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Fish killer - a surprising culprit, you say?

otter

Not suprising at all that It was a lovely cuddly little otter calling by for a carry out, anyone would think there were no chippys local:p
 
The most surprising fish catcher,and successful i have ever seen was a massive crow at Marsh farm on Harris the crucian lake.This crow worked out he/she could fly upwind and pick off roach that were sitting on the surface facing the other way.100% successful every time it dipped its claws in the water, out would come a roach,it would then fly towards the rail line,land and eat the prize.One day it managed to get a roach about 6oz up and out but dropped it into the field and was swarmed by the other 'normal' crows.What fantastic sport and show,never begrudged him/her any of its catch.
 
Yes I saw that in the York Press . Pound to a penny the Otter was on a foray from the River Foss which runs through Huntington . I guess the surprise was that Huntington is a semi urban area fairly close to the city . I think people listen to Kate Humble and expect these supposedly timid creatures only to frequent remote Scottish Lochs not murky urban rivers . There was at one point a pair right in the city centre on Foss Islands opposite Halfords superstore .
 
Just another incident for the list, but it won't make one iota of difference to how the public view otters in general. I am informed that otters will not frequent areas where humans, dogs etc. are in heavy concentrations....ie, towns and so on. If that ever was true, it certainly isn't now.

If they are ravaging garden ponds in urban areas, where the owner has taken reasonable steps to protect his valuable koi, then they must be pretty desperate. It is obviously indicative of the state of our waterways, rivers in particular. If their hunger is such that they are willing to take risks and overcome what apparently are their survival instincts, then their natural hunting areas (our rivers) must be unable to meet their needs in their present condition.

I do believe that many anglers have been saying this for some time. I wonder how long it will take for our lords and masters to finally accept that...and then how long it will be before they do something about it :mad:

Sorry Mike, I hadn't read your post before I pushed the 'go' button, lol.

Cheers, Dave.
 
It may not actually reflect the state of the waterways. Perhaps the otters, like the urban foxes, have found a supply of food that takes much less effort to attain.
 
Hi Anthony. I would agree with your thoughts to a certain extent, lots of fat koi with nowhere to go must be very attractive. However, this otter must surely have been hungry enough to leave its relatively safe home water to go searching extensively in an urban area to find those easy fish.

It didn't have Google earth to do a search, find the pond, then toss a coin 'Heads---fat, easy koi in a pond/ tails---stay in this under stocked river. So....what was it that led this little lovely to go walkabouts through noisy, dangerous streets, people, houses, bright lights, cars, and dogs everywhere?

Cheers, Dave.
 
I don't know exactly where the Koi take away was situated but I would guess it would not be far from the river , so I don't think it would have run much of a gauntlet [sic] . Otters , particularly males, have pretty big territories and wander far and wide , however I think there is some validity to Davids observations re there being an element of desperation / unnatural behaviour here . Unless of course this fellow was one of the semi tame otters that have been re released , not uncommon in this area as I have heard of an unofficial sanctuary not a million miles away . That said otter hunting was lunchtime sport on the Foss for local workers back in late victorian times
 
One of our members caught an otter on CCTV taking a hen from his small holding next to the Nidd. It scaled the wire fence to get in! No shortage of fish in the river so they're obviously branching out.
 
Is it still legal to hunt Mink with Hounds, maybe that's the way forward.

"We were after the Mink your honour, accidents happen...".
 
otter predators

Natural England suggest we should help the otters out by creating areas of river bank where they can build there holts safe from predators.
Not sure about predators but It does make you wonder how many otters we would have If there numbers were not being reduced by road traffic collisions.
 
So the question is:

Indigenous Otter
Or
Foreign fancy fish that corrupt our own species such as Crucian Carp?
 
David Gauntlett said:
Just another incident for the list, but it won't make one iota of difference to how the public view otters in general. I am informed that otters will not frequent areas where humans, dogs etc. are in heavy concentrations....ie, towns and so on. If that ever was true, it certainly isn't now.

If they are ravaging garden ponds in urban areas, where the owner has taken reasonable steps to protect his valuable koi, then they must be pretty desperate. It is obviously indicative of the state of our waterways, rivers in particular. If their hunger is such that they are willing to take risks and overcome what apparently are their survival instincts, then their natural hunting areas (our rivers) must be unable to meet their needs in their present condition.

I do believe that many anglers have been saying this for some time. I wonder how long it will take for our lords and masters to finally accept that...and then how long it will be before they do something about it :mad:

Sorry Mike, I hadn't read your post before I pushed the 'go' button, lol.

Cheers, Dave.
Click to expand...

So you really think Koi have more rights to exist that one of our native species do you?

Should we as Anglers fish for design, especially a particular species and expect that somehow we are to be exempt from the rigors of nature?

Surely the more pressing issues we have are the non-native species that are the real problems, Signals Mink and so on, I really cannot believe that a well informed man as you are, can go off on one at the merest mention of Mr 'O', sure there are problems with Otter, just too many of them, but as Anglers we have no chance of reversing what is here and now.

So I guess we better just knuckle down and get on with the other issues that blight our past time.

And Dave, please spare the endless political Lefty politics come into virtually every post you type:(
 
Darren Scott said:
Is it still legal to hunt Mink with Hounds, maybe that's the way forward.

"We were after the Mink your honour, accidents happen...".
Click to expand...

Surely before posting this you might understand that since 2004 it has been illegal to hunt with dogs for Mammals in this country.

Posts such as this do Angling no favours really, there is no way forward in Angling taking the law into it's own hands, unless of course you want all Anglers to feel the backlash.
 
Mark Walsingham puts a good balanced view about otters in Augusts edition of carpworld, Ashmead diaries page 61.
 
Neil Smart said:
And Dave, please spare the endless political Lefty politics come into virtually every post you type:(
Click to expand...

The only "Dave" on this thread seems to be David Gauntlett, whose post you quoted in your reply. I've read both his posts and am struggling to see any politics in either of them, "Lefty" or otherwise.

*shrug*

R.
 
FWIW, I like otters, and love seeing them on the river bank. I do, however, think it's just stupid to introduce too many to an environment that is not able to support them, as seems to be happening all over the country.

R.
 
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