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LIVEBAITING

Graham Marsden

I'm coming out of the closet! In future, if I catch a pike, or any other species come to that, on a live fish, I'm going to say so, instead of being vague and describing the bait as a roach, or whatever, and leaving it to the imagination of the reader.

Yes, livebait, a controversial subject that was raised by Mick Brown in the May (1993) issue of Coarse Fisherman, in which he questioned the motives and wisdom of livebait bans. Unfortunately, Mick is known mainly as a staunch predator angler, and as such will be seen to be totally biased by those who don't fish for predators. Conveniently forgetting, of course, that they are equally biased the other way! I feel strongly about this livebaiting issue, and would like to stick in my pennyworth, from the point of view of an all-round coarse angler who divides his time almost equally between all coarse fish. I enjoy catching pike and occasionally small fish of other species, not necessarily for livebait.

Most of the pike anglers I know fish with livebaits at some time or other, not because they especially like the method, for the method's sake, but for the simple reason that it often produces the most fish. But like me, the majority probably fish most often with dead sea species, either for the reason that they are always available, or they reckon it is the best method on the day. When they do livebait they don't make a song and dance about it, and very rarely reply to those odd letters in the press renouncing the technique. They tend to keep their heads down because they've been made to feel guilty by a vociferous minority, most of whom don't fish for predators at all. When a big predator makes the weekly angling newspapers the captor plays it safe and declares that it was caught on a deadbait, even when the deadbait was very much alive. Or, as I have done in the past, was vague about the bait.

Because of this there is a general feeling amongst the editors and feature writers of some fishing journals that livebaiting is a dying art, when the truth is that it is very much alive and kicking, but keeping a low profile. The knock-on effect is that these journalists then promote the false impression that livebaiting is becoming, or has become, a thing of the past, and that it is indeed, a practice that should not be encouraged.

But what is a live bait? To listen to some of the anti-livebait protagonists the only livebait is a fish. Are not maggots, casters, worms, slugs, swan mussels, caddis, etc, etc, live, and used as bait? Is it not more to the point to say that the antis are against creatures that have eyes and mouths (that we can see clearly) being used as bait? If worms were cuddly creatures, instead of being slimy, and had a face that looked like it was smiling, instead of having a head that looks almost as much like its backside, then no doubt we would see a campaign against livebaiting that included worms.

My questions and comments are directed at anglers by the way, not the anti-angling fanatics who try to disrupt fishing every season. I've no time for them, although I acknowledge the damage they can do if we allow them to have too much of their own way. The majority of the antis are just a bunch of radicals who need a bandwagon to jump on, and if it wasn't our bandwagon it would be someone else's. To them the issues don't really matter. They just need to fight someone in a modern, publicly acceptable way, and now that the nuclear arms race isn't the burning issue it once was, then hunting, fishing, gay rights, or something, anything - will do.

No, my remarks are directed at those anglers who say livebaiting should be banned simply because they feel faint when they see a treble hook sliding into the dorsal root of a fish, and yet think nothing of sliding a hook through a worm or a maggot, or through the lips of the fish they are catching. My remarks are directed at those anglers who don't like the thought of a little roach being hung in old Esox's lair, and yet delight in hanging a little maggot amongst a shoal of roach. Such anglers haven't thought about it deeply enough; they are selfishly thinking about only their own feelings, and to hell with those who have no qualms about livebaiting, those who see no difference, morally, between a live fish and a live maggot. My questions are also directed at those club committee men who ban livebaiting because banning anything is the easy option, and they don't pike fish anyhow, so what the hell.

I don't deny that livebaiting is a volatile issue. Nor do I ignore the fact that the antis will use it to score points in their fight against us. What does concern me is that we lie down too easily and give in to pressure too readily. Do the anti-livebait anglers think that if we ban livebaiting the anti-anglers will give up their fight against us? Did our voluntary lead shot ban stop the hassle? And when livebaits are banned does anyone really think it will stop there? Not on your life, an attempt to ban all livebaits, including worms and maggots, will follow as sure as eggs are eggs.

Making concessions by banning the prominent part of an issue only adds fuel to the fire; it simply gives the antis the encouragement they need to take their fight a stage further. We should be fighting them every inch of the way, and not giving them anything with which to gain confidence. It is no use pleading that livebaiting with fish is difficult to defend, so it is better to concede that and hope the antis lie down. We're just get right back to the cuddly creature versus slimy creature syndrome again. If we concede that livebaiting is cruel (which we would do by virtue of the fact that we agree to ban it) how the hell do we defend the use of maggots and worms? Do we say, "Sorry, but we don't agree that using maggots and worms is cruel cos they look horrible and not nice like fish, and sticking a single hook in a roach's lip isn't as bad as sticking a treble in it's body?" Do you think anyone will listen to an argument like that? No? Then let us not put ourselves in that position.

Banning livebaits on waters where there is a genuine fear that anglers will transfer fish from other waters with the risk of transferring disease too, is a more reasoned fear. But as Mick Brown said, he doesn't know of any waters that have been wiped out by disease. Neither do I. Do you? A syndicate I belong to bans the use of livebaits from other waters, mainly for the reason that we don't want live fish used as bait that could be of a species we don't want in the water. Livebaiting with indigenous fish is not banned. Could those who ban the practice altogether simply be using disease and unwanted fish transfers as just another excuse to ban something that doesn't affect the majority of club members, and certainly doesn't affect the match angler? Again, the easy option.

There is a blanket ban on livebaiting in Ireland brought about by the spread of roach through Irish waters. Surely this is case of bolting the door when the horse has gone. What good it does now I've no idea, other than to restrict the methods available to catch pike in some of the best pike waters around. Okay, ban the practice on the trout waters if you must, but on coarse waters it makes no sense.

To those who livebait I say come out of the closet and defend your method. Don't allow editors, or anyone else, to think that no one uses livebaits these days. You can hardly blame them for having that impression if we persist in keeping it under wraps. I fish with anglers from all over the UK, and by far the overwhelming majority of predator anglers who use baitfish, use livebaits. To those who don't livebait, for whatever reason, defend it for those who do. If you don't it will be maggots and worms you will have to defend next, and lip-hooking the fish you catch - and it will be that much more difficult, believe me.

I'm not asking anyone to use livebaits, nor am I asking anyone to like others using livebaits. What I am asking for is a deeper understanding of the issues at stake, and to fight any livebait bans tooth and nail (where the ban is merely a sop to the anti-angling mob, or the easy option for club committees and other angling authorities) even if you don't use them yourself.

We cannot afford to allow anyone to knock any more nails in our coffin. Livebait bans are just one more step towards total bans on angling. Believe it.