The ongoing war

[Ivan Sanders]

Angling is arguably a cruel sport but, one way or another, we live with ourselves sticking hooks into the mouths of fish and hopefully no further down. I confess to having always found it a battle of conscience as my diet is strictly vegan. But I was introduced it soon after I started school and it curses through my blood. I console myself that no-one is perfect, and in my little way I try to put a little back into pike preservation, not often enough but that time has come round again, hence these few lines.

A few days ago I finally emotionally commited myself to returning, from here in Devon, to my favourite Fenland drain for a few days and nights camp on its bank - chasing pike by day, and large eels by night. But only when crossing the t's of the trip I discovered that the club responsible for the water had earlier this year again put the beginning of its pike season back to 1st September.

At the beginning of the 1980s I had attended its A.G.M. and fought a peaceful battle to secure a 16th June season start date, but strictly on the understanding that I published a book for local use on how to handle and generally promote the welfare of pike. Additionally hand it out to pike anglers and if necessary educate them. It was a tall order but I agreed and fulfilled that promise. I think I also prompted a rule change whereby pike anglers could only fish if they used a very large landing net.

Coarse anglers are like most other people - not a bad group of lads and ladies, and most of them have feelings. So when they witness a pike angler drag a fish out of the water; lift its substantial weight by its delicate gills; dump it down on the towpath; spend a few minutes finding rusty pliers; then a lot longer fishing around in its stomach with a stick (possibly broken out of a nearby hedge); and finally after numerous photos. place it back in water bleeding, glazed eyes and three quarters dead at best it ruins their outing and at worst it makes them angry. Yet, the vast majority say nothing and bite their bottom lip.

But eventually they do say something, and it can be months or years later. They speak up at their club's A.G.M., and there they vote for a short pike season. They may make up an odd story about 'pike need longer to recover,' but one thing you can guarantee is that as they speak they are recalling that bloody spectacle, they are angry, and they are determined to limit the possibility of witnessing it yet again!

Angling can be a relatively cheap pastime, and there is no excuse for not investing in strong line, wire trace, short and long forcepts, a large landing net, and a padded unhooking mat. And if you are into photographs then also a keep sack.

Angle with thought, try to exercise care, and understand that absolutely everyone's behaviour has a knock on effect. Pike often stay on the same patch so keep your catch venues secret, and give that patch a break of at least a few months after catching.

PIKE ANGLING TARGET FOR THE DAY: If the ground is lush / soft enough lift your pike out of water in your giant landing net and lay such on the bank. Leave your pike in the wet net, turn the fish onto its dorsal fin (back), kneel either side it, open its mouth by sliding a finger into the slot under its chin, remove the hook and throw the hook clear of the net, pick your landing net up and return the fish to the water. When competent (don't rush) the fish should only be out of the water for around thirty seconds. It's possible to get close to twenty seconds in a leisurely manner. Aim for good practise and speed/ minimal trauma to the fish will naturally come.

 

[mikench]

I liked your post and I am anything but vegan. However what is going on in Ukraine is an ongoing war. The pedantry of the misguided on the committee is anything but.

 

[Ivan Sanders]

Thanks Mike, it's kind of you to say. I'm sure that your definitions are sound, and I have to confess to no longer being intimate with war having been divorced for many years. Most interesting people have little in immediate interest with each other, but affinities exist beyond group membership and are largely a matter of the soul rather than group membership tickets or labels. Anyway, new friendships are usually easy to forge provided that the other chap's suitable assets are applauded - his dog or car, but not wife or toupee. But to be clear, my reference to 'war' or 'battle' referred not to other anglers' attempts to limit the pike season per se but rather the war against ignorance which is an ongoing war in most walks of life, at least for the minority who care.

 

[mikench]

I agree with the ongoing battle against ignorance and prejudice. In my world ignorance was never a defence and that maxim remains . Throw political correctness into the mix and the mess the world is in bears testimony to the silence of the majority over the vociferous opinions of the deluded minority.

 

[Philip]

While I understand the underlying message of the original post & the good intentions of it, I cannot recall the last time I saw someone handle a Pike that badly. Of course it happens but I also see a lot of good handling of fish as well bordering on OTT pampering.

