Better times

[marsh man]

12 minutes ago, Old farrier said:

It was and on a cane rod it weighed in at over 60lb the scale only went up that far 

I remember the day that he caught it vividly 

it was the day of my youngest brother’s christening a joint affair with two of my cousins being christened at the same time so a big family event 

the tides And weather were good on the day and he and My uncle decided that they would go fishing and leave us to the religious stuff 

I remember being most disappointed that I couldn’t go fishing and had to attend church with the rest of the family members 103 of us it should have been 105 

when they returned with the fish I was devastated as I was convinced I would have caught it 

I was never sure how much grief my uncle got for not attending his daughters christening but to see the fish caught il say it was worth it 

All the best 

of 

Was the fish caught around the I O W area O F ? , lovely fish but I don't think I would have liked that snapping around my feet while babbing for Ells  in my gun punt 

[Old farrier]

Just now, marsh man said:

Was the fish caught around the I O W area O F ? , lovely fish but I don't think I would have liked that snapping around my feet while babbing for Ells  in my gun punt 

Caught in the Solent on a ragworm bait 

there not a problem and the bite from a big one only hurts if you survive it 😂

tell us a tale about the ell babbling something I’ve never been able to do I believe that you need a license nowadays 

[Old Boggy]

10 hours ago, marsh man said:

September they were just about edible , after that , like London Best says , mostly mud and worms ,........ more of the mud than worms

My old Mum used to make the odd curlew that I shot taste OK and welcomed them as a good contribution to a very tight budget in those days, but I do recall the odd one tasting muddy. Golden plover on the other hand were the icing on the cake and were always very welcome and very tasty. The staple diet however were the numerous rabbits stalked with the old Begian folding .410 and Eley Fourlong cartridges bought from the village ironmongers.

I'm surprised that no-one, particularly those in East Anglia, have mentioned shooting coypu.

[Old Boggy]

14 hours ago, marsh man said:

Can't really add to the brilliant photos that have already been posted , the only thing I have got left that might be of interest is the decoys used at the time when we shot Curlew ( Lew) as we called them , and a very early Pigeon decoy that is made of nearly solid rubber .

I bet not many can lay claim to still having a curlew decoy MM.

Certainly a collectors item.

[WalkedUp]

Black tailed godwit decoys still for sale https://www.decathlon.co.uk/black-tailed-godwit-id_8399144.html

At 79p I may just buy it and give it to my boys as a toy. 

[London Best]

2 minutes ago, WalkedUp said:

Black tailed godwit decoys still for sale https://www.decathlon.co.uk/black-tailed-godwit-id_8399144.html

At 79p I may just buy it and give it to my boys as a toy. 

Black tailed Godwit were protected, it was Bar tailed which were on the shooting list.

[Old farrier]

1 minute ago, WalkedUp said:

Black tailed godwit decoys still for sale https://www.decathlon.co.uk/black-tailed-godwit-id_8399144.html

At 79p I may just buy it and give it to my boys as a toy. 

Or you could be ahead of the game if they put them back on the license 🙄

maybe when this is over we will be eating anything that we can get even bats 

I can’t believe i said that 😂

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Just now, Old farrier said:

Or you could be ahead of the game if they put them back on the license 🙄

maybe when this is over we will be eating anything that we can get even bats 

I can’t believe i said that 😂

No can I!

[FOXHUNTER1]

This thread gets better , love the tales from the past , very interesting. Any coypu pics then plus pike etc...

Edited April 16, 2020 by FOXHUNTER1

[London Best]

As said by Old Boggy, Golden Plover are very tasty indeed. I think I actually prefer them to Woodcock.

[JKD]

32 minutes ago, FOXHUNTER1 said:

This thread gets better , love the tales from the past , very interesting. Any coypu pics then plus pike etc...

