[…] have been some comments regarding the legality of tickling trout but, as far as I know, the practice would only be illegal if you were fishing in private waters, […]

Now I’m intriqued…I want to try this! Can the invasive Asian carp be caught this way?

If it really can become, with practice, that easy to catch so much fish so quickly, I can understand it being declared illegal– especially if it’s in an area that’s already been (or is close to being) overfished.

But I do admit to being irked that this method might be illegal everywhere, even if one had purchased a fishing license.

Tickling trout, eels and YES the king of fish, the ‘Salmon’ is one of the true great enjoyable gifts of nature and life. A great and skillful pastime/way of life passed down from generation to generation slowly being lost because of the boring sad herberts i.e. fisherman who use rods etc and bailiffs who think they own every b****y stretch of water, lakes etc and every fish in them. I have a lot of nasty words for them but i will refrain from using them here. Common sense, decency and a brain to think for one’s self have well and truelly gone in todays society. Why should some clown who buys a rod etc and pays for a license have controll over gifts from nature that are free to us all?

This subject really boils my blood. Ive seen banks tangled in line that never degrades, fish dead on line that has snagged on the bottom and the angler has snapped the line. Ive seen swans, geese and ducks etc hooked on line after swallowing bait inc hooks etc, and one duck that couldnt fly as it had its wing badly tangled in line. Tickling trout is more enjoyable than rod fishing, keeps you fit and gets you truelly involved in nature but most importantly does not damage the environment or hurt fish.

I will continue to catch fish with my barehands until the day i die and all you anglers and bailiffs can go take a long walk off a short cliff. When i have kids i will teach them everything i know. I have no respect for your part in controlling nature and how people harmlessly interact with it. Nice to hear all the stories of others tickling fish. Keep it up and enjoy yourselves.

Very interesting, never tried it before though.

Everythings illegal nowadays! and the things make a good point

It is a total myth that women’s pheromones have an affect on fish, this was started by Carp anglers many years ago mainly as a joke about their baits. All fish can’t detect female pheromones and that’s a clinical fact.

I’ve always wanted to tickle trout; and I don’t see why it is illegal

It’s a natural and humane way of catching a feed.
Have done it myself in a small stream in NZ many years ago.
Yes,it’s illegal there too, Dave. Why???
The trout isn’t even a native of NZ.
Some laws are worth disregarding Dave!

It is still ILLEGAL to take trout in this way.

Ron is advcocating breaking the law !!

There used to be a programme on itv many years ago presented by a countryman who demonstrated country crafts. I think his surname was Hargreaves. Maybe there is some archive foootage somewhere, ‘cos I remember seeing him demonstrate the skill of trout tickling. Have just googled , and His Name was Jack Hargreaves and the programme he presented was called Out of Town and it looks like dvd’s are available. It seems any useful skills where man may utilise skills to feed himself and produce anything to earn a living are demonised illegalised or abandoned because we can import the produce more cheaply! I fear for the ability of us to support our selves in the future. What happens when we cannot get supplies or afford the supplies from abroad?

“Somebody post a video and then maybe I’ll believe it.”

Have a look on youtube David.

Did it as a kid.

Somebody post a video and then maybe I’ll believe it.

Wow, I have never heard of trout tickling, seems like it would be hard to do ….

The best things in life seem to be the sort of thing mr plod frowns upon. Don’t you think?
There’s nought better than going home with a little something in ya pocket and, if that little something was swimming, running or growing moments earlier then you know it’ll taste all the better when you eat it in the next half hour or so. AND if that little something belongs to somebody else because the law says so then hey! what e don’t know won’t hurt e.
Used to tickle a few trout, it’s worth the first fifty trys to succeed believe me.some of you will, some of you won’t but if you stick with it you’ll see what i mean. Hoping to find a suitable stream soon as its been twenty years. Just got me a pair of lovely ferrets Orm and Sylke. Started hunting rabbits with the air rifle again. Enjoying the Autumn and all its fruits. Generally going back to my roots and my youth. Towns shit!! enjoy Owen.

My Uncle (it always seems to be an uncle!) taught me to catch fish this way. The method seemed to work best under rocks. For a trout to hide under a rock it would have at least two holes, one for the trout to go in, and one to come out. You locate the trout by trial and error, exploring each hole. When the trout was found you could use your other hand to find the other end of the trout. Catching the trout was then easy, so long as you didn’t mind getting wet.

To kill the fish he would put a thumb in its mouth and pull the head back, breaking its neck, all under water.

He would sometimes leave the fish there if he thought he might have been seen and come back later.

The problem with making this legal is that on a suitable river it is VERY easy to catch fish. I once caught 13 in about an hour, including an eel and one that was so deep (about 4 feet) that I was under the water holding my breath!.

You could catch them under banks as well, but there was a risk of finding a water rat that way and they bite.

