Longlining for Cod

[Ian Burrett]

This is over a week old so may have been posted before but looks an interesting alternative to all the discards

 

 

http://www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.p...h_bloggers.html

[glennk]

Long lining certainly sounds a far better way of fishing. Locally I understand all they catch is a load of fish heads as the seals take the rest.

 

I did hear of a device that was available that frightens seals away. Not sure if this is true?

[H.A.]

Long lining certainly sounds a far better way of fishing.

 

It seems to have been particularly successful for the removal of spurdog from the Scottish lochs and is currently used mid-English Channel for the same purpose .... feeding the French?!

 

[ColinW]

It does seem a more sustainable way of doing things. I can't imagine catching every fish in a shoal using a string of baited hooks and it doesn't wreck the sea bed the way I think trawling does (although we are told by "experts" that having tons of chains and trawl doors dragged across you is like being tickled with a feather by an oriental call girl).

The main benefit I would imagine is that a fisherman doesn't need a million pound boat to do it, so he doesn't need to pay off the interest on his million pound bank loan before starting to make any profit, which in turn means he isn't under quite so much pressure to catch every fish in the sea.

[big_cod]

Longlineing has been going here at whitby for probably over a hundred years i did mysely in the eighties three boats have been doing it this winter and they did very well for cod at one time there would be a dozen or so cobles longlineing through the winter months but the numbers have dwindled over the years longlineing is a conservation way of fishing with little or no discards it was mussel which was the main bait untill about 10 years ago when squid took over with tremendous results most lonlines have approx 200 hooks on each line and most boats used to work around 6 lines but there was allways one he would would work 15 to 20 lines he wanted to be top dog sometimes landind well over 200 stone of cod a day greed was more the word longlines are usually shot over hard ground but through the 70ss and 80ss there was alot of lineing done where you shot them on sand you allways did this on the very big tides just as it was comeing dark if you shot to early starfish would often cover the worm baits up which was very frustrating whne you hauled them at first light but what a feeling which you took hold of the line it would be alive you could feel the fish pulling when you were hauling them worm lines allways took the bigger fish with very little fish under 6lb you could get some tremendous catches of quality fish again with little of no discards maybe one of 2 small fish if you were unlucky as for conservation again if it had just been lonlineing over the past 30 years you would still getting the catches now that you were getting then.

Edited March 18, 2008 by big_cod

[Guest challenge]

If the fishing industry in this part of the world would have only been allowed to fish with long lines (approximate effective season about 3 months of the year) for the past ten years, it would have finically collapsed after the first season.

mind you one of our posters on this forum (darlik) is a bit of a crack hand with the old long lines as well as out fishing most of the anglers in these parts with the old rod and line, come to think of it there’s not many that beat him on average with the lobster pots neither. Seen him catch a salmon on a fly when you would have thought that there wasn’t one there to catch. perhaps not everybody is as good as darlik at catching things, or it could be that not everybody wants to be as good because there’s a reliable living to be made (discards an all) with the trawl.

regards

[wurzel]

This is over a week old so may have been posted before but looks an interesting alternative to all the discards

http://www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.p...h_bloggers.html

 

 

Alright if everybody fished for cod, lines are not very good at catching prawns or scallops, also difficult to catch dover sole, lemon sole, plaice, monkfish and numerous other species, haddock can be sometimes caught on lines baited with mussel but I can’t imagine a lining fleet being able to supply Peterhead with enough haddock.

Lining does not work the same every where and as Challenge says the season can sometimes be short, in this area the season is normally a bit longer and you can divert to thornback rays or even bass at times.

At one time lining was all I ever did, never made much money at it though, the bait supplier seemed to be making more and for a lot less effort.

[glennk]

It seems to have been particularly successful for the removal of spurdog from the Scottish lochs and is currently used mid-English Channel for the same purpose .... feeding the French?!

 

 

 

I get the feeling you would like to see every type of commercial fishing banned ?

[big_cod]

If the fishing industry in this part of the world would have only been allowed to fish with long lines (approximate effective season about 3 months of the year) for the past ten years, it would have finically collapsed after the first season.

mind you one of our posters on this forum (darlik) is a bit of a crack hand with the old long lines as well as out fishing most of the anglers in these parts with the old rod and line, come to think of it there’s not many that beat him on average with the lobster pots neither. Seen him catch a salmon on a fly when you would have thought that there wasn’t one there to catch. perhaps not everybody is as good as darlik at catching things, or it could be that not everybody wants to be as good because there’s a reliable living to be made (discards an all) with the trawl.

regards

 

John i personally went lineing with your old boss john brenan well into may when he was with andy marr at the time till johns dad jack did his party trick andy went salmoning with steve fish through the summer so i went with john it was averageing 10 stone a line and that was in may, longlineing usually started late october and finished sometimes into june martin hopper and adrian roe both went into june one year now thats well over 7 months the rest of the year they were either salmoning or potting i allso remember you could often get a box of haddock especially of runswich untill they were fished out and that wasnt done with long lines but when you actually think about it john trawling only really got going in the 70ss it was mainly scence netting with little trawling it was the invention of rockhopper what changed the scenario out with the gardeners and in with the volvos power that was the main thrust it suddenly changed everything as you know tow hard ground with bobbins and often enough your net would have paralized ground was fished that had never been fished before with rockhoppers suddendly it was a licence to print money.

Edited March 19, 2008 by big_cod

[Guest challenge]

John i personally went lineing with your old boss john brenan well into may when he was with andy marr at the time till johns dad jack did his party trick andy went salmoning with steve fish through the summer so i went with john it was averageing 10 stone a line and that was in may, longlineing usually started late october and finished sometimes into june martin hopper and adrian roe both went into june one year now thats well over 7 months the rest of the year they were either salmoning or potting i allso remember you could often get a box of haddock especially of runswich untill they were fished out and that wasnt done with long lines but when you actually think about it john trawling only really got going in the 70ss it was mainly scence netting with little trawling it was the invention of rockhopper what changed the scenario out with the gardeners and in with the volvos power that was the main thrust it suddenly changed everything as you know tow hard ground with bobbins and often enough your net would have paralized ground was fished that had never been fished before with rockhoppers suddendly it was a licence to print money.

We will never know will we Paul? There was plenty of fish being caught in the trawl when the decline in line fishing first kicked in and there was plenty of fish for a few years after that as well. I know that John told me that they where fishing well one winter with the lines (cannot remember the year) and then they had a server north easterly breeze accompanied with a big tide. It was a good heavy breeze that lasted about ten days. He said after that you couldn’t take a fish out of the sea with long lines for love nor money. Not just for a week or so but for months. It had such an effect on John that he sold all his lines and boat and changed over to full time angling.

We where just talking today about horse power and what a difference a power limitation by law within the committees district might have made, if it had been introduced back in the early eighties? But as I say Paul we will never know. maybe there would have been a bit more fish within the district today, or maybe that outside influences throughout the north sea would of still of contributed to the decline, be it weather related or feed related (sand ells stc) or fish being taken by powerful boats outside of the district? Again we can only surmise.

Regards