I have gone though the card over the years with things to lay fish on and in. Last year I bought the smaller Avid padded carp cradle and found it a absolute boon for the fish and myself. The fish are safe and OFF the deck and I do not have to bend down to ground level. It can be placed in a shallow margin or on the bank I think it is about as ideal as it gets. Fish can be photographed in the cradle no need for handling at all I think they are great.
What is your opinion on carp cradles.
- Thread starter tiinker
- Start date
richiekelly
Well-known member
Total waste of time, sold to make anglers feel better and to make money.
sam vimes
Well-known member
A mixed bag for me. They are fine and dandy 95%+ of the time. However, I've heard of the odd unruly fish being dropped on the support bars and coming off a poor second best. Naturally, dropping a fish is never a good thing, but it can happen to the best. I'm also not suggesting that every dropped fish on a normal mat will be unharmed, but the damage is likely to be less compared to it being dropped on a support bar from the same height.
There's nothing wrong with my more standard mat at the moment. If and when it gives up the ghost, I may consider a cradle/cot. I will be very wary though. I have heard of the odd water that insisted on cradles a year or two back that have now dropped the rule.
There's nothing wrong with my more standard mat at the moment. If and when it gives up the ghost, I may consider a cradle/cot. I will be very wary though. I have heard of the odd water that insisted on cradles a year or two back that have now dropped the rule.
richiekelly
Well-known member
Best mat I ever had was an inflatable one (not self inflating) packed up small enough and was a good size when inflated.
Any product for Carp, or any other species, that is designed to increase fish welfare obviously says positive things about us anglers.
I use a deep unhooking mat but have looked at those cradles and will consider getting one for next season if I decide to spend more time Carp fishing.
I use a deep unhooking mat but have looked at those cradles and will consider getting one for next season if I decide to spend more time Carp fishing.
I do not remove my fish from the landing net I place the landing net in the cradle so the danger of dropping does not occur . I agree anyone can drop a fish no matter how experienced they are I have never dropped one because I have either transferred the fish into a weigh sling or bag while it is in the net in the water or transferred it in the net to a sided mat or cradle. Being a bailiff and fishery manager one cannot afford to have a accident with a fish. I rarely fish for carp these days and when I do unless there is a good reason to remove it from the water they get unhooked in the net and returned as all my fish do. I do photograph fish but only in the net or cradle and all fish are weighed over the water. When I was younger I would net the fish lay on my belly unhook and transfer fish to the sling in the net and weigh it over the water and release it. I have great difficulty in doing this these days and the cradle is the answer for me and the fish. I net the fish lift it into the cradle unhook a photo in the cradle if needed and return the fish to the water safe as can be.
My fishing club requires us to carry an unhooking mat at all times. I have the cheapest padded tri-fold one that cost me £14.99 which stays in the bottom of my carryall. I am not a carp-fisher that sits behind 3 rods and alarms so the odd one I do get (up to low double figures) is more than adequately cared for when placed on it, still in the net, and unhooked.
sam vimes
Well-known member
You asked for opinions, you got one. There's no point in arguing with it.
I don't recall dropping a fish either, but it does happen. You don't even have to do anything particularly stupid for it to happen either, though stupidity never helps. Most of the instances I've heard of have usually revolved around a simple trophy shot. If you never take them, I quite agree that there's no need to pick a fish up at all. You can even weigh a fish properly without doing so. However, if that doesn't worry you, as you suggest, why even remove the fish from the water? A cradle or mat is an irrelevance. The fact is that most do take trophy shots of their bigger fish, that usually involves picking a fish up. For that reason, cradles/cots aren't necessarily the last word in fish safety, though they might be for you. For all their positives they do have downsides.
As said, it's only opinion. I care not one whit to try and change yours. You won't change mine.
I don't recall dropping a fish either, but it does happen. You don't even have to do anything particularly stupid for it to happen either, though stupidity never helps. Most of the instances I've heard of have usually revolved around a simple trophy shot. If you never take them, I quite agree that there's no need to pick a fish up at all. You can even weigh a fish properly without doing so. However, if that doesn't worry you, as you suggest, why even remove the fish from the water? A cradle or mat is an irrelevance. The fact is that most do take trophy shots of their bigger fish, that usually involves picking a fish up. For that reason, cradles/cots aren't necessarily the last word in fish safety, though they might be for you. For all their positives they do have downsides.
As said, it's only opinion. I care not one whit to try and change yours. You won't change mine.
Calm down I was not arguing or criticising you or anyone else I was explaining the way I use the cradle and why.
sam vimes
Well-known member
I'm quite calm, I just note with mirth that, as ever, if you choose to try and pull someone's opinion apart, it's invariably mine. I rather think that The Blanker has been far less positive yet you've not responded to him at all. Strange that.
I have respect for your opinion and none at all for his totally negative as usual.
My club has a thread on its forum for failed self-take photos. The amount of fish that squirm out of an angler's grasp is high (and predictable). Perhaps anglers foregoing the vanity of the trophy shot would be better for fish welfare than all the mats, cradles and slings.
richiekelly
Well-known member
Wasn't a big very well know common dropped by a well known tackle manufacture/owner, if I remember correctly the fish died.
If you want a 100% safe shot with a fish get in the water with it.
Extreme! If you are going to hook the things then they need unhooking and in the net or on a mat with a rod and reel for scale is the best place for a photographic record. I am fed up of seeing photos of pot-bellied, slimy creatures with piggy little eyes....
....holding fish!
Extreme! If you are going to hook the things then they need unhooking and in the net or on a mat with a rod and reel for scale is the best place for a photographic record. I am fed up of seeing photos of pot-bellied, slimy creatures with piggy little eyes....
....holding fish!
Exactly the photo should be of the fish. But I know for a fact that the Angling Times and the Mail will not publish fish only photographs so that why people have to be in the photo if you want it published that is.
richiekelly
Well-known member
I neither want nor need your respect for my opinion, that is a FACT by the way.
---------- Post added at 15:41 ---------- Previous post was at 15:36 ----------
If you supported the Villa I suspect you also might find it difficult to be positive.
My view on carp cradles is that they are not needed, there are other methods of looking after a fish when its on the bank, if cradles are the thing anyone wants to use fine, what I don't like is posters asking for opinions and when they get them moaning because they differ from their own.
sam vimes
Well-known member
That's some small consolation. However, when you start with the thirty years a bailiff stuff, and address me directly by using a quote, it always sounds like an I'm right, you're wrong, lecture.
I believe you might be right. I don't recall the detail but it's partially what I was alluding to in my opening post.
I've little doubt that would be entirely true. However, it's not likely to become reality in the shorter term. It's a fairly rare occurrence for me to take a full blown big fish holding trophy shot. Most of the time I'll settle for a net or mat shot. However, I'm pleased as punch to get the odd one or two. I doubt that there are too many folks that would turn their noses up at getting a shot of whatever constitutes a good fish for them. I know that I was chuffed as buttons to get good shots of a PB (and lake record) carp last year. I'd have been gutted to not have them.
richiekelly
Well-known member
Your facts seem not to be correct, look at page 21 of the mail, oops 2 pike and no sign of a human. most photographs sent to weeklies are trophy shots and as such will have the captor in them.
Perhaps your facts have come about from you sending photographs in that were fish only and have not been published, ever thought they were not good enough to be published?
Seem to be correct their you go again. But you do not know you just assume you know that is why what you say carries no weight.