Down the Lane

I fished a match this afternoon, quite well as it happens, I came in third out of 15 anglers with a total weight of 25 lbs 6 oz, only 6lbs behind the first place. Anyway nothing dangerous about coming third but during one of the slack periods when the fish had gone of the feed I was nattering to a neighbour on the bank and when my rod suddenly shot off the rests and onto the lake; only a diving lunge for the handle of my now submerged rod saved the day. I did however wind myself badly in the process and had the land 8lb of none-too-happy common carp (that didn’t want to be caught) whilst desperately trying to breath. I think that I have bruised my ribs or something as they are all achy now… Any sport that can make you all achy around the ribs must be pretty dangerous.

This week's headline in the Angling Times:- "Man Frantically Grabbing His Rod Causes Himself An Injury."
Dom

Totally Scrambled wrote:This week's headline in the Angling Times:- "Man Frantically Grabbing His Rod Causes Himself An Injury."
Dom

Or "8lb carp drowns navy angler"

you lot my mock but my ribs are still all achy today...

New headline in the Angling Times:- Jack Tar Still Carping On About His Poorly Ribbles.
Dom

More dangerous for the fish I guess.

You were trying to pull him out of his natural element, so he did the same. And is complaining about his achy lip today.

Mo wrote:More dangerous for the fish I guess.

You were trying to pull him out of his natural element, so he did the same. And is complaining about his achy lip today.

One side of the story I suppose Mo, I have seen quite a lot of propaganda by a certain animal’s rights groups showing puppy dogs being dragged along with huge, brutal looking hooks through their lips (handed out to children outside of their primary school gates). I do not personally believe that placing anthropomorphic values on animals from entirely different taxonomic class is helpful when considering the morals of such issues; does the fish suffer in the way that we do, the research I have seen suggests not. You could similarly suggest that dusting for redmite is a more barbaric practice as you are going out of your way to kill them. You could also point out how much benefit the natural environment benefits from well managed waters, how often would you take notice of the health of a fish and inform the environment agency of potential problems with pollution or disease? All three of my club waters are managed as much for wildlife as they are for the angler, although it must be noted that the venue we fished on Wednesday is in part surrounded by the sterile lawns of a golf course. That aside there is a resident pair of great crested grebe who are now managing to successfully raise their chicks once more after the water manager has got the mink problem under control; it has taken that long to eradicate them since their deliberate release.

Two sides to every issue. And man is naturally a hunter.
I can see the pleasure of that, and the attraction of a day in the open air seeing nature in a way you don't when you sit at a computer screen.
But I still feel uncomfortable with the idea. And with other things we do - not redmite and wasps maybe but the other mammals we declare war on that maybe think we are invading their territory and not v.v. - have to do it sometimes though.