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Its been a while

Fascinating read. It even managed to apportion some of the blame on Tony 'Bliar' Blair and the Nanny State. Still, I should imagine that a Big Society All Hands To a Shillelagh Otter Cull will go down a storm in present-day Westminster, what with otters (admittedly inconvenient natives to these islands) refusing to integrate into British Society and speak the Queen's English.
 
Ed Green said:
For all you disbeleivers that otters don't take barbel and other species perhaps you should read John Wilsons appeal on The Bob Roberts site. This is based on facts not heresay.
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Wow!! So otters eat fish, my word I've learnt something new....

Here's a little heads up on a few other fish eating predators: Kingfishers, Grebe, Heron, kill em all, av em, gun em down, we wants fish and more fish...
And what of fish eating fish? Well simples that, big fish eat little fish; big fish gets bigger, all good then!

As for John Wilson's bandwagon organisation PAG (Predator Action Group), what an ignorant bunch of ******* they are, can't even dignify numerous questioning emails with a response.
 
As I have long said - here and elsewhere online and in the real world - we need to be extremely careful about just who we make an enemy of. Now, when very sorely and repeatedly provoked I am a man who will take no prisoners by way of a response, but I am nothing beside that old punk Chris Packham, who just happens to have a new wildlife series starting tonight - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010k3j3 - ospreys and all.

Angling with its self-appointed, iffy publications and barrack-room lawyer representatives would be acting suicidally if it were to make an enemy of Packham, not an easily dismissable, bunnyhugging meeja man but someone even the Daily Telegraph respects for his very forthright, distinctly unwishy-washy views and character. Just think of us being fried in public by him...
 
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Never. The Chairman is planning a 23-page rant about PPs, New Wave Flyfishers, Bankers etc down in "Hamster Diary" so, as his Editor, I simply won't have the time to contribute to this tiddler - "Call yourself an otter thread? In my day we did 60 pages, during the course of which people actually died...".
 
After reading the Angling Times this week; The RSPB is not in favour of a cull on Cormorants, apparently they found no evidence that cormorants are affecting fish stocks at a national level. Thats a fair comment coming from a bird loving society, but in my opinion it doesnt help fish stocks, on the Trent where i see them regularly and other major rivers like the Severn. I could fish a maggot all day and hardly get a bite now, compared to 20 years ago and a bite a chuck.
 
Jon Frisby said:
After reading the Angling Times this week; The RSPB is not in favour of a cull on Cormorants, apparently they found no evidence that cormorants are affecting fish stocks at a national level. Thats a fair comment coming from a bird loving society, but in my opinion it doesnt help fish stocks, on the Trent where i see them regularly and other major rivers like the Severn. I could fish a maggot all day and hardly get a bite now, compared to 20 years ago and a bite a chuck.
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Yes but has the biomass of fish in those rivers dropped, or have they become rivers carrying top heavy stocks i.e more barbel at the expense of other smaller fish?

That said, on the basis that Cormorants are having a population boom despite dwindling sea fish stocks, CULL THE BUGGERS!!
But I would suggest they're actually affecting stillwaters more than rivers and as such they (the fish) are not shared property, rather belonging to somebody.


Ps, can't believe I left the Luftwaffe off of my feathered predator list....... Ah yes, might be cos they're as hated as ol' Tarka, whereas many anglers enjoy seeing Kingfishers darting around (eating precious juvenile barbel) or Grebes diving (stealing valuable infant carp).


Oh and count me out of this debate, really can't be arsed to debate things that won't change!
Rhys, get Paul Boote winding up at the top of his game and Dave Hall posting his one liners ad-lib, you may hit 61 pages of tripe.:D:D
 
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Check out Mr Packhams programme tonight on the Beeb - Beavers will be back soon , now they can radically change a whole landscape and eco-system , whether that change is for better or worse depends on your position . They like damming rivers up though ....Come on Otters are so last season , let's have a Beaver thread :)
 
They were at least as cuddly and cute as the otters mike so I can't see what the problem is. As a winter piker I am sure some of those slacks created upstream of the dams could be good fish holding features!
 
Definitely, Mike. I was banging on (excuse the expression) about beaver, as a BIG TIME threat to rivers, on flyfishing forums several years ago. A few pet fish eaten by otters? Pish and tush. See the result of beavers at work (as I have) and you'll realise you won't have much of river for any fish of any kind to live in. Also "fun" to walk along a river meadow (as I once did) and suddenly find yourself neck-deep in the undercut tunnel of a beaver lodge. Ruddy miracle I didn't break ankles or legs. Beavers: true menace.
 
Paul Boote said:
Definitely, Mike. I was banging on (excuse the expression) about beaver, as a BIG TIME threat to rivers, on flyfishing forums several years ago. A few pet fish eaten by otters? Pish and tush. See the result of beavers at work (as I have) and you'll realise you won't have much of river for any fish of any kind to live in. Also "fun" to walk along a river meadow (as I once did) and suddenly find yourself neck-deep in the undercut tunnel of a beaver lodge. Ruddy miracle I didn't break ankles or legs. Beavers: true menace.
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PS - and as for the chaos they wreak when they come out of their lodges and swim the river at dusk and into the darkness...

The "Whack!"ing splosh of their tails all over a pool / run.

I have caught a couple - foulhooked on fly (7-weight rod, floating line) fished for Tierra del Fuego sea-trout. Heavy, ponderous, slow, little sport, though they might appeal to carp and catfish freaks....
 
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