Fish box full of bass

[spasor]

Hello Jim.

If you don`t look in Pats` freezer, I wont either.

[Elton]

spasor:

 

    We`re not at odds Elton. Just looking from different angles.    

No, we're looking from the same angle.

 

Perhaps you misunderstood - I believe that sea anglers should feel totally at liberty to eat what they catch, sensible restrictions adhered to.

 

A quick death must be better than a slow suffocation in a trawl net?

 

TL,

 

Elton

[A Norfolk Boy]

Absolutely Elton, eat the catch and treat it with respect. Almost every fish people buy suffocates or is crushed or cut open whilst alive or boiled alive. People are inconsistent with many issues eg broiler chickens against so called animal welfare. Would they rather a rat was killed by a dog, or through internal bleeding from rat poison?

 

I only dream of catching that many bass, and if I did they would all get eaten, by friends, family and myself (not that it will happen!)

 

Isn't there a plague of spider crabs? (aided by the fact that unlike the continentals, we don't eat them). What HFW is pushing is making use of all the fabulous foodstuff around us, if we did, then some species would not come under such pressure. I remember talking to an old boy who used to net for mullett, the unpopular bass were thrown away......

[Toerag]

Norfolk Boy:

 

I only dream of catching that many bass, and if I did they would all get eaten, by friends, family and myself (not that it will happen!)

Have you ever tried giving away 150lb of fish? It's bloody difficult to give away 50lb, even if it is quality fish. Show a housewife a 15lb cod and she won't know what to do with it, even if she can fillet it into reasonable sized bits the chances are that she won't have enough room in her freezer.

[A Norfolk Boy]

Couple of points, the prepared weight is much less, the catch was split three ways. I wouldn't know how difficult it is to give away loads of fish because I've never kept more than I know can be consumed, even by my large family. I must say though, something in me said that some of those fish would be changing hands for money - a theme of an earlier thread.

[Tog]

The river cottage stuff is std 'TV land' Hugh actualy lived with his family in London and commuted to his 'TV show' - even running cookery & lifestyle courses at the cottage.

see: http://www.rivercottage.net/askhugh/index.jsp

His 'farm' is nearly real but again he will be selling the lifestyle stuff 'on the side'.

I don't know if they got 40 odd bass? looked like about 10+ in the box to me - not too bad at 3 takers each. The fish did not seem to bash about in the box so may have just been doing the 'death rattle' after a knock on the head. And they were eaten by his wrecking crew.

What he 'Sells' is by no means a bad thing - local produce and less of the mass market crap that the supermarkets pedal. But it is 'for tv' and I doubt that when he has sold enough DVD's and syndicated the show he will stay in deepest Dorset (I hope I'm wrong as I'm a fan).

Strange when you think how people take the mick out of the old 'Out of town' (Jack Hargreves) shows and yet Hugh's show is just a modern version.

I think Hugh gets his mix about right and showing that animals do die to provide food is much better than showing it all appearing in shrink wrap packaging.

He is even accepted by some of the 'anti' brigade and therefore may be a usefull voice for country pursuits in the future.

Tog.

[Andrew Boyd]

Take two or three for the pot, put the rest back, unless deep hooked. Killing everything should not be the aim. Think of the future. If you do need to shoot it use a camera.

[guernseybass]

I have left a message on the Bass thread on his forum & have emailed the producers - not very helpful towards conservation at a time of dwindling stocks.

 

http://forum.rivercottage.net/viewtopic.php?t=6178

[FearTheHands]

Couldn't agree more - I am quite a fan of HFW & watch all of the River Cottage programs (I even have a couple of books) but I was quite disturbed about the amount of Bass that were pulled out at Portland & that they were just left to suffocate.

 

Knocking fish on the head to kill them is perhaps not palatable for TV audiences - OK don't show it, but explain that that's the most humane way to kill fish rather than let the viewers assume it's OK to let them suffocate.

 

To correct Andrew Boyd:

quote:

---

Killing everything should not be the aim.

---

In HFW's defence this is NOT his philosophy. He will only take what he can use for the pot & does preach conservation of wild food/animal stocks.

 

Looks like he's shot himself in the foot with this one - shame - must do better ...

[Salar]

Good one Tog. Why do people get wound up when they see more than a few dead fish all together. Have they never been to a commercial fishing port and seen the landings there? Or been to an abatoir and seen how many thousands of beasts get the bullet every day to end up in shrink-wrapped packaging? 56million people consume vast quantities of food, a box-full is neither here nor there. Lets get to the underlying principles and persuade consumers to demand 100% farmed living creatures for food supplies and stop all commercial predation on the wild stocks. Thats my rant over....