Rightly or wrongly when I see anything related to fish welfare nowadays I cant help but think this is just another step towards angling shooting itself in the foot. Angling is being slowly strangled to death not by antis but by anglers themselves. Ban this, stop that, limit this, don’t allow that and most of the time its for apologetic reasons to appease what they think is a general public who are watching us so we need to be squeakly clean in everything we do.

The reality is that the general public for the most part could not care less, however if you put them on the spot they would say angling is cruel & you are never going to convince them overwise by using an unhooking mat, bottle of antiseptic or engaging in whatever the latest fish welfare craze is.

Yes of course we have a moral responsibility to treat the fish we catch with respect and use common sense when handling them but I think the time has come to stop trying to hide what we do.

The fact is fish are better off BECAUSE of anglers. There are more fish and better enviroments for them because anglers are here. Yes we do it for selfish reasons but the majority of the general public do NOTHING for fish and left to them fish will be worse off.

Maybe its time we started to bang that drum rather than trying to prove how nicely we treat a fish after we stick a hook in it for fun ?

 

[Ray Roberts]

While I understand the underlying message of the original post & the good intentions of it, I cannot recall the last time I saw someone handle a Pike that badly. Of course it happens but I also see a lot of good handling of fish as well bordering on OTT pampering.

Rightly or wrongly when I see anything related to fish welfare nowadays I cant help but think this is just another step towards angling shooting itself in the foot. Angling is being slowly strangled to death not by antis but by anglers themselves. Ban this, stop that, limit this, don’t allow that and most of the time its for apologetic reasons to appease what they think is a general public who are watching us so we need to be squeakly clean in everything we do.

The reality is that the general public for the most part could not care less, however if you put them on the spot they would say angling is cruel & you are never going to convince them overwise by using an unhooking mat, bottle of antiseptic or engaging in whatever the latest fish welfare craze is.

Yes of course we have a moral responsibility to treat the fish we catch with respect and use common sense when handling them but I think this time has come to stop trying to hide what we do.

The fact is fish are better off BECAUSE of anglers. There are more fish and better enviroments for them because anglers are here. Yes we do it for selfish reasons but The majority of the general public do NOTHING for fish and left to them fish will be worse off.

Maybe its time we started to bang that drum rather than trying to prove how nicely we treat a fish after we stick a hook in it for fun ?

Good post,I totally agree, we are our own worst enemies. Most people who are not fishermen are fairly neutral on fishing rather than being anti. One water I fish is in the grounds of a famous castle which is open to the fee paying public and when people enquire if you’ve caught anything, or engage you in conversation, they are anything but anti angling. I must have chatted to hundreds of people and none have expressed a negative view about angling.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[nottskev]

I like it when people write their own script, and I haven't seen a post like that lately, Ivan. It reminded me of a shameful period in fishing when it was normal for anglers to lose patience with deep hooked eels and commit all kinds of atrocities to get their penny hooks back, and it was common to throw the despised eels anywhere but back in the water. Eels develop more in their extraordinary lives than many of the 70's and 80's numbskulls who cursed and stamped on them. Once abundant, they're now rare, and I think I've caught two in the last 20 years. Looks like angling didn't save them?

I've often put forward the defence that anglers may spoil the day of individual fish, but we are the best friends of the species and their habitat overall. The ones we catch may not like it, but our sport underwrites the continued existence of the one's we don't, and anglers are the best conservationists etc. I think that's true, up to a point. But I still have some nagging doubts. When I watch fish innocently doing what they do in their element on a fine evening like this, in this case big barbel picking up the mussels I'm feeding them, I'm excited about catching them and at the same time questioning what right I have to hook them and drag them out. Would I feed bread to the birds, then put a hook in a piece? Am I so sure that the gap, the phylogenetic gap, between fish and birds is so great that it's ok to do it to them, I don't know. I did catch some big barbel this evening, and I had to carry them up the bank to the mat to unhook them. That's how I ended up eye to eye with a 10lb plus barbel, and I'm not as sure as some may be that my look came from the moral high ground.

