Does Bob Nudd have a brain at all?

[Lord Paul]

"Neville Fickling once termed the Sheffield/Barnsley/Rotherham/Doncaster/Worksop area as the "Killing Trangle"."

I hate to disagree with you Ron - but I live in this area and Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham,Doncaster and Worksop are 5 places so the term should be "Killing Pentagon"

 

[captain carrott]

jeff,
just hypothetically if lee said there were too many muslims and they could do with culling,
would you think it irresponsible.

especially if some member of the bnp went out and did just that.

because in fish terms that is exactly what you are condoning.

 

[captain carrott]

i used to live in the area termed the killing triangle. the all pike are vermin attitude still exists, i see it each and every time i go back.

these people will use bobs words as justification to go out and kill pike.
you live in an area where attitudes are different jeff and i think you have been closeted by time location and the addage of old age from the attitudes which no doubt prevailed where and when you grew up.

 

[BAZ (Angel of the North) aka Fester]

Bob has not insisted that every angler should throw Pike up the bank."
I never said he did Baz

Did I say "you" said that? Please show me where and I will retract it.

Lordy Lordy what a revelation trying to talk to you Southern folks is.

 

[Chris Bishop]

"Please read the above again and again and tell me where Bob Nudd is advocating that every angler, match or otherwise, kills every pike he catches."

Sorry Woody, he's calling for a pike cull for the simple, selfish reason that they snatch a few roach off the end off his line.

Bob Nudd is a high profile angler and it's irresponsible to make such comments.

Remember match anglers have now largely decamped from the rivers to fish carp pools. Pike anglers certainly outnumber match/coarse anglers on the rivers I fish, so who's to say their sport and having to tie another hook on from time to time is more important than mine.

Culls are misguided. All they achieve is an imbalance and waters over-run with jacks.

There's plenty of evidence out there, but the know-all club offical types always think they know best.

The reason there is a healthy population of pike in the rivers mentioned is they have a healthy stock of silver fish.

So are "shoals of pike" going to gobble them all up..?

Of course they're not.

Shoals of pike - Bob's really showing his knowledge here isn't he. When do they ever swim around in shoals, apart from when they're spawning.

Nature's all about a balance. The less we interfere with it, the better.

The PAC has spent 30 years fighting prejudice and ignorance and whether the odd misguided idiot likes it or not, the tide is turning.

 

[Les Clark]

Bob is a 4 time world champion and therefore should know when to voice an opinion or not ,he should know that there are ****heads out there who will now kill every pike that they catch becouse " Bob said it needs to be done " .
There are sadly enough ****heads in angling already and this will put us back 20 odd years ,any advance we have gained will be lost , apart from the needless killing of pike which will now increase .

 

[Paul H]

If there are loads of jack pike about, or loads of large girls, then there must be a reason for.

They don't survive by sucking on zebra mussels

Lots of pike surely indicates a healthy river with plenty of prey fish to support the predators does it not?

The eco system will balance out if it needs to when they eat each other which they are undoubtedly already doing. If it swims bite it.

 

[Chris Bishop]

Precisely Paul.

We've had a couple of mild winters and we have an explosion of silver fish in our rivers.

Predators will increase on line with this.

 

[Wolfman Woody]

Baz, take very good care of your use of English. You often imply things, but deny ever having said them, which is of course true.

It might be the same if I said "So, you no longer beat your wife then." This Baz, implies that you once did even though I never said you did. - and not that you do of course.

------------

Chris - "but the know-all club offical types always think they know best."

When we removed pike from one of our waters it was on the advice of the EA. For a while it worked, until a flood which carried them all back from the pond we put them in back into the lake we wanted them removed from. Nature is cruel at times.

Just because there is an abundance of pike does not mean there is an abundance of silver for them to eat. If it were cormorants eating the same numbers you'd want them shot. The only difference here is that pike have scales, not feathers and that's what draw your allegance.

 

[Eric Edwards]

That is complete rubbish. Cormorants cannot be compared with pike - if you knew anything about the environment in which you practice your sport then you would know that.

