel last week which deserved more than my paltry landing net), barbless hooks, the diminishing use of keep nets... need I go on.

 

And yet our media and internet forums are full of racist bile against Eastern European migrants because they eat coarse fish whilst at the same time angling aficionados on this forum promote recipes for them. Double standards methinks...

 

If it's bad for eastern europeans, then its bad for people elsewhere too...

 

That's an interesting post. Fish don't exist to be eaten, but rather for anglers to catch. Why is that better? Do you think non-anglers would agree?

 

Bile against immigrants and posting coarse fish recipes would indeed be double standards if they came from the same people - but they don't.

 

I agree that the biggest fish should not be eaten though - but no-one's advocated that as far as I can see.

 

How many fish do you think die each year due to bad angling practice? This is pure guesswork, but I would say that the number of fish caught and eaten is miniscule compared to the number of fish which die after capture, especially pike and perch. On that logic we should ban angling.

 

The sustainability issue has been dealt with I think - it's virtually impossible to rid a water of pike, even if that's your aim.

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music

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11 pages and still going :o

 

Not surprising Neil, the longest threads on 'coarse fishing' have been about this subject.

 

One of the reasons that they last so long is that some members don't read the posts. They just scan them for 'trigger' words then make up the rest!

I have not seen one person advocating the taking of 'specimen' fish, or taking more than the legal limit. I have not seen anyone suggest the wholesale slaughter of any fish. I have not seen anyone suggest the taking of unsustainable stock. But some with over active imaginations somehow 'see' these comments, and have to reply. Their replies are usually a mixture of emotive comments and exaggerations, because looking at the facts of the matter might just 'blur' their preconceived ideas.

e.g. I case I have missed something, could those that (think) they have seen someone suggest the taking of "2lb stripies" etc, please show me where?

 

IF anyone on here can prove to me that the legally taking of the odd 'one for the pot' is more damaging to fish stocks, than the mass stocking of alien fish, that compete with the native fish for food, spawning sites, and in some cases change the whole ecosystem of a water. Then I might (just might) change my mind on the subject.

 

The 'EE problem' is a completely different matter, it's illegal and doesn't just involve immigrants. There are plenty of 'native anglers' that are just as bad. (you just have to look on You Tube to see that).

 

John.

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

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Well let me assure you . You say you are not in a position to comment? and yet you have said that comment is one thing you do do...all the way up to Parliament.

Can I suggest then you take a closer look

 

I can only comment (and I do)on what I see, the last time I knowingly saw an Eastern European fishing was in Eastern Europe (The Then East Germany). One of the lakes nearby was divided by the East/West border and we fished overlooked by watchtowers, safe enough as long as one stayed on the right side. However any approach towards the 'Easties' to dissuade them from clonking fish on the head would have certainly brought a response from the lads with the AKs!

 

You point out that the Eastern Europeans are difficult to miss...well they are here, 'cos I'm out on the water lots and havn't seen any, I'm not disputing they are out on your waters, nor that their antics are problematic, but I can't make up what I havn't seen , despite being an angler ;)

 

 

When I first began fishing (long ago!) the local lake was packed with Perch, we used to cycle there (that long ago, when children did that sort of thing!), we would race tha last mile or so and see who would get the first one, then it was a race to see who got the first hundred. It was that easy, and we were not experienced, nor did we have very sophisticated tackle, float fished lobworms set under small pike bungs. However these fish were typically 6" long, a 12oz fish was a notable catch, (the one excpetion was the day I used live lampreys from a boat, a story which I related elswhere in this site). At some point while I was off around the world for years the Perch population declined, possibly due to disease. It was not through anglers eatin' them, I belive that for humans to have made a difference a trawler would have to have been employed. The point is, the Perch levels are up again, although not to the level of before, but significantly the size of individuals has dramatically improved, for example last tme I took the boat out the evening brought 17 stripeys not one under a pound and the best just over two. The method was floatfished worm, a bit more refined than the tackle of my youth but basically the same. There is a case for having less fish in the water, and so reducing competition for food resources producing stunted fish. In another lake in the area the Perch fishing becomes a bit of a waste of time, one can get a fish a 'chuck', it is stuffed with them, however they are generally very small so it becomes boring and predictable, I used to knock the largest ones of them on the head to eat, and I am quite convinced that a hundred anglers doing the same for years would not make the slightest impact upon the population and so the fishing wouldn't improve.

