Very very good thread,

full of information, i have always read your writings with respect Ken, and am pleased that you are well on the road to recovery


Please, If you think what i've written below is wrong, not relevent and perhaps to start a different thread with it, please let me know

Ok,

Can i just add, that being new a newbie to the site, and as informative as the whole thread is, i thought i would like to add a few of things.

the most important thing, is to be aware of the diesease, and take preventive measures, but as stated before, not all rats carry the disease, and certainly not all lakes are "contaminated". and as stated there is no innoculation for the disease, in 40 odd years of fishing i have not personally known or heard of someone who has contratced the disease, but that is not to say that i've suspected i have contracted it in the past!


you will find, and it seems to ring true with my experiences, that lakes that may have a problem with rats, will fall in the near to urban areas, and this in itself causes the biggest problem...litter.

TAKE YOUR LITTER HOME!

I'm afraid to say, all of it, even if its not yours, have latex gloves, and be careful, but take it home, afterall you will be doing yourself and the lake a great reward, i know that standards of bank decorum have improved over the years, but unslightly lakes are just more ammunition for the rapidly growing anti angling lobbies.

i even take my fag butts home, i smoke, smoke like a train when i'm fishing, and they all go in an ash tray, and home with me at the end of a trip.

i have never fished a water thats had a rat problem, that hasn't had a litter problem. it goes hand in hand, in the distant past i have been to some right **** holes regarding litter, and behaviour on the bank, again its all related, nowadays i turn round and come home, not intrested anymore.

So thats the first bit, if it looks dirty, it may well be, be on extra guard.


Secondly, to suggest that people are to exterminate rats is wise?
i can see a situtaion where guns, and the like are being let off at every oppurtunity as the rat vigilantes take on mother nature
hooks baited with bread, horrific, and i've seen it before, and its bedlam,
its nasty and wrong....and yet more for the anti angling types to get thier teeth into

sure, proper humane traps, with monitors, to release back voles and shrews, and the like, these animals are unfortuantely in massive decline, and these animals will also take a hammering if anglers are removing rats on an individual basis, i',m sure there are countless people out there that assume evry small brownish black furry mammal is a rat... not the gun tooting imagine we would certainly be see portrayed in the papers?


Unfortuantely, i do believe that anglers are certainly responisble for the majority of the litter around lakes and i do believe that this is cause for the rat infestation, theres a huge amount of circumspect anglers around, that respect thier enviorment, but even one can ruin it for everyone else.

i certainly didn't want to hi -jack the thread, i just wanted to add some problems that i could see arising if anglers were to take it, into thier own hands to try and irradicate the problem and maybe
calm peoples fears a little, and say that if you suspect a water might have a problem with rats, just take extra extra care.

perhaps a list of waters where you know people have contracted the disease?
or signs in the car parks of waters that may have weils?


I also think people should be made more aware of limes disease, spread by ticks, almost identical syptoms to weils, but from what i've read invariably fatal if not caught in time

hi all

and thanks for the advice, tips and views i've picked up already

tight lines peeps