Nuisance fish

[dalesman]

Could not believe my ears this morning. Paid a visit to a local tackle shop so my nephew could get some bait for tomorrow, when we heard two gents saying they would not bother getting bait because there only nuisance fish getting caught roach, skimmers and hybrids. They waiting for the weather to warm to get the carp feeding not what a ten year wanted to hear.

 

[steve2]

Have heard that many times from carp catchers that every other fish is a nuisance. I tend to view it the other way round.

 

[jon atkinson]

I've even heard Tench being described thus - if you don't enjoy catching Tench you aren't an angler IMHO...

 

[nottskev]

I wouldn't tend to think of any fish as a nuisance. But if I had to nominate one, it would be carp for their role in the loss of mixed fishing waters in which they're over-stocked, the loss of waters to specialist syndicates, the prohibition of fishing for other species on waters subject to carp-related rules, and for ushering in an era of convenience fishing on one-dimensional artificial pools. Of course, that's not the carp's fault any more than it is the grey squirrel's .....

 

[peterjg]

Carp are nuisance fish, seriously. Only this week whilst roach fishing I've accidentally caught two carp, one about 18lbs and the other about 20lbs, both on helirigged maggots. Carp have reached plague proportions a bit like signal crayfish and cormorants.

 

[Alan Whitty]

Nuisance fish is a broad term for fish other than those targeted, minnows, bleak, small roach, rudd and perch are all a 'nuisance', forcing bait changes that may not be effective, however carp anglers actually hating decent bream, sometimes tench is poor, as you say Kev, carp can be a pain, when your fishing light for crucians or decent roach, but a bit of excitement, like hooking catfish when roach fishing, something I've done a few times, in fact one catfish angler said that members shouldn't be allowed to fish for roach(they went over 2lbs) as it wasn't fair on the cats, I replied that it might be a good idea for the club to remove all the cats to improve my roach fishing, went down like a lead balloon, lol.

 

[Steve Arnold]

I can just about forgive a carp angler cussing "nuisance fish" when yet another bream, barbel or chub disturbs the multi-washing line arrangement he has spent hours setting up, across and down the river. I guess the carp angler might get a little frustrated by the lack of consideration shown by these "lesser" species!

On my home section of the river Lot most of the carp anglers use this washing line method, even to the exclusion of ever casting a bait. To me this removes much of the traditional skill and enjoyment of angling, these carp anglers have become trappers.

Although this method is effective for targeting the biggest fish in their sanctuary areas, I wonder if it is actually that effective when you consider the hours, days, weeks spent per carp.

I actually like actively searching and casting to fishy areas, catching whatever is there (or not!) keeps me involved and usually awake. A tweak or two to my rigs and bait might enhance my chances of specific species, bream, chub, barbel are as interesting and often better looking than a carp!

The carp scene is quite competitive, I feel. Any branch of angling where there is competition risks some anglers being dismissive of certain species, I feel those anglers are missing a lot.

 

[Philip]

I was going to offer people a ray of light and say dont worry, once we colonize another planet at least that will be Carp free. Then I saw this :

Space experiment using large-sized fish: In case of carp in Spacelab-J mission

Two carp of 26 cm in size, intact and otolith-removed (LB), were flown on the Spacelab-J for 8 days in September 12–20, 1992. Light-dependent reaction…

www.sciencedirect.com

And also this :

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-liquid-water-flows-on-todays-mars/

...I think we all know what happens next !