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oohh at last its hit the fan !!!!!!!!!!

The wording of that last post from Martin is Politian style double speak. 'I don't believe the footage shows me re-hooking' is about a million miles away from saying that I didn't and haven't in the past. I'm quite disappointed.
I guess that i shouldn't really be surprised that this sort of thing happens whilst making fishing videos and I'm pretty confident that the fish would have been properly rested and wouldn't have have long term harm. I think he would have just been better to put his hands up acknowledge it happens sometimes to get the footage needed.
 
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It's akin but maybe worse if true, to a John Wilson programme back in the late 80's-early 90's where (allegedly) he had a local club stretch closed for a while whilst it was pre-baited for days/weeks?? and he turned up to record a video/program and emptied it of chub. I reckon it must go on all the time in various guises in fishing related videos or they'd be pretty dull to watch.

The way I look at it; good people do bad or stupid things from time to time, doesn't make them bad, just makes them fallible!
 
Didn’t John Wilson famously fish the out-of-bounds-to-mere-mortals-like-you-and-I cafe area at Old Bury Hill in one episode, where he carp were so used to mopping up discarded bacon sarnie and cake thrown in that they‘d virtually feed from your hand?

When I fished there a few years later and realised he’d had an unfair advantage over your every day angler I realised that A) Old Bury Hill wasn’t as easy as he made it look, and B) perhaps JW wasn’t quite that much better than the rest of us as he appeared to be.

I lost a bit of respect for OBH fishery and JW that day.
 
There are obviously varying degrees of response to this, as people have different opinions on what is ethical/cruel/unnecessary etc., but I think this largely misses the point. What I don't think is up for debate is how much this will impact on MBs career if proven. I really hope it's untrue as I love Martins' work and fear if he is guilty of what's being implied we're going to see a hell of a lot less of it, if any, in the future.
 
I’m not actually that bothered if he did/did not do it, under the pressures of filming? If he did, I can’t see him doing it again….. mistake and move on.

What really bothers me, is that after putting a statement out on his Facebook page, some down right nasty keyboard warriors, some of who are apparent sponsored anglers (from small bait/tackle companies etc), want to put themselves in the spotlight and personally assassinate the bloke, with absolutely no regard for his mental wellbeing. Such people in my book are far more of cretin than MB ever could be!
 
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I’m pretty shocked at some of the replies here tbh. You think it’s ok to stick a hook back in a Barbel, chuck it back in and play it again for a video? Would you do it if you were sponsored, fish at all costs and all that? And that it’s somehow equivalent to prebaiting a swim or fishing out of bounds?

This forum generally is quite old-fashioned about fishing, usually in a good way, but it’s the only place online I’m reading multiple posts condoning re-hooking fish. It’s piss poor ethics and don’t give me ‘we hook them in the first place’ because that’s nonsense.
 
Neil Blood said:
I’m not actually that bothered if he did/did not do it, under the pressures of filming? If he did, I can’t see him doing it again….. mistake and move on.

What really bothers me, is that after putting a statement out on his Facebook page, some down right nasty keyboard warriors, some of who are apparent sponsored anglers (from small bait/tackle companies etc), want to put themselves in the spotlight and personally assassinate the bloke, with absolutely no regard for his mental wellbeing. Such people in my book are far more of cretin than MB ever could be!
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I had a look in on Instagram and the hate, bile and vitriol being posted by some people is just downright disgraceful. It's just as bad on another single species forum.
 
The bottom line is its not about if its MB or not
its about at last some exposure this has been going on for years ever since videos have been made CARP .CATFISH and BARBEL have ALL been replayed for the videos
venues have been closed and pre baited for weeks sometimes after all it costs money to make these videos same as bait so often caught on baits then the camera switches to the sponsors bait when in reality they were caught on something entirely different

my other hobby is metal detecting
and I witness a guy finding a hoard of coins at a rally he got his pal to kick some of the dirt over and stand guard while he ran back to his car and swapped his detector to the one he was sponsored
then they filmed him finding it

BUT TBH the thing that really upsets me are the media whores that clearly influence the new anglers coming into the hobby and no matter what size the Barbel take every single one out of the water and take a picture ??? just to massage their ego

do they think they wont be believed if they just say had 9 barbel to 14lb this being one of the bigger ones and just photograph the trophy sized ones ?

