Icy weather and Comorants

[flightliner]

With all the stillwaters frozen up around the country the only fish available to comorants will be sourced from rivers Mine is suffering terribly at the moment on one particularly good section with dozens of good roach being lost to dozens of these awful birds.
Hows your river doing in the big freeze?

 

[dannytaylor]

frozen

 

[peter crabtree]

probably the same as yours FL. But unless we spend all day, every day, running up and down the bank of our favourite fishery with 5 cymbals crashing, 4 hooters hooting , 3 yobbos shouting , 2 drunkards swimming, and an eagle in a firkintree. Mother Nature will win in the end..............

 

[904_cannon]

They're having a hard time in Durham. All the stillwaters are frozen over and I noticed yesterday that their favourite feeding areas on the Wear are also iced up.
They looked in a sorry state all perched on the weirs with nowhere to feed.
If a dog was in such a desperate state it would be considered an act of kindness to put it down

 

[Ray Daywalker Clarke]

They're having a hard time in Durham. All the stillwaters are frozen over and I noticed yesterday that their favourite feeding areas on the Wear are also iced up.
They looked in a sorry state all perched on the weirs with nowhere to feed.
If a dog was in such a desperate state it would be considered an act of kindness to put it down

Hahaha love it, shoot everyone of them thats what i say, still plenty on the coast, where they belong.

 

[S-Kippy]

They're having a hard time in Durham. All the stillwaters are frozen over and I noticed yesterday that their favourite feeding areas on the Wear are also iced up.
They looked in a sorry state all perched on the weirs with nowhere to feed.
If a dog was in such a desperate state it would be considered an act of kindness to put it down

Then somebody should...and if it wasn't so far I'd happily do it !

---------- Post added at 21:36 ---------- Previous post was at 21:33 ----------

Hahaha love it, shoot everyone of them thats what i say, still plenty on the coast, where they belong.

The thought of starving cormorants broke your heart too then,Ray

 

[904_cannon]

If they were a half decent looking bird I might find a tiny bit of compassion, but they must be one of the good Lords ugliest creations - ever!

 

[chav professor]

Perhaps you can send them to Yarmouth Sea-Life centre, they have a comorant sanctury there - no kidding!!!! At least they were feeding them sprats - perhaps we could recondition your river Wear Comorants back onto a more salty alternative........

 

[geoffmaynard]

probably the same as yours FL. But unless we spend all day, every day, running up and down the bank of our favourite fishery with 5 cymbals crashing, 4 hooters hooting , 3 yobbos shouting , 2 drunkards swimming, and an eagle in a firkintree. Mother Nature will win in the end..............

Very timely Simon!

 

[Harvey]

..........

 

[chav professor]

Rest easy boys, I do follow the Angling Times rhetoric on Cormarants - they have pretty much decimated the Dace on our river!!!!

Nothing ruins a days fishing sharing the bank with these ugly brutes, I think they have changed the behaviour of fish shoal more than any type of predation. Hope to be fishing thursday - just to keep the bu**ers at bay.

 

[flightliner]

A friend of mine came accross one that had somehow perished (shame)in the cold. He took it home and boiled its head to rid it of any flesh. It now swings from his rear view mirror.

 

[peter crabtree]

my mate accidentally caught one on a deadbait rig, but as he was gently returning it to the water he slipped and accidentally trod on it's head, shame....

 

[flightliner]

my mate accidentally caught one on a deadbait rig, but as he was gently returning it to the water he slipped and accidentally trod on it's head, shame....

Peter- I do hope your friend didnt twist his ankle, it could have been a near death experience so close to the waterside- and painful!!

 

[geoffmaynard]

A special kind of bird scarer is better than none

 

[flightliner]

That bird scarer idea may be just the thing that my club could do with-- I have just printed it off and will submit it at the next meeting for consideration.
Many thanks for that..

 

[Peter Jacobs]

This seems to work very well indeed on the Hampshire Avon:

Applying for a shotgun licence in the UK

 

[waggy]

I don't think that's what Rudyard intended, Peter. Perhaps something from Dirty Harry would be more apt as a strap line.

---------- Post added at 12:31 ---------- Previous post was at 12:29 ----------

That bird scarer idea may be just the thing that my club could do with-- I have just printed it off and will submit it at the next meeting for consideration.
Many thanks for that..

Why not try a gas gun: the same as farmers use on oilseed-rape to keep pigeons off.

 

[904_cannon]

Cormorants Favourite feeding haunts in Durham

and its like that for about 2 miles upstream

I once had the pleasure of watching Barrie Rickards describe (in a very animated way) how his cormorant trap worked. It involved a large cage made from chicken wire fitted with legs, dead fish and house bricks. Theory was the cormorants would find the dead baits, tied to a brick under the cage, and not being able to get out again. Not sure whether it was ever put into practice though.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

I don't think that's what Rudyard intended, Peter. Perhaps something from Dirty Harry would be more apt as a strap line.

I guess that depends on how one reads 'the Prairie'

Regarding 'Dirty Harry' I think you might have to define that further.