Polish Pikers
 

Hi All,

I've been fishing some of my regular locations on the river Trent. There has
been an influx of Polish people to the area recently. When I have been
fishing they are polite and interested in fishing methods, but are taking
pike from the river. They have licenses and are legal, but feel that they
are eroding the pike stock in the Trent. This is not the odd pike, they are
being hammered. Is this legal? I have concerns for the future of pike in the
Trent!

Cheers Matt

Polish Pikers
 

In article , matthew walker
wrote:
Hi All,

I've been fishing some of my regular locations on the river Trent. There has
been an influx of Polish people to the area recently. When I have been
fishing they are polite and interested in fishing methods, but are taking
pike from the river. They have licenses and are legal, but feel that they
are eroding the pike stock in the Trent. This is not the odd pike, they are
being hammered. Is this legal?

I don't know your area's bylaws - your fishery office will let you have a
copy on request - and the rules for each fishery may have to applied on top.

I have concerns for the future of pike in the
Trent!

....but don't worry on that score. Many game fisheries used to try to
eradicate pike from their waters and none ever succeeded. You only need to
retain a few females in the headwaters or some forgotten backwater and
you'll have many thousand replacement fry the next year.

The most likely result, if large fish are taken out, is that there will be
a population boom over the next couple of years as the jacks that were the
prey of the big females suddenly have no predator...

As it happens the best eating size is around 7lb btw.

As a consequence you will have greater predation among the middle sized
silver fish and this in turn will allow faster growth as the competition for
wild foods diminishes. There may be a few years confusion but the end
result - as the pike stocks return to max when the harvesting slows down,
will be a few year classes of relatively *large* specimens and a better
distribution of sizes.

We tend to forget that naturally there should be much more predation in our
rivers by bears, fish-eagles, storks, otters and others. It isn't healthy
for a river ecosystem never to have large, old, fish removed - they block
the growth path for their replacements. The very biggest fish are those
which were able to grow quickly as well as large, which means there must not
be too much competition from their own kind.

Cheerio,

--
Fishing: http://www.fishing.casterbridge.net/
Writing: http://www.author.casterbridge.net/derek-moody/
uk.rec.fishing.game Badge Page:
http://www.fishing.casterbridge.net/urfg/

Polish Pikers
 

We had the problem at a local pool but they were taking the tench, the pool
now sports 2 mountain bikes and 3 sets of tackle in the weeds at the lower
end, thanks to a small group of local guys. The poles no longer fish there
as far as we know.

"matthew walker" wrote in message
...
Hi All,

I've been fishing some of my regular locations on the river Trent. There
has
been an influx of Polish people to the area recently. When I have been
fishing they are polite and interested in fishing methods, but are taking
pike from the river. They have licenses and are legal, but feel that they
are eroding the pike stock in the Trent. This is not the odd pike, they
are
being hammered. Is this legal? I have concerns for the future of pike in
the
Trent!

Cheers Matt

Polish Pikers
 

On Mon, 15 Oct 2007, The Midnight Rider, gave forth these words of
wisdom:
We had the problem at a local pool but they were taking the tench, the
pool now sports 2 mountain bikes and 3 sets of tackle in the weeds at
the lower end, thanks to a small group of local guys. The poles no
longer fish there as far as we know.
Nice bit of xenophobia! Good luck to them if they want to eat the fish
that we consider inedible. Try Derek's 7lb Pike poached with herbs and
served with a Hollandaise Sauce. No wonder to Pole's love them :-}
If you want to moan about the state of fishing in this country then stop
the bloody Spanish trawling up our mackerel and sand eels, (OOPS! Sorry
wrong NG).
Alec (worming today - loads of roach and perch)
Have fun and chill out
--
Alec Powell

(Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards)

Watlington
Oxfordshire
UK

Polish Pikers
 

"Derek Moody" wrote in message
...
In article , matthew walker
wrote:
Hi All,

I've been fishing some of my regular locations on the river Trent. There
has
been an influx of Polish people to the area recently. When I have been
fishing they are polite and interested in fishing methods, but are
taking
pike from the river. They have licenses and are legal, but feel that
they
are eroding the pike stock in the Trent. This is not the odd pike, they
are
being hammered. Is this legal?

I don't know your area's bylaws - your fishery office will let you have a
copy on request - and the rules for each fishery may have to applied on
top.

I have concerns for the future of pike
in the
Trent!

...but don't worry on that score. Many game fisheries used to try to
eradicate pike from their waters and none ever succeeded. You only need
to
retain a few females in the headwaters or some forgotten backwater and
you'll have many thousand replacement fry the next year.

The most likely result, if large fish are taken out, is that there will be
a population boom over the next couple of years as the jacks that were the
prey of the big females suddenly have no predator...

