slowing Down For fishermen

[Janet S]

With all the smelly bait you're using in this thread, I think you may already be doing enough damage

 

I'm not biting.....

 

Janet

[bargeeboy]

I would love to reply but I feel a WARNING would be the result !!

[Glennbrown]

Once there were two twins, Joe and John. Joe was the owner of a dilapidated old boat, which sank the same day that John's wife died.

A few days later, a kindly old woman saw Joe and mistook him for John. "I'm sorry to hear about your loss. You must just feel terrible."

 

"Hell, no! In fact, I'm sort of glad to be rid of her. She was a rotten old thing right from the beginning. Her bottom was all shriveled up and she smelled like old dead fish. She was always losing her water, she had a bad crack in the back and a pretty big hole in the front too. Every time I used her, her hole got bigger and she leaked like crazy. I guess what finally finished her off was when I rented her to these four guys looking for a good time. I warned them that she wasn't very good, but they wanted to use her anyhow. The fools tried to get in her all at once and she split right up the middle.

[tinca steve]

As an angler who is looking to retire and live on the waterways of our great country (what we have left of it) I will ask a question arising from the original post.

QUESTION:- Why do anglers refrain from catapulting pouches of maggots onto slow passing boats ?

[GSer]

As an angler who is looking to retire and live on the waterways of our great country (what we have left of it) I will ask a question arising from the original post.

QUESTION:- Why do anglers refrain from catapulting pouches of maggots onto slow passing boats ?

 

 

Have you seen the price of a pint of 'gentles' nowadays

 

Paul

[carlt]

QUESTION:- Why do anglers refrain from catapulting pouches of maggots onto slow passing boats ?

Too easy a target?

[tinca steve]

Alright then HORRIBLE STICKYcheap GROUNDBAIT

Edited October 2, 2008 by tinca steve

[US Marines]

As an angler who is looking to retire and live on the waterways of our great country (what we have left of it) I will ask a question arising from the original post.

QUESTION:- Why do anglers refrain from catapulting pouches of maggots onto slow passing boats ?

 

They don't, necessarily - See Post 9 on this thread !

 

(but I'm glad most do ! )

[Guest]

I would love to reply but I feel a WARNING would be the result !!

[tinca steve]

What I ment to say is that anglers respect boaters that respect anglers i.e. If you dont charge through my swim then I wont " bait " your boat.

 

EDIT:- I believe there are bad apples in every barrel ! !

Edited October 3, 2008 by tinca steve

[Keeping Up]

The Boater's Handbook originally said "Do not slow down when approaching fishermen". I asked BW if it was a misprint and they said no, that was the advice that had been given them by the angling organisations, because a boat that slows down too much may lose control and drift on to them instead. But they'd changed it when the handbook was reprinted.

 

We've just got home after spending several days on the Chesterfield Canal; they're a different bred of fishermen there, they kept asking me to speed up so that we'd stir up the bottom a bit for them!

[Chertsey]

What I ment to say is that anglers respect boaters that respect anglers i.e. If you dont charge through my swim then I wont " bait " your boat.

Dos that mean you will if I do?

[Sue]

I'll always slow down for the fishermen on the bank.. well I don't go very fast to start with.. but I did get caught a few years ago on the K&A.

 

Going down a line of fishermen just east of Bedwyn, you know the ones with long poles.. well they leave it to the very last minute don't they.. but this one left if past the last second and his line got caught round No Problem's front fender. I did what I could and put maximum force into reversing, which worked well beings I was going slow anyway.. but no he wouldn't wait for me to go down the gunnel to untangle and retrieve his line and hook, he yanked and yanked until this blasted pole made the line snaped with the force of that the pole catapulted straight at me on the stern, catching me right across the neck and knocking me backwards.. thank goodness not off the boat though..

 

Not one word of "sorry".. just some mumbling under his breath..

 

Now if I see one of these polers late on the uptake I do tend to give a blast on the horn, which annoys the 'we know when to take our rod out' brigade, buy hey I wouldn't want to get another pain in the neck!

[denboy]

What I ment to say is that anglers respect boaters that respect anglers i.e. If you dont charge through my swim then I wont " bait " your boat.

