Well as the title goes looks like the otters have made to Liverpool
There was a fish on are lake yesterday with its skin torn of its body still alive just in one of the bays then a member is convinced he seen the otter in his swim the other side of the bay where the fish was seen
Looks like the end for are little piece of heaven the lake is 60 plus acres with no chance of otter fencing
So how long have we got left and will it ever recover the cormorants have smashed the silvers year on year and now tarka has set up home looks to me like the end is here for the next few years at least he will be able to go undisturbed as it's a private estate
Once he's done here St Helens is across the fields there next
There was a fish on are lake yesterday with its skin torn of its body still alive just in one of the bays then a member is convinced he seen the otter in his swim the other side of the bay where the fish was seen
Looks like the end for are little piece of heaven the lake is 60 plus acres with no chance of otter fencing
So how long have we got left and will it ever recover the cormorants have smashed the silvers year on year and now tarka has set up home looks to me like the end is here for the next few years at least he will be able to go undisturbed as it's a private estate
Once he's done here St Helens is across the fields there next
In reply to Post #1
Unfortunately if it's not fenced it's going to get ottered,there are so many of them now it's getting out of hand.The problem is the general public see the cute fluffy little otter and love them,they don't see the damage they are causing not only to fish stocks but bird life too.I hate to say it but your lake may never get back to what it is now especially if it cant be fenced
Unfortunately if it's not fenced it's going to get ottered,there are so many of them now it's getting out of hand.The problem is the general public see the cute fluffy little otter and love them,they don't see the damage they are causing not only to fish stocks but bird life too.I hate to say it but your lake may never get back to what it is now especially if it cant be fenced
In reply to Post #1
Any pictures or video of it. Pm if preferred.
Any pictures or video of it. Pm if preferred.
In reply to Post #1
Very sorry to hear this ..
If it is an Otter ,unfortunately you are going to witness a apex predator doing what it does best ,an ecological disaster for sure..
Of all the waters I've seen this on ,they never recover to how the lake was....especially as you say ,if the lake cannot be fenced..
Such a shame, blasted rewilders are to blame..
Very sorry to hear this ..
If it is an Otter ,unfortunately you are going to witness a apex predator doing what it does best ,an ecological disaster for sure..
Of all the waters I've seen this on ,they never recover to how the lake was....especially as you say ,if the lake cannot be fenced..
Such a shame, blasted rewilders are to blame..
Just hoping it starts attacking the pheasants and partridges the gamekeeper won't like that and you never know what happens then
In reply to Post #1
How deep is the lake ? I pulled off a lake 2018 due to otters being on there, however its still a decent fishery to this day, with carp growing and getting caught !
It also couldn't/ wouldn't be fenced as on NT land and they love having the otters! This is an estate lake of around 15ft depth in the middle.
I still see the odd carp caught with otter tail damage but not all , the main thing I noticed was the fishes behaviour they stopped mooching up and down the margins and always seemed skittish !
My initial fear was that all the carp would disappear within a couple of years but I have to say that just hasn't happened, I'm not saying it's an ideal scenario but also not as bad as I feared.
The lake is around 12 to 15 acres so relatively small compared with yours !
How deep is the lake ? I pulled off a lake 2018 due to otters being on there, however its still a decent fishery to this day, with carp growing and getting caught !
It also couldn't/ wouldn't be fenced as on NT land and they love having the otters! This is an estate lake of around 15ft depth in the middle.
I still see the odd carp caught with otter tail damage but not all , the main thing I noticed was the fishes behaviour they stopped mooching up and down the margins and always seemed skittish !
My initial fear was that all the carp would disappear within a couple of years but I have to say that just hasn't happened, I'm not saying it's an ideal scenario but also not as bad as I feared.
The lake is around 12 to 15 acres so relatively small compared with yours !
For every fish taken ,its one less for the album
For every fish taken ,its your dream being hurt
For every fish taken its nearer to a lake being pointless to fish ..then the whole ecosystem starts to delaminate and breaks down ,the whole circle of the life that made that particular place special ..
For example ,my old club lake ,80 fish ,some pushing over 20lbs ,the otter arrives ,kills a few ,not the end of the world
Otter fence gets put around ,word gets out about predation ,people stop fishing it..
Fence gets damaged by persons unknown ,...lake shuts ,I still fish it now again ,approx 10 fish left ,all bream gone taken by Cormorants....lake soulless ruined ..
