John Bailey – The Kingfisher Diaries
March 3rd 2010
Tony Miles Speaks Out
I seriously recommend anybody reading this blog gets out there to their newsagents and tries to buy a copy of the March 2010 Coarse Fisherman magazine. Failing your newsagent, why not give them a ring for a copy on 01162894567?
But why the importance?
Simply, it's the piece on otters and their impact on our fisheries by Tony Miles that is so direct, so well researched and so heartbreaking. Tony makes it quite clear that he always feared the twin threats of cormorants and signal crayfish. Throw otters into this equation and, as he says, the future is darker than I can ever remember.
Tony is right to stress the perils are especially serious on small, intimate rivers with comparatively low fish populations. Just like the Wensum, Bure, Waveney and Yare.
If we go back just ten years or so, I think we were all confident of seeing bigger barbel and better barbel fishing all around the country. This is now not the case. The whole thrust has stalled.
And it's not just barbel of course, though this species is perhaps dearest to Tony. Chub numbers in the Wensum have fallen dramatically; there can be no doubt about that. And, interestingly, the magazine used one of my photographs across a double spread. A photograph of a massive tench I took at Kingfisher's about a year ago. It was lying largely eaten on the lake's north bank. Otter marks all around.
I know the safe view of most conservationists is that a balance will be reached. But I'm now seriously doubting this. I don't think otters and cormorants know the meaning of the word balance, do they? We are simply faced with too many predators and too few fish. And the disparity appears to be growing wider each and every month.
Read the piece. Contact us at Kingfishers and tell us what you think. Most importantly, how do we go forward in the future? What is the way for our natural fish stocks in natural fisheries?