anglers bag limit and discards

[spasor]

Anglers here on the South Coast no longer target cod to the extent we used to. Although we have the odd inshore fishery like the grounds at the Needles for winter cod. Most trips consist of steaming for hours to distant wrecks or marks hoping for the odd decent fish. Therefor a bag limit would mean little to us.

At the same time bag limits on other species particularly pollock or bass, even black bream could cause an outcry.

As has been stated, some species are more area specific so any national bag limit proposed would look, either a good or bad idea; depending where you live.

[Davy Holt]

The cod are stuffed, the zoo plankton that imature cod feed on aparently have moved north so even though the few cod left by commercials do have good spawnings there bugger all for very young cod to eat anyway!

 

There must be something, for the first time in 16 years Lochaline is stuffed full of 4" Codling all with little round full bellies. I spent most of last week watching a shoal of over 100 of them in less than 3' of water eating anything that moved

[stavey]

There must be something, for the first time in 16 years Lochaline is stuffed full of 4" Codling all with little round full bellies. I spent most of last week watching a shoal of over 100 of them in less than 3' of water eating anything that moved

 

Hi dave may i suggest a size 18 micro barbed hook to a 12oz bottom fished under a very sensitive 3bb crystal

insert waggler

[big_cod]

Not having a go bc, but for what would be considered a bit of a cod mecca a few years ago mate thats sad,

sounds like you guys up their will soon be in the same possition as us southerners in a year or two regarding old bucket mouth, dear o dear...........

 

Stavey you have a point the big fish arent there in numbers but believe me there is still plenty of cod here, ok i have post a few snaps on here but this summer i can count on one hand what i could call a poor day fishing this summer it has been very good, and poor day here would probably get the lads on the south coast kartwheeling as norman said on an earlyer post some days one cod if you are lucky on the south coast boats now if that was the norm here we would be out of buisness, got dave barham out with me tommorow for once this year my hopes arent exactly high as we have had 3 three days of strong northerlies and massive tides so the water will be coloured but i will give it my best shot and will have to steam probably at least 20 mile to get clear water which i have never needed to do all summer .

 

Also there seems to be one hell of a lot of small codlings now appearing the shore anglers this winter look like having a bannaza glennk will be all of a quiver now.

Edited August 15, 2006 by big_cod

[chris parker]

I used to fish the Clyde with my old man in the 70's. Loads of cod, my PB was 31 1/2lb off the Gantocks, how many cod have been caught this year there? What happened, I suppose it was down to global warming, plankton distribution changing, el ninjo, Atlantic drift, too much angling pressure. In fact anything will do to blame it on apart from the real reason which I am sure we all know but we will have commercial fishermen talking at a tangent again to avoid the issue.

 

In the 1930's there was a huge herring fishery in the North Sea, and also a world record tuna fishery, now we could blame the demise of the herring and tuna on global warming et al but again we all know what happened. Again we will have commercial anglers going off on any topic to rubbish the statement or avoid a truthfull answer.

 

It is getting to some state when a bag limit is even being talked about for anglers. If an angler was to catch 2 cod from the shore these days of a keepable size it would be reported as a red letter day in every publication.

 

"There are plenty more fish in the sea", "they are there if you know where to go". Sorry, wake up and smell the roses. We can no longer continue to take and expect nature to replace the losses, we are affecting the ecology of the sea with our actions. We need to really think about it as do those with legislative powers as it cannot continue in any sort of ballance, with the pressures we impose, much longer without there being a drastic evolutionary change in marine life. In fact I think it has allready started.

 

We mechanised the farming on land in the 1800's and production crashed, crop rotaton was found to be what the land needed a time of rest between expecting a crop. In the 1960's and 1970's it was fertiliser and pesticides when chemistry produced Nitrates and synthetic pesticide cheeply, and look at the problems we have now caused by the overuse of them.

 

I suggest the way forward for the sea is a system of crop rotation, divide the sea into boxes and allow fishing in a box 1 year in 5 by bottom trawling methods. Give the sea bed time to regenerate, it needs a fallow time to build up it's strength again. If nothing is done soon we will have seas full of commercialy non viable species, that will move in to occupy the niche in the ecosystem vacated by our removed food species. A niche we are artificially creating by removing a layer of marine predators. If that also means no angling then so be it.

 

It really is getting serious and I want my son to be able to enjoy the sea as much as I have. At the moment I have very little hope of that becoming a reality.

[Norrie]

There must be something, for the first time in 16 years Lochaline is stuffed full of 4" Codling all with little round full bellies. I spent most of last week watching a shoal of over 100 of them in less than 3' of water eating anything that moved

 

 

Davy, Just a few years ago, in Loch Fyne, you couldnt move or cast a bait for tiny 4 in Haddock and Whiting, the water was stuffed with them , then all of a sudden they were gone.....factory ships ??? who knows....

Edited August 15, 2006 by Norrie

[stavey]

Stavey you have a point the big fish arent there in numbers but believe me there is still plenty of cod here, ok i have post a few snaps on here but this summer i can count on one hand what i could call a poor day fishing this summer it has been very good, and poor day here would probably get the lads on the south coast kartwheeling as norman said on an earlyer post some days one cod if you are lucky on the south coast boats now if that was the norm here we would be out of buisness, got dave barham out with me tommorow for once this year my hopes arent exactly high as we have had 3 three days of strong northerlies and massive tides so the water will be coloured but i will give it my best shot and will have to steam probably at least 20 mile to get clear water which i have never needed to do all summer .

