Apathy rules yet again

[poledark]

Some of you ask for evidence that an otter is to blame, and talk about "the loss of one fish" fact is that there have been at least 3 others showing similar damage in recent weeks.

Others seem to doubt that an otter can drag a large fish from the water, but are quite happy to accept that a much smaller creature like a mink can!!!!!!!!1

 

At least one more doubts that what I saw on the TV wasn't accurate!

 

If, and I accept that there may be some doubt, it is an otter, then it will probably eat everything it can catch easily, and then move on to the next lot of easy pickings.

 

Some of you don't seem to care about Adams Mill, some don't care about the Stour either..many more wouldn't care if otters moved on to my local lakes and started killing the big carp and tench.

 

Those barbel in the Ouse have been there for many years, they started to grow big long before any syndicate was formed, indeed Richard Walker fished for them about 30 (?) years ago. These fish thrived and grew in safety, until some fool or fools decided to release otters back into the scene.

 

One otter will probably destroy that fishery in maybe a year...........................if you find that to be nature taking it's course, then there is nothing I can say or do to change it.

 

 

Den

[Vagabond]

http://www.anglingtimes.co.uk/nav?page=ang...esource=5872446

 

Please read the above and tell me if AT have it right or not. If it is right, why are so many people wittering about otters?

 

Otters? - It seems we are talking lemmings here.

Edited December 31, 2006 by Vagabond

[chevin]

Those barbel in the Ouse have been there for many years, they started to grow big long before any syndicate was formed, indeed Richard Walker fished for them about 30 (?) years ago. These fish thrived and grew in safety, until some fool or fools decided to release otters back into the scene.

 

One otter will probably destroy that fishery in maybe a year...........................if you find that to be nature taking it's course, then there is nothing I can say or do to change it.

Den

 

Den, I am afraid that if you are going to blame the re-introduction of otters to the Ouse then surely you have to ask about how the barbel came to be there in the first place? They were certainly not indigenous to that part of the river and while some may have been introduced by the River Authority a fair number of barbel were being introduced to that part Ouse illegally from the mid '60s onwards. Although barbel were rumoured to be in a number of stretches of the Ouse, those I caught at Hemmingford Grey in 1963/64 were the only ones that were reported and pictured in the angling press up to that time. If people including Dick Walker were fishing for barbel in that area in the '70s then they were sharing the banks with otters, because they were making their own comeback on the upper Ouse sometime before then. There weren't many of them, but they were there and no doubt they bred and and moved both up and down stream.

[Newt]

This topic is now going around and around and around and ...

 

The political & conservation forum seems more appropriate given the direction it has taken so moving it there.

[Charlie Bettell]

Otters have been around for very many years, as have pike anglers using live, or dead, baits and lures.

 

I have also been around for some long time and I can't recall hearing a single incident of a pike angler hooking an otter, so it can't have been a very common occurrence.

 

Methinks, this is another case of vested interests shouting before they are bitten.

 

The last time I did a thread on otters, I had people PMing me with regard to otters they had hooked, but did not want to go public about it - and who could blame them!!

 

If you don't think it's happening, that's your choice.

 

I live in the real world and see otters on a regular basis - believe me, if they continue to rise in numbers, they will become a real menace.

 

I'm glad to say that they have ceased the re-introduction program here in Norfolk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wake up to the truth - otters are regularly hooked by anglers.

 

By the way, that's a dog otter in the photos above - the pike it's eating is about 15+lb - most of which would have been dicarded after a couple of bites!!

Edited December 31, 2006 by Charlie Bettell

[Bob Bradford]

A picture speaks a thousand words.

[fishyrob]

Pah, no real problem. Hungarians eat otters for Easter lunch don't they?

 

Where the hell did you get that from?? Amazing how educated some anglers arent, but they still have to spout their ill informed venom.

Have a look here, not an otter in sight. Lots of Hungarian sausage, but I believe pork is a lot cheaper than otter at the market. Quite a bit of cabbage, but I dont believe it is grown in otter manure.

http://72.14.221.104/search?q=cache:HnKJzw...=clnk&cd=16

 

In fact, the guy that started the Foundation for Otter Protection is Hungarian. I've a link for you here :- http://www.solutions-site.org/kids/stories/KScat1_sol104.htm

The site is designed for young children, so you shouldnt struggle too much.

 

Inciting racial unrest is a prisonable offence. Do any mods have power of arrest?

[Steve Walker]

Rob, I think Mark's comment was very, very tongue in cheek.

[fishyrob]

Rob, I think Mark's comment was very, very tongue in cheek.

 

Ooops...... Am a bit touchy on the whole Eastern European media cr*p that Daily Mail readers seem intent on reading as gospel..... Apologies Mark. Interesting comparison here though. I notice nobody makes even tongue in cheek jokes about coloured people any more (not even Jim Davidson...) for fear of being jumped upon from everywhere. Does that make it ok with people from Europe, because they are white? Starting to sound like thought for the day now,And this has nothing to do with otters so I will shut up.

[gozzer]

A picture speaks a thousand words.

 

What words are those Bob? Otters eat fish? Don't need a picture to tell us that.

 

As for otter taking pike baits, I'll lay money on water fowl taking more anglers baits than otters do.

All this fuss over 3 or 4 fish that may, or may not have been killed by otters.

Many years ago I remember standing on the banks of the Swale, watching hundreds of fish, including barbel into double figures, either float past, or washed onto the bank, with the river bed bleached white. This was after a spillage from a factory that made 'Smash', the powdered potato stuff. Many of the carcasses were partially eaten by many different animals, some I imagine dragged from the water half dead, and an easy target. The company concerned was fined, but if I remember correctly, was still allowed to produce the stuff. None of these fish had names (that I knew of), and the water was open to anyone who bought a yearbook. This incident hardly made a stir outside the area. Most of us who have been involved in angling for a few years could probably tell of similar events. When you compare these with the subject of this thread, it puts the numbers of fish involved, and the manner of their death in perspective.

 

John