As it happens the best eating size is around 7lb btw.

As a consequence you will have greater predation among the middle sized
silver fish and this in turn will allow faster growth as the competition
for
wild foods diminishes. There may be a few years confusion but the end
result - as the pike stocks return to max when the harvesting slows down,
will be a few year classes of relatively *large* specimens and a better
distribution of sizes.

We tend to forget that naturally there should be much more predation in
our
rivers by bears, fish-eagles, storks, otters and others. It isn't healthy
for a river ecosystem never to have large, old, fish removed - they block
the growth path for their replacements. The very biggest fish are those
which were able to grow quickly as well as large, which means there must
not
be too much competition from their own kind.

Cheerio,

--
Fishing: http://www.fishing.casterbridge.net/
Writing: http://www.author.casterbridge.net/derek-moody/
uk.rec.fishing.game Badge Page:
http://www.fishing.casterbridge.net/urfg/
Cheers for the response you have put my mind at ease.

Polish Pikers
 

They Take the Jacks as well, will this not affect the future of pike? Like I
have stated before this is on a large scale, they are also taking other
preditor species such as perch.
"matthew walker" wrote in message
...

"Derek Moody" wrote in message
...
In article , matthew walker
wrote:
Hi All,

I've been fishing some of my regular locations on the river Trent.
There
has
been an influx of Polish people to the area recently. When I have been
fishing they are polite and interested in fishing methods, but are
taking
pike from the river. They have licenses and are legal, but feel that
they
are eroding the pike stock in the Trent. This is not the odd pike,
they
are
being hammered. Is this legal?

I don't know your area's bylaws - your fishery office will let you have
a
copy on request - and the rules for each fishery may have to applied on
top.

I have concerns for the future of pike
in the
Trent!

...but don't worry on that score. Many game fisheries used to try to
eradicate pike from their waters and none ever succeeded. You only need
to
retain a few females in the headwaters or some forgotten backwater and
you'll have many thousand replacement fry the next year.

The most likely result, if large fish are taken out, is that there will
be
a population boom over the next couple of years as the jacks that were
the
prey of the big females suddenly have no predator...

As it happens the best eating size is around 7lb btw.

As a consequence you will have greater predation among the middle sized
silver fish and this in turn will allow faster growth as the competition
for
wild foods diminishes. There may be a few years confusion but the end
result - as the pike stocks return to max when the harvesting slows
down,
will be a few year classes of relatively *large* specimens and a better
distribution of sizes.

We tend to forget that naturally there should be much more predation in
our
rivers by bears, fish-eagles, storks, otters and others. It isn't
healthy
for a river ecosystem never to have large, old, fish removed - they
block
the growth path for their replacements. The very biggest fish are those
which were able to grow quickly as well as large, which means there must
not
be too much competition from their own kind.

Cheerio,

--
Fishing: http://www.fishing.casterbridge.net/
Writing: http://www.author.casterbridge.net/derek-moody/
uk.rec.fishing.game Badge Page:
http://www.fishing.casterbridge.net/urfg/
Cheers for the response you have put my mind at ease.

Polish Pikers
 

In article , matthew walker
wrote:

I've been fishing some of my regular locations on the river Trent.

are eroding the pike stock in the Trent. This is not the odd pike,

They Take the Jacks as well, will this not affect the future of pike? Like I
have stated before this is on a large scale, they are also taking other
preditor species such as perch.

They'd need to be taking them from the entire catchment - the Trent is a big
enough system that they'll never get the lot. Whilst you might have a
temporary local shortage - it might last a few months, long enough to
deter the less persistent pikers - the very next set of big floods will move
fish around and you'll have a natural redistribution.

At the rate jacks grow this years fry are already around 6" and just
vacating the really shallow headwaters and tributaries. They are running
the gauntlet of last years fry, now over a pound in weight, who must also
move down a little into the range of the jacks that are just growing big
enough to catch on a line...

Take a look at a big (15lb+) female - pike eggs are small, she'll spawn tens
of thousands in a tiny ditch next february - only a very few females need to
survive to keep up the population.

if -everyone- fishing the river was taking fish you would probably notice a
drop in numbers but there would still be a range of fish present and a few
of them might become very big. It's not as if modern trawlers were scraping
the bottom every day.

I really do think that most fisheries are -improved- by removing a few of
the larger fish every year. Round here (Dorset) the chalk streams have
a proportion of the trout and grayling removed by anglers and regular
electrofishing sessions to remove pike. There is no shortage of pike and
some of them grow very big. Nowadays the keepers return large pike (because
they keep the jacks down) and remove as many as possible of the jacks - this
gives them the best size profile for the effort involved. If they take out
the biggest pike they know they will have a jack population explosion next
year.

