wildcard

Yo worms, This is special invite, soft southern know it all men with 'bling' tackle only need apply. Do you measure up? Alan

Yo Deene/Barry, I have put an interesting tour schedule together for your proposed visit; Day 1 - Conger fishing off Whitby. Day 2 - A trip to 'Wigan Pier' Day 3 - A search for the 'Lambton Worm' Day 4 - A talk 'the hidden illuminati' by David Icke. Day 5 - A hunt for 'the Black Monk' of Gisborough priory. Day 6 - Chinstrap penguin/Narwal spotting off Hartlepool. Day 7 - A chance for you clever Southern lads to invest inthe 'ponzi scheme' Let me know when you want to come over. Alan

We certainly have some half decent ling fishermen 'up north'. In the video I posted, the lad holding the cod by the eyes won the Hartlepool small boats comp twice in a row with 1st 2nd and 3rd prizes going to his own boat. To do this twice in a row is quite something. The lad holding the foot long squid bait is Dave Bruce. He has had ling up to 42lb and he is also the swiftcats new owner. Davey won the Hartlepool small boat comp 3 times in a row. His specialist subject is ling fishing in September. His crewman Andrew has had ling up to 28lb - all from wrecks. We have the skippers. We have the anglers. We have the skills and knowledge. What we don't have are eel members of the Congridae. Alan

We are no experts at anchoring wrecks in this part of the world whereas you Southern boys are. However, here is a video I shot of my previous skipper wreck anchoring over the biggest wreck in the North Sea (the Namarado Field Jacket). Because of the wrecks orientation we decided to use 2 35kg Bruce anchors instead of one placed 30 deg apart uptide on the ebb. The ebb tide ran at 304 deg in its second and third hour so using reciprocals we placed the anchors at 71 deg and 41 deg respectively. All calculations are in magnetic North and not true North. The wreck lies in 226ft of water so to allow for the catina we used 1100ft of warp with 35m of 8mm chain rode on each pick. We didn't catch any congers. One of our anglers did catch and release a 15lb cod though. Where did we go wrong Barry and Deeno? Alan

The thing is Carl it is fun, and no offence is ever taken We have some angling heavy weights here (including yourself) but sometimes if the boys want to fight you better let em' Alan

Thats a good idea. You should come for two days. You can spend one day fishing for congers, and the other looking for the ghost of the black monk at nearby Gisborough priory. Funnily enough I dont expect you to be successful at either, but I am no expert like you southern lads. Alan

Apparently just before his death the police had increased the reward money on his capture from £10,000 to £20,000. They were calling it 'a double Raoul over'. Alan

Classic Bon Scott lyrics; Dirty deeds done with sheep, dirty deeds lil bo peep. class. Alan

Sad but true, the legend has retired. Ah well, better to go out at the top. http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/...octopus-retired Alan

Guess who's finger this is: Alan

Hi Barry. I showed an 'experienced boat angler' how to correctly use a T bar recently. Later he belied his fresh water origins by asking where the 'disgorger' was Sad Alan

I have questioned your agenda Glenn and you havent given it a serious reply. Lets try again - Why post pictures with untrue weights of fish on this forum? What is your motive? Alan

Whats your agenda then Glenn posting BS like this? Alan

The jury is still out whether conger eels exist off our coastline which can be caught by rod and line anglers. They are washed up on the beach, but these fish could come from anywhere. They are caught in nets occasionally, so they are there. What if these fish do not feed because the water temperature or salinity does not suit them? Consider this quote from here; http://www.riverhumber.com/ The Humber with its canals and tributaries, (which include the rivers Hull, Ancholme, Derwent, Ouse and Trent) run off an area of 9,550 square miles (24,750 square kms.), which is about 20% of the total land area in England. This provides the largest single output of fresh water from Britain into the North Sea. So 20% of the total land area in England drains into the sea south of us which will have a major impact on the temperature and salinity levels. We also have some big rivers to the North of us. If conger eels need static baits at set periods of the tide, why don't the longliners catch them? This was very big business throughout this area for decades. Incidentally one of the best Whitby longliners was JB. Alan

