PAC New Year Message

[mark barrett]

My view is that the PAC. should have accepted that the live-bait ban was needed. This is due to the aforementioned a$$e$ that ignore laws and regulations in place to protect fish and fisheries by transporting un-tested live fish from water to water. It is about time the PAC considered species other than the Pike. They scream about removing Pike from trout fisheries, yet seem to care not about damage done to vendace stocks in Cumbria, damage to other fisheries by the introduction of both fish and possible diseases by thier members. It is a case of destroy what you will, but don't hurt a Pike!

As for hard times ahead....Boll*x, dead baits work fine, as does lure fishing. Did match fishing suffer with the banning of jokers & bloodworm..no...matchmen fished as they had done and found new baits etc. Pike fishing as a sport in Ireland did not suffer at all when we introduced the ban. Dead bait worked better than live in many cases anyway.

 

"When we took over the running of the club, I'm sure none of us realised how hard pike fishing was going to come under attack from all sides," Phil said.

 

?????.....what all sides.....live bait bans are one single issue and of little actual impact.

"Our fisheries are our natural heritage, as well as a resource which supports a tackle industry which employs 18,000 people and contributes £ 500m a year to our economy."

 

Yes Phil, but your natural heritage includes species other than pike also, they too need protection.

 

You mention your members being 'ambassadors', is Nigel Williams a member? and if so what sanctions have you initiated?

 

At least Bill Chillingworth saw the light, and the PAC denounced him for it....even though he was one of their founders. Is it not about time the PAC took it's head out of the sand and considered fish in general?. They quote financial and employment figures to back up their points, yet forget most of these figures come from other non-specific pike anglers. It seems the PAC insist on being a right wing radicle organisation, concerned only with their own selfish desires with little regard to other branches of the sport.

 

Greg,

 

please be aaware of the facts before you post.

 

Bill Chillingworth DID NOT make the comments attributed to him by the EDP and in particular Roy Webster who is about as anti piking as you will ever find.

This is in the process of being passed to the Press complaints as Bill was verbalised by said reporter, I know this because I spoke to Bill directly.

 

moving on,

 

The Pac will not be accepting that livebaiting should be banned, because it is a completely legal method, and if it is done within the realms of the law then is no threat of disease. That some people still choose to translocate is highly irresponsible and is not condoned by the PAC in any way, as can be seen in our code of conduct.

You also bring up the matter of the Vedace in the lakes. The science behind this ban was extremely dubous, the main bone of contention being that the Vendace were under threat from the increasing shaols of roach in the lakes, roach that the EA claimed were not present untill recent time. This was disputed by the PAC and other bodies at the time, and since then it has come to light with documented evidence that there were roach in the lakes in the early forties, as foreign airmen used to catch and net them in the war for food. do you asuppose that pikeanglers were at fault there for transporting livelies, at a time when most people didnt have a car?

 

as for your assertion that lures and deads work fine, yes they do for pike, but what about perch and zander anglers, now who is not looking at the bigger picture?

 

the PAC is not blinkered to the rest of the freshwater system greg. for the record i fish for all pecies of fish, and our stance o the wholescale slaughter of pike on trout waters is evidence to this, not against. the removal of big pike from any fishery will create a natural inbalance that results in explosions of jack pike and an increase of the problem rather than solving it.

 

if we lose deadbaiting or offer it up to the antis in any way then its just the thin end of the wedge, the antis dont care where we stick hooks.

[greg long]

Mark, a couple of comments.

 

as for your assertion that lures and deads work fine, yes they do for pike, but what about perch and zander anglers, now who is not looking at the bigger picture?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but are you claiming Perch and Zander don't take lures or dead baits?...please check your facts. I have caught perch both on deads and many different lures. I have seen many Zander caught on lures, but, as I have never fished for them I can't state as fact they take deads but I'm sure a wobbled dead would work.

 

 

,if we lose deadbaiting or offer it up to the antis in any way then its just the thin end of the wedge, the antis dont care where we stick hooks......

 

I assume you mean Livebaiting, not deadbaiting, who is talking about offering anything up to anti's? This ANTI thing is a smokescreen to bring every-one on board your campaign against the ban. We are talking about a ban on livebait use, for good and sound reasons, you seem to think that it is pushed for by anti's, do you feel it is cruel to use live fish as bait? The thin end of the wedge was when livebaiters carried fish from one water to another with no concern for other anglers or the waters they were fishing. The thick end was when you, the PAC, failed to black-list or sanction your members doing it. Turning a blind eye to members doing it is condoning it by another name. Code of conducts are not worth the paper they are written on when they are not enforced.

I also note that my question about whether Nigel Williams was a member, and if sanctions had been taken were not answered.

[Dave Lumb]

It is about time the PAC considered species other than the Pike.

 

PAC stands for Pike Anglers' Club.

[Brian Carragher]

Nigel Williams was a PAC member at the time he was caught at Holyhead but resigned immidiatley and therefore was outside of the PAC's remit re disciplinary measures due to the fact as a now non member they could'nt execute any form of punishment. Had he not resigned I'm sure the new committee would have sanctioned some form of internal discipline

[Dick Dastardly]

Well I for one agree with Phills veiws. That and the fact that I now believe we have people at the helm of the club who both realise this and will fight the good fight is the simple reason that I burried my differences and returned to the fold after such a long time.

 

I dont want to get into the livebaiting issue as Im sure Ive bored you all enough over the years with this subject! Let it suffice to say that it is not only an important issue for me as a pike angler but a far more important one as an angler! Alot more is at stake here than my option of livebaiting legally.And really in practice that is the only way a live baiting ban would practically affect livebaiters! A ban wont stop the practice for most advocates of the method just turn them into law breakers.

[Peter Waller]

Nigel Williams was a PAC member at the time he was caught at Holyhead but resigned immidiatley and therefore was outside of the PAC's remit re disciplinary measures due to the fact as a now non member they could'nt execute any form of punishment. Had he not resigned I'm sure the new committee would have sanctioned some form of internal discipline

 

And wasn't he was hoofed out of the PAC once before?

[Dick Dastardly]

I cant remember if he did or not Peter (Blithfield?) but I seem to remember he was involved in a livebait smuggling/rule breaking issue once before?

[Peter Waller]

It that case, Budgie, its worse than I thought! The Blithfield affair, if I have got my facts right, concerned Williams fishing a trout reservoir that had a culling policy at the time, which was against PAC rules. It got exceedingly grubby with both Nev Fickling and Williams being removed from membership. The good thing that came out of it was that the cull policy was dropped.

[mark barrett]

It that case, Budgie, its worse than I thought! The Blithfield affair, if I have got my facts right, concerned Williams fishing a trout reservoir that had a culling policy at the time, which was against PAC rules. It got exceedingly grubby with both Nev Fickling and Williams being removed from membership. The good thing that came out of it was that the cull policy was dropped.

 

 

i am not sure if he was hoofed out, or whether he left of his own accord over blithfield, believe it or not, but at the time he was actually quite low profile in the blithfield fiasco, especially compared to some!

 

as regards whether Nige Williams was a member at the time, yes he was, as was gary banks, both resigned immediately as they had broken the clubs code of conduct.

without question the PAC would have taken action, but once they were no longer members there was effectively nothing that we could do in the form of sanctions.

[Dave Lumb]

NW was not a PAC member at the time of the Blithfield fiasco.