thedogs

Mica Rose The Maiden Voyage. To say I was excited is a bit like saying Dawn French is big boned. I wasn’t going to get any sleep Saturday night that’s for sure. Mica Rose is a 23 foot Aquafish that my angling pal and good mate Matt Lee has been fitting out to his own custom spec for the last year. She was launched about two weeks ago and although Matt had taken her up-river for a short session this was to be the first proper offshore serious tope bash. We had arranged to meet up at the marina at 04.00, but 03.00 saw me call Matt to see if he to was awake. He was so we arranged to leave half hour early. We left Bradwell marina in the half-light of early dawn and headed out of the creek at a leisurely pace. With the creek and the marina well behind us Matt opened up the Volvo 190 turbo charged engine and Mica Rose woke up with one hell of a start. 35 knotts in what seemed like a blink of any eye. In no time at all we were at the East Barrow feathering our bait for the day. The mackerel were a tad patchy but in an hour or so we had plenty for our days fishing. The engine was started and it was off the tope mark, enthusiasm was high as was the dawn sun that was gently warm up the new day. No sooner had we admired the sunrise when Matt was throttling back the engine ready to sling the anchor in. To be honest the fishing was slow, with the only fish being a very greedy dab that wouldn’t let go of a mackerel strip intended for bass. In a way I was glad of the leisurely pace as I was starting to feel tiered. After a few hours of no action Matt got his head down for a while. It was during this time that one of my tope rods sprang into action. The result a few minutes later was a wide-awake Matt and a tope of around thirty pounds throwing our chairs around the deck. The photo sessions was fun, although the fish only went around 30lb she felt like a fish of one hundred pounds to me a fatigue had really set in by now. Some of the pics Matt took really show this point much to my embarrassment. After a medicinal Red Bull and an inactive 45 minutes Matt made the decision to try another mark that was only a short distance away. Again fresh baits were cast and the trap set; we just sat back and enjoyed our surroundings. Then it was Mats turn, with his rod taking a satisfying curve I braced myself for tailing a lively tope with sharp teeth. A few moments later a modest tope of around thirty five pounder was being photographed. Mat is known to his close friends as Golden Balls. Although he has been angling all his life he has only been sea angling for about five years. He is sweeping up quality fish with four bass now over 8lb three of which were doubles. He has had twenty tope over thirty with five over forty. So it was with no great surprise that his fish was larger than mine. For the next few hours we messed about at a few other marks trying to get a bass and playing with Mats new electronics. Every trip is a learning curve so the maiden voyage was even more so. Back to the time when I was playing my tope. There was a very large gravel abstraction ship named The Sand Fulmar heading on a collision course for us. Matt had the knife ready to cut the anchor rope she was so close. She then proceeded to circle us three time abstracting gravel and sand as she went. To my mind this does more damage to out marine life than any over fishing by commercials! All in all a fantastic day out. Pics to follow soonz.

I would hate to see an end to the UK fleet. I feel in my area we may now have a substainable fishery due to in decrease in commercial boats. Both the commercial and charter fleets seem to be doing much better.

Could this pssably be the start of logical, sensible joined up thinking?

In my haste to reply to your objectionable attitude and tone I seem to have slipped back into dyslexic mode. The point I was making is that I’m doing very well thank you very much. If you are not catching I expect it is down to your angling abilities, not down to fish stocks. I bet your the sort of bloke who takes the pee out of the disabled or laughs at a fat person. Please stop blowing hot air you old fart!

Hey Ron how do you find the general fishing now days?

