Traditionalist anglers and environmentalists have expressed concern over the obsession of making the fish fat by overfeeding, which will make them too easy to catch.

British Ian Chillcott, a leading coarse angler and a fishing writer, says that “fishery owners are guilty of overfeeding and if you are making the fish more reliant on bait, the fish consider it their natural food source and they will have no fear of diving into a pile of pellets until they find the one with a hook in it.”

Big fat carp

Big fat carp

“As things are going now,” Chillcott adds, “it is going to be very easy to catch very big fish, but that is missing the point. People are creating big fish with no regard to the essence of fishing or to the fish’s welfare. It is tearing the heart out of fishing.”

Ian Chillcott and the traditionalist anglers of his ilk are worried about the growing number of fishing lakes that are being heavily stocked with fish, particularly carp, which are becoming increasingly dependent on high-protein pellets.

A study has found that carp fishing is getting very popular in the United Kingdom in recent years and is the fastest growing angling market in country. Anglers are willing to pay huge sums a year to fish at lakes that are known to have fat fish.

Data shows that the size of carp in Britain has increased in the last 30 years – by 30%, from about 50 lbs to 65 lbs.

Chillcott says bitterly about the new, unhealthy trend: “The way some fish are being force-fed is an abomination to the word angling. Carp are like any other wild animal. The least amount of energy they have to expend in meeting their dietary needs, the better. The pellets give them a very easy meal.”

Richard Lee, editor of Angling Times, shares Chillcott’s concern when he says, “angling is becoming a bit like intensive farming and the concerns are where this leaves the romance of fishing.”

Britain’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) have also warned that “feeding young animals an inappropriate diet can be one of the precursors to skeletal deformities and how feeding salmon the wrong kind of protein can cause digestive disorders.”

So what now? Put the fish on a diet?

Source – Image by TimJC513

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