Bailiffs would sometimes put barbed wire under the water covering the best trout hides and so you had to be very careful about this as well.

Well isn’t it amazing that something as skillful and fun as tickling trout is illegal. In a time where green is best just think how much energy goes into making a fishing rod, reel, hooks, fishing line, tackle box, waders the list goes on and on. Then there is the licensing department and fisheries that do a marvelous job and would be better served doing other things than stopping parents and their kids learning the art of Trout Tickling. Well you know what they say about common sense….It’s not very common. I recently was chatting with some friends over lunch and the subject of trout tickling came up and they thought it was a great joke and had never heard of it before in their life? They thought I was having a lend of them. Jokingly comparing that method of fishing with Ernie from sesame streets method of catching fish by saying here fishy fishy fishy and they jumped on his boat. As funny as that was it took quite a bit of convincing to prove to them that tickling trout was true.

I used to tickle trout when I was a boy and it was very exhilarating and an activity that I thoroughly enjoyed. My dad told me of my uncle’s skill in the art of tickling trout. He was truly a genius for sure, he would wade along the banks of deep water holes that were very reedy on the outer edge, it would be up to 8 feet deep and due to the fact he was only a little over 5 feet tall the trout were often too low for his hands to reach. But this did not stop him, he simply held onto the reeds and used his feet to gently rub the underbelly of an unsuspecting trout slowly bringing it up to reachable distance and moving one hand under it followed by the other and then would flip the trout onto the bank. He most surely was a pro at trout tickling.

And the local policeman or wildlife officer of the day would have been the first to buy that fish off him and congratulate him on a job well done. Common sense will hopefully one day become more common.

Roy is correct, it is currently ilegal in the UK,in most cases, as it is considered to be poaching. You need a licience to catch fish and you wont get one for this method.

Sounds fun. I would like to try it.

I doubt if it is legal??

Roy

Hi All what fun! Sounds like you get more sucess than I do on the fly. Does anybody stock their lakes or ponds with Trout? If so what do you do.

As a yougster (late 1940’s early 50’s) I too used to ‘tickle’ trout in the river/stream that ran in front of my home. I was reasonably succesful but when out to really impress, we (our little gang)would go up stream a little way. There was a Sheep Dip fed by a pipe from higher up stream. We would shut the outlet draining valve in the dipping pool, open up the inlet valve from the stream and leave it a few days. On our return we would reverse the proceedure, draining the pool slowly. You would be amazed how many trout would be there. We would select the ‘best’ release the rest, go home and accept the praise for our skill at tickling! This always took place out of the dipping season of course. However,my family eventually moved far away, but on a re-visit to my old home to visit neighbours, I was overjoyed to find I could still tickle and catch a fish. Unfortunately I was dressed in my best clothes – my mother was far from please when I walked in, proud of my catch but oblivious to the state I was in. Happy days! Mel.

What fun!

I used to catch lots of trout by hand as a boy, and haven’t given up yet. The method described works, but limits you to finding and going for one trout at a time. Try looking in shallower water (up to 12 inches deep), under all the flat rocks. and where water plunges down a level (little waterfall plunge pools). If there are trout in there you can catch them and haul them out easily, unharmed. Put them back if they’re undersized (8 inches usually, check with your local water authority in England and Wales.) Handy for me, the span between my thumb and small finger ends is exactly 8 inches. Wear an old wool pullover: it keeps you warm even if you’re wet, and I once got a small trout because it swam past my hand and up my sleeve!

To kill the trout, tap the back of its head smartly on the rock you pulled it from – it dies instantly.

You can also catch eels this way – twice the protein of beef, and good to eat if over 14 inches long. (I smoke them over oak chippings along with mackerel). You need a knife to kill them, or they suffer: blade tip in the brain, and sever the spinal cord where the fin ends under the fish (the vent i.e. anus) as they have an extra conglomeration of nerves there that help them control the tail.

Duncan
(33 years catching other people’s trout by hand or with rod and line. Best hand catch – 3 pound sea-trout in 6 feet of water! I put my left-hand index finger in its mouth, and right hand round its tail, and kicked like mad to keep above water and get to shore. My Mother was very surprised, and said “Well, that’s tea sorted!”).

Bubba:

How exactly were the two first posts being sexist? I believe it was you that began the “gender stuggle” with your reply.

@ 2 previous posters: You dont think you are being sexist? Fact is that most anglers are men and always have been men. Pheromones from any mammal, would not be effective on a fish as they communicate with very different chemical signals. Let the statistics speak for themselves and stop trying to make everything into a gender struggle.
On a side-note I have heard that womens menses attracts bears. :-)

Yes, I’ve heard that women make better anglers for that reason.

Please investigate the claim that women and their pheromones make them more effective in the art of trout tickling.