Posted on 01/06/2007 8:18:54 PM PST by blam
Anglers fear ban on 'cruel' live bait will spread
By Jasper Copping, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:30am GMT 07/01/2007
Anglers are to be banned from using live fish as bait after politicians decided it was cruel.
The ban, which will apply in Scotland, has angered fishermen south of the border who believe it has handed a major victory to animal rights campaigners calling for similar legislation in the rest of Britain.
Steve Greenway, a leading angler from Staffordshire who has been on 105 fishing trips to Scotland, said: "If I thought live bait was cruel, I wouldn't use it. Where will it all end? Do you stop using maggots and worms as well?"
advertisement Mark Barrett, the general secretary of the Pike Anglers' Club of Great Britain, said: "To have the law change like this on your doorstep is going to be a concern for people in the rest of the UK."
The blanket ban was a last-minute amendment to the Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill, which has just passed through the Scottish Parliament without any objections.
It has already been strongly endorsed by Scotland's deputy environment minister Rhona Brankin and will pass through the legislature for a final time in the next three months before becoming law.
Green Party MSP Eleanor Scott, who is deputy convenor of the environment and rural affairs development committee and an architect of the Bill, said: "Anglers won't like me saying it, but fish do feel pain and we felt there was a cruelty issue here."
The politicians also believe live bait threatens fish stocks by introducing alien species into their habitats which may bring diseases and parasites.
Putting live small fish such as roach on a hook is a common tactic for catching larger, predatory fish like trout, perch and pike, which are drawn to the movement.
The coarse fishing industry contributes up to £7 million a year to the Scottish economy. Ron Woods, a policy officer from the Scottish Federation for Coarse Angling, said: "This will hurt fishing tourism."
But Yvonne Taylor, from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the ban was a "massive first step" in the group's fight for one in the rest of Britain.
Angling is the nation's most popular participation sport, with an estimated four million devotees. In recent years their hobby has been increasingly targeted by animal rights activists. Last summer saw a spate of attacks on fishermen.
Scientists are divided on the issue of whether fish can feel pain.
As I told you, fish follow me home.
Here in S.E. Michigan, fishermen use puppies and kittens as bait when fishing for muskies.........
If you live a good life when you go to Heaven all the fishing will be topwater. (When bass are hitting on poppers or spook baits fishing just doesn't get any better.)
I want to go to one of those fly fishing only streams and start tossing poppers like you would use for bass and panfish. Everything would be according to the letter of the law, but it would still make the purists wet their waders to see someone tossing some honking big frog with rubber legs instead of a size 22 midge pattern. I would probably catch some nice trout, too, because a big trout wouldn't want to pass up a big meal, especially something he's never seen before. That would make the purists do more than just wet their waders.
Trout are pretty smart critters for fish. He would rise up to check out the popper and then go about his business.
"If you live a good life when you go to Heaven all the fishing will be topwater."
Amen, that's my philosphy, I love topwater fishing.
And, like I told you, you must have some powerful bait.
Fish are so afraid of me they jump out of the water and start running when they see me approaching.
They are so afraid of Grammy, when I invited her to go fishing here and they heard about it, they migrated to middle Tennessee.
They have to stock bass now at Reelfoot cause I caught 'em all on my last trip . . .
I've done some fishing for redfish around Lake Charles, hope to fish the basin someday.
A friend told me about sight fishing for them during the spawn, that's something I really want to do.
We need you in here to help me and Grammy out fishergirl.
I wish the NC marine fisheries people would get off their arses and ban gill nets in the sounds/creeks of NC. The by-catch kill is an abomination.
Won't be long before some wacko group or another tries to have disinfectants banned on the grounds that they're cruel to microbes.
You have proven that you are qualified to be a fisherman. The next thing you will tell us is that your arms are too short to show us how big that crappie was. Or that your taxidermist charges by the pound, and your bluegill cost more than your 10 point buck. We're getting the picture and the picture weighs five pounds.
"Or that your taxidermist charges by the pound, and your bluegill cost more than your 10 point buck"
LOL
Unfortunately the bad went to worse, temps have been in the 40's and no ice! Damn!
Called up the local fishin' hotline and they said the canals feeding into Lake St. clair here outside Detroit have been producing lots of perch so I went down to the local beach with my bucket and ice rod to do some perch fishing off the marina docks.
Its kinda sunny with the temperature comfortable at about 32 but winds gusting around 20 MPH. Water is too riled up to catch anything but that is what the fishing hotline warned about anyway but I thought I would give it a try. Had my good lined shooting gloves with me and when I took them off to fix my line, they blew off the dock and that was the end of that. So, to cut my loses, I packed up my gear and headed home to place another order with Cabelas for those gloves............
Go figure, I finally have a whole winter to myself to ice fish but no ice...........Now thats Bad Luck!
Where do the Scots come down on dynamite-fishing?
You hate like hell trying to explain to the neighbor kids what happened to their pets when you got no fish to show for it.......
That's because there is a Terminator Model .00101 loose among them.
John Connor Cricket must die!
Somebody else was telling me the other day they ice fish, and had no ice. We've had some unusually warm weather here lately and I'm not complaining.
So sorry for your bad luck. It'll get better.
Sounds like you need a nice trip down to Texas or somewhere bass fishing.
Boy, was Santa good to you!
Britian and Europe have lost their collective freakin' minds...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.