We're pleased to see Graham Nicol back this month with a few more things to get off of his chest
Having enjoyed my rant in the previous edition I thought I would extend it this month and finish the trilogy in the December edition with an upbeat article highlighting what remains good or has even improvement in our wonderful sport. Thus let’s continue in the Victor Meldrew vein of “I don’t believe it” focussing on some more issues which continue to irritate me. These are in no particular order but over the seasons have become more of a concern or issue to me.
The first is the apparent diminution of wild fish. Now don’t get me wrong there are still many rivers, lakes and lochs that teem with wild fish but on the whole the number diminishes season by season. Many rivers already rely heavily on continual stocking and sadly the fish being stocked are frequently inferior to their wild cousins. Furthermore due to the demands of anglers and overall fishing pressure stocking densities are too high, fish too large and rainbows prevalent. The EA's recent insistence of demanding stocking to consist solely of triploids defies logic. The reason I say this is I fish a river in Herts whereby we have to stock due to a cormorant problem and previously we did this with diploids which resulted in a small head of wild fish on account of some successful spawning. This will now not occur which is disappointing to say the least. I know there are arguments about the genetic pool being messed up but I still think the EA approach is barmy.
Never mind, let’s move on to my next gripe and that is fish farming and in particular salmon which is heavily concentrated in the West coast of Scotland. We are all aware of the disastrous decline in wild salmon re-entering those rivers and despite copious evidence it emanates from the sea lice from the salmon cages our beloved Scottish Government and various fishery bodies totally ignore it. The salmon farmers have these politicians in their back pockets and the best response we get is another investigation which takes months, if not years, with conclusions that continue to be pointless. Why we cannot get salmon cages to be put in contained areas defies logic. I can only see the situation becoming critical before remedial action is implemented. Perhaps we are not far from it but there comes a point when anglers will boycott beats and rivers when rents continue to escalate and catches decline. This season has been a poor one for salmon anglers and it will be interesting to see what rents do next year and what occupancy levels are. I know many anglers are looking overseas as a viable option and if one converts the cost per salmon caught it makes financial sense. These is more to just catching fish but it can be quite depressing fishing all day, or for several, seeing and touching nothing and wondering if there are any fish there at all. I experienced several days this year like that.
Catch and release is an emotive subject that can result in major arguments between us. I generally do not keep my fish but that is my decision. What I don’t like is being told to release all fish to conserve stocks when the other participants do not play the game. Once again the salmon angler in my opinion gets the sharp end of the stick. He has to generally return all spring fish and often thereafter perhaps keep one in four or five. However, our netting friends continue to harvest as much as possible and as I mentioned above our salmon farmers pay not one jot to the situation with wild fish. It seems ironic we pay more and more for less and less and furthermore are forced to put back all fish to conserve stocks when we have no control when they are at sea and try to navigate their way back via a maze of nets and an infestation of sea lice. The rules imposed on anglers make it hard enough already. Now I know that in the past we were guilty of mass slaughter with photos of anglers with their dead catch at their feet for all to see. Indefensible, but it is in the past and we must look forward.
Trout fishing has the same issue with some stillwaters not offering catch and release. Proper handling of fish results in a very high survival rate and for frequent anglers disposing of lots of fish is difficult. The cats in my area are all overweight being fed on too many rainbows and the neighbours hide from me when I return in case they are offered yet more fish. So I guess what I am saying is catch and release should be more pragmatic and leave the trust with the angler for the vast majority of us would use common sense. Finally, it is difficult to defend our sport to the antis if we release all our fish for their argument then is we use fish as toys and not a food source.
It’s very easy to complain and whinge and so I must contain myself and thus will finish talking about canoeists and etiquette. This is a small island and we all have to get on together. As with all sports and pastimes there is always a small minority who give a name or image and paddlers are not exempt. I have fished many rivers where they have come passed me and gone out of their way to minimise disturbance but there are the odd numpties who believe they are entitled to do whatever they wish. Furthermore they are of the opinion that they have, or ought to have, full access to all rivers and not have to pay anything for the pleasure. Quite frankly this will and won't work. Anglers pay for the right to fish and in addition are guardians of the rivers, managing and containing them. The contribution from canoeists is zero and this cannot be correct. Quite simply some agreements are required to be put in place for anglers and canoeists to enjoy their sport in harmony. The truth is most needs to come from the latter as so far they have little in the way of rights and landowners will favour anglers on account of the revenue they receive from them. There have been confrontations between both sides and it is easy to defend the angler as he was there first, paid for the privilege and now sees an approaching paddler coming to temporarily mess up his fishing. However, I am sure some of this was provoked by the angler over-reacting and it comes back once again to improved etiquette by the canoeist asking, or the angler proposing, the best way to proceed. Etiquette is also an issue on stillwaters with boats whereby anchoring too close or cutting across drifts is quite a frequent occurrence. There is an easy solution to this and that is to fish remote lochs up in the North of Scotland as the sheep and midge don’t seem to mind.
That’s all folks and next month the third part of trilogy finishes on an upbeat note.