Mike Pawson took over Donovan Kellys study of bass in I think 1980. He is a clever and very intelligent man if a little arrogant. However like any government scientist employed by MAFF/DEFRA he will be out to get the results that are wanted by his employer. Also and answers given by any scientist will depend on how and what questions are asked. Anyhow Adrian it will not matter how many people tell me the fishing is so bad, while I find that my fishing and (many other in my area) gets better and better each year I will not believe a word of it. Don’t lose sight that as stated the studies that this post were started about were in the S/W. I think the reason the general fishing in the Thames Estuary has get better is due to a decrease in commercial pressure. I think the area now has its correct amount of boats, you could call it SUBSTAINABLE. I expect your catches are not so good for other reasons that fish stocks. kind regards..Sam

Adrian. All my knowledge comes from hands on experience. I cannot help that I find things and see things different to yourself. Chatting to my commercial friend last night he is targeting soles with trammel nets and still catching less bass although the bass he does catch are bigger than if he was using 90 mil mesh. He is working inshore therefore burning less fuel and keeping his carbon footprint at a low level. You can quote to me any amount of statistical waffle but if it doesn’t fit with how I find things I will retain the right to disagree. The problem I find with much of the RSA sector is the Roskilly trend of the cutting and pasting of DATA and ideas.

Adrian. My knowledge of bass and sea angling in my area comes from hands on experience rather than the modern trend of cutting and pasting information, theories and ideas. I also speak almost daily with other good anglers and commercial fishermen who are good friends of mine. You can say what you like, the fishing is good. There are more bass in the Thames Estuary than ever before. Ok so the vast majority are small but this year I have seen a good increase in the number of fish over 3lb. Not the good old days but good fishing. The thornback ray fishing has just got better and better year after year, and now it is as good as the good old days if not betters. Local commercial fishermen area also doing well year after year working inshore fishing sustainabley and burning less fuel than those large boats that steam over the horizon and use miles of nets or worse still huge trawls.

Most of the bass sold at super markets is crap because its farmed. These farmed fish and small fish caught and sold by people using a fishing rod have pushed down the price of 36cm bass. The larger fish now fetch more money so this also increases the pressure on the larger bass that I enjoy catching. Push the MLS down to about 10 inches and restrict effort I say.

As I have said before I can only speak for what I see in my area. There has been a notable decrease in commercial pressure due to many trawling families packing up. This has lead I think to the increased numbers of fish such as smoothounds, thornbacks and tope. It must have done something to increase the numbers for all species, as ground trawling is the worst kind of commercial pressure there is. Due to the fuss made over the bass MLS most of the commercials in my area are using cross tide trammel nets now as they thought their 90mil mesh was to be outlawed. These nets are intended for soles but do catch bass. Talking to a local commercial he says he is now catching more 3 to 8lb bass than previous years due to using trammel nets rather than 90mil gill nets. So now most of the now fairly small local commercial fleet are catching less bass but what they area catching are better fish. Funny these are the fish that I would enjoy catching, so thanks BASS for your efforts but please in the future will you and your 500 membership, NFSA, SACN with their lack of sea angling knolledge PLEASE BUT OUT of my sea angling!

Bass hear in the Thames Estuary don’t seem to be in decline, I would guess that the whole area is now an nursery area as schoolies can be caught right from the inner most reaches and out 30 miles. Now with several good year class at and above the mls there are also more better fish than previous years. Last year it wasn’t until mid July that I caught a bass over 36cm, this year I have lost count of the fish over 45cm I have caught. Best fish so far 62cm, not massive but satisfying.

As you say local to John L not national, if one dips a landing net into any of the marinas local to me in around October they will catch O-groups. I think BASS has wasted lots of opportunities to help make bass angling popular, I don’t believe BASS wants more members than it already has. I think it likes to be seen as elitist. But I see BASS as a tight nit bunch of fluff chucking eccentric nutters who refuse to see reason or listen to any one else’s point however valid. I now think this body posse more of a threat to my angling freedom than any commercial fisherman.

Hello Barry. I have e-mailed DEFRA regarding many of my concerns. However I get the feeling they are happy to deal with Leon and Fere as they will give away our sea angling freedoms and DEFRA can then apeese the commercial fishermen by tying us up in a strateregy. I am the ANTI LEON.

Didnt bring scales, it measured 5 foot by 21 inches. I put it at high forties but my Dad has seen more tope than most and said from the phote that although long it was a lean fish probably about 45lb.

They really do not have a clue the BASS, SACN or the ruddy NFSA. With such a small percentage of the UKs sea anglers chosing to join them how can they possably represent sea angling UK. Some of the bods that have the governments ear hardly ever go fishing un yet they think they know what is best. I find it all very concerning.

