An Old Farmer's Story

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Kingfisher
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An Old Farmer's Story

Post by Kingfisher »

I was recently reading the chapter in Casting at the Sun about how a heavy winter killed off the fish in the pond that Chris Yates use to fish only for the cruscians to reappear when they were believed to be dead. My mind got cast back to a story an old Herefordshire farmer told me about some roach.

The farmers kids' had been fishing and caught some roach which they put in a big old water tank full of water. The roach had been in the tank for a couple of days when the weather turned bad. Upon passing the old water tank the farmer shouted to his kids to tip the tank up and put the roach back into the pool. His kids went to the tank and tipped it up but it was too late, the roach were now incased in a solid block of ice. My farmer friend returned to his chores and the block of ice remained on the bank in the sun.

The famrer and his kids returned from the field in the afternoon and were astonished to see small roach flapping about on the bank, they'd defrosted from the block of ice and were hastily returned to the pool from where they came from.

God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.

Izaak Walton

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Gary Bills
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Re: An Old Farmer's Story

Post by Gary Bills »

That is astonishing, Kingfisher. You would think that ice crystals would form in the blood vessels of the fish, with fatal consequences. That would certainly happen with mammals, but perhaps the roach, being a more "primitive" creature, has certain advantages over us...?
It makes me think about fish "going to mud", and the more I ponder on this, the more I think it is quite common. Crucians probably do this, as Yates intimates, - but Otto Overbeck, writing 100 years ago, said that he had waded out over the muddy bottom of Croxby, his boots sinking deep, only to find he would sometimes tread on a carp. He would feel a wiggle in the mud, and then the startled fish would rocket away...and then there are tench... I'm reading The Carp Godfather at present, and Walker writes that when Oughton Pond was drained, carp were found, but not the tench, and the pool was known to hold decent tench. Where were they? - in the mud?
A personal anecdote -I was born in Wordsley and I recall "the breach" which drained the Stourbridge Canal in 1977..it was re-stocked, the following year, - but within months of the breach, before the stocking, large roach shoals re-appeared, apparently from nowhere.
Isn't nature marvellous?

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Kingfisher
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Re: An Old Farmer's Story

Post by Kingfisher »

Maybe the two of us have been sucked in FB but I studied his face as he was telling me and I saw no hint of a smile or grin. I would have thought the same as you did with the ice crystals forming in the blood but maybe they hadn't been frozen for long enough, or maybe the sun's rays thawed them out before-hand, it all remains a mystery to me. Just one of those things where you would think to yourself seeing is beleiving or maybe the pure fact that some species will feed in the winter where others won't is because they can stand up to more adverse conditions better than the other species can? Yes Nature is amazing.

That farmer also told me once another story which might interest you as you are from Hereford.

I asked him how it was that ocassionally whilst drinking cider you got a batch that tasted a bit sharper or wrotten? He said "that's the pheasant syndrome; Pheasant syndrome I asked? Yes, very often farmers would take their apples to the brewery and if they had a bad batch on their trailor they would offer the supervisor a brace of pheasant to turn a blind eye. Hence the pheasant syndrome name tag. I spent many a night listening to that man's stories, he once even took a bee's hive to school in a potatoe sack and dropped it in through his class room window because he had a test that day and wanted the day off school.lol

God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.

Izaak Walton

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Isis
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Re: An Old Farmer's Story

Post by Isis »

Crucians are wonderful hardy creatures. They have been reported frozen in ice then revived to live on for some years apparently unaffected. They also have been observed to survive for hours out of water and for months in anoxic water. (depleted of oxygen)
They are also one of the most welcome fish to catch. Shame that some of the largest caught in recent years have been on 3 oz bolt rigs. I still love the days when your dainty float would move imperceptably to signal a bite. And if it moved as much as half an inch , well that was a sizzling run.
As for other species I have witnessed tench half buried in silt in the winter and Hilton has spoken of large carp, I think in Ashlea Pool, in a similar position. However the weedbeds may have collapsed over them rather than through a deliberate action by the fish.