 

Also there seems to be one hell of a lot of small codlings now appearing the shore anglers this winter look like having a bannaza glennk will be all of a quiver now.

 

Hi bc

I hope your trip goes ok with dave barham tommorrow met him once down my local patch nice bloke

he is to.

 

I am glad you still got enough cod up there mate, but as you know they can be all gone in a very relatively small time, i genuingly hope things dont get as bad up there as it is down here even the summer fishing localy here this year as been the poorest ever for all species, i cant remember it being so bad, it realy is a waste of time sad to say, anyway i will try to keep me chin up but if it carries on much longer as bad? i think it might be time to jack this hobby in mate, cheers and good luck..............

[Jaffa]

Again we will have commercial anglers going off on any topic to rubbish the statement or avoid a truthfull answer.

 

Have to disagree with that statement Chris. I never fished the Ganocks cod but remember the magazine reports from way back when. I am inclined to belive commercial pressure destroyed them, but don't know.

 

On the 1930's Herring/tuna example I think you are utterly wrong. If you can show me any way in which a 1930's drift net fleet could do the kind of damage to a stock that you talk about then please tell me how. Sometimes nature and change really is beyond what people can do.

 

Other famous examples of "Cannery Row" with small pelagic species have since shown to be wrong. IMHO greens take on the north sea sandeel decline is little more than hysteria .

 

Gets a bit hard for the "greens" when "industrial " fishing actually seems more environmentally friendlly than "food" fishing.

 

On the other hand the big predators like sharks are in big trouble. The species that visit are shores are hammered as bycatch, the deepwater ones are hammered by nets in what could be "our" waters , and all will be hammered the day one takes a bite outta a surfer in Newquay

[seaside]

I used to fish the Clyde with my old man in the 70's. Loads of cod, my PB was 31 1/2lb off the Gantocks, how many cod have been caught this year there? What happened, I suppose it was down to global warming, plankton distribution changing, el ninjo, Atlantic drift, too much angling pressure. In fact anything will do to blame it on apart from the real reason which I am sure we all know but we will have commercial fishermen talking at a tangent again to avoid the issue.

 

............. big snip

 

What happened was very well summarised by Austen Brown (Clyde Fishermen's Association) - a commercial fishermans association.

 

“ I will give you a short history of how we have got to where we are. Most of the fish-stocks problems have arisen from the deployment of technology over the past 30 years or so.

 

Cheap fuel has allowed more power to be used to tow bigger nets. The invention of bobbins and rock hoppers allowed fishermen to explore vast areas of hard ground, which had hitherto been breeding-stock reserves similar to the no-take zones that are proposed by some of the Cornishmen.

 

Multiple rigs now allow larger white-fish boats to operate profitably pursuing ground fish and prawns, thereby undermining the markets that are relied on by many of our member fishermen.

 

The invention of the semi-pelagic trawl has almost completely annihilated the former deep-water breeding stocks of cod, hake, haddock and whiting in our area. Fish now have nowhere to hide; they are chased from the shore to the deepest water and virtually everywhere is towed. “

 

I agree that fisheries should be more conservation minded, but the continual pressure on price by the large buyers along with traditional attitudes to fishing spawning and nursery areas means the base stock is continually hammered without any regard to the future.

[Norm B]

I used to fish the Clyde with my old man in the 70's. Loads of cod, my PB was 31 1/2lb off the Gantocks, how many cod have been caught this year there? What happened, I suppose it was down to global warming, plankton distribution changing, el ninjo, Atlantic drift, too much angling pressure. In fact anything will do to blame it on apart from the real reason which I am sure we all know but we will have commercial fishermen talking at a tangent again to avoid the issue.

 

In the 1930's there was a huge herring fishery in the North Sea, and also a world record tuna fishery, now we could blame the demise of the herring and tuna on global warming et al but again we all know what happened. Again we will have commercial anglers going off on any topic to rubbish the statement or avoid a truthfull answer.

 

It is getting to some state when a bag limit is even being talked about for anglers. If an angler was to catch 2 cod from the shore these days of a keepable size it would be reported as a red letter day in every publication.

 

"There are plenty more fish in the sea", "they are there if you know where to go". Sorry, wake up and smell the roses. We can no longer continue to take and expect nature to replace the losses, we are affecting the ecology of the sea with our actions. We need to really think about it as do those with legislative powers as it cannot continue in any sort of ballance, with the pressures we impose, much longer without there being a drastic evolutionary change in marine life. In fact I think it has allready started.

 

We mechanised the farming on land in the 1800's and production crashed, crop rotaton was found to be what the land needed a time of rest between expecting a crop. In the 1960's and 1970's it was fertiliser and pesticides when chemistry produced Nitrates and synthetic pesticide cheeply, and look at the problems we have now caused by the overuse of them.

 

I suggest the way forward for the sea is a system of crop rotation, divide the sea into boxes and allow fishing in a box 1 year in 5 by bottom trawling methods. Give the sea bed time to regenerate, it needs a fallow time to build up it's strength again. If nothing is done soon we will have seas full of commercialy non viable species, that will move in to occupy the niche in the ecosystem vacated by our removed food species. A niche we are artificially creating by removing a layer of marine predators. If that also means no angling then so be it.

 

It really is getting serious and I want my son to be able to enjoy the sea as much as I have. At the moment I have very little hope of that becoming a reality.

Chris, you are far to sensible to be on here but welcome anyway. I find your post well thought out and full of home truths, but be sure, someone will rubbish it.