Barrie Rickards' Angling - Rod Licences and More

Here's a subject I'd be keen to hear anglers views on - the checking of rod licences. Obviously, the EA officers do it, but how often? Should others do it, like angling club officials? When were you last asked to produce yours? Should you be expected to ask to see other anglers' licences, and if so, have they a right to ask to see yours? Lots of questions there for you. I suppose the answer to the last question is a partial “Yes”.

We are entitled to ask to see the rod licences of others, but I just read of a case where the angler was frightened to do so fearing serious aggro. Quite right too. The only couple of times in my life that I have asked to inspect another's licence resulted in verbal abuse in the one case and being chased down the bank by a gang of thugs in the other. The EA Officer actually caught the gang and a few home truths were spelt out to them. It's probably too much to ask individual anglers to act as policemen, and the question really is whether it is proper anyway. Is it really proper for club officials to check other than the club card? I mean, we don't check up on our neighbours TV licence do we, and if we visit a pub the landlord doesn't go into the car park to check our Road Fund Licence, or ask to see our diving licence, does he? No, my gut feeling is that checking of licences should only be done by proper officials of the EA, and if there aren't enough of these guys to go round then the question we really need to ask is why'?

Is the Closed Season bad for the fish?

When there is a discussion or two on the Closed Season, as there usually is at this time of the year, I find it refreshing when a pro-Closed Season person is not abusive. So many of them are, as if they are the only ones who have seen god. There are many anglers out there, including myself, who feel that the Closed Season is bad for the fish, not good.

There was an interesting letter in Anglers' Mail recently from a Mr G. D. Chase, who argued that the claim that there was no scientific evidence for a Closed Season did not represent all scientists. I'm sure that is correct, but is it relevant? What Mr Chase may not know is that before the Closed Season was introduced (under pressure from anglers, led by the late Maurice Kausman) extensive scientific work was done by the fisheries scientists of the day, and they concluded that coarse fish did not benefit from a Closed Season. I am a scientist who thinks they got it right: Mr Chase is a scientist who thinks they got it wrong. Scientists rarely agree about anything.

Another letter on the same subject, from Neil Lomax, suggested that a Closed Season was a good idea because it allowed fish to build up body condition prior to spawning. Like Mr Chase, Neil Lomax has the fish welfare at heart, which I applaud as a basic starting point in this debate. It may just be that back in the 1940s-1960s this might have been a valid argument. Against it is the fact that fishing in the Closed Season, which went on in various parts of the country in those days did not seem to do the fish any harm at all. On the contrary, it fed them extra at a time when they needed it. Since those days the waters, especially rivers, have become rather sterile - too clean almost - and I suspect that angler's baits and groundbaits really do have a beneficial effect on the health of our fish. Certainly some work done a few years ago, on selected and comparative waters, supported that concept strongly.

Those are good arguments, well worth debating. What are to my mind invalid arguments are those to appease the antis: what will the RSPB think of us type of argument. Or, it helps birds breed type of argument. (Which it doesn't incidentally). Or, Heaven help our logic, the wife wants me to decorate argument.

Sterile Waters

Des Taylor raised the matter of sterile waters recently, and it is a matter the E.A. will have to address one day soon. The birth control pill may be a contributory factor, of course, because if the fish change sex then breeding and productivity is reduced.

Drainage matters may also be involved because many of our rivers do not experience anything like natural flows any more. Usually the flow is steady and too slow for much of the time, but when the floodwater does come it passes through the system nine times more quickly than it should. Nature is designed to live with a slowly burgeoning flood and a slowly receding flood. Many aspects of siltation and erosion and chemical transfer and transport are adversely affected by water flow, which comes along like an express train and passes just as quickly. I think an increasing number of younger EA officers are aware of some of these problems and we may see progress over the next fifty years or so. Well you might. If so it will be the first real progress in drainage control for 150 years.

Fish parasites to blame for fish size increase?

I see that fish parasites are being blamed for the enormous size increases in many, if not all, our species. I'm sure the French scientists are correct in attributing grantism in fish to parasites like liqula intestinalis, but can this really apply to almost all species all over the UK? It seems highly unlikely to me, not least because EA fishery scientists have not reported any noticeable increase in the frequency of liqula in British fish species. Are all these superb-looking tench and barbel and perch all infested with huge tapeworms? I doubt it very much.

