A skipper in my neck of the woods who runs two well known charter boats when the skippers are bizy, has just purchased a 26 foot gill netter.
I do not know if it is fair to make a judgement as we are all intiteled to have as many jobs as we wish. Having said that I would of thought in todays enviroment it would not be good PR for the skippers of the boats he runs to have a commercial run their boat.
As it happens he does catch plenty of fish for his parties, and you can bet he will try and catch lots of fish in his gill nets.

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In an ideal world, a boatman (or a group of boatmen) should be able to balance the development of a recreational angling charter business with a commercial fishing operations.

They could do this by avoiding netting 'recreational' species(bass, mullet, rays, smoothhound, tope etc) and working for their conservation so that more and more anglers want to fish the area.

Whilst during the week and at times of the year when not many people want to go angling, by taking shellfish, sole etc as a commercial catch, and avoiding those areas where they take angling parties.

But even now there are plenty of commercials who take out angling parties.......

"There were plenty of fish caught here last week" he says, neglecting to mention that he heavily netted the area during the week.

And as his anglers start catching, he notes the GPS co-ordinates so that he can come back to the spot late with his nets, perhaps telling the anglers it's time to move because he wants to take them to another spot as the tide changes, when in fact he wants to use their paid time to search for more fish holding areas to be netted tomorrow

Greed, opportunity, and a quick buck to be made before the next bloke grabs what's there.

But everyone could be making so much more, if only they would learn to think more about tomorrow's wealth than today's quick buck, and learn to work together.

Tight Lines - leon

Sounds crazy to me, like sawing at the branch your sitting on, so short sighted. He will find his angling clients going elsewhere.

Which port is he based in?

Should be burnt at the stake.

Don't ever give him a penny.

some of the boats up here used to do this. they would net and long line the area they had just used anglers to test.

if he is good enough at getting his anglers fish he will get bookings. doesn't even matter if he has had a personality bypass they will still book for the fishing.

what an arse :mad: :mad: :mad:

they are WORSE than full timr commercial's...

If I understand the original post correctly the two charter boat skippers would be mental to let the netting skipper any where near there boats, they are going to be the first to suffer when they have to steam nearly all day to find a wreck without a net on it.

Unfortunately a Commercially registered angling boat is common in areas where there isn't any angling trade in the winter, or there just simply isn't enough trade full stop. You will also find boats commecially registered so their clients can legally sell their fish, or so the skipper can sell them for them.

Absolutely right Toerag. I doubt if any of the boats in the river at Gorleston/ Gt Yarmouth make their living from solely taking out anglers now. They do a bit of trawling, other netting, potting, rig maintenance work, diving, seal trips etc. We simply do not have the year round fishing, or even enough fish in season for them to make a go of it. Unfortunately financial realities bite in; we are blessed with some of the lowest wages in the country but some of the most expensive housing.

pure case of double standards, this blokes id and boats should put in our national angling mags for all to see and avoid and hopefully put out of business. what a wan**er

This guy runs the only two charter boats at bradwell when their skippers are up to other things. He will be targeting mainly bass, soles, mullet and roker in shore.