Stu, in short, you've highlighted my reason for a rethink of the current Close Season but hey it's easier just to go on with the same old, same old.... No matter how ineffectual it may or may not be.
The thing is, these (shall we say) anomalies like multiple and fractioned spawnings are not actually that rare. If you consider the weather we've had since March, it'll go a long way to explain why.
The same happened last year... Oh and 2012.
Looking back to 2011 (I think, though it might have been 2010), the Lower Severn barbel were still visibly carrying spawn in mid-August.
But to some change or even a reappraisal is impossible to contemplate...
---------- Post added at 21:05 ---------- Previous post was at 20:31 ----------
.Stu and Crow,
No, they don't feel threatened at all, infact its the complete opposite.
When I compare the attitudes of Game Anglers and Coarse Anglers at AGM's and Talks, the difference I notice most is that Coarse Anglers have an almost dismissive attitude towards the environment around them, all they seem to be interested in is catching fish with the 'result' far more important than the pursuit.
Game anglers are much more 'into' the watery world and the insects that populate it and at their meetings the talk is about improvement of the riverine habitat, water quality and fly populations, and I have never, ever, heard anyone talk about catches.
Coarse Angling meetings are about match results, who caught what and where, and because of the weed growth how this or that section can be made easier to fish, with the overriding theme being 'getting it over with'.
When a game angler leaves the water all that remains is some trodden down grass and perhaps a snapped off twig where a fly tangled, yes a few fish may be taken but more often the greatest majority are returned (recycled).
When a coarse angler leaves a fishery he may leave up to 5or6pints of maggots swilling around in the river, several pounds of mashed up bread and/or commercially produced groundbait and if he is a carp fisher pounds and pounds of highly enriched boilies (and then complains the weed grow) and worst of all a severely trampled or eroded bankside swim.
How many coarse fishing clubs have the a representative from their County Wildlife Trust sitting on their committees, very few I expect, 'we don't want them poking their nose in our sport' is the almost universal dismissive.
Yet these self same Trusts, employing highly qualified scientists, nationally comparable to the EA, already sit on many of our newly established Rivers Trusts.
We have much to improve in our sport and its about time we recognised it.
.
These game anglers, would they be the same anglers that kill roach and chub in many mixed species rivers. The same folk that for decades used to get the EA and NRA to remove grayling because they were to fickle for them to catch!
The game anglers you refer to must be the ones that fish exclusively on rivers that only contain game fish stocks, so the essentials for the rivers they're involved with are actually quite limited.
Whereas to get a river to successfully hold a large number of different species requires a huge amount of varying habitats.
You continually harp on about the ills of carp and commercial fisheries, lets not forget the likes of Dever Springs and Farmoor reservoir, are they not the game anglers equivalent to Boddington reservoir and Orchid Lakes?
"When a game angler leaves the water all that remains is some trodden down grass and perhaps a snapped off twig where a fly tangled, yes a few fish may be taken but more often the greatest majority are returned (recycled)."
How blinkered are you? Most coarse anglers that fish on small rivers don't tend to use much bait and have a tendency to rove.
But you do like stereotyping, don't you?
Out of interest, if I fed a loaf of bread on the Lower Itchen Fishery, exactly what harm would I be doing to the environment?
