Worst barbel handling ever?

[Jeff Collins]

Not the brightest bulb in the chandelier!

 

[Graham Shaw]

That Spain?

I've seen how some of them handle carp on their rocky reservoirs ... no landing mats, even no landing net sometimes, so imagine it's the same for barbel for many (but by no means all).

I can't bear to think about it really.

 

[Peter Robinson]

Similar in Canada unfortunately, especially when the catch is tethered on a cord threaded through the gills. But that's what they do,it's their country,it's their rules.

 

[Jeff Collins]

Similar in Canada unfortunately, especially when the catch is tethered on a cord threaded through the gills. But that's what they do,it's their country,it's their rules.

That doesn't make it acceptable.

 

[David Gauntlett]

That doesn't make it acceptable.

It is to them...and it's their country, where our views stand for nothing.

I have seen huge piles of once majestic sailfish and Marlin on game fishing docks in Mexico, Kenya, the Maldives, you name it, the aftermath of the rich mans idea of a fishing match. Watched the carcasses of huge Marlin winched up on weighing gantrys, with the proud captor standing next to them, rod in one hand, the other resting on their catch, proud as punch. Catch and release? Humane treatment? Respect for your quarry? No chance. I doubt the majority of these fish were even eaten by the locals (with the possible exception of the Maldives) because they were there far too long for that. Shame, because that would have at least made it more acceptable, in our (soft?) Brit minds.

But that's the point, isn't it? Perhaps we should stop trying to impose our views, our chosen slant on what is acceptable, our moral standpoints, on the rest of the world. Come to that, perhaps we should realise that traveling to parts of the world where such behaviour is acceptable, in order to act in that way ourselves...is the height of hypocrisy.

Ah well, getting carried away now

Cheers, Dave.

 

[Peter Robinson]

No it's not acceptable to us by our standards, exactly as Dave said. When you try to explain to a Canadian that holding an 18lb carp by the gills for a trophy shot, as though it was a musky or a steelhead, is not the done thing, they think you're from another planet. It's just how it is in other countries.

 

[Steve Lewis]

When you try to explain to a Canadian that holding an 18lb carp by the gills for a trophy shot, as though it was a musky or a steelhead, is not the done thing

I don't even do that with pike. I know pike gill rakes are very tough and strong, but I don't see any reason to hoist them up like that. It pains me that to this day I see seasoned pike anglers doing it. Chinning them out with your hand at close range is one thing, but to then let it dangle like that...

Regardless of anything else, they look better horizontally anyway!