A rant about coarse fishing and river woes

[shakey jake]

My mate caught 10,000 crays last year.
Middle level have refused him permission this year, because an illegal traps was tangled in their weed mower.
Banning trapping will definatly stop people that break the law.
Eating course fish is part of our heritage, we should be allowed a modest harvest. I understand privatly owned ponds dont want their stock taken but the rivers should be more flexible

 

[jthyttin]

I guess you mean coarse fish- can’t think why you’d want to eat coarse fish but I remember seeing rows of coarse fish for sale in Birmingham markets - the Bullring. I have eaten perch in Ireland - too many bones, so I’m a sea angler for food.

Like mentioned in #37 there are species in coarse fish that are very good eating and also very good sport. You can also prepare them good or bad like anything else, and people have differing opinions on e.g. bones in finalized product. I see no reason why "sea fish" would be better food-wise (or less bony when prepared with that goal).

Obviously environmental considerations in any specific location would change that, but not the nature of the fish (species) itself. There are also a lot of products where less glorious fish are perfectly good or even better choice, from burgers to conserved foods. And here I'm not referring to the whitefish predators above, but other coarse fish.

Here in Finland we have quite opposite situation for coarse fishing, and fortunately it's not going to change during our lifetime. If you're content with single rod and lure, you can fish pretty much everywhere (including private waters, that are usually kind of syndicate based on land ownership) by paying the yearly fee of 43 Euro or thereabout. Simple fishing with natural bait, ice fishing and some traditional forms of specific fishing are free w/o any fee.

For more "complex" ways of fishing you need permission from landowner but they're quite widely available (for a fee). And if you take a look at map, there's very significant amount of water bodies even in southern Finland. And population densities are very low by UK / continental Europe standards.

 

[Flash G 74]

My mate caught 10,000 crays last year.
Middle level have refused him permission this year, because an illegal traps was tangled in their weed mower.
Banning trapping will definatly stop people that break the law.
Eating course fish is part of our heritage, we should be allowed a modest harvest. I understand privatly owned ponds dont want their stock taken but the rivers should be more flexible

Hello, Modest yes but not shopping bags full that i have seen taken from the Thames here in town by the Polish , I use to take the odd Pike/ Perch/Eel/ Trout years ago but now with all the water pollution not anymore

 

[Bo Diddley]

Hello, Modest yes but not shopping bags full that i have seen taken from the Thames here in town by the Polish , I use to take the odd Pike/ Perch/Eel/ Trout years ago but now with all the water pollution not anymore

Hi Flash, we suffer the same problem with the Polish, Romanians, and Lithuanians, carrier bags stuffed full of fish of any size, our local pond in the town has been restocked by the council and then emptied by this mob more times than I've had fish fingers... the local kids for generations have learned to fish for the perch and roach in this pond, including me 45 years ago... not anymore though, the council have given up.

 

[Dunwaters]

I have no problem with people taking the odd fish to eat.
The problem is total lack of enforcement of the laws, I don’t blame the people catching the fish, I blame the authorities that allow them to operate without sanction, it doesn’t happen elsewhere in Europe.

 

[Bo Diddley]

Just imagine if every one of the 900,000 rod licence holders each took home just one pike to eat every year... very soon we wouldn't have many pikes left.

 

[LuckyEddie]

Just imagine if every one of the 900,000 rod licence holders each took home just one pike to eat every year... very soon we wouldn't have many pikes left.

You’re assuming that everyone would eat pike.

Judging by numerous comments on some fishing FB sites, the majority of fishers don’t even want to taste the fish and turn their noses up at it.
In fact they would rather use mackerel to fish for pike than eat those fish as well.

 

[Bo Diddley]

You’re assuming that everyone would eat pike.

Judging by numerous comments on some fishing FB sites, the majority of fishers don’t even want to taste the fish and turn their noses up at it.
In fact they would rather use mackerel to fish for pike than eat those fish as well.

I just used Pike as an example of the scale of the potential problem if it became acceptable.

 

[jthyttin]

I just used Pike as an example of the scale of the potential problem if it became acceptable.

Became acceptable? OP said it's allowed by the law to take certain fish of certain size. It's just that private parties (fishing clubs and syndicates) are protecting what they see as private right, and put pure C&R policies in place.

 

[Bo Diddley]

Became acceptable? OP said it's allowed by the law to take certain fish of certain size. It's just that private parties (fishing clubs and syndicates) are protecting what they see as private right, and put pure C&R policies in place.

Correct.
But most course fishermen & women in this country would not dream of killing a course fish from a river or lake to eat, they understand it is not sustainable.
Fishing for stocked rainbow trout on a catch & kill basis is widely available to everyone in the UK.

 

[nun_hunter]

I just used Pike as an example of the scale of the potential problem if it became acceptable.

No one needs a rod licence to fish on the beach and it's already acceptable for people to take fish to eat. It doesn't happen in any numbers to warrant concern as the majority of people aren't interested in fishing let alone processing fish to eat.

 

[jthyttin]

The problem is total lack of enforcement of the laws, I don’t blame the people catching the fish, I blame the authorities that allow them to operate without sanction, it doesn’t happen elsewhere in Europe.

You don't blame the people that go over quota i.e. poach?

And yes it happens all over Europe, in every country I'd say. The amount depends on:

- number people who are willing to do it
- number of opportunities
- amount of supervision / enforcement

The war in Ukraine (latest escalation since -22) seems to have tidied up the situation e.g. in southern Finnish seashores, north Norway seafishing and no doubt in other places that Russians cannot now get. Fish hoarding is visible in other pre-Soviet countries also, but they seem to slowly learn along other (financial) progress in their countries.

