live-baiting

[team fishing]

I cannot believe for 1 second that fish and slugs are smarter than us, think about what ure saying who makes this kind of nonsense up. The fish may feel a little pain while being used for live bait but no more than when getting a hook stuck down their throat and dragged out of the water, and as far as "huntng live baiters and anti hunt protestors" is concerned, I think that is hypocritical as hunting for foxes and livebaiting are very similar, using live animals to catch other animals.

long live livebaiting......

[Old Smoothound]

Go sling your dead bait mate......

[team fishing]

i think u mean go sling your live bait m8

[John Marshall]

I don't use joey's for live bait, but think nothing of putting a 3/0 or 4/0
into a live sandeel. The best of all baits for Bass.

[andyg]

Originally Posted by team fishing

Guys come on there is nothing like watching your float bob up and down, before being hammered by a monster and then listening to that run before battering into a fish and dragging its ass back to shore. I can't believe its banned on most shores its a total outrage. Species transported from loch to loch is a BAD thing but if you have the patience to catch a 6 inch carp surely you can attatch a big dirty treble to it and punt it out there. Live bait always beats silly worms and reaking maggots

I for one like to hear someone telling the truth like this.

I have caught, gutted, skinned and eaten carp in Brazil, where it is simply a foodstuff. Carp remember, was introduced to our waters as a foodstuff, but unlike the vast majority of other countries we have a romantic notion that these fish (and the majority of other freshwater fish) are special. For me, the only argument is that of contamination from livebait imported from other waters - and the answer is a simple one, use only fish caught in the water in which they are to be used as bait.

As for freshwater v saltwater livebaiting: in saltwater, typically the livebait and the target fish will end up dead, whereas freshwater fishing results in only the livebait being killed. For those who say that it is acceptable in saltwater but unacceptable in freshwater, how can killing 2 fish be more acceptable than killing one?

And as for the livebait v deadbait argument goes......... I have no qualms about using a live fish in place of a dead fish. I simply don't see the difference. Do those who advocate the use of deadbait over livebait believe that frozen baits are humanely put to sleep with a lethal but painless injection? They're not, they're net caught and suffocated.

I'll tell you how catfish are caught in other countries shall I. A large frog is hooked through the backside and left to hop around the bottom - The catfish hones in on the vibrations and frog-juice and whack, goodnight kermit. Now some people may cringe at this, I certainly don't. For years we have been catching fish for sport and food and long may it continue. Livebaiting is part of the sport and a very enjoyable part for many.

What we should avoid (and from the sound of it, we all do) is killing fish for no reason and leaving them to rot on the beach or riverbank!

IMHO

[Norfolkboy]

Originally Posted by andyg

IMHO

That's all it comes down to, everyone's own opinions!!!

[team fishing]

well said 'andyg' at last sombody making some sense particulary the point about deadbaits being put to sleep with a painless injetion!!!. As long are u are not transffering livebait from loch to loch then i don't see why it should be banned any where. I like the sound of catching catfish with live frogs,which country did u do this in? whats ure favourite livebait for pike

[Old Smoothound]

As Dan has said we have our own "Opinions" and frankly i'll keep my own counsel on this subject.

[Englishman.in.Sweden]

i am new to this forum but not to fishing so here goes with my 2 pence worth. live baiting ..hmmmm. any sportsfisherman who has been fishing as long as i have has done it. and i have done it.
i dont anymore...god knows why but i do feel sorry for the fish lol
the key word in this whole debate is SPORT i think. in football you cant pick the ball up and run it into the goal cause then it is rugby.
and our sport should be no different to any other in that we have to accept changes to the rules.
if you cant fish without live bait YOU CANT FISH so do something else.
if the powers that be do ban live baiting it wont bother me at all because i have had every one of my over 20s on dead bait.
it should be looked at as a new challenge in our sport and we should adapt.
we are not stupid people who cant find better ways of catching big pike then with live bait.
when i started fishing pike i live baited with roach for 1 year ...nothing else.
after a year i tried perch ...how boring.
now that i dead bait i try anything and everything ...if it comes out of the sea i will stick it on the end of my line (dead) i stuff dead bait with oils and mashed fish of everykind. squid stuffed macky is the thing i am trying at the moment ..i have many great combos of dead bait and one day i may find a golden champion that will get me so many big pike i will stop fishing them (i think not lol) i am a pike fisherman that has great fun in the kitchen mixing and matching.....going back to live baiting.... NEVER.

[aks19]

The thing is, the younger pike are much more active than the 'bigguns' and thuis by fishing a live you are only going to be attracting the lively fish, the older fish have learnt that doing less work for the same amount of food is the way to go more overall energy and all that, but myself i prefer to use plugs and spoons than baiting I prefer moving around constantly with everything I need from unhooking mat to flask of coffee in a bag on my back/tied to it but thats jsut a personal thing. like Old Smoothhound I was brought up in the country (on a farm) and was brought up with the idea of you only kill if you're gonna eat the proceeds or it will help rid the farm of vermin (although i prefer shooting the fox to setting the dogs on em but again personal I have no qualms over people who prefer the chase so to speak) thus i prefer to fish for food but i do release more fish than I take simple conservation really i prefer riversdue to the naturalness of them or BIG lakes (1000 acres or more) but back to thread in question live-baiting for me is simply another way of fishing I dont like doing it myself if anything a minnow for a chub is as far as I would go, (out of same river same stretch tbh) I'm a live and let live kinda guy they leave me alone I leave them alone I dont mind how people fish so long as they dont try pushing their methods on me and I won't do the same. An I don't mean forum kinda stuff I mean like "Here alex try this it works, go on try it, try it alex" (well you know what I mean) for my little ending i propose this thread be deleted as I ahve encountred forums where anti's have used material off the forum in their campaign against us this thread would give them a lot of ammo. just a thought