So you shot one film once and now you are an expert, maybe you should write a book. Our skippers know exactly how to fish a wreck, they fish the same ones hundreds of times in their lifetime. This knowledge has been passed down from father to son in a lot of cases. Wrecks fish differently depending on what stage of the tide they were sunk originally which affects their orientation and what terrain they lay on. Different ones hold different species and need to be fished at different states of the tide. Wreck fishing is very simple if you have this knowledge, the marks and the electronics. We stopped using wash balls to predict drifts when plot trails and vectors were introduced don't you know. Alan

Well you are certainly some man for one man You are going to teach us how to anchor up for congers are you? - Well you better bring some up with you, because we havent got any. The skippers in this part of the world havent had much luck catching wahoo, dorado or the Arctic narwhal either. Maybe you could give us a few pointers It seems to have escaped you that the inexperienced north east skippers you refer to somehow managed to land the uk record ling (59-08-00 Bridlington, Yorks. J. Webster 1989) as well as the uk record cod (58-06-00 Whitby, Yorkshire Noel Cook 1992) How these dumb skippers did that without your help god only knows. Alan

Hi Barry, I cant even find out what year the congers were washed up. If Paul says it happened in 63 then I have no reason to doubt him. If it happened in 63 then I was 5 years old By talking to different people I have gathered they were washed up on a long stretch of coastline and the phrase 'heaps of them' was said to me by an ex Whitby skipper, though this could be in certain isolated areas and none in others. Things can travel thousands of miles before being washed up on a beach, so it is all conjecture. Did the cold kill them - possibly. Or was it the temperature drop - maybe. Were they local fish? Thousands? Hundreds? a few? - I cant find out, try doing a bit of research yourself Barry. Let me know the answers. Alan

Not necessarily Barry. No one knows where the congers died. It could have been 100's of miles away and not off our coast. There was a very cold spell at the time which could just be coincidence. Some very big ones are washed up along our coastline occasionally - but who is to say where they died? Alan

In a nutshell, I wouldnt say the water is too cold for them here, I would say the water here is too changeable temperature wise for them to thrive, but they do exist. Alan

I was talking to one of the old boys who remembers the congers being washed up in the 60's. He said the newspaper reports at the time stated it was the massive influx of very cold water in the rivers which killed the congers. Either melting snow or very cold rain (or both) poured millions of gallons of ice cold fresh water into the rivers Humber, Wear and Tyne and lesser tributaries in between. As Paul said, this part of the world has deep water very close in and as the cold water sank it is the most likely thing that killed the congers. Divers have told me conger eels exist on the wrecks, but they can't be relied upon as they are not anglers. They may mistake big ling for conger eels. The jury is out whether they are there or not, but certainly no one is targetting them. Alan

I think conger eels are susceptible to temperature change Barry, they are not particularly hardy. The waters are warmer further South (than here) and also warmer in parts of Scotland (than here) where they are at a constant temperature fed by the Gulf stream. Other things can affect temperatures. A big influx of rain water for example. The river Tyne North of us and the river Humber to the South contribute enormous amounts of water as well as the smaller rivers in between. It is the differing day to day temperatures conger eels dont like. Alan

Hi Barry, No one fishes for conger eels in this part of the world, though I don't know why. I suspect the cod goggles have too much effect. There was a very early winter in the late 60's up here (67 I think) when the temperature dropped to minus 5 in September. As you know conger are susceptible to temperature changes and heaps of them were washed up along the shore from Newcastle to Scarborough some of which were over 8ft long. John Brennans view was that all the conger were killed, and there werent any, but the reality is if the habitat were suitable for them then, it would be now. They would just re-populate. The divers have told us congers inhabit the wrecks. We had a porbeagle shark spotted (by many) last year which was 8ft long, but no charter boat advertises trips for them. Alan

There is no way around it Brian. The Hartlepool festival runs from June - September so it is always going to clash with the Whitby one. Alan Alan

No photos of the Hartlepool fish as yet Barry, but they are genuine. They were weighed in a local tackle shop. http://www.wildcard-charters.com/community...1bb9e40b1dbaaed Alan

I think WSA is very much like Margaret Thatchers government Carl, if you agreed with everything she said you got a ministers job. If you didnt you were out. Alan