Time to put the breaks on bait

Anglers Mail article by : dave coster

                                               

Back in october it was reported in anglers mail that ryan need won the uk carp cup using no less than 336 pints of maggots! with a bait bill of an acces of £500 ryan took a gamble ,but it paid of rewarding him with £5,000 in prize money it has taken me 7 weeaks to digest the staggering omount of bait used on this occasion and to tyr and to asses if this tactic might have caused any damage ,not so much to the fish but concerning how other anglers presieve competitive fishing . I can't speak for carp anglers ,but from a match fishing point of view i know using accsesive amounts of bait has offten caused problems .Back in the day when we had big matches on the river lea and grand union canal,it was bloodworm and jokers that stirred up allot of controvercy. These baites where not cheap ,and some guys where turning up at compititions absolutely laden with the stuff.  the average angler was not happy because in most cases the culprits were also sponsored , getting both discount on bait and tackle.This caused arguments that people were buying their fish, which inturn led to bait limits and bans or,even worse,compititions where some anglers were not welcom.  Since pellets have become such a popular bait,bans have become less of an issue , although bait limits are often imposed on commersial fisherie matches.this has less to do with making compititons fairer and allot more to do with fish wealfare preventing to much bait being fed. The latter can be a big problem,not so much in big venues, but certainly on smaller ones.  Anglers read about top carp anglers feeding about 40 and 50 kilos of pellets,bolies and particals in short sesions abroad,and get tempted into trying the same in this country , sometimes on waters that are to small to take such a bombaredment. i'm agints outright bait bans because i believe they make competitive fishing less vaires and less intresting. but i'm now leaning in favior of bat limmits;otherwise i fear competitive fishing could be in danger of becoming too expensive,especially during thes financially difficult times.  Well attendid competitions are good for the sport,while poorly attended events tend to fizzle out,leaving us with ten-peg sweepstakes to look forward to.