When out this afternoon with mate and fellow X BASSmember Matt golden balls Lee. We only bought eels and feathers with the target species being tope. We (wellMatt) caught some mackerel and cast one rod each out with eel and one baited with fresh or live mackerel. After a few hours hour Matts reel started screaming and the game was on. About two hours later the wind got up so we came in. Oh yes and I caught a 9lb hound and hermit.

Thanks Glenn, No I was just interested as some people tend to think everything that comes from DEFRA (CEFAS) I can not see this amount of fish being down to species contraction. I wonder if the commercial fleet has now come down to a substainable level. The fishing certainly improved.

Thanks Glenn, The reason I asked was that CEFASS have a theory that the thornies are contracting into the Thames Estuaery as their numbers decline. I would like to know if the thornback fishing is good in other parts of the country.

Hello Glenn, Whats the fishing like up your kneck of the woods? Are the thornbacks in good numbers? Not that they offer great sport Im just interested if they are as thick on the ground as they are hear all around the UK.

When will people start to see it, the fishing is improving in some areas its not all doom and gloom.

Hello Adrian. My vocabulary is only limited by dyslexia and is helped by Words spell check when I can be bothered to use it. You and many others like you have very little knowledge regarding sea angling or commercial fishing, that is why you have to resort to insulting me, instead of putting your point across politely. I tried P/Ming you last time you tried to insult me but like the others you just blow a lot of old hot stale air. Sea angling needs the likes of you like a does of clap. As for bass stocks declining, in my area that’s just piffle. Yesterday I fished for four hours caught 13 bass 10 were over 3lb two were over 4lb one was four and a half, only three of the 13 were 2lb. Not the good old days granted but far far away from in decline.

The only problem I had with the BMP was that it was on a looser before it started. This is because like any management plan it depended on all the aspects of the plan being implemented to have a good effect. Simply implementing a mls of 45 or even 55cm would only mean more 45 or 55cm bass being caught by commercial fishermen. To increase the size of mesh used to make mono gill nets would have done a similar thing as what ever mesh size is chosen more fish of a size to fit that mesh would be caught. The BMP would have worked well if it had of been implemented as a whole. The best and only way to my mind is a cap on effort coupled with a slot size based scheme. As for evidence of what bodies like BASS, SACN and the ruddy NFSA have done that could do to damage my sea angling you just have to look at the sea angling strategy written into the marine bill. That was Richard Fare’s brainchild as he was happy to explain to me in a private e-mail. It was this same strategy that was suggesting a rsa license and restrictions on hook sizes used by anglers. Why do we need to be restricted? Well I will tell you DEFRA must love it being able to tell the commercial lobbyists that sea angling bodies would except bag limits, closed seasons and no take zones coupled with no bait in nursery areas. Some of the people who help influence government decisions sea anglers hardly ever go fishing and know next to nothing about the sport. All this I find very wrong and quite frightening.

Hello HA. As I have pointed out many, many times I’m a 35-year-old man with my own opinions. You offend me yet again Adrian by bringing my family into a discussion. My farther and I have had different lives that have shaped different views. We agree on a hell of a lot of matters the main one being that DEFRA is useless. However we disagree on other points of argument like all commercial fishermen are arse holes. As for your claims regarding shark species, as far as I know a 5% by catch is allowed. PS How does it feel having the same name as Rockies wife?

In the past three days despite the dire weather I have heard of three double figure bass and several 7 and 8 pounders being landed by anglers from the Thames Estuary not to mention many thornbacks. The fishing is good, as said before the average size of bass is much smaller than in the good old days but with sensible management these fish would grow. By creating this monstrous wedge between commercial fishermen and sea anglers we have not helped any future sensible joined up management. Believe it or not most commercials understand more about fish than your average angler, those that don’t have long since gone to the wall. So as I see it commercial fishermen and anglers both should be custodians. As a angler I am a stake holder and at present I know where I would like to shove that stake, up DEFRAs jacksy!