this type of behaviour makes newbies think its the norm very sad just not needed
I like a lot of people then have zero respect for them
 
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Neil Blood said:
What really bothers me, is that after putting a statement out on his Facebook page, some down right nasty keyboard warriors, some of who are apparent sponsored anglers (from small bait/tackle companies etc), want to put themselves in the spotlight and personally assassinate the bloke, with absolutely no regard for his mental wellbeing. Such people in my book are far more of cretin than MB ever could be!
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The bile, hate and invective still seems to be pouring in. I get the feeling that some of these people will only be happy if MB was found (god forbid) swinging from the rafters.

I'm ashamed of angling at this moment in time.
 
Nick Coulthurst said:
If the footage is genuine, is it really that shocking?
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I'm with you on this. So much confected indignation going on here. This practice has probably been going on since the invention of motion pictures. There are far more heinous activities perpetrated by fishermen - such as live-baiting - yet we hardly bat an eyelash.

Seems to me that the mob is gathering to slate MB without thinking this through - here's a man that's probably done more for the good of fishing (and an industry that helps support the environment) than any of them.
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It’s almost as if no one has ever watched an episode of Go Fishing? The edits are awful and it is so obvious that this stuff goes on.

Martin has been stitched up and from what I can make out in the clip the fish hasn’t even been unhooked to be rehooked.

Couldn’t care less tbh; if he’d left rubbish that would be something to receive all the vitriol for but not this nonsense.

ATB
Ash
 
For me there’s no evidence either way so there’s no grounds for anyone to react at all
You could put anyone’s voice against anyone’s legs and without a confession it’s worthless.
Joe is absolutely right the disgusting comments coming out of social media on this is very shameful and I’m glad the people of bfw are being a lot more conservative around the discussion.

Now i don’t believe it’s a harmless thing to do it and it’s not a mistake and if it was the case that it was proved to be MB did exactly this, then yes I’d feel a little disappointed.

It’s not the re hooking that’s the biggest problem as we’ve expressed we hook them anyway, it’s the unnecessary stress you put on extra with re playing it. Your exhausting it and we know how bad that is for barbel.

I would not condone any cyber bullying against him either way, despite the disappointment feeling.

No it’s not the same as live bait fishing and expressing such a point wouldn’t be good for our sport because we all use live baits in our fishing and that’s just opening doors to potential grief we don’t need.

If it goes on (which I didn’t know about) then it’s naughty in my opinion
Nothing has been proven the video isn’t worth a toss

Poor Martin doesn’t deserve the hammer he’s getting at the moment whether it’s true or not.
 
Gerry Giles said:
The bottom line is its not about if its MB or not
its about at last some exposure this has been going on for years ever since videos have been made CARP .CATFISH and BARBEL have ALL been replayed for the videos
venues have been closed and pre baited for weeks sometimes after all it costs money to make these videos same as bait so often caught on baits then the camera switches to the sponsors bait when in reality they were caught on something entirely different

my other hobby is metal detecting
and I witness a guy finding a hoard of coins at a rally he got his pal to kick some of the dirt over and stand guard while he ran back to his car and swapped his detector to the one he was sponsored
then they filmed him finding it

BUT TBH the thing that really upsets me are the media whores that clearly influence the new anglers coming into the hobby and no matter what size the Barbel take every single one out of the water and take a picture ??? just to massage their ego

do they think they wont be believed if they just say had 9 barbel to 14lb this being one of the bigger ones and just photograph the trophy sized ones ?

this type of behaviour makes newbies think its the norm very sad just not needed
I like a lot of people then have zero respect for them
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It's the way of the world though, Gerry.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
No it’s not the same as live bait fishing and expressing such a point wouldn’t be good for our sport because we all use live baits in our fishing and that’s just opening doors to potential grief we don’t need.
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That was exactly my point. We're all 'guilty' of using questionable (to many) methods in order to practice our sport. And that's the hypocrisy of singling out MB.

As for opening doors to potential grief... I guess it is, if we think the animal rights campaigners are within our midst. So far, I've managed to live for several decades without being harassed by members of PETA over the use of maggots and worms as bait. So, apart from any self-flagellation we may choose to atone for our sins, I don't think we need worry. 😉
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