Jaffa

Hi Ada, The "Cappolots" are hardly winding me up as my worries about whats coming predates Steves posts and writings by several years You say; We have BOTH grown up with tremendous freedom to do as we wanted. Agree? From my point of view its hard to imagine anything the legislators can do that can equal that freedom, let alone improve it. We have lived different lives and seen different things but both of us currently want better fishing? Agree? We live in different worlds but I see huge improvements in my wee bit, so understand i will be more than a little upset if opinion from cozy meetings or barfly experts sees my freedoms taken away for no good reason. Chris

I have very little idea who you are, have not a clue why the AT apparently speaks for me and never knew angling had a "fraternity"? dunno what the word means outside of low budget yank films about the importance of joining one.. But im at fault for not giving you £20? Chris

Thing is Paul, that it's easy to shout that what anglers take is nothing compared to the commercials where you and i live. Is that true for brill and turbot down south? From what i have read its anglers that are the main predators..

I'll second that. I don't have a clue who this "famous five" are, no nothing much about the history of "Angling representation" and why i'm supposed to care. All i see (however wrong a view that may be) is a small group of very green mates helping ram through proposals for restrictions on freedoms i have always enjoyed, and all for no clear purpose or end. Chris

Hi Peter, I have no idea if the spawning aggregations are targeted these days but they certainly used to be by plenty of east coast Scots boats; it was an annual bonanza for the boats that knew when to be in the right place. The landing records at places like Aberdeen and Peterhead will show these very clearly as the catches were almost exclusively big codling/cod and loads of roes, taken from grounds like the Devils Hole. My experience is in pre cod quota days, when the fleet was at its height but it seems daft to think the aggregations would no longer be a target given their worth. A lots changed up here though so i don't assume it is stil the case. Chris

So you don't know what the causes of this " dramatic " (meaning?) are, nor do you know very much about the eel's life history, but as an "expert" you think we should have yet more law and regulation ? Brilliant! No doubt me local paper will still have no real jobs advertised a month from now but there will be a quarter page spread for the " right thinking" expert to suit an agenda. No point thinking differently though; from now on i'm going to just copy and paste the truth like you "heroes" do .. have a good Christmas BTW how do you get a fourty year decline in a species that has a 50 yr life cycle? BTW2 very early in the morning back in the early 80's I saw a very strange thing at Aberdeen harbour; dunno if you know what the steel piles at a harbour look like but they are a series of inlets and outlets. Every inlet was crammed full of adult eels looking up. Every single one! Aberdeen market was at its height at that time with 10k box landings but every fisherman was looking at the eels. I cannot imagine how many eels were there that morning or why they were there. Can you maybe begin to open up your view a bit? ( i really want to say your an ignorant green urban ****.. but that gets no one anywhere and its christmas). Have a good one

Dunno damn all about the situation with eels but put me in the "non thinking" box ifs that the best reply you to what seems an obvious question. Have a good christmas yourself

Sod Natural England and every other quango that has an opinion on beavers - they are already reintrouced and we will just have to adapt to it the way all our ancestors did before pension plans allowed people to have to much time on their hands.. Well its just one viewpoint.. Go Beavers go!

"Page not found" im afraid Leon. Just as well for me personally as no doubt I would have watched it yet again, only to come to the same old conclusion that its cherry picking nonsense. Whats curious is why you keep putting up links to it?

Don't think i have ever bought the AT and can't see me doing so just because they change the editorial line;The Fishing News is far more interesting as a weekly even if it is aimed at commercials.

I hope that forum is some kind of spoof? If not they are more remote, stupid and money grabbing than i ever imagined

Have read through all the trial stuff i can find and its mho good on that salmon farmer for bringing the case. Long overdue and good on him. Any idea who paid for all that defence?

Hi Worms, I guess my basic problem with what your saying is that i have grown up in a world where i was always pretty much free to come and go fishing wise and take that for granted; there may be downsides to the area i live in but fishing is a major upside I have never had to answer to anyone for the risks i took as a kid dodging waves in January on the Arbroath cliffs, had nothing but kind help and advice from the commercials as i later got into diving and kayak fishing. As for "management" of the commercials, i joined the Scottish Fisheries Office as a kid of 18 and was there when the quotas began (all for the best etc) and helped in the process, rather than just watched, as the madness began. Well meaning guys like yourself had all the answers apparently and a whole world went down the tubes. I regret ever having anything to do with it, it was mostly nuts. Monty Python would not have compared to it. Decades of that kind of experience is not going to shift my opinion much Worms.. Nought stays the same though and i don't think you see the wave thats coming People are hurting so like the tide politics will shift;just mho like All the best, Chris

Hi Worms, I hate the word "environmental" too! No idea what it means.. But we seem to be getting a world of their strange legislation heading for us.. Its all so daft that it can't last though

In another thread you preached about catfish: Have you actually ever seen one?

Give it much longer of the rich green/broke journalist morning after scent and there will be very little for anglers to worry about.

Nought new to munch on in those stats Barry. I take it by a " high liner" you mean a rich player? If thats the case then the "high liners"are confined to very specific places: certain ports along the NE of Scotland, Whalsay in Shetland, and two or three smart oddballs from the likes of Orkney. All of them have got where they have through hard work and a families willingness to take a chance over several generations . As far as i know none of them have cashed in, ****ed off to some desert restort and abandonded the people that depend on them. As for the under ten stuff, well how would that actually work when you consider how hard they have fought to keep quota local in places like Shetland, yet come up the alice in wonderland EU and those same evil rich skippers are but mites with zero control of what they allegedly own.

Confused on the healthy stocks of herring, sandeel and cod bit, as ive no idea what a "healthy " stock is supposed to look like. Whats the definition?

Go on then HA, spell it out for the simple minded like me. Imagine i'm blind and describe what happening.

Have you ever actually caught one or seen one on the deck of a commercial boat?

Catfish (wolf-fish; take your fav name) have never been targeted by either anglers or the commecials ime. They are lovely eating so fetch a good price at the market but so few and far between that they are not something anyone targets, or ever did. What have i missed? Rare as hens teeth for angling charters and not much more than a box full for the evil rockhopper trawlers either. Pure fluff. Chris

Indeed not in your backyard at all HA; in fact a world away, yet you seem to know it was wrong. Please explain why that Lerwick registered boat did what it did?

This is just a rachet surely Challenge? http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rachet

Leon, any idea if Nicholas gets PEW funding?

If the true intention of fisheries legislation is to protect stocks then it has to be real time and surely all else is fluff? Was this 400K story real time or yet another paper trail?