News Post Leader - Letters Page

[lambtonworm]

had a run in with a dog walker on derwent water while i was piking,fishing 30 or so yards from a public footpath this black lab appeared out of nowhere and picked up a deadbait prepared for casting and made off ,luckily it only went a yard or so and i caught its collar,the owner appeared and between us remove the trace with thankfully barbless trebles with no harm to the dog,the owner apologised for the dog running loose and put it on the lead,and went on her way,but heres the twist,the well spoken lady in conversation later in her walk,spent a good five minutes slagging off careless anglers and the fact we should not be allowed on the lakes to endanger wildlife (though she had a dog loose in a national park)to a fellow walker.........wrong, the guy she picked to badmouth us was a fellow piker who was walking his dog and had spoke to us earlier in the day,on his way back he informed us of the conversation and got the true events,as the lady had to come past on the way back,she can now add foulmouthed to my list of offences........

[willywetegg]

I used to fish Blyth beach very regularly and had a few words with bad dog owners. Everyone that fishes a beach will have had a dog cocking it's leg over his gear whether it be box , rod or rodstand. The amount of times a dog owner would try to ignore it was incredible. A few selected words would always get their attention and sometimes you would even get a mumbled apology

I had an incident similar to yours Lambtonworm. A dog ate some of my bait and the owner hardly bothered to come and get it. He was very concerned when I told him there was a Pennel rig attatched to it though and attempted to start blaming me for having it INSIDE the top of my box. He was put right about the fact that the dog was not under control at all and went with his tail between his legs. I really hope he took his dog for an expensive xray, it might him take better care of his animals. If he did take the dog to the vet he would soon have found out that his dog didn't in fact swallow any hooks at all, just some rather expensive bait. Touche, I hope he reads this.

Jim.

[treeboa]

im in both bad camps then, i have dogs and i go fishing, often one of the dogs is with me, i know the feeling about dogs eating your bait, its happened to me a few times, though the young bitch is off squidd/lug/mussel cocktail after deciding to eat some of mine the other week and spending 10 minutes honking her guts up afterwards

[willywetegg]

I don't think either are bad camps, there are just people on both sides that give us all a bad name. I have spent long times on the beach talking with some of the dog owners and playing with their dogs. Got to know a few of them quite well over the years.

I have also fished with someone that left all of his unwanted rubbish (sandwiches and unused bait) sandwiches half covered by sand and Lugworm thrown all over the place. Needless to say he never came fishing with us again after we next saw him.

It is needless, when you walk off the beach you walk past a bin put there by the council. The amount of plastic bags on the floor full of dog waste is rediculous, too lazy to open the bin. Every night when I came off the beach I emptied my rubbish into the bin and all my Humbug wrappers out of my pocket went in too Anyone that has fished with me will understand that lol.

For the people that say they are sick of reading posts about rubbish on here, tough. If you don't like it don't read it. If we don't try to do something about it we will lose more and more places where we can fish comfortably. They are the worst of the lot, where people are fishing next to their car and still leave it on the floor.

As Lee said in the opening to this thread there are times when it can't really be helped when we lose a rig if our line snaps and gets washed up onto the shore. There is no excuse for leaving anything else when you come home, apart from footprints.

Jim.

[The Great Wallsendo]

one or two even said that there was no need for bins that the council should send people out to clean up after the fishermen have left their rubbish about.

It says it all really

Jim.

I think one or two even said "that's what you pay your council tax for" as well