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Fish thefts.....again!


Dick Dastardly

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I still remain to be convinced.

 

I used to put fish in a keepnet, and I don't remember, even in the old 'knotted' days, that roach or bream lost that many scales.

 

I have drift netted for herrings, 2 1/4 miles of net, and yes, we got scales, when we scudded the nets, but that was gill netting.

 

I still can't see how netting, on a significant scale, can take place in sheds where boats are moored with lines going to both banks. Okay, so boats can be cast off, but if anyone tampered with my boat, or undid my knots I would know about it. Would thieves re moor boats as they had found them, especially in the dark? I don't think so!

 

You can increase the evidence, Bob, but I become even more sceptical, sorry.

 

Peter, I understand what you are saying and I agree with you....but nets were not used mate!

 

I am not "increasing the evidence" don't believe me? contact Angling Times and speak to Greg Whitehead, I believe he still has the CD and original photo's

 

I would love to tell you how it was done, but the fewer people know about the technique the better, I do not know if you trust my word or not, but I gave my WORD to be discrete and I will not break it,sorry!

I am a match angler .....not an anti-Christ!!!]

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Bob, if it were electro fishing, and it might have been, I still have my doubts. Fish float up where they are stunned, you would still have to move the boats. If thieves were using nets so as to congregate the fish so as to maximise the effect of stunning then you would still have to move boats.

 

Scapegoats spring to mind on this one. Someone made a serious error of judgement re club funds and now some form of justification is being sought.

 

And if we accept that fish were stunned for removal, or even netted, then there will be a pond nearby that has benefitted!

 

Okay, so it was not electro fishing, it was poison. Are you seriously expecting me to believe that the thieves found every last dead fish in amongst the boats, at night?

 

Bob, I am guessing. Unless someone knows the thieves then that is all any of us can do.

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Blimey this is like a Chinese water torture!!!

 

Peter it was done in a different way to any of your suggestions or anyone else's for that matter!!!!

 

Like most things in life ,the answer is simple if you know it and frustrating as Hell if you don't!! You will appreciate I cannot broadcast how it was done, but if the fish thieves return this winter... I promise I will blow the lid off this for all to see!!!

Regards Bob.

I am a match angler .....not an anti-Christ!!!]

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C'mon folks, this is the best lateral thinking puzzle I've heard for ages :)

 

Netting too difficult, poisoning/stunning would leave loads of fish floating. Scales *everywhere*, so presumably the fish were dumped on the walkways waiting to be collected, presumably alive and flapping hence the scales .... ??

 

Maybe Gerry's giant hoover was close - a big suction pump wotsit, emptying onto the walkways?

 

(in retrospect, maybe electro-stunning *would* work, as any uncollected fish would recover?)

Bleeding heart liberal pinko, with bacon on top.

 

 

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Well, having been to Potter Heigham, and been round Woods boat yard and round the sheds. (No it wasn't me :) ) It's certainly got me puzzled as to how it can be achieved without using a net at some stage.

 

Is anyone on here a member of FM ? Could they pester this Greg, what's his face, to publish all the photos that Bob sent him? It might answer a few questions if he did.

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

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Has to be a large bore suction device of the type used to move fish around on trawlers. Dumps the fish onto the walkways, the water runs back leaving the fish stranded and flapping until someone comes along and shovels them up.

The point I don't get in stealing them for use as deadbaits is that they would be all different sizes, not what is needed or supplied.

So anyone bought any deadbaits in the last 18 months that would have been all different sizes and minus most of their scales :)

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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I lifted this off FM, I have no comment but thought it might interest a few of you..the author is called Charlie Bettell... I have never met him or heard of him, nevertheless his post IS interesting!!!

 

"I have confronted 'foreign' fish thieves twice in the last two years here on the Norfolk Broads.

 

The BA and EA know of my encounters with the 'foreign' fish thieves.

 

Out of the five 'foreign' fish thieves that I last encountered, only two of them had rod fishing licences. The boat the two rod fishing licence holders were using to troll for pike, was not licenced.

 

The three non licenced rod holders had the bank lined with short rods with bell indicators on.

 

All the fish caught over their two day sessions, which were occurring on a regular weekend basis through the 'coarse fish' river close season and the 'coarse fish' river open season, were bagged up and taken away with them - I saw that with my own two eyes.

