choo choo, Fairbrass edits his comments!

[Vagabond]

the mass stocking of small Carp, F1's, Goldfish, skimmers etc that is the thing that has ruined so many natural waters and is likely to ruin what is left of the mixed fisheries.

Absolutely, about fifty years ago I was appointed fisheries manager for a large federation of angling clubs. I got a team of chaps together, trained them in limnology, water sampling, fish growth rates, etc etc etc . A lot of hard work then went into doing a thorough survey of a lot of waters.

 

What emerged was that different waters had different potentials. Hardly surprising, but the trick seemed to be to stock and manage in tune with those potentials, rather than put in "something of everything to please everyone"

Our plan was Perch, gudgeon and rudd in one pond, roach, crucians and tench in another, a mixed fishery including pike in a larger lake, etc etc. Horses for courses in fact.

 

What happened ? Come the various AGMs of the clubs concerned and all schemes (except the mass introduction of skimmer bream in every club water) were outvoted by the match contingents. I and my team resigned en bloc, and ever since I have washed my hands of club fishery management.

 

Fishery management is best left to the (very rare) informed benevolent dictator . Any guesses as to an example ?

Edited May 13, 2014 by Vagabond

[Dales]

I think blaming the "big carp guys" is totally justifiable in this case....he wants to empty lakes of their native fish populations and stuff them with carp!

 

if the owner had a well run and supported mixed fishery, how easy would it be for him to come along and empty it and stuff it with Carp?

[Steve Walker]

Some of the best fishing I had as a kid was from waters which were not managed at all. The disused and silted up arm of canal, the council boating lake, etc.

This duck pond had some massive roach in it, until the parky got sick of chucking us off it and the council had them all netted out

 

 

[Worms]

if the owner had a well run and supported mixed fishery, how easy would it be for him to come along and empty it and stuff it with Carp?

 

That depends on whether he's planning to take over an existing well managed fishery or, as he originally planned, to fence and fill with carp all of the "fallow" lakes and ponds in the country....He's conveniently missing the point. Removing a small but balanced population of "nuisance" fish from a "fallow" pond is likely to be a pond that is naturally well balanced and supporting what it can given the ecological limitations of that pond. Removing those fish and filling it with carp will, if he doesn't alter the ecology in any other way will lead to no carp and no other fish either....If the pool is "managed" for carp then, the ecology of that pool will be destroyed.

 

We haven't yet touched on the legal aspects yet either. Hopefully, the EA will see these potential/proposed schemes for what they are (money making schemes with no value to the "natural" ecology of the ponds/lakes) and resist his megolamaniac ideas regarding wholesale removal of fish and the consequent destruction of existing ecosystems and tell him politely...but firmly, that he has no right. "Overriding public interest" is the term they use....or, in other words who will benefit more...Danny Fairbrass, some anglers, or, the wider community who might also appreciate the benefits that a "natural" waterbody has to offer.

 

Then of course is the issue of flooding, feeding and draining streams and ditches and the potential for non-native (to the country or the area) fish being deposited in other waterways. Plus of course the issue of moving the existing "nuisance" fish from these "fallow" waterbodies and relocating them somewhere else....potential for yet more upset by moving these fish to other ponds that already have a fragile ecological balance.

 

 

[Worms]

....plus of course, otter fences are a great excuse for not only keeping otters out but also for limiting who has access to the waterbody...unless of course, a fee is paid.

[Puzzled]

Thought I'd chuck in a quotation that I've often referred to down the years:

 

“In any moment of decision,
the best thing you can do
is the right thing,
the next best thing
is the wrong thing,
and the worst thing you can do
is nothing.”

 

~ Theodore Roosevelt

 

[Steve Walker]

Yep, politician's logic!

[Phone]

All,

 

I think you Britons are eating to much milled grain. At least Worms and gozzer can be sanctimonious since the good old days will NEVER return. Just to name a few reasons: - human population growth and food consumption, energy use, land use changes, and pollution are driving forces in how to best serve the profound changes in families, behaviors and environmental responsibility associated with C&R angling. Rhetorically, Why do you suppose there is so much resistance to the changing recreational habits of millions of kids and families that don't necessarily want to dedicate their lives to angling - but rather go fishing occasionally.

 

Just me - and I suspect this is off topic but I find my "favorite" water drying up, or at least being manipulated (channeling) more than I find a lack of species balance.

 

Isn't this like arguing against cell phones - how about we limit mobility to walking? Urbanization on small islands requires controls.

 

As for carp - since 1972 I have offered to "agree" carp in natural habitat muddy water if someone can offer a SINGLE scientific study to that end - - - I'm still waiting.

 

Phone

[RelaxGod]

I wonder if the people who speak up with disdain against the idea of fencing predominantly MAN MADE lakes that are privately stocked, put as much (or any) effort into finding out why their natural waters, mainly rivers I guess, have allegedly gone to rack and ruin.

 

Perhaps it's something to do with the hundreds of thousands on tonnes of chemicals washed down nobody really knows the side effects of? Nitrates? I thought weed was good for invertebrates so in turn fish? river dredging, flooding, who knows?

 

It's no good saying otters are natural and they'll find a balance in an overpopulated unnatural English garden

[Steve Walker]

My rivers are mostly awesome, thanks!