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RIP River Colne.

Nick.

I understand where you are coming from. However if anglers Really wanted to achieve something and get actually noticed, it would have to be, as you say, from a powerful lobby group such as RSPB (and that we don't yet have)

OR from Anglers as a group, boycotting the EA license system (money talks) until the ENVIRONMENT agency start working for their main contributors (Apart from the Government)

Can't see that happening, but think of the potential media coverage and the opportunity to put a sensible, considered and cohesive case together.

Graham



realise
 
Otters

I agree Graham that at present our only real weapon is withholding our licence fee, and I can't realistically see how that could be used. I still think the Angling Trust will get there in the end, once the penny starts to drop with more anglers, but angling will be in a far worse state than it is now by then. More members, more money, gets you access to power and makes things happen, simple as that.

Nick C
 
I agree that we should all be members, but I can't help feeling that like me, there are many reluctant members who joined purely because they could see no other option, NOT because they really agreed with the all the ambitions and bizarre things the AT support. That being so, I can't help wondering how many anglers have not joined up because they can't overcome that reluctance (and their worries about where the AT is headed) , rather than laziness or apathy, which is what they are usually accused of.

Just a thought.

Cheers, Dave.
 
Nick Coulthurst said:
We have never lived in an era where otters have been provided with suitable habitat and man has effectively withdrawn from his role of apex predator, so why people keep consoling themselves with the notion that nature will find a balance confuses me. As it stands, nature's balance is being distorted by our neglect of our role as apex predators. On small, sadly often over abstracted rivers, fishing will ultimately become pointless. Otters visit them and clean them out, only returning when fish stocks have recovered sufficiently for it to be worth their while, when the clear out begins again.
The only time anything will be done is when animals other than fish start to suffer and more powerful bodies than the Angling Trust, such as the RSPB, do something about it. The case for angling at present isn't being made very well because our representative body has no power due to pathetic membership numbers. ..................

Nick C
Click to expand...


What he said!
 
Hope this doesn't sound glib, (I've been following this thread with interest and feel close to the Colne). Perhaps a Society which was not so specifically about 'angling' interest so much as about river environments? that's what we here probably commonly believe? and perhaps it's the bottom line anyhow. Anglers, bird watchers, walkers, just normal people that go out to appreciate the river environment - above AND below the water, they might sign up for:

SPRE:

The (Royal) Society for the Protection of River Environments.

?? I dunno. Good luck Dave and long live the Colne anyhow.

All the best

Nick
 
I believe that the tide will eventually turn on the otter situation. If otters are left unchecked then the larger fish stocks will eventually disappear, to all intents and purposes. Small stuff will survive and eventually grow on. But meanwhile otters will end up starving and may well end up in a similar situation to urban foxes scavaging for a living and eating whatever they happen to come across. At one time otter numbers were controlled by hunts and gamekeepers, but that's no longer the case. So, unless some otter "mixamotosis" comes along their numbers will multiply unchecked. I don't think that the outcome will be good for any party. And I don't believe that the cuddly image is inviolate. Look at the cute cuddly grey squirrel, not many people have much time for them now. At some point I suspect that licences will have to be issued to remove otters where they are seen as a problem.

On another issue, I've just received a letter from my MP on cormorant predation. She is absolutely great and has been lobbying Benyon, so much so, that Benyon has replied to her acknowldging the problem. I have been copied in on the correspondence. It really is worth the effort of making our views known. We can't just sit back, if we don't act, then we only have ourselves to blame.
 
Residents of a hypothetical council estate are up in arms following the recent fox attack on a child who nearly lost a finger in the incident. A spokesman for the local residents group has stated.

“These foxes should not be on the council estate at all as this is not their natural environment. They are causing terrible damage to our children and need to be dealt with. We think all the residents should be armed and instigate a shoot on sight policy, as this is the only proven way to deal with this menace. We have evidence that our residents group would only use the guns in a responsible manner so there is little danger of anyone getting hurt. In fact some of our members have already demonstrated to the police their prowess with firearms during assorted raids on the corner shop and sub post office. We have been criticised for creating an unnatural food source for these creatures, and thus encouraging them onto our estate, due to our bone idle lifestyle and the fact that we leave a mountain of KFC and pizza boxes outside our houses. We reserve the right to our bone idle lifestyle because this is the way we have always lived on benefits and we do not see why these foxes should just be allowed to come in and destroy our pleasure. Not only foxes but we would also like to shoot the EE’s who take the jobs we can’t be arsed to do and any other person that comes on our estate trying to threaten our established way of doing things.â€

A council spokesman has pointed out to the members of the residents association that although they seem adverse to foxes they are quite happy to have Staffordshire Bull Terriers in their midst which have a reputation for consuming more than just the digits of their infants.

No resolution to this situation is expected in the near future.
 
