Thugs Taking Fish Options

[Blake]

I was watching a special on TV recently about what people eat at Christmas.

I was utterly horrified to hear that a certain barbaric element of amateur fishermen are plundering our lakes and rivers mercilessly of fish and taking them for the pot at home. This is not only illegal but is a very serious threat to the sustainability of our rivers and the wider ecosystem.

Is this shameful conduct very prevalent in West Berkshire?

If anyone sees this going on, be sure to report it.

[On the edge]

Thanks comrade Parsons, will be on special alert and will report anyone I see to Miniplenty.

[newres]

Never tried stickleback? Are they any good? They are the only fish I ever managed to catch in a river.

Is it barbaric to eat fish? Didn't know that. Thanks for the insight.

[motormad]

I'd love to know where humanity would be if we were not allowed in pre-historic times to eat fish.

[spartacus]

I was watching a special on TV recently about what people eat at Christmas.

I was utterly horrified to hear that a certain barbaric element of amateur fishermen are plundering our lakes and rivers mercilessly of fish and taking them for the pot at home.

Taking fish?? To EAT??!! How does this happen.....!!

Are you calling our Eastern European neighbours barbaric for eating carp? It may not appeal to our delicate palates as we prefer our fish dripping with grease and smothered with a gooey mush of batter. The Poles on the other hand (other European stereotypes are available) eat carp as a delicacy at Christmas and consider it to bring good luck... This is all much to the horror of british coarse fishermen who like to spend endless hours waiting to bag one of these creatures before letting them go again...

If the police did a raid on the Polish community around Christmas they'd find the baths would be full of live carp swimming around (they do this to clear the fish of the mud and 'stuff' that can sometimes taint the meat)

Whilst our friends with the funny accents may be clearing fishing lakes of carp, they also have a taste for eels. Blake, have you got such a concern about eels being plucked from rivers for the pot?

Jellied eel anyone?

[NORTHENDER]

Smoked eel taste better than smoked salmon INHO. I eat eel in all its forms, jellied, smoked, baked, fried. Same with Carp, eaten lots of it in China and Vietnam but cannot say I am too taken with it. The French eat Carp also. Funny situation with eels at the moment as it is thought that the population of eels is vastly depleted but no one knows exactly why. We use Fyke nets to catch eels for the Dutch and London markets.

[Simon Kirby]

Never tried stickleback? Are they any good? They are the only fish I ever managed to catch in a river.

I know a couple of places in Thatcham where you can catch crabs.

[spartacus]

Funny situation with eels at the moment as it is thought that the population of eels is vastly depleted but no one knows exactly why.

The situation's so bad that even East End Cocker-knees are giving up their delicacy and having to survive only on pie 'n' mash (other stereotypes are available)
East End boxer gives eels the slip

Reports suggest that the eel population in the River Thames has dropped by up to 98% in the last five years.

I wonder if there's a correlation between the 98% rise in the population from Poland etc and the 98% drop in the eel population?

[On the edge]

The Thames is now so much cleaner than it ever was. I've never really liked eel, for the same reason I'm not fond of mackerel. Presumably as the coastal outfalls are stopped up, they'll also be in short supply.

[NORTHENDER]

There is a big problem is with Elver taking which hits the eel population badly. We used to make our own Hives or Griggs out of willow and hazel at one time, but fyke nets although expensive are the way most go these days. Re freshwater fish. It was not until the railways came in that people stopped eating course fish in preference for sea fish. Taking fish inland meant most of it went off before it got there. And the monasteries always had stew-ponds full of freshwater fish for the table.

[x2lls]

I'm with Blake on this one.

If too many fish are taken, balance is lost. We already have a serious problem with american crayfish consuming fish eggs thereby depleting fish stocks.
We don't need people helping themselves as well. I have yet to meet an angler who doesn't put back what he or she catches, that is a wholly traditional british attitude. Seems to me, it is too much of a coincidence that an increase in immigration has resulted in an increasing loss of aquatic wildlife.

[On the edge]

So that suggests that the locals taking crayfish out of the river and selling them to local restaurants is actually a good thing? I'm not convinced this has anything to do with an increase in immigration; same coincidence can also be seen against the weather! Certainly, as a regular walker alongside rivers and canals, I haven't seen hordes of Eastern Europeans and certainly none fishing out stocks. This has all the makings of an urban myth fired up to support the rabid anti immigration lobby.

[Squelchy]

Oh thank heaven for that, for a moment there I thought it was too late for the arrival of the annual 'ruddy foreigners coming over here eating all our fish' story. But apparently not. It just made it under the wire. Phew. Now all we want is the 'swans' one and we've got the set.







*only mentioned because the 'swans' story is a legend in Fleet Street. (i.e. not true)

[Penelope]

Coming over here and killing and eating all the swans! shouldn't be allowed I tell ya. Send 'em all back! A ducks not safe on its own pond now!

[JeffG]

I have never seen the point of going to all the trouble of catching a fish if you're not going to eat it.

[Penelope]

I have never seen the point of going to all the trouble of catching a fish if you're not going to eat it.

I would discuss that with Izaac Walton if I were you, (when you see him).

[Amelie]

Oh thank heaven for that, for a moment there I thought it was too late for the arrival of the annual 'ruddy foreigners coming over here eating all our fish' story. But apparently not. It just made it under the wire. Phew. Now all we want is the 'swans' one and we've got the set.

I'd go further than that. I bet Blake cannot or will not post any link to any 'recent' TV programme which looked at "what people eat at Christmas". (Channel? Date? Time? Presenter?) In fact I question his motives in posting the original comments.

[NWNREADER]

I have seen recipes for sparrows, and notice our population seems well down.
One American comment complains about the number of English sparrows in the US. Have they all fled, or have we been eating them - in burgers perhaps?

[Penelope]

I'd go further than that. I bet Blake cannot or will not post any link to any 'recent' TV programme which looked at "what people eat at Christmas". (Channel? Date? Time? Presenter?) In fact I question his motives in posting the original comments.

well known fact i'm afraid, been going on for years, Carp are a favourite target (coincidentally the most expensive to rear and restock) netting is a common method as is 'ripping' ie; casting a weight over the shoal attached to a line with multiple treble, barbed hooks attached, you then pull the whole thing through the fish and haul them onto the bank. Several fisheries have had to place specific notices pointing out that the practice is illegal.

[On the edge]

well known fact i'm afraid, been going on for years, Carp are a favourite target (coincidentally the most expensive to rear and restock) netting is a common method as is 'ripping' ie; casting a weight over the shoal attached to a line with multiple treble, barbed hooks attached, you then pull the whole thing through the fish and haul them onto the bank. Several fisheries have had to place specific notices pointing out that the practice is illegal.

Certainly has been! Check out George Orwell, Coming up for Air. There hasn't been any dramatic increase has there? However, the increase in TV programmes generating interest in foraging, community gardening, wartime thrift and the like may well have had some effect. I know somewhere in a common wood that is usually good for cooking apples and plums, this year they were all gone before we had a chance, not even any windfalls. Didn't see hordes of Eastern Europeans carrying sacks that time either...Specsavers for me then, or just perhaps get up earlier