 

EDIT:- I believe there are bad apples in every barrel ! !

you wont mind if i chuck a windlass back then

[Guest Lockwheeler]

I spose that you might do well to do a 14-18 hour day on a pair and see how far you get. 11hrs 40minutes used to get us 33 miles and 33 locks. That was after we boated down the Hanwell locks into Brentford and stirpped the boats ready for loading and then loaded. We entered the top lock at 6am (always in the dark, it being winter) and tied up on Boxmoor wharf at 11pm or soon after.

 

We had no respect from fishermen that we were working and they were fishing for a hobby. The worst bit was the dozens of rods across the towpath. They even expected me to stop, get off my bike and lift the bike over every rod I came to . Where's the respect for the working man in that? What was I supposed to "respect" about bad mannered fishermen making us hours a day extra toil? Shouting and a grumping, chucking maggots into our homes, and threateneing us for doing our job of work. No ta mate!

 

Sorry!

It still rancles after all these years. I am just shocked to see the age old row is still burning.

 

What I ment to say is that anglers respect boaters that respect anglers i.e. If you dont charge through my swim then I wont " bait " your boat.

 

EDIT:- I believe there are bad apples in every barrel ! !

Edited October 3, 2008 by Lockwheeler

[Smelly]

Poor old fish?

[Tiny]

I don't mind slowing but what really annoys me is these odd fishing chappies who, as I approach, don't withdraw their line but hang it up in the sky so the water can drip from the maggot onto us passing below. When that happens I suggest to the fisherman that his line has a maggot at both ends.

 

I once complained to BW who were revising their good practise guide for fishermen, that rather than the rod being raised above the boat leaving his safety at the mercy of the fisherman and where he slung his hook, the rod and line should be withdrawn or the rod swung sideways parallel to the bank. The response from their fisheries officer, who I understand then (really) was a Mr Fisher, was that such a practise might endanger other fishermen and therefore BW refused to suggest it.

 

Luckily most fishermen do use use the withdrawl method but there always seems to be at least one who wants to keep it stuck up for rapid redeployment.

[US Marines]

Luckily most fishermen do use use the withdrawl method but there always seems to be at least one who wants to keep it stuck up for rapid redeployment.

 

Errm.....?

 

.....

 

.....

 

.....

 

[silence]

 

.....

 

 

Edited October 4, 2008 by US Marines

[Radiomariner]

Herewith a repeat of one of my contributions last year. Fits in nice with this thread.

 

On the subject of "long poles" a few years ago I saw an angler slide his pole backwards into and through the bushes behind him for the boat ahead of me (like they do). He had started to do the same for me when using my horn I tried to warn him that there was a cyclist approaching from the other direction.

 

The response was a clenched fist.

 

The rod went back into the bycycle wheel spokes.

 

The cyclist tumbled over the handlebars falling fortunately into the relativly soft but prickly bushes.

 

The rod with one end tangled with the bycycle did not go under the boat, but lifted slightly and slid along the roof, knocking a beer glass (half full), a wine glass (full) a plate of Ham sandwiches and a boathook into the cut.

 

The bycycle and the entangled rod did not go into the cut but it did knock over the anglers chair and his basket full of tackle.

 

A yelp from my dog indicated that he had found the fish hook, the hard way.

 

The air was blue in a three way slanging match and a yelping dog.

 

There was a small interlude in all the wrangling, (SWMBO calls them 'Wranglers' now), when a gigantic fish splashed up to the surface and gobbled down my sandwiches.

 

There was a fair amount of "threatening" behavour, so, being a coward, I gave in to the accusation that it was my fault for going too fast and distracting the angler by using my horn and escaped as fast as I could!

 

Names and addresses etc. were taken, after all there was damage to expensive fishing tackle (the rod funnily enough survived), bycycle and vets bills, but I never heard any more about it

 

To conclude, when going through that stretch of cut, I do tend to avoid eye contact in fear of recognition and subsequent violence.

 

For my life I can not remember the guys appearance other than that his face goes very red when he shouts.

 

Anglers. Sometimes there is a good reason for that stony 'looking ahead' no 'eye contact' attitude which I know can offend so well!