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Gary Bills
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Re: An Old Farmer's Story

Post by Gary Bills »

Kingfisher wrote:Maybe the two of us have been sucked in FB but I studied his face as he was telling me and I saw no hint of a smile or grin. I would have thought the same as you did with the ice crystals forming in the blood but maybe they hadn't been frozen for long enough, or maybe the sun's rays thawed them out before-hand, it all remains a mystery to me. Just one of those things where you would think to yourself seeing is beleiving or maybe the pure fact that some species will feed in the winter where others won't is because they can stand up to more adverse conditions better than the other species can? Yes Nature is amazing.

That farmer also told me once another story which might interest you as you are from Hereford.

I asked him how it was that ocassionally whilst drinking cider you got a batch that tasted a bit sharper or wrotten? He said "that's the pheasant syndrome; Pheasant syndrome I asked? Yes, very often farmers would take their apples to the brewery and if they had a bad batch on their trailor they would offer the supervisor a brace of pheasant to turn a blind eye. Hence the pheasant syndrome name tag. I spent many a night listening to that man's stories, he once even took a bee's hive to school in a potatoe sack and dropped it in through his class room window because he had a test that day and wanted the day off school.lol
Pheasant syndrome! - Not heard of that one...I have heard of the "Herefordshire Farmer Syndrome", which is where a man will refuse to sell something, even when the offer's very good, in case a better offer comes along, although it might not...they're quite canny in the county, aren't they, if canny is the word...?

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Julian
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Re: An Old Farmer's Story

Post by Julian »

FarliesBirthday wrote: Pheasant syndrome! - Not heard of that one...I have heard of the "Herefordshire Farmer Syndrome", which is where a man will refuse to sell something, even when the offer's very good, in case a better offer comes along, although it might not...they're quite canny in the county, aren't they, if canny is the word...?
I could think of a few more suitable words that might apply :Hahaha:
There is no peace on earth like the peace of fishing in the early mornings

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Julian
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Re: An Old Farmer's Story

Post by Julian »

The first time I ever went fishing, at the age of about 10 - properly fishing - on my own at a small farm pond - I caught my first ever rod caught fish - a crucian carp of about 6ozs (on float fished worm). I was so excited I just had to show it to my parents, as I knw they would never believe me otherwise.
Problem was our house was over half a mile away.
I kept it in the keepnet (one of those ancient 3-foot keepnets) while I packed up. I then raced home across the fields holding the keepnet out so the fish was safe and still, in the bottom of the net.
I placed the carp in a water butt - showed my parents who were amazed. Then a few minutes later raced all the way back to the pond with the fish in the net. I released it and it swam away as if it had only been out of the water for seconds.
That's when I became hooked on fishing.
There is no peace on earth like the peace of fishing in the early mornings

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Gary Bills
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Re: An Old Farmer's Story

Post by Gary Bills »

Slightly off subject - I wonder if there has ever been any firm evidence of carp "going to mud" in the winter - burying themselves? I read somewhere about an angler wading out, up to his knees in Croxby mud, only to feel a powerful wiggle beneath his feet from a "buried" carp....Did this really happen? The mud at Croxby was said to be very soft and deep, so who knows? It seems, however, as if the evidence is against it. I've seen carp in winter lying still on the bottom, like giant fallen leaves. In the 1960s, Hilton at Ashlea was able to row out and net and weigh dormant winter carp, up to 35lbs. It's in Quest for Carp. One carp, about 40lbs, woke up and almost upset the boat, so he had to let it go before getting it on board for a weighing.... controversial stuff, I know...but the point is, these Ashlea carp were lying on the bottom, dormant, just as I've seen...so it appears as if, contrary to old legends, carp do not "go to mud" when the temperature really falls - they just slow down until they stop. I must say, at one pool I used to fish, any carp caught in March were afflicted with a good many leeches - which indicates they were probably holed in one spot, motionless, for a good while...
What do you folks think? is "going to mud" a carp fishing myth?

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Nigel Rainton
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Re: An Old Farmer's Story

Post by Nigel Rainton »

I think it is a myth. As the water temperature drops to 4.2 degrees at the bottom of a lake, fish metabolism slows right down. They are torpid. They need little oxygen and only open their gills occasionally. In mud they would suffocate.

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Olly
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Re: An Old Farmer's Story

Post by Olly »

If frogs can freeze right through and survive - what next?

These are Canadian frogs tho! Being experimented upon with a view to space travel!

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