I'm thinking I'll probably be an angler for the rest of my life. But I'm not so sure I'm entitled to do it without some mental discomfort.

 

[mikench]

I find an element of mental discomfort in everything I do from driving a car, eating meat, flying all over the world, discarding things I no longer want, having a beer or three, having children and so on. However I at least , like you Kev, have a moral compass of sorts and do consider my effect on the environment and my ability to be a father, lawyer, angler and so on. If I stopped the majority of those with no moral compass, understanding or empathy for others would not. I would rather be in the tent p***** out than outside p****** in.

 

[GrayG70]

Angling is arguably a cruel sport but, one way or another, we live with ourselves sticking hooks into the mouths of fish and hopefully no further down. I confess to having always found it a battle of conscience as my diet is strictly vegan. But I was introduced it soon after I started school and it curses through my blood. I console myself that no-one is perfect, and in my little way I try to put a little back into pike preservation, not often enough but that time has come round again, hence these few lines.

A few days ago I finally emotionally commited myself to returning, from here in Devon, to my favourite Fenland drain for a few days and nights camp on its bank - chasing pike by day, and large eels by night. But only when crossing the t's of the trip I discovered that the club responsible for the water had earlier this year again put the beginning of its pike season back to 1st September.

At the beginning of the 1980s I had attended its A.G.M. and fought a peaceful battle to secure a 16th June season start date, but strictly on the understanding that I published a book for local use on how to handle and generally promote the welfare of pike. Additionally hand it out to pike anglers and if necessary educate them. It was a tall order but I agreed and fulfilled that promise. I think I also prompted a rule change whereby pike anglers could only fish if they used a very large landing net.

Coarse anglers are like most other people - not a bad group of lads and ladies, and most of them have feelings. So when they witness a pike angler drag a fish out of the water; lift its substantial weight by its delicate gills; dump it down on the towpath; spend a few minutes finding rusty pliers; then a lot longer fishing around in its stomach with a stick (possibly broken out of a nearby hedge); and finally after numerous photos. place it back in water bleeding, glazed eyes and three quarters dead at best it ruins their outing and at worst it makes them angry. Yet, the vast majority say nothing and bite their bottom lip.

But eventually they do say something, and it can be months or years later. They speak up at their club's A.G.M., and there they vote for a short pike season. They may make up an odd story about 'pike need longer to recover,' but one thing you can guarantee is that as they speak they are recalling that bloody spectacle, they are angry, and they are determined to limit the possibility of witnessing it yet again!

Angling can be a relatively cheap pastime, and there is no excuse for not investing in strong line, wire trace, short and long forcepts, a large landing net, and a padded unhooking mat. And if you are into photographs then also a keep sack.

Angle with thought, try to exercise care, and understand that absolutely everyone's behaviour has a knock on effect. Pike often stay on the same patch so keep your catch venues secret, and give that patch a break of at least a few months after catching.

PIKE ANGLING TARGET FOR THE DAY: If the ground is lush / soft enough lift your pike out of water in your giant landing net and lay such on the bank. Leave your pike in the wet net, turn the fish onto its dorsal fin (back), kneel either side it, open its mouth by sliding a finger into the slot under its chin, remove the hook and throw the hook clear of the net, pick your landing net up and return the fish to the water. When competent (don't rush) the fish should only be out of the water for around thirty seconds. It's possible to get close to twenty seconds in a leisurely manner. Aim for good practise and speed/ minimal trauma to the fish will naturally come.

Thats great, very fast, but some of us do like to photograph what we catch, im competent and do indeed unhook in the way you talk about and i know exactly how to hold a pike, however if we are photographing fish, depending on length of fight, we do return to water in a net or weigh sling to rest the fish in the water before getting photos and promptly returning.

 

[terry m]

Re the OP, and as someone who dedicates half of the year to pike fishing, setting 30 or 20 second targets to get the fish back in the water is likely to drive the wrong behaviour in individuals who read it and know no better.
Encouraging people to rush what can be a delicate task to meet some arbitrary target is likely to result in unnecessary injuries to either angler, fish or both.

Fully agree that out of water time should be minimised.