i dont reckon it was as good as we believe it was, i went on boat early 80s nowt diifernt to today in catch wise

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I went on a boat one day in the 80's and caught nothing in 10 hours. I also remember going on a boat in the 80's where we never had any amazing navigational equipment, we lined up features on land to get us in roughly the right area. We caught fish all day, non stop on hooks baited with a single mussel.

Fishing was as effected then from tides and weather just the same as it is now.

As time goes by i think it gets better and better, new things to try both anchoring and drifting,better rods and reels, new electronics put you over the area where the fish live, new ports, different specis. Different areas to fish. List of pb's increasing month by month. Bring back the good old days, no thanks.

Totally agree Barry,
Anglers and the people, who take them fishing, have never had it so good.
Great times ahead for anglers in this part of the world anyway.
Another successful fishing festival is in full swing and new methods of getting out and about on the sea (kayaking etc) are proving to be highly successful and rewarding to the participants.
Whitby’s offshore angling boat (chieftain) is carrying on taking North Sea fishing experiences to another dimension successfully.
There was plenty of fish about in the 80,s and early 70,s when I started taking anglers to sea with my father. But would prefer to be a charter skipper today and an angler come to that.
Regards.

Hiyer John,

years ago we used to look forward to conger and ling trips using decca, yes it was good fun. However today it is so much more accurate. Going to do a three dayer off the french coast next week, never concidered that in the old days. Anchored up for the conger, better today and with braid we can target the bigger ones in the full and all of the tide run, have fun with the big ling on the slack, bring it on. Done it a couple of years ago and had plenty of ling upto 35lb.

I was looking forward to having ago with our old friend John Brennan, sadly not to be, i am aware that there are huge ling in the north sea. Still some forward thinking skipper might appear who fancies a go for the good ones. I would be up for that.

Local to me some things are better, some definitely aren't. Most of my local improvements come down to the River Mersey not being an open sewer like it was back then. Fish can actually live in it full time now, as opposed to just swimming in on the tide and getting the hell out when it went out again! Summer fishing for "resident" species has improved beyond belief, certainly compared to what it used to be like when in the summer there wasn't a molecule of oxygen in the estuary!
Unfortunately at the same time the winter fishing has gone down the pan! I used to be hopeful, even if never 100% confident, of catching good eating sized cod to around seven or eight pounds off the dock walls in the winter months. The local dinghy anglers and night liners caught some "proper monsters" by anybody's standards. All those fish are long gone, if someone puts picture of a three pounder on the local websites it gets "nice fish" comments!
I'm hopeful things will improve because of all the artificial reefs they are building close by (they call them windfarms). They might give the young codling a place to hide from the prawn trawlers.

Fishing in the 80ss was unbeleivable 20lb ,30lb cod were caught more or less every day back in those days you could have litterally walked on cod off whitby not to want those days back seems a little strange.

paul.

Your quote yesterday tells a different story.

1 took the best daily prize just over 13lb but he also had numerous other fish between 5-10lb the lads went home on saturday and said in all the years they have been comeing to whitby it some of the best fishing they could remember they were knackered.

Barry they didnt fish here in the 80ss they have comeing to whitby for about 10 years like i said if you fished in 80ss either from boat or shore it was unbelevable i personally had cod over 20lb from the shore never mind the boat.

paul.

Hi Barry looking forward to your report on your 3 days in the channel.
I took my first angling party to sea back in 1973 with my father, we where very fortunate to have a Decca navigator aboard and many charts that had been given to us by local commercial fishermen.
Most of the anglers where using rod that could only be described as cut down snooker sticks and large scarbourgh reels, and there where still anglers who preferred to use hand lines.
I agree with GlenK that you where just as effected then as you are today with conditions and tides. The Decca’s where very helpful when it became foggy for finding your ground and the odd bit of scrap but you didn’t have the equipment that the lads have today.
There was plenty of fish around on good days as there is today but I never remember being able to walk on cod.
George (skipper of chieftain) was telling me just the other day that he has (again this year had cod well past the 30lb mark and I believe that there has been cod over 20lb been caught from the shore at Whitby in recent times so things are looking good for anglers.
I believe if you where to ask anglers today to sacrifice the great tackle (or boats come to that) that is available to them or the skippers to sacrifice the brilliant equipment they have at there disposal today for the fish that there was about in the 70,s or 80,s I believe that most of them would stick with what they have today.