Cormorants are warm blooded and so need considerably more food than pike.
Cormorants are not tied to one water but can move on to the next one once they have done their damage
Cormorants are not cannibalistic - and so do not control their own numbers.

 

[Chris Bishop]

If you don't understand the difference between how cormorants and pike predate on fish we're going to have a bit of an uphill struggle here.

I find it hard to believe the EA told you to remove pike. Please provide proof.

Which office was it, which fishery officer.

And did you have a Section 30 to move them to the pond, which your visionary club did not think might flood into the other lake.

The more idiots interfere with waters, the more problems it causes.

 

[Paul H]

By the way, I'm not putting pike over any other fish even though I fish for them often.

I spent this weekend with a maggot feeder on the Derwent catching roach, dace, gudgeon, barbel, perch and possibly a bullhead.

 

[Neil Maidment]

The banner headline for the now infamous article was:

"Now it's time to take out the pike"

That in itself will lead to some idiots doing exactly that in the name of "Bob Nudd".

I'm pretty sure the crass writing and headline are the hand of a ghost writer and if so I would expect Bob to pretty quickly disassociate himself from the article.

If not, then he has seriously lost the plot and has bitten the hand that feeds him.

Silly question (!) but has anyone access to Bob's "pay to view" website. Is there any comment on there??

 

[Chris Bishop]

PAC chairman Colin Goodge has called for a meeting to clear the air.

If it was ghosted - and media contacts tell me it was - he can presumably retract his comments or put out a clarification.

 

[BAZ (Angel of the North) aka Fester]

Give it up Woody mate. You have lost the debate.

 

[captain carrott]

If it was ghosted - and media contacts tell me it was.

then he should have known what he was putting his name to.
it's easy to say it wasn't me after the fact.

as far as i am concerned they were and still are his views.

 

[Simon Hazelton]

I believe Bob Nudd has been at best irresponsible with his comments on culling pike.

"At a time when sport on so many of our rivers is starting to return big time, the last thing we need is shoals of pike depleting the stocks."

Aren't there enough waters (club or commercial) where he could practice his "black art" of match fishing, without being inconvenienced by a pike taking his precious catch from him.

To call for a cull is ludicrous, he needs to have a bit more faith in mother nature sorting his issue out.

 

[Chris Bishop]

Don't worry, we're on the case. The PAC's writing to clubs on the rivers concerned to point out a few home truths.

 

[Chris Bishop]

Clubs controlling fishing on three Midlands rivers are being contacted by the Pike Anglers Club, as it responds to claims they need a predator cull.

Four times World Champion matchman Bob Nudd claimed pike needed "thinning out" in the Warwickshire Avon, Soar and Nene, in his weekly column in a Sunday newspaper.

The call came after Nudd, who was made an MBE for his services to fishing, had roach snatched off his line by pike during a match.

But the PAC, which has campaigned for pike conservation for 30 years, slammed Nudd's comments as "selfish and misguided".

Chairman Colin Goodge said the three rivers Nudd named in his column in the News of the World did not need a cull.

"If they want scientific evidence we can produce it," he said. "By calling for a cull what does he expect to achieve, there's plenty of proof they're a waste of time and money and achieve nothing."

Evidence shows culls upset the natural balance and lead to an explosion in small pike.

The PAC maintains pike play a vital role in the ecology of waters and nature should be left to achieve her own balance between predator and prey.

In its letter, the PAC calls on club officials to see the bigger picture as far as balanced, sustainable fisheries are concerned.

 

[Peter Bishop]

In the absence of a denial by Mr Nudd we have to assume his views have been accurately portrayed by his ghostwriter. My sources suggest most of what carries Bob Nudd's name has been written/edited by others.
Perhaps Bob said other things during what I would venture to suggest was a phone interview with a subby at the News of the World, but once he had voiced something controversial, which will elicit a major reaction, any hack worth his salt is going to make that the centrepiece of the article to the exception of any words that may might have presented a balence argument.
He may well have been stitched up but the longer it goes without a retraction one must assume he meant what was written in his name.
Of course, Nudd is perfectly entitled to his opinion without being rubbished. There are plenty on this site who express far worse views, and prejudices that are equally divisive to the sport as a whole.