Pike For The Table

[nevillejohn]

Walking near the river at Wroxham today I witnessed this chap see video) hook a Pike on a lure he had no equipment other than rod + reel, the poor fish was yanked from the river and as you can see he didn't have a clue what to do, hence putting his foot on the fish, at that point I went over and asked him what he was doing and in his limited English he said he had left his pliers at home. By this time the Pike had been on the bank several minutes so I put it back still attached into the water at that point another angler guy asked me what the problem was, when I told him and he said he had some forceps in the car which he went and got I then handed the Pike out of the water and the guy with the forceps remove the barbed trebles. I then went to put the Pike back in to but the foreign guy said he wanted to keep it.... I told him he couldn't and put the Pike back in the river much to his dislike. Now I have heard people go on about this sort of thing, but to actually witness it in the middle of a busy Wroxham is quite shocking, I should also add he was not on his own.
Here Watch

[Bound2Please]

This is disgusting, that link needs to be sent to EA the poor jack i doubt survived such handling 

Charlie

[Gracie]

Utterly disgusting, this guy should be banned from fishing for life, the poor thing was left on the grass too, no unhooking mat

As Charlie says, please send this to the Environment Agency, it's people like this that not only hurt and damage fish but give true anglers with a passion for the fish we catch a bad name

Grace

[smellyloo]

Putting to oneside the method I thought you could catch and subsequently eat a pike ... subject to size and daily limit?

[grendel]

it used to be the same on the west harbour arm at dover, you could not walk along it for the fishermen, tackle rods etc everywhere. fishermen were shoulder to shoulder, if you asked them to move their rods all you got was a mouthful of abuse in broken english, they were all fishing for their dinners, locals stopped going and i think they have closed it to fishing now that the cruise liners moor there.

[JennyMorgan]

That aside, Loo, pike stocks are at an all time low on the Broads. It is not uncommon to see spinning rods on the roofs of boats belonging to 'new age mariners', now we have otters as well Eastern European anglers who's angling culture differs from the UK in general, plus the inevitable home grown numpties, UK pike stocks are under serious threat all round.

[Viking23]

1 hour ago, smellyloo said:

Putting to oneside the method I thought you could catch and subsequently eat a pike ... subject to size and daily limit?

If you are allowed to remove fish, subject to species, size and weight, then as I understand it, you are not allowed to restock other waters with the fish, without a licence etc etc. so why else would you remove them, except to eat, very few specimen fish take a visit to taxidermists these days lol.

 

On a market stall next to the Thames at Christmas, was a large Crucian carp on the slab ready for collection by an East European, Christmas lunch, served up with high levels of lead, cadmium, and other heavy metals. Enjoy...

 

Now, the other day someone enquired why they see less ducks these days, I think we might be able to hazzard a guess. A lot is normal seasonal variation, but some may end up with a serving of orange sauce.

Now, it is classed as cruelty if you harm any wild birds, and subject to very high fines, so killing them does quite a bit of harm, so is killing wild duck for the table illegal?

In USA they shoot ducks all the time,  infact they shoot anything with a pulse...

 

[ChrisB]

I thought that the DEFRA rules for freshwater licences holders stated that you are allowed one Pike up to a length of 65 cm two Grayling not smaller than 30cm and not larger than 38 unless local bylaws specify catch and release only. There are different rules for game fish. 

The Duck shooting season runs from 1st September until 31 January. Except on the foreshore when it is 20 February. However if there is 7 days of freezing weather shooting on the foreshore is suspended for that season.

[SteveO]

How come the Grayling is not classed as a game fish? It has the adipose fin and so is in the same family as the trout, occupies similar habitats, can be caught the same way, fights hard and is better eating IMHO.

Cheers

Steve

[ChrisB]

40 minutes ago, SteveO said:

How come the Grayling is not classed as a game fish? It has the adipose fin and so is in the same family as the trout, occupies similar habitats, can be caught the same way, fights hard and is better eating IMHO.

Cheers

Steve

I don't know. I do know it has always been the subject of debate. I was told in my teens so over 50 years ago by an old Water Bailiff on the River Chess in Buckinghamshire that it is because they have a tendancy to shoal and feed as such.

 

[ChrisB]

PS. Have to agree a Greyling from a true Chalk Stream is hard to beat on the plate. Sadly the beautiful chalk streams of the Chilterns of my youth have deteriorated beyond belief. Alot is down to extraction.

[Timbo]

I'm not sure that there is anything that can be done regarding the abhorrent handling of that Pike. Angling was excluded from the animal welfare act.  WildFuzz would be the best to advise on this one. Full marks for intervening and returning it though.

With my bailiff's hat on, people have a bit of a misconception of where they can fish for free and what they can take from the Broads and Rivers. For example, the whole of the Broads is not FREE to fish. Free fishing in Wroxham is around the Railway Bridge. The rest of the river the fishing rights are owned by the multitude of folk who own each section of riverbank until you get down to the stretch between Fleet Dyke and Acle, with the exception of the odd staithe here and there.

The chap in the video is on the bank...someone owns that bank and it is they who dictate who can fish, how much it is to fish and what the angler can remove be it nothing or up to the limit of the bylaws. Oh and mooring a boat to a bank that says no fishing and then fishing from your boat...no, still no fishing.

Keepnets are an interesting one. If keepnets are barred at a fishery, and you use one...you are poaching.

How many fish can you take from a Broad? NONE is the answer. From a river...up to the limit of the Anglia region bylaws. From an enclosed still water, the answer is also NONE without permission and if someone takes fish from an enclosed still water, without permission, then you have a case of theft. If someone owns or controls the fishing rights on a river, St Benet's for example, if the club rules state no fish to be removed, then to remove one is an offence. Of course, there are permissions, permits and historical exclusions to this, but not any that will be pertinent to the general public.