There may be several factors involved in the great increase in all our species. One could be the feed/bait we give them, although this can hardly apply to all. I know one water with giant tench that hasn't seen an angler in ten or twenty years. I'm sure myself that winterkill or, rather, the lack of it for the last thirty years, must be a big factor. Just think of the devastation that would take place if we had a 1963 winterkill again: ten inches of ice on all waters for two months. How many of the big (old) specimens would survive this?

Angling - a 'development sport'?

Details of why Sport England fails to support angling are slowly leaking out. It seems angling is classified as a 'development sport' - whatever that may mean - a consequence of which is that Sport England will only support competition angling so medals can be won for the country. Well, given that angling wins more medals and more world titles than almost all other sports how do they then explain why it gets such poor funding? Angling is just a little bit more than competitive angling, just in case anyone hasn't noticed. We'll not get money out of Sport England, no matter how much we deserve it, until we make an ugly scene.

Cormorants and the EA

Good to see that the EA is being dragged kicking and screaming into supporting the case against cormorants ('Reel Life' 2005) but its still wishy washy support. They seem to put great store by fish refuges. Why? Because the fish like them! Of course they do, but given the fact that the fish used to use a whole water freely why should they now be imprisoned in a corner of it, penned in by black predators? Is this what is called sustainable ecosystems? They are still talking about frightening birds for Heaven's sake. Is that right? Should we be going around frightening birds? The RSPB seem to think this is a good idea too. Isn't the RSPB about not frightening birds? Or is it just when it suits them? Like the carrion crow, and finally, the EA spokesman seems to think that an adult cormorant eats 'about one pound of fish a day'. Well, anybody who has watched much must know that that figure is grossly in error. On many occasions I've seem them eat one pound in one fish - and go on eating. But even taking that figure, given that 23,000 birds are supposed to over winter here, that is 23,000 lbs of fish lost each day for six months, or, if you like, nearly 3.5 million pounds. Think of that in terms of keepnets and you'll see the nature of the problem that has been with us for at least fifteen years. Remember that if you believe the official figures, but since cormorants each eat two pounds of fish a day, not me…..

No to the Greens and Liberals

I read an excellent article by Matt Hayes recently about politicians and angling. Basically he's saying don't trust any of them. By the time you read this it will be too late. You'll have voted, so I'm not going to tell you which way to vote, except, obviously, no serious angler can vote the for Greens or Liberals because they are committed to be against angling. Of the others I'll be voting against the ones who protest most loudly: they are the ones who'll throw us to the dogs if it becomes a vote-catching issue.

Amazon Abyss

Did anybody see the 'Amazon Abyss' programme? What a dreadful disappointment after all the hype the BBC gave it before screening it. I'll tell you something; John Wilson's recent big spread on the Amazon was a hell of a lot better. The idea of the programme (series) on the BBC was to penetrate the Amazon's depths with divers. Well, they didn't. They did it with a robot that had to be flown in to rescue the mission from total failure. It managed to get some interesting shots, but in the end it was about one per cent of the programme and the conclusions drawn from the robot's filming were highly suspect anyway. Most of the filming was of the cameramen, not of fish. If I have to watch a wet suit clad diver falling backwards off the gunwales one more time I'll go mad. Why do they think this is so interesting… ad infinitum too? Many of the potentially good fish sequences were pitifully short, had no idea of scale at all - and then they reverted to filming each other! A great opportunity lost. I haven't even mentioned the ego trip characters so painfully involved. I don't know a lot about the Amazon myself, having only spent one month in the jungle waterways, but it would be interesting to get Jeremy Wade's reactions to the series.

Walker's Biography

To end on a more cheerful note… my research into the biography of Richard Walker is going really well, with quite magnificent responses from all round the country. It's not too late to get onboard; any letters (Xerox copies) anecdotes, artefacts, and ideas, all gratefully appreciated. If you can help please contact me by writing to Barrie Rickards, Emmanuel College, Cambridge CB2 3AP or e-mail me on wagreen@esc.cam.ac.uk.