Do Fish benefit from Lockdown?

[62tucker]

What fish will benefit from no fishing if any.
Will the early spawning species like pike and perch have a better year or not make a difference.
Maybe a pike getting caught a few time will effect its spawning.
looking for positives.

 

[Dave Spence]

On natural, heavy fished waters, I would say that a none fishing period is beneficial not only to the fish but also to the environment. In the old closed season days it was always nice to see the banks looking fresh on june 16th. I think the opposite is true of a lot of commercials where there is little natural food and the fish rely on anglers bait as their staple diet.

 

[ukzero1]

I think it depends on personal opinions. During the last lockdown, and as being bailiff on the club waters, I was given bags of various sized pellets and quite a few gallon of maggots and casters to keep the fish fed. These were given to me by the local tackle shop when they had to close (and where our club treasuerer works). As our lakes are 'members only', then I'm sure the fish appreciated the feed they were getting when fishing wasn't allowed.

 

[rudd]

They wont starve this time of year.
Churned up banks will benefit as will cormorants and other wildlife.

 

[Robwooly]

Last spring I witnessed the local youth trying to foulhook breeding bream on the canal under a boat, they ended up breaking one of their rods. I suppose that scenario won't happen in lockdown. Flora will recover well and water will go clear with less boats so cormorants could do well, could be a bit of a trade off..

Not sure about pike and perch, I bet there will still be some people out after for them

 

[gingert76]

natural venues should be fine but commercials need anglers baits in most instances

 

[chefster]

natural venues should be fine but commercials need anglers baits in most instances

Most commercials will feed their fish , when there’s no anglers

 

[gingert76]

not enough feed, that i know from chatting to two local fisheries, why are you always saying i am wrong? its getting a tad old now, and certainly not high biomass fisheries that are heavily stocked! you even said "most" yourself so its not all and commercials rely on anglers baits in a lot of instances

 

[chefster]

not enough feed, that i know from chatting to two local fisheries, why are you always saying i am wrong? its getting a tad old now, and certainly not high biomass fisheries that are heavily stocked! you even said "most" yourself so its not all and commercials rely on anglers baits in a lot of instances

I’m not always saying you’re wrong, sometimes I do disagree with you, but no more than I may disagree with anyone elseI think you’re being a bit paranoid

 

[gingert76]

whatever you say but see it loads of times and its just getting a tad boring to see, not paranoid at all just bored of it

owners freely admit they cannot afford to feed enough to replace the food from anglers and thank god its winter time as if it was summer you would either see fish dying or fisheries going bust, quite staggering when you see how much food is needed on a lot of lakes

 

[chefster]

whatever you say but see it loads of times and its just getting a tad boring to see, not paranoid at all just bored of it

owners freely admit they cannot afford to feed enough to replace the food from anglers and thank god its winter time as if it was summer you would either see fish dying or fisheries going bust, quite staggering when you see how much food is needed on a lot of lakes

I’m only going on the fisheries I know, and last year they were closed, early spring to early summer and they fed the fish and didn’t suffer mass losses And for future reference, I will avoid any posts/threads that you are involved in so I don’t upset you

 

[gingert76]

well ive been to fisheries i know and seen starving fish so

 

[crackatoa]

Most commercials will feed their fish , when there’s no anglers

Exactly. I know Partridge and The Old Hough, two fisheries I visit most, certainly do, throughout the year. It's in the fishery owners interest to feed, even when fishing is allowed. Rotation of lakes and pegs helps managers keep control of the feed anglers put in and top up if required.
It's not hard to see which don't feed their stock. You only have to look at the pics of proud catches to see where starving fish are being caught. All too common on social media.

 

[tipitinmick]

I’ve heard about commercial fisheries feeding their fish but, I’ve never witnessed it up here. Probably why you guys down south have far better commercials than we do. It takes them all their time to switch their aerators on in the height of summer. I hate seeing carp gasping on the top of a lake.

 

[Sebbie]

I joined a new club in May last year that has 3 natural waters, none of which were fed during lockdown due to the abundance of natural food.

They are mixed fisheries with slivers and carp, and for 2 where the carp are primarily less than 12lb the fishing has been good all year. The third has fewer, larger carp plus good stocks of bream, tench, crucians and roach.

Apparently the bream and tench previously fed avidly on pellets, boilies and corn, but since lockdown 1.0 was lifted in May the fishing there has been rather sporadic and only those using natural baits and finer tackle seem to have caught in any quantities. Accordingly it may be that the fish have developed a taste for natural baits and so it’ll be interesting to see what happens when we’re eventually allowed back on there.

I rather like the fact that it’s no longer about slinging out loads of bait and sitting semi-dormant behind your bite alarms but rather you have to use some craft to catch them, and so I hope that this is the case once more.

 

[Ken the Pacman]

I cant see it making much difference because January to March is the quietest period especially if the weather is bad waters frozen etc. the pressure is reduced every year in this period and the fish will not be eating much anyway.

 

[smiffy]

The only thing I noticed after the last lockdown was the amount of Carp I was catching on some of my clubs waters. These are runs waters so have a relatively high stocking of Carp. Not commercial densities but more aimed at Carp anglers that like to catch fish every session. I could fish a normal cage feeder, for Bream, and catch these fish quite easily for a few weeks. A grain of corn on the hook rather than a hair also. After the first few sessions it quietened down and I wouldn’t see any at all. Maybe if we had those type of fisheries when we had the old closed season I would have found the same. The fish all seemed in good nick. A bit lean maybe but fought hard.
I caught a lot of Tench aswell but fewer Bream.
I certainly don’t think the lockdown did any harm. It was nice to be sitting on grass rather than bare ground.

 

[Robwooly]

The only thing I noticed after the last lockdown was the amount of Carp I was catching on some of my clubs waters. These are runs waters so have a relatively high stocking of Carp. Not commercial densities but more aimed at Carp anglers that like to catch fish every session. I could fish a normal cage feeder, for Bream, and catch these fish quite easily for a few weeks. A grain of corn on the hook rather than a hair also. After the first few sessions it quietened down and I wouldn’t see any at all. Maybe if we had those type of fisheries when we had the old closed season I would have found the same. The fish all seemed in good nick. A bit lean maybe but fought hard.
I caught a lot of Tench aswell but fewer Bream.
I certainly don’t think the lockdown did any harm. It was nice to be sitting on grass rather than bare ground.

A lot of younger anglers maybe don't realise that this is what the start of the fishing season used to be like, there used to be some huge catches of bream and tench to dedicated anglers(not me lol) back in the day, on natural venues too, don't seem to see them as much nowadays.

 

[Silver fan 82]

What fish will benefit from no fishing if any.
Will the early spawning species like pike and perch have a better year or not make a difference.
Maybe a pike getting caught a few time will effect its spawning.
looking for positives.

Pike don't deal very well with the stress of being caught often. I would guess on heavily fished waters they will definitely benefit from a bit of peace while spawning.

 

[Keith Sparky]

My concern is that the small fish are missing out on valuable being caught early time that may effect their life chances and lack of free food will stunt their development unless Mr Rashford starts a new campaign to feed our fish during lockdown particularly if they swim in deprived lakes................