I contribute this not to Soviet per se but to living in shortage of just about anything including provisions. There are certain generations in Finland, now passing away, that have/had the same attitude. It's also very visible in Asians, especially immigrants who've been used to living in protein poor environment in their home country.

 

[jthyttin]

But most course fishermen & women in this country would not dream of killing a course fish from a river or lake to eat, they understand it is not sustainable.

I could bet a large sum most find it disgusting to handle fish and prepare them for food, let alone COARSE fish from less-than-ideal water bodies. Very hard to believe sustainability to be the driving factor for most.

 

[Bo Diddley]

No one needs a rod licence to fish on the beach and it's already acceptable for people to take fish to eat. It doesn't happen in any numbers to warrant concern as the majority of people aren't interested in fishing let alone processing fish to eat.

Fingers crossed they hop into the car and head to the beach, cast out a line of Mackerel feathers and fill their carrier bags. There are limits on quantity and size of even Mackerel caught with rod and line from our shores, and yes, there are people checking anglers along the beaches.

 

[Flash G 74]

Hi Flash, we suffer the same problem with the Polish, Romanians, and Lithuanians, carrier bags stuffed full of fish of any size, our local pond in the town has been restocked by the council and then emptied by this mob more times than I've had fish fingers... the local kids for generations have learned to fish for the perch and roach in this pond, including me 45 years ago... not anymore though, the council have given up.

Hello, Yes a real shame nothing is done about it, Years ago they were decimating the Carp fisheries, Now it is anything that swims in rivers and lakes, Sad times for our fishing in UK

 

[Norfolk Deer Search]

Hello, Yes a real shame nothing is done about it, Years ago they were decimating the Carp fisheries, Now it is anything that swims in rivers and lakes, Sad times for our fishing in UK

100% agree with out again that’s why I pay the coin and go down the syndicate route, the two syndicates I’m on admittedly have extremely long waiting list, the one down in the colne Valley 125 miles from where I live, waiting list is 10 years plus, and the new syndicate close to home I’ve just got I waited six years for the opportunity of a ticket so it’s not for the faint. hearted that is for sure, patience is the key exactly the same as deer stock syndicate. You just got to be either in the right place at the right time or put your name on the list and then you will have somewhere nice and protected to go about your fishing because public or day waters are not the thing that used to be and that is fact

 

[bobo]

The catching or freshwater fish for food is not allowed in any fishing club I have ever been a member of, and it has been like that all my life.
We no longer have close season on still waters, and remember still waters are stocked at great expense to provide sport for the members, not for you to eat.
If you want to eat freshwater fish buy and stock your own personal fishery

Here, many angling clubs have a rule that allows people to take 2 fish home a day, other places they say, “take only what you can eat”.

Pike has to be larger than 60 centimeters before anyone is allowed to kill them and most people will release pike longer than 80 centimeters.

I have caught more than 30 pikes this year but only one below 80 centimeters, and several more then 1 meter, so it can be discussed if we should increase max. length to 90 centimeters.

We can take fish home to eat and still have plenty of fish in our fresh waters. However, any kind of pollution is delt with quickly and companies or privates who release pollution will be hardly punished. I will estimate that 90% of our rivers have drinking water quality. Lakes are mostly clean but it is not recommended to drink the water.

Denmark have around 1,3-1,4 persons pr. Hektar. UK has around 2,5-2,7 persons pr. Hektar, so your county is much heavily populated than ours, so you will have it much more challenging to keep nature clean.



Coarse angling is not particular popular here, certainly not at the degree it is in UK. For this reason many good places for coarse angling have no rules regulating the angling for anything other than pike and Zander. For the same reason many places whit few predator fish but large amount of coarse fish are completely free to be fished. One of my local lakes, Skanderborg Lake, where there have been a few Worls championships in coarse angling, only have rules for angling predatory fish. Only regulations on Coarse angling is that max. amount of feed is 2 kg pr day, pr angler, to keep pollution down.

My family loves fish, and we eat both freshwater and sea fish, but only fish we catch ourselves.

About crayfish, our native European crayfish are getting seldom, as the American Signal crayfish push them out. Last year I took the children to one overnight stay at the river, where we fished for crayfish using 6 crayfish pieces, result 23 kg Signal Crayfish.

 

[Gunner223]

License holders aren't generally the problem, it's the illegal fishing and BBQs along the waterways that are the problem. These folks pretty much eat everything they catch.
Course fish are not very palatable to us in the UK anymore, but Eastern Europeans still enjoy them.
Our country is too heavily populated to allow this, the Scandies and North America have much more scope to allow this, and in America you have plenty of patrols checking up on everyone, and stiff fines if you are caught flouting the wildlife & game laws. These countries have many more acres of water per head of the population than we do.
In the course fishing world in this country, people with your outlook are mostly extinct like the dinosaurs.

Go along the Thames around Oxford , you see plenty of Eastern Europeans bbq ablaze, 3,4,5,rods out plus hand lines for pike,
Smoking the old dope , and nobody says a word because of trouble, plus otters have had most of the fish in the Cherwell Vally as well ,
so stocked lakes are almost the only option now.

 

[Gunner223]

No one needs a rod licence to fish on the beach and it's already acceptable for people to take fish to eat. It doesn't happen in any numbers to warrant concern as the majority of people aren't interested in fishing let alone processing fish to eat.

I thought I heard Starmer was going to introduce rod licences for sea fishing as well ??

 

[JTO]

and these asshole anglers that leave all their **** at the river bank when they're done fishing.

Just like Chesil Beach when all the townies have gone home after a bank holiday.