Bruno Garcia from the Charente Maritime fishing federation answers questions from France Bleu la Rochelle listeners.
Franck, who did not tell us where his home was: “I’m not particularly looking for catfish, but I had several big surprises while fishing for predators. Having been broken several times by these big fish in the canals, I I would like to know if it was allowed to use a gaff to hoist them on the bank. It’s not that I want to kill these fish, but I just want to make it easier for me to get them out of the water. after gaffing them through the lower jaw”.
Bruno Garcia : The catfish! The giant of our fresh waters! difficult to hoist these huge fish from the water to take the picture. This famous photo which I repeat encourages us to put the fish back in the water. And yes if a few decades ago we brought the fish home to show it to family and friends, today everyone has a phone that takes pictures and this picture is enough to prove that the taken is very real.
We know the fishermen! We know for plagiarism that most of the growth of fish is done out of the water and not in the water. As soon as the fish is in the landing net, it takes a few centimeters and a few hundred grams. So this blunder?
The use of the gaff is subject to some restrictions and in particular depending on the waterways. It is prohibited on rivers classified as “salmon”. As for the channels, they do not benefit from this classification. Be careful despite everything on the Charente river, in its crossing of the department of Charente this same river is classified as “salmon”, you will therefore not be able to use it to take the fish out of the water. In Charente-Maritime, this ban is only provided for on the La Dronne river (sub-tributary of the Dordogne river) downstream of the D 730 bridge in the commune of Saint – Aigulin.
We have another question, that of René de la Rochelle. He asks us why he took a lot of rudd last winter and spring and currently on the same areas, impossible to catch one. Did they disappear or did they migrate?
The rudd, the cousin of the roach, is distinguished by two very visible and particularly important physical criteria for fishing them. The alignment of the ventral fin in relation to the dorsal, shifted in the rudd and on the same plumb in the roach. And above all, in the rudd a lower lip longer than the upper lip. This is characteristic of fish that feed on the surface. Some will tell me there is also the color of the fins. Color is never a criterion for distinguishing species! The fish is mimetic and depending on the habitat it is in, its color will change.
Is this perhaps the explanation, the answer to René, this surface feeding?
She is right there! All cyprinids, roach, bream, tench, carp, rudd are omnivorous species, which will adapt to both meat and vegetable food. In winter and spring few insects on the surface, food opportunities are found at the bottom with worms, larvae, plant debris, etc. At this season there is no shortage of flies, midges, dragonflies and the rudd will prefer these surface prey that are easy to capture thanks to the shape and morphology of its mouth. It is precisely the same reasoning for the Black-bass that we will seek at the bottom in winter and in the upper layer in summer with surface lures. Observe the mouth of the Black-bass and you will find that