Bulls to it!

chav professor · Sep 17, 2014

Ever had a run in with an angry Bull????? Jeeze... lets just call him Caesar! I came out of a swim in dusk light and he was just there..... Bull trying to own the field; me? new river, strange surroundings, I gathered my stuff and went to walk away. He wasn't having it... stomping and cantering menacingly adjacent to the path then staring me down. He seemed to get closer (and larger) each time. It was looking like ditching gear and preparing to jump ... it felt a viable option...

The thought of my body tissues smudged into the ground by two and a half tonnes of angry heffer is something that puts you in your place....

No he was bottling it (ha ha.... not without significant and continued intimidation)... got loaded up... walked away... more cantering and stampeding... but eventually, more concerned he was putting distance between himself and his cow bitches.

I was happy to be the hell out of there!!!!

Lord Paul of Sheffield · Sep 17, 2014

think I would have needed new pants

Peter Jacobs · Sep 17, 2014

Over the years I have had a few run-ins with Bulls but more often with Cows as on our syndicate water there are 3 or 4 fields that always have cows in them.

At Bisterne on the Hampshire Avon a few years ago I had a cow jump into the river and swim across, twice, effectively ruining the swim for the rest of the afternoon.

A friend of mine of Norway also had his foot broken when a Bulll stood on it as he left a field, it incapicatated him for 7 or 8 weeks in the middle of our "season" so he was not a happy angler.

john step · Sep 17, 2014

I had a run in with a bull but not whilst fishing. Whilst cycling on holiday in France with my good lady I foolishly MOO MOOED at a very large white bull safely behind a wire fence.
Only the fence wasn't safe enough and he charged me through it. The pair of us cycled like fury and the bull gave up after about 50 yards...luckily.
My wife said I must have sounded like a cow...at least I think that's what she said.

mg:

binka · Sep 17, 2014

Had a run in many years ago whilst crossing a field behind the British Sugar plant at Newark, I was well passed the point of no return with my mate a few yards ahead of me when the bull charged for him!

He legged it and made it to safety whilst I had to start from behind and with forwards being by far the shortest and safest option I did the tackle laden hurdle and literally cleared the hedge head first only to land in a complete mess the other side.

I didn't look to see how close the bull got before launch but I'd give it three or four feet at best

bennygesserit · Sep 17, 2014

They are thinking of having cows installed at one of the places I fish.

chub_on_the_block · Sep 17, 2014

bennygesserit said:
They are thinking of having cows installed at one of the places I fish.

Sounds like a Damien Hirst art installation.

I remember a bird hide once which had a neat painting of the lake in front of us with all the different birds shown milling about, neatly labelled in their respective feeding areas. Problem was there was never much there. Someone missed the trick of tethering the blighters down with little anchors for visitors to see.

nicepix · Sep 17, 2014

In France anglers have a right to cross any land to access the rivers and land owners have to leave a 3 metre strip along the river bank for anglers.

Problem is that a lot of the fields bordering the river near to where I live have herds of Limousin cattle and calves in them. Limousins are semi-feral cattle bred for beef and the only time they come into contact with humans is when the farmers or vets saw their horns off or stick needles in them. As such they are not exactly happy to see a human walking across their field or near to it. When you are faced with a herd of Limousins with calves and there is only a 3mm electric wire between you and the beasts it isn't comfortable.

As the saying goes: You can fish where you want. But you might not want to fish where you can.

terry m · Sep 17, 2014

Yes, this is a real issue in my mind. I love my fishing but when it comes to bulls, discretion is the better part of valour for me. I will not take chances with unpredictable bulls. And, as I am not able to predict, which ones are unpredictable, then I will not take chances.

binka · Sep 17, 2014

terry m said:
as I am not able to predict, which ones are unpredictable, then I will not take chances.

My late father ran an abattoir in addition to buying and auctioning cattle for most of his working life and dragged me along as a child through acres of farmland inspecting them and not once did we ever have a run in although he would often say that there's no such thing as a predictable bull.