And repeat ,lost count of lakes I collated on...
For every fish taken ,its your dream being hurt
For every fish taken its nearer to a lake being pointless to fish ..then the whole ecosystem starts to delaminate and breaks down ,the whole circle of the life that made that particular place special ..
For example ,my old club lake ,80 fish ,some pushing over 20lbs ,the otter arrives ,kills a few ,not the end of the world
Otter fence gets put around ,word gets out about predation ,people stop fishing it..
Fence gets damaged by persons unknown ,...lake shuts ,I still fish it now again ,approx 10 fish left ,all bream gone taken by Cormorants....lake soulless ruined ..
And repeat ,lost count of lakes I collated on...
In reply to Post #8
Just been talking about this the fish we seen was only a double no monsters in their upper 20s the limit but it's a double less it's a fish those people who have spent the whole of last season blanking some new lads some regulars would have loved to have caught it's hard enough with it's size and restrictions I just hope it f...s off somewhere easier for it to catch a meal and doesn't destroy it completely a few fish will do me I can fish for them can't fish for ghosts
Just been talking about this the fish we seen was only a double no monsters in their upper 20s the limit but it's a double less it's a fish those people who have spent the whole of last season blanking some new lads some regulars would have loved to have caught it's hard enough with it's size and restrictions I just hope it f...s off somewhere easier for it to catch a meal and doesn't destroy it completely a few fish will do me I can fish for them can't fish for ghosts
In reply to Post #9
How far is your lake from nearest watercourse ,ditches etc ?
Hope it's just a rare occurrence for your lake ,like you said ,it doesn't matter the size of the killed carp/fish ...its the passion of angling for them regardless ..
( you really don't want to have seen what I have over the years,I must be very strong minded ,as most would have packed it in )
Look out for spraints,push throughs,dead waterbirds and prints .and scales . Keeping looking ..nature will soon tell you .
Atb...
How far is your lake from nearest watercourse ,ditches etc ?
Hope it's just a rare occurrence for your lake ,like you said ,it doesn't matter the size of the killed carp/fish ...its the passion of angling for them regardless ..
( you really don't want to have seen what I have over the years,I must be very strong minded ,as most would have packed it in )
Look out for spraints,push throughs,dead waterbirds and prints .and scales . Keeping looking ..nature will soon tell you .
Atb...
In reply to Post #10
Think the nearest water coarse is a mile or so as the crow flies a river / stream that's as close as I can see the lake is ground fed no stream feeding it
It's just hard on there we only have access to one side and not the whole only 3/4 of the bank it's tree lined in parts scrub land long grass you always find dead birds but that is prob foxes the estate is also a shoot estate so pheasants and partridges everywhere missed kills ect it really is needle in a haystack situation
All we can do is pray it moves gets ran over mistaken for a fox or leaves us enough to fish for
Think the nearest water coarse is a mile or so as the crow flies a river / stream that's as close as I can see the lake is ground fed no stream feeding it
It's just hard on there we only have access to one side and not the whole only 3/4 of the bank it's tree lined in parts scrub land long grass you always find dead birds but that is prob foxes the estate is also a shoot estate so pheasants and partridges everywhere missed kills ect it really is needle in a haystack situation
All we can do is pray it moves gets ran over mistaken for a fox or leaves us enough to fish for
A friend and I spent January in Devon just on the eastern edge of Dartmoor national park and we went out exploring the lakes, reservoirs and rivers. A member on here told of of a few locations that still have carp but I couldn't believe the devistation otters have caused to the arrears. Course fish are almost non existent and in the entire month I didn't see any coots, morehens,swans and only one solitary duck. The rivers still get the migratory trout and salmon but numbers are way down on when I used to visit in the seventies.. one reservoir has a good head of carp but it's nine hundred acres and very deep in parts I believe. Looking at the rewilders and having spoken to them in depth I brought up the devistation the otters have caused but they want nature to control numbers and are speaking to reintroduce wolves,bison, brown bears ,linx etc.
In reply to Post #12
If you go down the far end of that big ressi ,in the summer ,amongst the long grass ,all you'll find is skeletons of deceased carp ...even the fly fishing chaps struggle on there ,also
The other big res I mentioned to you SWLT,don't even stock trout in it anymore ,toilets are shut,tkt office shut ,now they've cut all the trees down around thus 117 acre place .
