Has the mania about otters died down?

[framey]

1 hour ago, OldBoy said:

Any facts about that mate?!!

Suspect a lot of peoples housing now flooding because of... new builds on flood plains, to much overbuilding over natural drainage... concrete drives, artifical grass etc etc.

Bring on the beavers, might have stopped the flood disasters in some where like Boscastle if they could have stopped the dredged out river to cause so many lost lives?

Oh and poor farmers will no doubt be bleating on later... what about the toxic waste they (some of them) allow to pollute our rivers...

Tin hat on but just a cynical old git lol

Only heard on radio one of those “my mates mate” type talk show.

but I can see it happening along with the building on the flood planes 

 

Didn’t think anyone died in boscastle floods ??

 

[OldBoy]

16 hours ago, jules007 said:

Otters raiding all the fisheries and now Beavers coming back, i guess next step will be the Wolf as a predator to maintain numbers  

There was an episode of the Windsors, where Charlie boy had done rewilding and had to reintroduce bigger preditors to solve the problem!

Yes a great comedy series but maybe an element of truth in it 😃

[OldBoy]

15 hours ago, framey said:

Only heard on radio one of those “my mates mate” type talk show.

but I can see it happening along with the building on the flood planes 

 

Didn’t think anyone died in boscastle floods ??

 

Nobody died but village was decimated for a while , I actually have been there and seeing the flood water levels marked out was an eye opener mate

[OldBoy]

Like him or not. the late John Wilson was warning about the dangers of otters so many years ago:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-24331800

On other forums people claim to have knowledge about people illegally releasing otters, nothing has been done.

Have to live with it now.

Hopefully the places you fish will carry on 👍

[salokcinnodrog]

3 hours ago, OldBoy said:

Like him or not. the late John Wilson was warning about the dangers of otters so many years ago:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-24331800

On other forums people claim to have knowledge about people illegally releasing otters, nothing has been done.

Have to live with it now.

Hopefully the places you fish will carry on 👍

Problem is that eel numbers are down, probably down to various causes, pollution being one, and eels were apparently otters favourite food. Back in the 1980's the Wensum in summer you could see 100's on the bottom, then they started being caught with sores around the area of Hellesdon, just below the chemical factory outlet.

The Broads, lakes and rivers, it was almost impossible to use maggots as a hookbait if you fished the bottom.

On the Gipping I used to stand on the bridge to Sugar Beet pits and feed maggots to the silvers, what they missed, eels would pick up of the bottom, you could see them.

However this lack of eels is not restricted to East Anglia, it's nationwide.

 

Behind Barham Pits there was a pair of otters, the river was full of big chub, gudgeon, perch, roach and pike. Then an otter explosion saw more appear in the valley, so where 4 or 5 were between Ipswich and Stowmarket, 18miles, (by road) there were now at least 15 otters, and 4 were on Barham, and another 4 on Bosmere,  munching everything sizeable.

As I mentioned though, my syndicate is not fenced, yet has little trouble. Coots go missing in winter and we lose occasional pike, not many. I think that at night otters stalk the rushes coot hunting as they will suddenly chirp and scatter. That is also pike territory!