 

Returning a fish alive to the water clearly benefits that individual creature, however I am unconvinced that in the case of every water it benefits the species. maybe where some of you live and fish there are lots of anglers and few good Perch as opposed to some waters which have lots of 'stunted' fish and not enough carniverous anglers.

Edited by Emma two
"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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Hypocrisy and xenophobia in one post. Sadly par for the coarse (sic) around here.

 

Slagging off Eastern European migrants whilst advocating a nice recipe for perch or pike. You couldn't make it up...

 

Let's defend our coarse stocks... Its not OK to eat them whether you are from Walsall or Warsaw.

 

Wait just a mo.

Slagging off Eastern European migrants??

Irony obviously doesn't work for you. I think you would find from looking at my posting record that xenophobia is not one of my problems.

Don't remember posting any recipes and would be interested to know where the hypocrisy comes in.

Other than that you were spot on ;)

Let's agree to respect each others views, no matter how wrong yours may be.

 

 

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity

 

 

 

http://www.safetypublishing.co.uk/
http://www.safetypublishing.ie/

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It's perfectly consistent to have no problem in principle with the legal taking of coarse fish, while being strongly opposed to the taking of fish illegally, whoever is doing it. Some people have advocated eating rabbits, it doesn't mean that they condone raiding next door's hutch and eating their pets.

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Just to get a handle on it.

 

Anyone care to guess:

 

a) how many coarse fish are eaten every day?

 

B) how many pike are eaten every day?

 

 

i) By fishy predators (pike, chub, perch, trout etc - not counting fry that gets eaten)

 

ii) By other predators on fish (goosanders, ospreys, otters, cormorants etc)

 

iii) By people

 

I would imagine that a mind-boggling number of fish end up in the stomachs of other creatures (espcially pike chomped by pike), relatively few in the stomachs of humans.

 

What we have to be careful of is that natural predation tends to be balanced and beneficial.

 

A few fish taken by humans from bountiful stocks is neither here nor there.

 

A small urban pond being raided by many people obviously is a problem.

 

It's not the taking of fish for the pot that is the problem, it's the circumstances that appertain to that taking which could be a problem.

RNLI Shoreline Member

Member of the Angling Trust

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It's not the taking of fish for the pot that is the problem, it's the circumstances that appertain to that taking which could be a problem.

 

That's the point that several of us have been trying to put across.

I would guess that the first two of your options far out number the last one Leon.

 

The thing that has angered me throughout my angling life is, that to suggest that a water would benefit if some fish were taken out, is tantamount to blasphemy in most anglers minds.

But suggest that more fish should be put into a water (regardless of the condition or size of the water) and hardly a ripple of descent is heard.

This is the thing that will give anyone advocating the banning of angling more ammunition to fire.

The kind of thinking that fish are there just to provide sport, fun, amusement (whatever you want to call it) for the angler, is the mainstay of many antis arguments.

Stocking after a pollution, or some other disaster is one thing, but stocking just to make it easier for the angler is an entirely different thing.

 

Keeping the right to take the odd fish to eat is fundimental to the future of angling. Those who can't or won't see this are just playing into the hands of those who seek to abolish it altogether.

 

John.

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

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Guest tigger

Isn't it strange how many anglers despise wild creatures for eating fish to survive such as Cormorants, Otters etc crying that they are depleting their fish stocks. These animals only exist in relation to their primary food source ie "Fish". Yet the same anglers are encouraging humans to eat the very same fish for pleasure alone. We all know what will happen - humans will deplete fish stocks and then move on like a cloud of locusts to the next latest food fad leaving those animals whose primary food source is now heavily depleted on the verge of extinction.

 

So, why is it ok for People to go around scoffing fish for pleasure and yet animals depending on these very fish to SURVIVE are despised?? Some Anglers have double standards IMO!

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So, why is it ok for People to go around scoffing fish for pleasure

 

Don't we eat most things "for pleasure"? No doubt we could exist on a diet of vitamin-enriched porridge, but I don't think many would be happy with that.

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