Monday 14 January 2019

Royal Flush?


A trip to The Royalty in search of pike - I’ve had a lot of fish from here, but despite it’s reputation for big pike I’ve never managed a double (having lost 2 in the past). Time for another blast...


It was tough going, everyone I spoke to was blanking; barbel, chub, pike and even silvers weren’t playing. But in the afternoon my float hammered under, not a double but a jack to save a blank.


Staying into dark the only other fish caught on the fishery were a few small chub and salmon parr, as dejected anglers walked past. Just a bad day or did the otter footprints everywhere tell the real story?


There were scales from recent kills scattered about, I found this perch and the bailiff told me they’d found a pike the day before that would have gone twenty. Is time running out on this famous fishery?

11 comments:

  1. Time could well be running over...and yes there has been otters on there for years and I’ve seen them on numerous occasions, but I would if one has paired up and reared a little which have stuck around..makes you wonder. Although I feel I fished well it may well have just been an off day. Nice one on the Pike ;)

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    1. Wonder, not would and out not over...god auto correct is atrocious!

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    2. As only an infrequent visitor it’s hard to tell what effect they’ve had, it could well of just been and off day. But there were footprints top to bottom of the beat, and there was evidence of a lot of fish kills down by the bridge.

      Chatting to the bailiff, they are aware that it’s become a problem but there is nothing they can legally do about it.

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    3. Maybe it's about time they used their initiative ;o)

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    4. And sooner rather than later, it’s a very public area so their ‘initiative’ would almost certainly need a silencer!

      I just think introducing them was a daft idea, you wouldn’t introduce wolves to fields of livestock or bears to supermarkets...

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    5. And talking to the guys in the tackle shop ticket sales are right down and catch reports pretty minimal.

      Perhaps a few dead salmon with their throats ripped out might cause something to be done about it!

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  2. Otters are cute and furry, fish aren't. Some taken salmon might up the ante a bit but not enough.

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    1. That is the unfortunate truth of it - and most non-anglers never get to see them, cute or not!

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    2. In fact we, as a group, should be trying to change public opinion of them from cute and furry fish eaters to large, vicious rodents that kill the cute little baby birds..!

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    3. Shame that the RSPB are quite partial to culling one species of bird to favour another so have litle currency to antagonise the whiskers lovers

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    4. A decent video of an otter murdering a cute, fluffy defenceless baby duckling would go a long way :-)

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