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Not another bash a Fisherman thread ......


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The electronic lateral sensory stunning gizmo would seem to meet the Identi-Kit picture ... yet: -

 

* Unless you're stocking your larder, where's the sport in that?

* It'd only work for a competition, yet he was on his own and if you were in a competition surely everybody would benefit from your shenanigans, as well as see what you were up to?

* So as he was on his own and had a rod, no sign of even a landing net, perhaps he was trying it out in the middle of nowhere prior to launching his evil upon the competition.

 

Looking at the above summary I have to conclude Frank Muir indeed!

Britain, and England in particular, is a tiny nation whose lowland rivers were destroyed by the industrial revolution. That same revolution saw swathes of the working class move from the country to the city. The nearest thing many of them came to nature was a weekend trip to catch whatever fish remained in waterways they could travel to by bus or train. Compare the situation to France, a much larger country, where two world wars saw its inhabitants forced to eat its freshwater fish, leaving only artificially stocked species in much of the country today.

 

The cruelty complaint from vegans and vegetarians is not unreasonable, but from fish eaters it doesn't hold up. English anglers treat their prey with care for the most part and return them to the water where they continue to thrive. By contrast the fish you eat in the supermarket is likely to have been dragged from a moonscape the factory ship has reduced the seabed to, and will slowly suffocate, perhaps over hours if it hasn't been crushed by the weight of its companions and the hold is sufficiently wet. Continental anglers continue to eat their prey, or more often throw it in a plastic bag for the cat, again slowly suffocating for want of water. The same behaviour would see you banned by any club in the this country.

 

Coarse fishing, (angling for non-game fish, i.e. anything without an adipose fin like trout and salmon), bears no comparison to the sport I remember as a child. Forty years ago you'd be lucky to find a pitch on a riverbank at the weekend. Now you can walk miles along a canal or river and never see another angler, though water quality has improved immeasurably. What remains is often conducted on privately owned lakes for stocked fish, a situation more traditional anglers find regrettable. Sitting doing very little but contemplate nature is one of the cardinal sins of modernity, and canal boaters should take note. If it weren't for angler's associations like the ACA, the English coarse fish population would have been wiped out by pollution in all but the most exclusive, privately owned stretches of non-industrial river. Polluters who casually tipped whatever heavy metals and industrial bi-products into their local streams, wiping out thousands of fish in the process, were pursued through the courts exclusively by angling clubs. For the rest of the public it was a passing item buried somewhere in the local newscast.

 

I have no idea what the man you saw was up to. Static lines are banned by clubs, riparian owners and the national license, though he may have been simply cooling his beer. While I defend the humane treatment of all species, including fish, the fact remains that without anglers there would be no fish in most of this island's waterway system, because people who claim to care about them didn't care enough to stop the destruction of their habitats.

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So the answer to my original question about what the fisherman up the Ashby was doing trying to disassociate himself from some sort of dodgy electric gizmo; is ............

 

frank-muir.jpg

 

Thanks everyone, you sure pulled out the stops for me there ... and no mistake!

illegal electro fishing is the answer to your question
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illegal electro fishing is the answer to your question

 

Well I thought that too, but I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt which is why I put it to the membership.

 

Now it seems as Locksprite as just explained, he may have been simply cooling his beer.

 

I still think he looked shifty though.

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The cruelty complaint from vegans and vegetarians is not unreasonable, but from fish eaters it doesn't hold up.

I'm a long term veggie and I don't complain about fishing. Used to be a very keen angler in fact. All adipose endowed fish were returned to including Salmon I caught on the Dee.

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Britain, and England in particular, is a tiny nation whose lowland rivers were destroyed by the industrial revolution. That same revolution saw swathes of the working class move from the country to the city. The nearest thing many of them came to nature was a weekend trip to catch whatever fish remained in waterways they could travel to by bus or train. Compare the situation to France, a much larger country, where two world wars saw its inhabitants forced to eat its freshwater fish, leaving only artificially stocked species in much of the country today.

 

The cruelty complaint from vegans and vegetarians is not unreasonable, but from fish eaters it doesn't hold up. English anglers treat their prey with care for the most part and return them to the water where they continue to thrive. By contrast the fish you eat in the supermarket is likely to have been dragged from a moonscape the factory ship has reduced the seabed to, and will slowly suffocate, perhaps over hours if it hasn't been crushed by the weight of its companions and the hold is sufficiently wet. Continental anglers continue to eat their prey, or more often throw it in a plastic bag for the cat, again slowly suffocating for want of water. The same behaviour would see you banned by any club in the this country.

 

Coarse fishing, (angling for non-game fish, i.e. anything without an adipose fin like trout and salmon), bears no comparison to the sport I remember as a child. Forty years ago you'd be lucky to find a pitch on a riverbank at the weekend. Now you can walk miles along a canal or river and never see another angler, though water quality has improved immeasurably. What remains is often conducted on privately owned lakes for stocked fish, a situation more traditional anglers find regrettable. Sitting doing very little but contemplate nature is one of the cardinal sins of modernity, and canal boaters should take note. If it weren't for angler's associations like the ACA, the English coarse fish population would have been wiped out by pollution in all but the most exclusive, privately owned stretches of non-industrial river. Polluters who casually tipped whatever heavy metals and industrial bi-products into their local streams, wiping out thousands of fish in the process, were pursued through the courts exclusively by angling clubs. For the rest of the public it was a passing item buried somewhere in the local newscast.

 

I have no idea what the man you saw was up to. Static lines are banned by clubs, riparian owners and the national license, though he may have been simply cooling his beer. While I defend the humane treatment of all species, including fish, the fact remains that without anglers there would be no fish in most of this island's waterway system, because people who claim to care about them didn't care enough to stop the destruction of their habitats.

 

Great post. You have hit the nail on the head in many respects. It made a more than pleasant change from the usual 'maggot drowner' derogatory stuff.

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