Opinion Piece – Steve Kibble

Unfortunately in this country even well known anglers target fish in April and May because they know the fishing is much easier. Especially the carp seem to switch off from their fear factor during those two months.

As SAA’s editor Paul Klinkenborg expressed to me once, and went on to write an editorial about how there are still calls for the Closed Season to be abolished on our rivers, “no doubt the glory-seekers would love to be on the rivers in Spring, plundering the shoals of barbel, etc, when they gather on the gravel shallows to spawn.”

Paul wondered how long you would have to nurse a barbel caught when exhausted from spawning….? As Paul said, “they’d never mind that the fish are already stressed and weary. Such angler’s attitudes would be, let’s fish for them as well! Never mind the fact that a few big fish would float off down the river dead; let’s get our names in the record books…”

Like myself I know Paul is sometimes appalled at the hypocrisy of some big fish anglers; we have unhooking mats, anti-bacterial treatments, etc, but when it comes down to it there are many who will catch fish, especially carp, at any cost.

My biggest worry though is imports. I don’t feel it’s worth putting what we already have at risk from diseases. Not only freshwater illegal stocks coming into Britain, but even legal fish whatever their size or species. Just to make angling more easy. Surely our own fish farms are capable of breeding enough fish for our small island. Carp were once regarded by many as the hardest fish to catch in Great Britain. Now it has become one of the easiest fish to catch in most waters. Some anglers even regard the carp now as a nuisance species. Many lake owners have caused ‘Carp Pollution’, and have overstocked with my favourite species. In many instances all for pure cash reasons, and quite a few anglers wanting to catch easy muggy fish.

Drawing by Steve Kibble

Another worrying prospect is, some catfish anglers want to import the Wels. As much as I love the look, and the fight of this prehistoric looking beast, such fish if overstocked can cause wipe out of other species.

When I was on a very large lake Quapshagay in Kazakhstan in 99, the local fisherman seemed to hate the Wels Catfish. They believed they were a greedy fish that not only hunted down their favourite dinner table species, but also believed they ate quite a few water birds. The Wels can populate fast, and would need controlling in our waters, but if they accidentally made it into certain British river systems, I personally believe they could ruin other angler’s fishing more so than the cormorant.

What happened to the days when angling was a challenge on most waters, and if you didn’t catch one week, there was always a chance you would the next?