Please take a look at these beautiful specimens of our British freshwater fish.
Perch (perca fluviatus)
Minnow (phoxinus phoxinus)
Brown Trout ( Salmo trutt )
Barbel (barbus barbus)
Gudgeon (gobio gobio)
Chub (leuciscus cephalus)
Eel (anguilla anguilla)
Bleak (albumus albumus)
Dace (leucisus leucisus)
Mirror Carp (cyprinus carpio)
Pike (esox lucius)
Roach (rutilus rutilus)
Rudd (Scardinius erythropthalmus)
Beautiful are they not? Each one fin and scale perfect. They may not be huge whoppers but with our care and some thought these fish could all be leviathans and even become British record captures. I spend as much time admiring fish of this size when I catch them as I do their bigger parents and even grandparents. I have often seen fish of this size caught and poorly treated by junior and senior novices, pleasure and match anglers. It makes my blood boil. Even carp fishermen who will care for their big catches by resting them for the appropriate time in fish friendly mesh nets before lifting them carefully, keeping them low to the ground, wetting hands before handling them, even treating sores with ointment and getting in the water to release it after its ready to swim away, have been seen foul hooking a small fish and treat it disgracefully by chucking them in from a great height without a moments thought to the damage and harm they are doing to the fish and future of our fishing. I have had to 'have words' with several anglers over the years for mistreatment I have witnessed. You don't have to be a bailiff, an environment official or even the owner of a fishery to have a say. I am not suggesting you deal with culprits yourself if you feel it would put you at risk but report it to your club official, bailiff or fishery owner. You pay to fish and have a right to protect yours and the future generations fishing pleasure as well as the fishes well being. Its in everyone's interest so please, wet your hands before handling fish, lower fish back gently at near to surface as possible, if the bank is too high find somewhere more suitable or consider using landing net to release catches. Spare a little thought and consideration for the little ones and all of our future pleasure.
Quite right too.
ReplyDeleteThat pike's a beaut.
Was discovered in landing net whilst my stepson released a large carp at a syndicate lake. He took picture of "pikelet" but not "yet another thirty". He has tank indoors with only miniature mirrors, linears and common carp in. We spend ages watching them when we go round leaving girlies to chat about knitting kittens or whatever they talk about.
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