Hmmm, not sure about the above but never mind ... Saw a programme on the telly the other day about giant otters in the amazon , they were huge 5-6ft ,with proper big teeth and swimming around in packs . Imagine them on your local stream ! Now if our european otters started following the example of the urban foxes their days really would be numbered . Funny old world ..
 
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Richard Hamlyn said:
Residents of a hypothetical council estate are up in arms following the recent fox attack on a child who nearly lost a finger in the incident. A spokesman for the local residents group has stated.

“These foxes should not be on the council estate at all as this is not their natural environment. They are causing terrible damage to our children and need to be dealt with. We think all the residents should be armed and instigate a shoot on sight policy, as this is the only proven way to deal with this menace. We have evidence that our residents group would only use the guns in a responsible manner so there is little danger of anyone getting hurt. In fact some of our members have already demonstrated to the police their prowess with firearms during assorted raids on the corner shop and sub post office. We have been criticised for creating an unnatural food source for these creatures, and thus encouraging them onto our estate, due to our bone idle lifestyle and the fact that we leave a mountain of KFC and pizza boxes outside our houses. We reserve the right to our bone idle lifestyle because this is the way we have always lived on benefits and we do not see why these foxes should just be allowed to come in and destroy our pleasure. Not only foxes but we would also like to shoot the EE’s who take the jobs we can’t be arsed to do and any other person that comes on our estate trying to threaten our established way of doing things.â€

A council spokesman has pointed out to the members of the residents association that although they seem adverse to foxes they are quite happy to have Staffordshire Bull Terriers in their midst which have a reputation for consuming more than just the digits of their infants.

No resolution to this situation is expected in the near future.
Click to expand...

And in other news, we received this letter from Mrs T. Bolus in Spittle:

"My husband believes you should live every day as though it is your last. Consequently he has spent the last 17 years lying on his bed, attached to a saline drip, wearing an oxygen mask and with a rubber tube stuck up his arse."
 
Howard Cooke said:
And in other news, we received this letter from Mrs T. Bolus in Spittle:

"My husband believes you should live every day as though it is your last. Consequently he has spent the last 17 years lying on his bed, attached to a saline drip, wearing an oxygen mask and with a rubber tube stuck up his arse."
Click to expand...

:D
 
Howard Cooke said:
And in other news, we received this letter from Mrs T. Bolus in Spittle:

"My husband believes you should live every day as though it is your last. Consequently he has spent the last 17 years lying on his bed, attached to a saline drip, wearing an oxygen mask and with a rubber tube stuck up his arse."
Click to expand...

Best post for ages. Really enjoyed that one.
 
Howard Cooke said:
And in other news, we received this letter from Mrs T. Bolus in Spittle:

"My husband believes you should live every day as though it is your last. Consequently he has spent the last 17 years lying on his bed, attached to a saline drip, wearing an oxygen mask and with a rubber tube stuck up his arse."
Click to expand...

My great Grandmother actually did this, on her 90th birthday she said she felt a bit faint, probably the sherry, and took to her bed where she stayed being 'nursed' by her two bachelor sons, both in their 70s, until her death 8 years later.
The two sons, Eric and Ernie (I kid you not), would take her all her meals, help her to the commode and occasionally wash her, they also ensured the fire in the bedroom never went out, winter or summer.

She spent her time dozing, drinking tea, smoking woodbines, listening to radio 4 and receiving visitors, some who would sit for hours in that dark smelly bedroom and just watch her sleep.
 
We had an ancient great aunt of my fathers live with us for a fair few years when I was a child, the last year of which she spent in bed suffering from dementia and just plain old age, bless her. There was another aunt on his side who used to spend hours sitting with her, watching her as she slept. My parents were impressed by this devotion, really pleased to see such a caring attitude from a woman previously noted for her less than pleasant disposition. One day, they heard a commotion in the bedroom and rushed in to find the old girl hanging out of the bed, having been rolled over in her sleep by her visitor. It seems that all this time she had been waiting for the old lass to roll over far enough for her to get at her bank book, which she had been told the old girl kept under her pillow....and she got fed up waiting :eek: Families huh?....you couldn't make stuff like that up, could you :D

Mind you, that was my fathers side...and that lot made the Adams family look good, lol.

Cheers, Dave.
 
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David Gauntlett said:
Mind you, that was my fathers side...and that lot made the Adams family look good, lol.

Cheers, Dave.
Click to expand...

Dave, my wife is from Adams stock, and looked like Morticia when i first met her 30years ago. I'm sure she can cast spells on how to make my life a misery when she gets bored :D

Stephen
 
Stephen Whyte said:
Dave, my wife is from Adams stock, and looked like Morticia when i first met her 30years ago. I'm sure she can cast spells on how to make my life a misery when she gets bored :D

Stephen
Click to expand...

Steve, most of those on my fathers side resembled (looks and personality wise) a mortician rather than Morticia. I swear there was a chill in the atmosphere every time one of them was near....and there was definitely a smell that some thought was moth balls, but others thought was embalming fluid :D

Cheers, Dave.
 
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