These do gooder types,do they really know what's,what ?...of course they don't!
Just ONE selfish ,misguided, dangerous individual and yes I know who it is ,is responsible for the demise in part of southwest fisheries..and that doesn't include the now shut Tamar otter sanctuary nr Launceston ...at one time those feeder streams led to every single fishery in my locality ,like veins in your body ...
You can tell when your fishery will get hit,that's when the spate streams go into meltdown,turn to god ,pray because ,that's what has happened..
Now...
If your lake is fenced,generally speaking, and you check out the boundaries regularly then you have a chance ,if not forgot it...
If you go down the far end of that big ressi ,in the summer ,amongst the long grass ,all you'll find is skeletons of deceased carp ...even the fly fishing chaps struggle on there ,also
The other big res I mentioned to you SWLT,don't even stock trout in it anymore ,toilets are shut,tkt office shut ,now they've cut all the trees down around thus 117 acre place .
These do gooder types,do they really know what's,what ?...of course they don't!
Just ONE selfish ,misguided, dangerous individual and yes I know who it is ,is responsible for the demise in part of southwest fisheries..and that doesn't include the now shut Tamar otter sanctuary nr Launceston ...at one time those feeder streams led to every single fishery in my locality ,like veins in your body ...
You can tell when your fishery will get hit,that's when the spate streams go into meltdown,turn to god ,pray because ,that's what has happened..
Now...
If your lake is fenced,generally speaking, and you check out the boundaries regularly then you have a chance ,if not forgot it...
In reply to Post #12
Like that's going to happen let's let a couple of brown bears and one or two packs of candian wolves lose around the fields of Liverpool
The health and safety and the risk to life is just to big
The kids would hunt them down and kill them all
No seriously they need culling like badgers foxes ect we removed them for a reason they were destroying the eco systems kill for killing sake waste food and arnt preyed upon themselves
Humans are the curse of society and the doom of nature stop interfering reintroducing species that arnt there for a reason
Like that's going to happen let's let a couple of brown bears and one or two packs of candian wolves lose around the fields of Liverpool
The health and safety and the risk to life is just to big
The kids would hunt them down and kill them all
No seriously they need culling like badgers foxes ect we removed them for a reason they were destroying the eco systems kill for killing sake waste food and arnt preyed upon themselves
Humans are the curse of society and the doom of nature stop interfering reintroducing species that arnt there for a reason
In reply to Post #14
If people think otters are bad, now .....the government have given the go ahead of full on Beaver reintroduction ..
Beavers don't eat fish do they ,I hear some say, they be right ..but Beavers are geoengineering specialists ,they change the course of rivers and damage trees very quickly
So why is it bad?
It's terrible because ,the legislation red tape and general lies and bs ,you have to go through to get one removed..
Fancy ,a Beaver causing a river to back up and damage your land,house,lake,etc...Good luck trying to get it moved on...
How do I know?...I caught a prominent rewilder ,on our land ,sussing out where to let a Beaver 'escape'....I challenged him ....one year later ,one mile down stream.is carnage ,trees down ,a half built dam,on a spate river which backs up easily,luckily I have loads of pics ,but because I'm tech dim I can't work out how to do pics ...
If people think otters are bad, now .....the government have given the go ahead of full on Beaver reintroduction ..
Beavers don't eat fish do they ,I hear some say, they be right ..but Beavers are geoengineering specialists ,they change the course of rivers and damage trees very quickly
So why is it bad?
It's terrible because ,the legislation red tape and general lies and bs ,you have to go through to get one removed..
Fancy ,a Beaver causing a river to back up and damage your land,house,lake,etc...Good luck trying to get it moved on...
How do I know?...I caught a prominent rewilder ,on our land ,sussing out where to let a Beaver 'escape'....I challenged him ....one year later ,one mile down stream.is carnage ,trees down ,a half built dam,on a spate river which backs up easily,luckily I have loads of pics ,but because I'm tech dim I can't work out how to do pics ...
The otters have been here since the last ice age. They came from Eurasia on their own accord. They have been here significantly longer than any carp, which were introduced by humans.
If humans want to stock lakes and waterways with imported fish for sport it's their responsibility to protect them.
If humans want to stock lakes and waterways with imported fish for sport it's their responsibility to protect them.