Here is an Esox I caught back in December 1989 😯

It was 40" long with a girth of 22" and weighed an impressive 24lb 10oz. This was from Baldwins Lake in Dartford, on a frosty afternoon one hour before dusk. Went home a very happy man that day 😁

[Old farrier]

Awesome looking fish although a dodgy looking chap holding it 😂😊

thanks for posting 

 

[JKD]

5 minutes ago, Old farrier said:

Awesome looking fish although a dodgy looking chap holding it 😂😊

thanks for posting 

 

Cheers,,,, 😇 😂

[FOXHUNTER1]

56 minutes ago, JKD said:

Here is an Esox I caught back in December 1989 😯

It was 40" long with a girth of 22" and weighed an impressive 24lb 10oz. This was from Baldwins Lake in Dartford, on a frosty afternoon one hour before dusk. Went home a very happy man that day 😁

Nice fish. Any barbel  ?

[oldypigeonpopper]

4 hours ago, Old farrier said:

It was and on a cane rod it weighed in at over 60lb the scale only went up that far 

I remember the day that he caught it vividly 

it was the day of my youngest brother’s christening a joint affair with two of my cousins being christened at the same time so a big family event 

the tides And weather were good on the day and he and My uncle decided that they would go fishing and leave us to the religious stuff 

I remember being most disappointed that I couldn’t go fishing and had to attend church with the rest of the family members 103 of us it should have been 105 

when they returned with the fish I was devastated as I was convinced I would have caught it 

I was never sure how much grief my uncle got for not attending his daughters christening but to see the fish caught il say it was worth it 

All the best 

of 

hello, do they taste like river eels ? had quite a few in the pan back in the 1960s

hello, never been one to take photos of fish i have caught but do have a black and white snap of the best Bass i have ever caught, just over 8llb

[Old farrier]

Not really a very white meat frequently used to make fish cakes it’s a bit boney near the tail and rubbery if you don’t skin them before cooking 

[JKD]

1 hour ago, FOXHUNTER1 said:

Nice fish. Any barbel  ?

Have caught quite a few barbel but no pictures, sorry 🙁

[marsh man]

4 hours ago, Old Boggy said:

 

I'm surprised that no-one, particularly those in East Anglia, have mentioned shooting coypu.

Afternoon Chris ...... My brother used to work to work for Coypu Control back in the 1960s , we used to snare and trap a large area around our local marshes and skin the dead Coypu's for there pelts , these were rolled inside out and sent to the Neutra Fir Company , the pelts had to be in one piece with no more than one hole in them so you couldn't shoot them with a shotgun if you intended to sell them , also they had to be a certain length from the neck to the base of the tail , if they were to small to skin we would cut the the tail tip off and get a shilling off the ministry as prof you had killed one .

I can remember a few times when if was freezing and the poor ole Coypu would be hanging up by the snare by his front paw , these were hit on the head and hung up by the tail so they were easy to skin , not very nice but when you can't hardly feel your hands due to the freezing conditions it was something to look forward to was putting your hands around the freshly killed dead body , you then had to cut from the the back legs to the base of the tail , then pull the skin down like a tube until it came against the front legs you then cut around the base of it's head and down the legs to its feet so you could pull the skin off all in one piece , these were rolled up and put inside out in calico bags and put on the train , at the time they were graded and the top grade you got about 9/0d ( 45p) for the top grade and about half that for the bottom grade , so you can see we were never going to retire overnight 

I had a local book once that gave an account of a competition they used to have about who got the biggest Coypu , I believe at the time no one had ever got one that weighed I think about two stone , word got about that , we will call him Charlie had one that topped the scales at just over the record weight , when it came to the weigh in the different Coypus went on the scales and they were just under the record , then they weighed ole Charlies and sure enough it just beat the previous record , when the judge lifted it off the scales by it's tail to hand it back to Charlie a large round flint stone rolled out his neck onto the floor , everyone had a good ole laugh and carried on supping there pint of beer . happy days . 

[7daysinaweek]

17 minutes ago, marsh man said:

Afternoon Chris ...... My brother used to work to work for Coypu Control back in the 1960s , we used to snare and trap a large area around our local marshes and skin the dead Coypu's for there pelts , these were rolled inside out and sent to the Neutra Fir Company , the pelts had to be in one piece with no more than one hole in them so you couldn't shoot them with a shotgun if you intended to sell them , also they had to be a certain length from the neck to the base of the tail , if they were to small to skin we would cut the the tail tip off and get a shilling off the ministry as prof you had killed one .

