Death Traps ??

[mikey-1001]

I was at my local pike water yesterday(Edgelaw. see pics) of which i am a member but which is also used by a limited number of day ticket holders of who some (not all!) do not take as much care as the res of us in regards to taking rubbish away and shutting gates etc. Over the past few months i have been noticing discarded traces with deadbaits still attached lying in the margins and have come to the conclusion that lazy anglers are cutting them off at the end of a session and tossing them away! This annoyed me but all i did was pick them up when i saw them but yesterday the inevitable happened !! I landed three pike ALL with traces still attached and one with a treble in its eye -- i was RAGING !! The fish were all in decent condition but this could be down to them just being recently snagged i dont know but what i do know is that it could ALL be avoided easily by just clearing up sensibly and with a bit common sense!! Has anyone else had a similar experiance on there local water ? caused by non members taking advantage or by lazy and non-consiencous anglers ? Apart from all this the fishing at Edgelaw was excellent as usual !!! ITS HEAVEN !

[Old Smoothound]

A Good read mate,

We have had reports like this before and no doubt will continue to do so, so long as there are selfish, lazy narrow minded louts who fish decent waters and abuse the fish they are trying to catch.

Maybe its an idea to get the club to "monitor" the water and catch the little blighters and ban them for life from ever fishing, what sounds like a lovely bit of water.

[mikey-1001]

We have a system at Edgelaw were members have the power to ask anyone they dont know to see there permit but as you will know as soon as you go away they do what they want! Also because Edgelaw is fairly remote someone cannot be there all the time mores the pity! The fishings that good though i would be willing to take a tent and live there permanently--- LOL !

[Englishman.in.Sweden]

some people will always do things the wrong way, its a fact of life, and the chances of catching them in the act is very slim so you cant beat yourself over the head about it. the only thing you can do is talk to the non members when you see them
and at somepoint in the conversation gently inform them of the lake rules so as not to upset them, if you go in heavy handed you might get a kicking, you never know.
i caught a group of lads a few years ago killing the pike they caught, i mildly asked them if they liked to eat pike, the answer was no and they were killing the fish so they could take em back home and weigh them on their mums kitchen scales.
their fishing geer was all old stuff and they told me they could not afford some good scales, i ended up giving them mine....at least it stopped em killing pike for no reason.

[aks19]

I caught a guy at the fishery a year or so ago, he was packing up to go home he was cutting his hooks off leaving the bait on and throwing them in teh water at his feet, when I asked him why he said "Oh, it's alright mate, they're those dissolving hooks, they dissolve in water" which we all know is B.S. So i asked to borrow one of these 'dissolving' hooks, at which point he said that they take about 3 days to dissolve, but yeah i made sure he didnt come back, it's such an annoying part of fishing, finding anglers who don't care about the welfare of the fish,

[surface#iain#]

I know where your coming from mate!!!!!!!

It makes me sick some people hav no respect for the fish they are trying and to catch or the wildlife.......

[mikey-1001]

Originally Posted by Englishman.in.Sweden

some people will always do things the wrong way, its a fact of life, and the chances of catching them in the act is very slim so you cant beat yourself over the head about it. the only thing you can do is talk to the non members when you see them
and at somepoint in the conversation gently inform them of the lake rules so as not to upset them, if you go in heavy handed you might get a kicking, you never know.
i caught a group of lads a few years ago killing the pike they caught, i mildly asked them if they liked to eat pike, the answer was no and they were killing the fish so they could take em back home and weigh them on their mums kitchen scales.
their fishing geer was all old stuff and they told me they could not afford some good scales, i ended up giving them mine....at least it stopped em killing pike for no reason.

If it would stop the nonsense thats been going on at Edgelaw i would quite willingly hand out scales to every day ticketer at the gates !!

[barbelblanker]

It's enough to make a saint swear. I can only agree with what's been said. One of the lessons i've learned in life is that we can only change ourselves and pass the message on. There will always be a minority of people who think that the world is just an amusement arcade for them. All we can be is the best we can be and resolve to prove that the majority of anglers are responsible individuals for whom nature is part of the bigger picture. Trees don't grow plastic bags so they have no place in the landscape. As for these idiots then we can only hope one of these dissolving hooks get stuck to the bottom of their landing net and transfers itself to their groyne. Rant officially over.

[mikey-1001]

Yeah my sentiments exactly mate ! As long as each individual angler takes care of his/her tackle and rubbish we wouldn't have any of this un-necesary headache eh ! I seem to have opened up a bit of a can of worms here, i new it was an issue close to many (TRUE!) anglers hearts --- keep posting your views lads and lets keep our fisherys a cleaner and better place for not only us but the fish as well ,afterall, it is there backyard !!!