The amount of times he came home from work with a kneecap three times its normal size after getting on the wrong side of one (and cows) in the holding pens was countless.

I wish I had his bottle when it comes to these things but that certainly wasn't hareditory

mg:

The bad one · Sep 18, 2014

As I tell them all, all livestock are unpredictable and bad, you don't want to be going on that river with them on it! Then I get any swim I want anytime the stock are out

Oh and the farm dog's a bit of a nutter as well

But there again I've been around dogs and stock most of my life

On one length I visit regularly, all the heifers are hand reared and very friendly, one in particular is quite tame, but very inquisitive and comes up to you with no fear whatsoever. It’s very off putting if you are not use to stock, but all it wants is for you to stroke it then it goes back to grass munching.

nicepix · Sep 18, 2014

One if the most dangerous things I did as a police officer concerned a Highland Cow that had gone whappy, jumped out of its pen and ran off into a vast expanse of scrubland near the steel works at Rotherham. The helicopter located it but needed to go back to base for fuel and so I volunteered to go in on the ground and keep track of it in case it decided to head off towards the schools and houses bordering the open area. By accident at one point I was so close I could smell its breath. It knew I wast here, just the other side of a hawthorn bush and was getting agitated. I had to turn my radio off and lay low for what seemed like an age.

It took four 12 gauge slugs from an armoured Land Rover to down the beast.

When the abbatoir at Barnsley was operating in the 1970's bulls often used to escape the corridor of death and run amock in town centre. I remember seeing three of four smashed up police cars outside the Triumph dealers that had been trashed by one bull. It had gone over the top of a Triumph 2500 PI

bennygesserit · Sep 18, 2014

nicepix said:
One if the most dangerous things I did as a police officer concerned a Highland Cow that had gone whappy, jumped out of its pen and ran off into a vast expanse of scrubland near the steel works at Rotherham. The helicopter located it but needed to go back to base for fuel and so I volunteered to go in on the ground and keep track of it in case it decided to head off towards the schools and houses bordering the open area. By accident at one point I was so close I could smell its breath. It knew I wast here, just the other side of a hawthorn bush and was getting agitated. I had to turn my radio off and lay low for what seemed like an age.

It took four 12 gauge slugs from an armoured Land Rover to down the beast.

When the abbatoir at Barnsley was operating in the 1970's bulls often used to escape the corridor of death and run amock in town centre. I remember seeing three of four smashed up police cars outside the Triumph dealers that had been trashed by one bull. It had gone over the top of a Triumph 2500 PI

I had a mate who worked in an abattoir , they let them go on purpose when they were bored, cows revenge was when the apparently deceased cow would kick out anyway.

rubio · Sep 18, 2014

chav professor said:
Ever had a run in with an angry Bull????? Jeeze... lets just call him Caesar! I came out of a swim in dusk light and he was just there..... Bull trying to own the field; me? new river, strange surroundings, I gathered my stuff and went to walk away. He wasn't having it... stomping and cantering menacingly adjacent to the path then staring me down. He seemed to get closer (and larger) each time. It was looking like ditching gear and preparing to jump ... it felt a viable option...

The thought of my body tissues smudged into the ground by two and a half tonnes of angry heffer is something that puts you in your place....

No he was bottling it (ha ha.... not without significant and continued intimidation)... got loaded up... walked away... more cantering and stampeding... but eventually, more concerned he was putting distance between himself and his cow bitches.

I was happy to be the hell out of there!!!!

Hope all your posts aren't gonna be full of bull.

symonh2000 · Sep 18, 2014

I recently fished a stretch of the Thames that had a bull in the field.

We had about half hours worth of fishing before we were spotted across the field and the bull started walk over.

We were in the car and away before it got to us...

I don't like taking chances with them, especially because most of the time when you are fishing you are away from other people and help.

Cows on their own are not generally too bad, unless you have a dog with you and they have calves.

Bulls to it!

chav professor

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Lord Paul of Sheffield

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john step

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binka

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nicepix

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The bad one

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