I can remember a few times when if was freezing and the poor ole Coypu would be hanging up by the snare by his front paw , these were hit on the head and hung up by the tail so they were easy to skin , not very nice but when you can't hardly feel your hands due to the freezing conditions it was something to look forward to was putting your hands around the freshly killed dead body , you then had to cut from the the back legs to the base of the tail , then pull the skin down like a tube until it came against the front legs you then cut around the base of it's head and down the legs to its feet so you could pull the skin off all in one piece , these were rolled up and put inside out in calico bags and put on the train , at the time they were graded and the top grade you got about 9/0d ( 45p) for the top grade and about half that for the bottom grade , so you can see we were never going to retire overnight 

I had a local book once that gave an account of a competition they used to have about who got the biggest Coypu , I believe at the time no one had ever got one that weighed I think about two stone , word got about that , we will call him Charlie had one that topped the scales at just over the record weight , when it came to the weigh in the different Coypus went on the scales and they were just under the record , then they weighed ole Charlies and sure enough it just beat the previous record , when the judge lifted it off the scales by it's tail to hand it back to Charlie a large round flint stone rolled out his neck onto the floor , everyone had a good ole laugh and carried on supping there pint of beer . happy days . 

Very interesting read MM, I have only ever seen them in captivity. Did they have a distinctive smell can you recall and did anyone ever try eating  one ?

Edited April 16, 2020 by 7daysinaweek

[FOXHUNTER1]

A very successful eradication programme with a population of approximately 200,000 animals.

[marsh man]

1 minute ago, 7daysinaweek said:

Very interesting read MM, I have only ever seen them in captivity. Did they have a distinctive smell can you recall and did anyone ever try eating  one ?

I couldn't recall them being smelly , in fact they were very clean animals , always licking there paws , the trouble was they bred so much and had big litters and the after a few months the litters started to breed so in the early stages you were fighting a losing battle , in the 62 / 63 severe winter the winter itself controlled more Coypu's than we could ever had done , the Coypu's would dig a hole just below the dyke surface and then tunnel into the ground where it would build it's den , when we had that winter all the dykes , rivers and the Broads froze over solid , after a while the Coypu's got stuck under the ice and the ones above the ice couldn't get below the surface , when the Winter finished the ministry got a good team of trappers together and started to make inroads in the ones that had survived ,  after a while they more or less got the last wild Coypu and as they done themselves out of a job they got a very good bonus , some say about 2/3 years salary but I can't confirm that .

As for eating them , Yes I have , we had a shoot once and the keeper off another estate brought his lunch out at dinner time and asked if anyone wanted a sandwich , after a couple said hmm there alright I had one without asking what the meat was , after I ate it the keeper said , what do yer think of of them , lovely , what did you have in em , after a little chuckle he said Coypu , mind you they were alright .

I also saw another photo that a chap had from the village where I used to work , he had a adult Coypu that he brought up from a youngster , the photo was of this large Coypu sitting on his garden wall and the kid stroking it whilst on the way to school. .

 

[FOXHUNTER1]

Did anyone hunt them with terriers ?

[FOXHUNTER1]

From Google....got to a decent size.

[7daysinaweek]

44 minutes ago, marsh man said:

I couldn't recall them being smelly , in fact they were very clean animals , always licking there paws , the trouble was they bred so much and had big litters and the after a few months the litters started to breed so in the early stages you were fighting a losing battle , in the 62 / 63 severe winter the winter itself controlled more Coypu's than we could ever had done , the Coypu's would dig a hole just below the dyke surface and then tunnel into the ground where it would build it's den , when we had that winter all the dykes , rivers and the Broads froze over solid , after a while the Coypu's got stuck under the ice and the ones above the ice couldn't get below the surface , when the Winter finished the ministry got a good team of trappers together and started to make inroads in the ones that had survived ,  after a while they more or less got the last wild Coypu and as they done themselves out of a job they got a very good bonus , some say about 2/3 years salary but I can't confirm that .

As for eating them , Yes I have , we had a shoot once and the keeper off another estate brought his lunch out at dinner time and asked if anyone wanted a sandwich , after a couple said hmm there alright I had one without asking what the meat was , after I ate it the keeper said , what do yer think of of them , lovely , what did you have in em , after a little chuckle he said Coypu , mind you they were alright .

