samuel-cox

All the synes are that the powers that be have just started to belive that pair trawling is a bad thing. This train of thought is a positive thing and to be incoraged by anglers. That being said lots of the peeler crabs sold by bait merchants are trawled, ither as a by catch or deliberatly targeted when fishing is bad. They are often caught in the very areas that juvanile bass live.They ruen the ecosystem and I feel it hypacritacle for anglers to use them. So why not suport your local careful pro crab collector and boycot trawled peeler crabs. MERRY XMAS TO ALL

I hope that other anglers dont think Im the gill netters mate by my opinions. I have a good position to see a lot of sides to this anglers verses commercial fisherman. My father was a charter skiper at bradwell on sea for 20 years, I crewed weekends all my life and cryed when he sold up in 1996. He is still a avid bass conservationist and hates all gill netters guts. I on the other hand worked on a gill netting boat straight from leaving school. Now days i install security systems for a liveing. As theres not enough money in fishing, my old skipper sold his 35 footer and got a 25 footer. He now hardly goes out. T much to often is the problem not gill netts. Gready people not thinking about tomurrow and just reap, reap, reap. Bass fishing can be kept for us anglers, and if managed and strict mesh sizes not the silly 90mil that catches wothless 36cm fish.

I would like to take this opertunity to congratulate this very very good site. I have only been useing it a short time but its good to know there are other intellegent thinking anglers out there. The points made on this site are all good points. Unlike modern big name Sea Angling magazines who print lots of miths. This I feel is wrong as, if the angling press prints un truths about bass and marine concervation, the genral angler will take this a fact. If we are going to win and get a good fucture for our fine sport, we( anglers need the FACTS the TRUTH )not head line grabbing rubish. MERRY XMAS TO ALL

Hi davy and thanx for the welcom I worked on a bass drift netting boat when i left school about 15 years ago, i also grew up with a charter boat skipper as a farther.( he also hjates gillnetters. You ate correct about some gill nets not being very selective, ie, anchored tremmel netts, but drift nets fished at the last half hour of the ebb catch very few undewr sized bass, and when it does they are normally only hanging on to the gill spines and are let go with less damage than a hook would do. im not pro mass factory fishing just substainability. belive me lining i feel aint the anser. more under sized bass are caught and sold by angler in my area than by gill netters so much so that the netters cannot compete with the anglers. This lisence idear would be great if it was used to polise anglers who sell thier catches to reserants. If our house was in order maybe we could throw some stones.

British anglers wouldnt target anchovies, are we sure that Mr Dougles wasnt Spanish. lol lol

Iv sent it but dout it is of any good

Trawling of any kind should be band. It is the most invasive form of fishing known to man. It destroyes the sea bed, which is the very foundation of the food chain. The meshes block with flotsam and small dead fish allowing moor small fish to be trapped. Palagic trawling takes sea mamals and birds as a unwanted by catch.In both methods of trawling the buy catch is shoveled over the side. I understand that there are people who would like to sea bass only commercialy fished for with hook and line. I feel that this would also take undersized fish even if large hooks are used.(we have all caught six inch schoolins on large 5/0 hooks)Also if floating long lines are being used this may also take sea birds. However there is a method of commercial fishing that can be very selective although most anglers hate them, this is the mono gill net. I feel that if gill netters had started using very large meshes to start with( say 20 years ago) instead of the no 90mil mesh wich takes fish of around 2lb before they have realy had a chance to reproduce, we would now have a lot more sizeable fish.If managed correctly and the numbers of nets man kept low, gill netting is a way of fishing sustainably. The troble is the fishery management we have always had is worse than useless. Us anglers should also get our house in order, in my neck of the wood, Dengie, Essex lots of anglers suply resturants with bass, at Bradwell Marina there is a private boat that swaps small bass for pints of beer. This is one place one port, this I esxpect happens all around the country.Up until a few years ago the then MAFF to count the bass caught by anglersthey put them in with the natural mortality rate. It all seems like utter rubbish to me. Still cant wait till spring, and my bass fishing

dont mean to be funny but why not learn how to fish for bass from the shore, I live in Essex but have been holidaying in North Cornwall for 15 years and the bass fishing can be magic..Not to mention the fun off thier wrass.

As said before a difficult one this. It sould be beating my PB mullet with a six a three quarter pound fish from the top at the marina Burnham on Crouch. But theres only a fag papper between that and introducing my mate Mat Lea ( carp ace with fish to 46lb under his belt) to fishing for hounds from my dingy on hermit crab. We both had fish to just shy of 11lb on uptiders and carp rods. http://0067 http://mullt6

I been catching 2002 fish from the crouch at night while targeting codling and whiting.