Fishers or Hunters?
October 12th 2006 18:31
There are commercial fishers and recreational fishers, there are commercial hunters and hunters. We don't hear about recreational hunters and they don't seem to get bagged like the recreational fisher does.
I think we are in fact hunters and as such we hunt food for ourselves, families extended family and friends just like it was done before Adam was a boy. If a shy sheep were walking along the road on our way to our favourite fishing ground some of us might run it over with the 4 x 4 and claim it as road kill (another good hunting tactic)
All good honest living and hardly a bird hooked, hardly ever. (I refer to the Telegraph Blogcomplaining about recreational fisherman hooking sea birds.) Why then do we cop a bollicking from the press, the sainted greens, the government and so on.
We pay our licence fees, we are acknowledged and we are sort of catered for with hatch releases o juvenile fish in dams and ponds and occasionaly salt water lake and estuaries.
We spend thousands and thousands of dollars a year on our fishing be it hunting sport or recreation. That in itself does not give us a right to do what we do but we better well be noticed! And we better be noticed in a better light.
Perhaps its time to get rid of the recreational tag? perhaps it has connotations to people of tweed jackets, fly rods and pie smoking by the very expensive salmon and trout burns of old blighty? Nothing wrong with that either but the people who bag us are getting away with a hell of a lot. And incidently they are only out there in chicken shit numbers but boy don't they make a noise.
Huge tracts of the NSW coastline have been targeted by the greens to be put aside as marine parks. No marine activity at all. No scuba, snorkellling, fishing, skiing, kayaking etc. Why? Becasue the greens claim we are endangering the envirenmont.
Now their numbers are few and their voices are loud and they do hang their hats on a grain of truth. The State govt has cut a deal of gaing preferance votes from the greens if they go ahead and declare the marine parks!!!
Never have so many been wronged by so few.
This is not a political forum but an opportunity for me and you to vent some spleen.
I think we are in fact hunters and as such we hunt food for ourselves, families extended family and friends just like it was done before Adam was a boy. If a shy sheep were walking along the road on our way to our favourite fishing ground some of us might run it over with the 4 x 4 and claim it as road kill (another good hunting tactic)
All good honest living and hardly a bird hooked, hardly ever. (I refer to the Telegraph Blogcomplaining about recreational fisherman hooking sea birds.) Why then do we cop a bollicking from the press, the sainted greens, the government and so on.
We spend thousands and thousands of dollars a year on our fishing be it hunting sport or recreation. That in itself does not give us a right to do what we do but we better well be noticed! And we better be noticed in a better light.
Perhaps its time to get rid of the recreational tag? perhaps it has connotations to people of tweed jackets, fly rods and pie smoking by the very expensive salmon and trout burns of old blighty? Nothing wrong with that either but the people who bag us are getting away with a hell of a lot. And incidently they are only out there in chicken shit numbers but boy don't they make a noise.
Huge tracts of the NSW coastline have been targeted by the greens to be put aside as marine parks. No marine activity at all. No scuba, snorkellling, fishing, skiing, kayaking etc. Why? Becasue the greens claim we are endangering the envirenmont.
Never have so many been wronged by so few.
This is not a political forum but an opportunity for me and you to vent some spleen.
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