I also saw another photo that a chap had from the village where I used to work , he had a adult Coypu that he brought up from a youngster , the photo was of this large Coypu sitting on his garden wall and the kid stroking it whilst on the way to school. .

 

Thank you for posting MM that was very interesting. It was not something I was aware of, who would of ever thought a Coypu as a pet and I wonder when the last sighting in Norfolk ever was ?

Foxhunter

Thanks for posting the pic, I can see from the feet that they would be natural swimmers making them a  lot more elusive.

atb

7diaw

Edited April 16, 2020 by 7daysinaweek

[Old Boggy]

1 hour ago, marsh man said:

Afternoon Chris ...... My brother used to work to work for Coypu Control back in the 1960s , we used to snare and trap a large area around our local marshes and skin the dead Coypu's for there pelts , these were rolled inside out and sent to the Neutra Fir Company , the pelts had to be in one piece with no more than one hole in them so you couldn't shoot them with a shotgun if you intended to sell them , also they had to be a certain length from the neck to the base of the tail , if they were to small to skin we would cut the the tail tip off and get a shilling off the ministry as prof you had killed one .

I can remember a few times when if was freezing and the poor ole Coypu would be hanging up by the snare by his front paw , these were hit on the head and hung up by the tail so they were easy to skin , not very nice but when you can't hardly feel your hands due to the freezing conditions it was something to look forward to was putting your hands around the freshly killed dead body , you then had to cut from the the back legs to the base of the tail , then pull the skin down like a tube until it came against the front legs you then cut around the base of it's head and down the legs to its feet so you could pull the skin off all in one piece , these were rolled up and put inside out in calico bags and put on the train , at the time they were graded and the top grade you got about 9/0d ( 45p) for the top grade and about half that for the bottom grade , so you can see we were never going to retire overnight 

I had a local book once that gave an account of a competition they used to have about who got the biggest Coypu , I believe at the time no one had ever got one that weighed I think about two stone , word got about that , we will call him Charlie had one that topped the scales at just over the record weight , when it came to the weigh in the different Coypus went on the scales and they were just under the record , then they weighed ole Charlies and sure enough it just beat the previous record , when the judge lifted it off the scales by it's tail to hand it back to Charlie a large round flint stone rolled out his neck onto the floor , everyone had a good ole laugh and carried on supping there pint of beer . happy days . 

Thanks for sharing that with us John. I thought that if anyone had a tale to tell it would get you out of the garden and into typing mode 

Always a pleasure to read your stories.

Keep `em coming and keep safe 

55 minutes ago, marsh man said:

I couldn't recall them being smelly , in fact they were very clean animals , always licking there paws , the trouble was they bred so much and had big litters and the after a few months the litters started to breed so in the early stages you were fighting a losing battle , in the 62 / 63 severe winter the winter itself controlled more Coypu's than we could ever had done , the Coypu's would dig a hole just below the dyke surface and then tunnel into the ground where it would build it's den , when we had that winter all the dykes , rivers and the Broads froze over solid , after a while the Coypu's got stuck under the ice and the ones above the ice couldn't get below the surface , when the Winter finished the ministry got a good team of trappers together and started to make inroads in the ones that had survived ,  after a while they more or less got the last wild Coypu and as they done themselves out of a job they got a very good bonus , some say about 2/3 years salary but I can't confirm that .

As for eating them , Yes I have , we had a shoot once and the keeper off another estate brought his lunch out at dinner time and asked if anyone wanted a sandwich , after a couple said hmm there alright I had one without asking what the meat was , after I ate it the keeper said , what do yer think of of them , lovely , what did you have in em , after a little chuckle he said Coypu , mind you they were alright .

I also saw another photo that a chap had from the village where I used to work , he had a adult Coypu that he brought up from a youngster , the photo was of this large Coypu sitting on his garden wall and the kid stroking it whilst on the way to school. .

 

Having eaten all or most of the waders once on the quarry list, there was me thinking that I`d eaten some weird and wonderful things, but coypu