Cheerio,

--
Fishing: http://www.fishing.casterbridge.net/
Writing: http://www.author.casterbridge.net/derek-moody/
uk.rec.fishing.game Badge Page:
http://www.fishing.casterbridge.net/urfg/

Polish Pikers
 

Cool with me, just wanted feed back. To be honest don't see owt wrong with
taking the odd one. Was more concerned about the over all picture. Ther're
is a bit of bad feeling about it here at the moment. Though when I was a kid
I remember my grand dad catching pike and it gettting served up on the
dinner table. I'm reassured that the population can take it. Cheers for all
responses
Matt
"Derek Moody" wrote in message
...
In article , matthew walker
wrote:

I've been fishing some of my regular locations on the river Trent.

are eroding the pike stock in the Trent. This is not the odd pike,

They Take the Jacks as well, will this not affect the future of pike?
Like I
have stated before this is on a large scale, they are also taking other
preditor species such as perch.

They'd need to be taking them from the entire catchment - the Trent is a
big
enough system that they'll never get the lot. Whilst you might have a
temporary local shortage - it might last a few months, long enough to
deter the less persistent pikers - the very next set of big floods will
move
fish around and you'll have a natural redistribution.

At the rate jacks grow this years fry are already around 6" and just
vacating the really shallow headwaters and tributaries. They are running
the gauntlet of last years fry, now over a pound in weight, who must also
move down a little into the range of the jacks that are just growing big
enough to catch on a line...

Take a look at a big (15lb+) female - pike eggs are small, she'll spawn
tens
of thousands in a tiny ditch next february - only a very few females need
to
survive to keep up the population.

if -everyone- fishing the river was taking fish you would probably notice
a
drop in numbers but there would still be a range of fish present and a few
of them might become very big. It's not as if modern trawlers were
scraping
the bottom every day.

I really do think that most fisheries are -improved- by removing a few of
the larger fish every year. Round here (Dorset) the chalk streams have
a proportion of the trout and grayling removed by anglers and regular
electrofishing sessions to remove pike. There is no shortage of pike and
some of them grow very big. Nowadays the keepers return large pike
(because
they keep the jacks down) and remove as many as possible of the jacks -
this
gives them the best size profile for the effort involved. If they take
out
the biggest pike they know they will have a jack population explosion next
year.

Cheerio,

--
Fishing: http://www.fishing.casterbridge.net/
Writing: http://www.author.casterbridge.net/derek-moody/
uk.rec.fishing.game Badge Page:
http://www.fishing.casterbridge.net/urfg/

Polish Pikers
 

No worries dude, I fish along side them. Will Recommend The lakes and rivers
of oxfordshire
"Alec Powell" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 15 Oct 2007, The Midnight Rider, gave forth these words of
wisdom:
We had the problem at a local pool but they were taking the tench, the
pool now sports 2 mountain bikes and 3 sets of tackle in the weeds at
the lower end, thanks to a small group of local guys. The poles no
longer fish there as far as we know.
Nice bit of xenophobia! Good luck to them if they want to eat the fish
that we consider inedible. Try Derek's 7lb Pike poached with herbs and
served with a Hollandaise Sauce. No wonder to Pole's love them :-}
If you want to moan about the state of fishing in this country then stop
the bloody Spanish trawling up our mackerel and sand eels, (OOPS! Sorry
wrong NG).
Alec (worming today - loads of roach and perch)
Have fun and chill out
--
Alec Powell

(Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards)

Watlington
Oxfordshire
UK

Polish Pikers
 

"Alec Powell" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 15 Oct 2007, The Midnight Rider, gave forth these words of
wisdom:
We had the problem at a local pool but they were taking the tench, the
pool now sports 2 mountain bikes and 3 sets of tackle in the weeds at
the lower end, thanks to a small group of local guys. The poles no
longer fish there as far as we know.
Nice bit of xenophobia!

Not xenophobia, just fact! We have culteral differences in the way we fish.
I beleive in catch and release. The odd meal , fair enough. Don't see the
point in hammering the local stock and spoiling for others. Good luck in
your endeavours !

Good luck to them if they want to eat the fish
that we consider inedible. Try Derek's 7lb Pike poached with herbs and
served with a Hollandaise Sauce. No wonder to Pole's love them :-}
If you want to moan about the state of fishing in this country then stop
the bloody Spanish trawling up our mackerel and sand eels, (OOPS! Sorry
wrong NG).
Alec (worming today - loads of roach and perch)
Have fun and chill out
--
Alec Powell

(Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards)

Watlington
Oxfordshire
UK