22 | 9 JULY anglersmail.com
John’s
POINT
OF VIEW
What’s caught my
attention this week!Otter poo findings
The other day I found
one of those areas
where otters love to poo.
It seems that they are
visited over and over,
leaving a whole load of
samples to analyse.
There was old,
dried-out stuff, but also
droppings that were
steaming fresh.
Like all of the otter
poo I study, it was full
of bits of crayfish and a
few snails and mallard
feathers. There wasn’t a
fish scale or bone to be
seen.
I find the same on all
of my waters, and this is
why I don’t get stressed
about otters being
present. I did find a half
eaten chub in March,
but that is the only fish
death this year, and we
are now into July.
I accept that my
waters are big and deep,
and the fish are wild, but
my message remains the
same: cormorants are
anglers’ No.1 enemy.Ruddy marvellous
The Mail carried a story
of a mammoth rudd
brace of 4 lb 8 oz and
4 lb the other week. Is
there a more fabulous
fish in the UK than a
3 lb-plus rudd?
They are so glorious,
they are almost
impossible to believe, let
alone take in.
I love the way that
rudd waters suddenly
appear out of nowhere.
For years they have
been off the radar,
but suddenly they are
producing monsters.
Bucklands, in Kent,
was a good example a
few years back, though
it defeated my paltry
efforts.
Thanks to the report
in Angler’s Mail, I think
I’ll go and investigate
some of the waters
around here that used
to hold rudd a few years
back.
You never know, I
might strike gold myself.resulted in another sad statistic
of anglers lost to drowning.
Never, ever take risks afloat.
Tiredness
Paul Whitehouse talked to me
about losing a rod overboard on
an Irish lough when he was tired,
and he hadn’t noticed rocks
creeping up on him.
I remembered a pike trip to
Mask, in 1992, when I was done
in at the end of a tough day of
battling the ferocious elements.
I hooked a pike on one of the
two treble hooks on my rig and
lifted it from the water by hand.
The pike squirmed, slipped from
my grasp and the weight of the
fish pulled the top treble into my
index finger, right to the bone.
So there I was, in agony, hooked
to a thrashing pike with the boat
fast being pushed towards a
jagged outcrop by the lashing
wind. I got away with it, just, but
it was a massive lesson: do not
take risks when you are tired.
Mostly, fatigue results in small
errors, nothing more serious
than a tangle or two, but if you
are in a potentially dangerous
situation, get out of it, fast.
The worst of all
At the end of it all, it is the fish,
the environment and wildlife
that count above everything
else. It is a privilege to be an
angler, and one we must never
abuse. A couple of summers ago
I was sitting in the car park of
my favourite pike lake.
Something, goodness knows
what, made me check the
ground, where I found a wire
trace consisting of three treble
hooks that one of my mates had
tied up in the winter.
Think if it had fouled the legs
of the owner’s Labrador or a
passing deer or badger. It is easy
to make mistakes when packing
up in the dark, in the rain and
in the cold, but take extra carewhen trebles are involved.
The other year, my mate
hadn’t checked his alarm
batteries. He was asleep and
missed an endlessly long run,
but luckily the fish had thrown
the hook, otherwise it could
have been tethered.
A few winters back, three carp
rods were left fishing through
the ice on Kingfisher Lake.
There had been a freeze-up,
and the lines were out as the
temperature plummeted.
I didn’t hear about it for
days and, would you believe,
the angler had just cleared off,
leaving them out there, before I
arrived on the scene. It doesn’t
bear thinking about the damage
that plonker could have done.
But we all have skeletons. The
recent warmer weather made
me remember a baking hot day
only five years ago when I left a
chub in a sack for just an hour
while I went for some scales and
a camera. It was dead on my
return. I was devastated, and
always will be.
If all this column does is say
to you never leave a fish in the
summer heat, it will have been
worth writing. Cock-ups happen.
Just try to ensure that they
are as rare as you can possibly
make them.Playing a huge mahseer from a
coracle in India. It always amazed me
that there weren’t serious incidents
out there. A testimony to the skill of
the guides, for sure.Dreadful fishing. Three lines left out at Kingfisher Lake during a
freeze-up. It could easily have resulted in a carp becoming tethered.
A number of years ago David Chapple tried to cast out a herring on a
13 ft float rod... with shattering results. He learned from his cock-up,
got the right gear, and a 30 lb pike was the result.