Sour Grapes Over Breaks

IN CASE the Environment Agency doesn’t respond to John Duncan’s letter (AM, Oct 1) I feel I should say a few words here.

Like John, I am also a game (as well as coarse) angler, and I find it most bewildering that he should seek to curtail so radically the activities of his fellow anglers simply because he has to refrain from rive coarse fishing for a mere three months. That seems like rather an extreme case of sour grapes to me.

As John must be well aware, most game river fisheries are closed for at least this amount of time, often much longer, in order to give the fish as long as possible to maintain healthy condition both prior to and during their spawning, and also to protect their vulnerable eggs in the period following it.

To give one example, the sea trout season on my local Sussex Ouse runs from April 1 until October 31, though it’s rare indeed for any whatsoever to enter the river before June.

The fish usually spawn in local streams and winterbourne's around Christmas time, though this can sometimes vary by a week or two, depending upon when the rains arrive. Nonetheless, as you can see, there’s still a considerable break between the cessation of game angling activity and spawning.

During this period, important changes in the fishes’ physiology take place, has changed in coloration, the development of the male’s k pe and the final stages of egg production within the f male.