[johnjo]

Can someone please tell me why do we have to slow down for fishermen?

Common courtesy, ever heard of it?

[johnjo]

In fact we could all try to speed up when passing them LOL !

I can't understand what you are doing on the canals with your attitude, it's a place of peace and quiet. I have a Mitsubishi Legnum VR4 which is capableof doing 140mph, but when I'm on my N/B a max of 4mph is fine, if you're not happy going slow and being considerate to other users of the canal, go and buy a speed boat and go round & round a boring lake somewhere.

[peasant]

Moored in penkridge this year to be woken up about 7-30am by organisers of a fishing match hammering into the towpath designated pegs for anglers .one peg was level with the middle of Silkstream.What would have happened if we weren't moving that day.they were all very good natured,unlike the fisherman who gave me a right b******ing for slowing down for him.His comment was "if i drove my car like your boat we'd never get anywhere"

[good7saint]

For what it's worth here's my take on it as I do boating and fishing, although the only canal I have fished is the Sankey canal (no boats)

Have never had a problem with anglers tbh, only been back a week from my last boating trip and had no problems at all with anglers came across a few said good day to all and got a polite answer back from most.Moored for the night on the last day of the holiday a man came along the tow path with a clip board turned out he was looking for where to put pegs for a fishing match the following Sunday, he asked me would I still be moored there then so he knew where not to put a peg I said no.

We then had a pleasant conversation which finished with me wishing him well for his match

[Nine of Hearts]

Had an encounter with some fishermen this Saturday. Having been a party to these conversations before, when I saw them beckoning to me I got over onto their side of the canal, rather than the opposite. They were delighted by my consideration and as I passed slowly withinn feet of them they explained that most boaters think the correct thing to do is to use the far side, which is where they're fishing. I told them I had until recently been under this misapprehension myself, but no more. All passed off delightfully and left me with a warm glow and a hope for world peace (perhaps I'm getting carried away a bit). Round the next corner was another pair and smug with the assurance that I was Doing the Right Thing, I passed close in again. This time I was studiously ignored despite being almost within touching distance. Mind you, I was wearing a stetson at the time and so he may have thought I was making a slow escape from the nuthouse three bridges back.

 

On the topic of other social pariahs, I have recently started work with a manufacturer of well known 4x4 vehicles. I have to wear a high-vis whilst on the plant and out of laziness leave it on when driving to and from work. White vans now let me out at junctions in an unprecedented fashion. Get yourselves one, it's amazing! (a high-vis, not a white van).

[Tiny]

Having had anglers keep poles in the water until I am near touching with the button and then lifting them, only to have the pole fall into pieces, and, at another place warning an angler that the little tortoise he had just caught had the bite of a bulldog and to use a metal tool to get it off his hook, then watch him scream in agony when he stuck his finger in the turtles mouth to free the hook (turtle still being attached to finger when we went round a bend 5 minutes later)...

 

I could go on about anglers pushing poles through garden hedges and even resting spare poles on the garden greenhouse, of a whole angling contest who seemed to deliberately place things to block walkers including a woman pushing a baby in a pram who were trying to walk along a towpath, while other anglers in the contest attacked a row of moored boats opposite with their rod tips and bait tins...

 

All but one of that lot happened on just one canal but from that canal came a little story told to me by the boater who it happened too...

 

At one point on this canal the towpath, often used by anglers, has a thich hedge behind it and beyond the hedge is a road which even has busses along it.

One day our boater is coming along the canal and he sees an angler hunched over his pole studiously ignoring the oncoming boat. The boat keeps coming with the angler playing chicken with his pole until, with the boat just feet away he starts to withdraw it through the hedge.

Now a few yards down the road from the spot where the pole is appearing through the hedge is a bus stop and at this very second a bus is moving off from it towards the rod.

The boater - seeing this - yells to the angler who ignores him - at whisch point the bus runs over the back end of the pole.

This causes the angler to start pulling the pole, or what remains of it forward into the path of the boat which goes straight over the front end.

The last view the boater had of the angler was of him doing a sort of war dance on the towpath first towards the fast receeding bus and then towards the boat, waving a 6' bit of pole snapped off at both ends.

Expensive things angling poles