 

 

 

[JennyMorgan]

My understanding is that in tidal waters no one owns the fish as no one owns the water.

From the Anglian Region Bylaws:

1.6.2 What freshwater (coarse) fish can I take? On rivers, you may take no more than:  one pike of less than 65 cm per day  two grayling of between 30 and 38 cm per day  a total of fifteen barbel, chub, common bream, common carp, crucian carp, dace, perch, pike, roach, rudd, silver bream, smelt or tench (including any hybrids of these species) of less than 20cm per day All lengths are measured from the tip of the snout to the fork of the tail. These restrictions also apply on all the waters in the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads that are subject to the coarse fish close season (see above).

[JennyMorgan]

Just a thought, Neville, having published these videos complete with location on facebook then please don't be surprised if you find the bank increasingly crowded!

[Baitrunner]

Basically you don't take coarse fish. Period. 

Many lakes and fisheries have signs in multiple languages and have done for donkeys years. 

In their country if you break the law, you pay. Over here it's a "well maybe they didn't know". Ignorance is not an excuse. 

Oh, and this is not an isolated incident. 

[Baitrunner]

Just now, JennyMorgan said:

Just a thought, Neville, having published these videos complete with location on facebook then please don't be surprised if you find the bank increasingly crowded!

what with dead fish?

sorry but this really gets me going. 

[JennyMorgan]

Sorry Mark, not made it clear, my mistake. Following the video is another video showing a pike swimming amongst small fish.

[Timbo]

1 hour ago, JennyMorgan said:

no one owns the fish as no one owns the water

That's correct JM. What they do own is the 'right to fish' dependent upon presumptions. Be the waters tidal or not, take a fish without having permission to do so and that is poaching.

One of my friends was plagued by some European gentlemen 'poaching' on his land. He'd tried all of the usual channels who were as helpful as they possibly could be within their jurisdiction. I bumped into him the other year and asked how he was getting on with the problem. As it turns out he solved it in an unusual way, he gave the fishing rights to the angling club of the local police. Apparently, every time the poachers turned up there were five or six bobbies sat in bivvies. 

[rightsaidfred]

SteveO

I think you will find the reason the Grayling is included with Coarse fish is to do with the close season as it spawns in the spring along with other coarse fish species not during normal Salmonoid seasons, if I am right I think that video was shot in the park a public area next to the 24hr moorings above the bridge.

Fred

[ChrisB]

1 hour ago, rightsaidfred said:

SteveO

I think you will find the reason the Grayling is included with Coarse fish is to do with the close season as it spawns in the spring along with other coarse fish species not during normal Salmonoid seasons, if I am right I think that video was shot in the park a public area next to the 24hr moorings above the bridge.

Fred

That sounds a much better explanation than the one given to me.

[troutman62]

Seems to me that eastern europeans always get the blame for mistreating fish. What about all the "anglers" who holiday on the Broads every year ? No proper equipment, no idea, toy rods, all they want is a photo trophy, couldnt care less about fish welfare.

I've seen it all over the years and lost count of the fish I've had to unhook for these merchant bankers.

[JennyMorgan]

Pike fishing on the Broads is a shadow of what it was even ten years ago. I cringe when I see some of the appalling bite indication and fish handling skills shown by some anglers, some of whom consider themselves to be experienced  pike anglers. What pike angling is not and that is carp angling. Unlike a carp pike are not durable and they are not self hooking.

[nevillejohn]

24 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

Pike fishing on the Broads is a shadow of what it was even ten years ago. I cringe when I see some of the appalling bite indication and fish handling skills shown by some anglers, some of whom consider themselves to be experienced  pike anglers. What pike angling is not and that is carp angling. Unlike a carp pike are not durable and they are not self hooking.

Yes that is true the amount of anglers who are walking about today with just literally a rod + reel+ lure and little else is shocking, often they have no net, no forceps and more importantly no idea. I find a dead decaying Pike which has presumably been washed down from the Wroxham area in general nearly every other week, which I assume has become a victim of the aforementioned clients, which is a polite way of putting it.  

[stumpy]

11 hours ago, troutman62 said:

Seems to me that eastern europeans always get the blame for mistreating fish. What about all the "anglers" who holiday on the Broads every year ? No proper equipment, no idea, toy rods, all they want is a photo trophy, couldnt care less about fish welfare.

I've seen it all over the years and lost count of the fish I've had to unhook for these merchant bankers.

Some years ago I sat with  Gus watching a guy on the New Inn moorings set up a full on beachcasting rig - 12' rod,huge multiplier reel, 3 boom paternoster and a 4oz breakaway lead. Apparently the nice man in the tackle shop up North said it's what he needed in Norfolk. Ho hum.

[Timbo]

Fortunately my local tackle shop 'up North' is owned by Nev Fickling who knows a bit about pike fishing on The Broads. When my youngest lad bought his first 'Pike Tackle' he was given a lengthy demonstration on Pike handling recovery and protection by Mr Fickling who also tested the lad's general angling knowledge before selling us the tackle. He also provided the lad with a considerable amount of literature for him to read through and encouraged him to bring in photographs of both his catch and his release.

I should add that Nev also checked that I had an idea of what I was doing at the same time. 

There are some bargains to be had via mail order tackle companies, and the service is often excellent, but you can't beat advice and tuition you sometimes get in traditional tackle shops. I say sometimes, as not all tackle shops are the same.

I miss the old tackle shop I visited on a weekly basis as a kid in Balby Doncaster. No window displays. In fact, nothing on display at all, just row upon row of mahogany fronted drawers floor to ceiling in a shop wide enough for the door to open and deep enough to allow one customer in at a time. The rest of the shop taken over by rod making and tackle making operations. Unless you knew what you wanted you were stuffed.