 

I was so annoyed the last time I confronted the 'foreign' fish thieves, i.e. mainly due to them trolling for pike, I put the fear of god in them and sent them packing.

 

One against five you're probably thinking - NO CHANCE!!

 

If I see pike being killed, or any coarse fish being killed and taken away from a water in numbers,I would take on ten single handed - that's how much fish mean to me.

 

Budgie said something like: 'if anglers knew fish were being stolen they would do something about it' - wrong!!!

 

I told various local anglers what was happening on my local river and none were interested in doing anything to prevent it happening again in the future.

 

Well people are catching fish they don't give a damn - when they are struggling to catch fish they all start moaning - but will they get off their arses and do something about it - NO CHANCE!!!

 

Fish traps have been found by myself and the EA on my local rivers, still waters and broads - unfortunately, the people who set the traps are rarely caught - but some have been caught.

 

Unfortunately, such captures are rarely ever mentioned.

 

I could have that 10K in my back pocket within two weeks if I put myself out - but why should I when nobody appreciates it when you put your life on the line for the sake of a few hundred wiggly little ol' fish.

 

I now try to turn a blind eye to what is going on - i.e. by staying well clear of where I know the fish thieves operate.

 

Out of sight out of mind (!)

 

Most of the pen pushers who are going on about fish stealing don't have a clue what's really going on out there in the dead of night - and quite often, in broad daylight!

 

This is my one and only post on this subject.

 

Rant Over!!! "

I am a match angler .....not an anti-Christ!!!]

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I think Charlie Bettell posts on the Photography forum, if it's the same guy, he's got a series of fantastic shots on a wasp building its nest.

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

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Charlie's issue is with a few characters that have rod and line fished for pike for the table without a licence. Anything caught goes in a sack for consumption later or straight on the barbie. It seems to be a scenario that is repeated in isolated spots up and down the country and is particularly prevalent in the Fens and its seems the Broads also. It is to be deplored and we are assured that the EA are on the case (yea right :) ) But it's a completely different scenario to the one that you've inven...sorry described. In Charlie's case the finger is pointing at unlicenced economic migrants looking for a free meal with a rod and line. In your case you've pointed the finger at persons unknown using methods unknown for reasons unknown.

 

The real difference is, that Charlie has encountered, seen, challenged and would be able to identify the culprits. Whereas in your case Bob, it would be fair for any sensible, well balanced individual to say that you haven't got a clue. Just a whole pile of scales and f-all else.

 

The more I read about clubs and shops taking an aggressive attitude to pike fishing and pikers just because some unsubstantiated claptrap appears in the Angling Times, the more I have to point the finger at you and those like you, for making unity amongst anglers just about impossible. The sad thing is that the howling mob that read AT have not really stopped to consider all of the evidence (or lack of it) and all of the views. All this secret squirrel stuff about poaching methods does you no credit either.

 

We are told that Richard Lee (AT editor) on another forum has expressed a view that broadly.. if pikers continue to make a fuss about it, the situation could worsen. Too damn right it could. If this affects AT's circulation as much as it appears to have done already, then it will be fully justifed. When the angling press act as irresponsibly as they have on this occasion and left some of us looking like the bad guys, then they deserve whatever judgement their readers and ex readers hand out.

 

I think Lumby maybe right. It probably was aliens. for all we know Bob you might be one too. If not then rest assured, you've alienated a section of the angling public and that may one day come back to bite you.

 

Na-no Na-no.....Bob calling Orson

 

Almost forget. Thats it for me on the subject. You can pontificate all you like about this non event, but it has less credibility than the Da Vinci Code (or should that be 'The Da Vinci Cod') No-one believes it...other than those that desperately want to believe it. Now I'm off down the local Cut to chop some holes in keepnets and release those poor little devils.

 

Last word (promise). Some years ago the Sunday Sport ran a headline on its front page. 'B52 Bomber Found On The Moon' It was complete with an astro camera shot of what appeared to be a B52 on the moon's surface. After complaints, they were censured by the Press Council and told to print a retraction. Know what they did? The following Sunday they ran the Headline ' B52 Bomber Mysteriously Disappears From the Moon'. Same photo appeared with the B52 removed. Sold a lot of papers. Your roach may have met the same fate.

Edited by argyll

'I've got a mind like a steel wassitsname'

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