Idiot Anglers

[The Flying Tench]

Once a dog came and ate half my maggots!

[Peter Waller]

Which end, John?

[Gaz51]

I've almost had pole sections snapped in two by rampaging dogs running mad as hatters up and down the bankside, eventually followed by their daft as a brush owners many yards behind.

Excited dogs can and do cause damage to tackle on the bankside. Not the dogs fault, it's purely an animal given a bit of freedom when it is let off the lead.

 

I've had bait waiters knocked over with the scattering of bait an invitation for the dog to wolf down whatever bait they take a fancy to.

Sometimes the owner (if they're near enough) may apologise. Many times they just pass by as if the dog had done nothing wrong.

 

A dog is a naturally inquisitive animal and will investigate anything out of the norm, be it lures or even bait waiters.

[peterthefisherman]

And a damn fine rant it was too ! You're dead right.

I would be appalled at the behaviour or the angler if I thought for one minute he did it on purpose. Unfortunately we all lose tackle from time to time and are aware of the potential risk.

Dog owners can be just as lax at times. They seem to enjoy watching the dog swim in your swim while they say "come out you naughty dog !!" And dont talk to me about excrement !! - at our canal I need to kick about 6 turds in the canal off my bit of bank before I can get started !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And another thing , what does the "off the lead dog" do when it sees the swans or ducks !!!!!!!! Cause for complaint by the RSPB at times !!!!!!!!

Some of these people need to live and let live before they criticise others !!

Tight lines and a happy NY to to all

Peter

[Peter Waller]

I do know that some anglers are remarkably lapse at recovering lost tackle, Peter. I have retrieved numerous lost lures, some quite expensive, and dedabait rigs over the years that pikers have 'lost', either through carelessness or laziness. If I can retrieve them then so can they.

[JBee123]

The problem here seems to be Generalisations.

 

Basically you cant tar all anglers, dog owners and dogs with the same brush, but having said that as an angler and a dog owner I see both sides of each of the stories.

 

My dog is walked with regularity in a public park, off the lead, as are many other dogs. Difference being that she is never out of site and always under control. I pretty much always know what she is up to(except when there is fox crap about in which case I have no chance in stopping her rolling in it.....why they do this I do not know). So in that respect I would have something to say to the owner for letting he loopy collie,(another sweeping generalisation) run loose in the park, if he cant control it on a lead.

 

However that said, some anglers have a lot to answer for. Had the dog swallowed the lure, what would have happened? Well I dont think it would be a generalisation to say that a major operation would have ensued rather than just a quick removal and at most a couple of stiches. If that had happened to my dog, in sight or out of sight I would have been livid.

 

Kids are inquisative too, had it have been a child picking the lure up and got it stuck in their fingers, it would have been national press not just a local rag!

 

No excuses for leaving any tackle anywhere. We can make all the noise about dogs roaming free peeing on kits etc. Kit washes guys, as unpleasant as it may be for you, it will clean up or at worse it can be replaced. An animal dies through tackle left behind and that animal cannot be replaced. Its dead, end of story.

 

We have a responsibility to ourselves as a community to clear up any tackle anywhere we have been fishing. Sometimes, granted, that is not possible. But 100% we need to look after our own back yard, certainly with the way the antis are going at the moment. Give them no ammunition and stories such as the above cannot ever make it to the press.

 

It may only have been 1 item of tackle left along the whole river bank by 1 careless angler, but look at the press it generates. We need to be 100% on this one. absolutely 100%. NO TACKLE NO LITTER

 

So in generalisation what I am trying to say is look after our own back yard, if you see discarded tackle your own or someone elses pick it up and stories like this will not be attributed to us because they cannot happen.

[ukdtofi]

I agree with most of your sentiments in your post, however, you point out our responsibilities as anglers, but (and for me a BIG but) is your lack of recognition of the responsibilities of pet/dog owners, to control and clean up after THEIR animals. as I said in my previous post, (IN MY OPINION), it is a minority that lets angling down, but a majority of dog owners that neglect their legal responsibilty to control and clean up after THEIR animals. there are more dog owners who don't clean up than idiot anglers who discard tackle carelessly.

[JBee123]

This is my point exactly, Dog owners are tarred with the Poo brush mate, I get it all the time, do you clean up after your dog, 100% yes. But you come back with a comment like that.

 

Unpleasant as it is to step in dogs muck(and unhygenic) in the vast vast majority of cases it is nothing more than a nusiance. Nothing or nobody is going to be harmed(there is an outside possibility of some children developing a rare disorder that can cause blindness although there have been no reported cases in the last 5 years, and they are more likely to pick it up from Cat crap). Disgarded tackle can and does cause injuries to people and animals, and while we are under fire from the antis we need to do all we can to keep our house in order. Someone treading in Muck wont make the news, someones dog picking up loose tackle has made the news.

 

My point is missed. The story is not about dog crap. Dogs are not the ones under pressure from antis. We are the only ones who can sort our own problems out and pointing the fingers at others and detracting from our need to admit our problems and do something about it is only fuel to certian peoples fires.

 

2 wrongs most certainly dont make a right. The arguement that all dogs should be kept on a lead is not the answer to this problem. The tackle shouldnt have been there in the first place for the dog to pick up.

 

End of story.

[ukdtofi]

Having my daughter (5 years old) come running back to us crying because in the course of playing and running around a public park/ recreation area she has fell over and landed in a pile of stinking dog muck is again in MY OPINION a great deal more than "nothing more than a nusiance", public parks and recreation areas are there for the pleasure and use of people and families not for dog owners to use as toilet areas for their pets,to save them the inconvenience of cleaning the mess up on their own property. My point from my earlier post is that can an animal off the lead and out of eyesight be considered to be "under the control" of the owner?, and again I make the point that a dog owner has a LEGAL responsibility to clean the S**T up, though in my opinion again, this is not enforced as strongly as it should be. I in no way am excusing the idiot anglers who discard tackle and as you say this is the stuff that the anti's pray for, so far from it being end of story for me until controlling bodies start policing their waters and enforcing that the angler takes his/her rubbish away with them at the end of the day and dog owners are made to accept their legal responsibilty for their choice to own a pet, and public parks are policed and the rules are enforced I will continue to shout my opinion as loud as I can on this and any other forum that will allow. If however there is an obscure by law dating back to the ice age which states it is permissable for dog owners to unteather their animals and allow them to toilet on anybody's property entirely at the dog's discretion and the owner is excempt from responsibility, then my opinion will not change.

 

Not the end of story I fear

[JBee123]

Look this is an anging forum where we talk about angling and angling related issues. Dog S**te is not an angling issue.

 

Why and how this arguement got onto this was my initial point. We shouldnt be looking at dog owners as the cause of this point. Nor the fact that this owner had let his dog off the lead. not the dogs fault. not the owners fault, it was the fault of the angler who left the lure behind.

 

To get sidetracked by the issue of wether or not it is right and proper for people to pick up after their dogs is not the point. I pick up after mine, I also remove mine and other peoples tackle.

 

Your daughter is still alive, upsetting for you and her but she will live, this dog could have quite easily died. what would you have though if your daughter was the one injured by this tackle?To turn this arguement around to something that dog owners have to clear up after their dogs is twisting the point and that it was the fault of the guy for letting his dog off the lead is quite frankly rubbish.

 

For all you know the guy might well have picked up after his dog. You have chosen to assume that this guy is to blame for letting his dog off the lead and out of sight? The only thing we can take from this is that the dog was hurt during this incident. The only thing that somewhere along the line an angler was to blame(legal or illegal). The only remedy we can have is to pick up after ourselves not worry about what other groups of people do.