Fastd

Looks fine for a slipper launch. Can leave the 4x4 at home cos it aint mine just yet but was available for the weekend. It would be nice if someone tied a few bouys over the rocks till the council got round to moving them. Compared to where we have been launching it looks like heaven as at least the slipway appears to reach the water. Harlepool marina has a slipway that ends in a 12" wall before you hit the water! And they charge 25 quid per launch...thats nice of em! Still hope to make it if it rains in Norwich as I wont be going if that is the case. Cheers Dave

That chart from the shark trust is very good. I got a freebie off Davy Holt that was laminated...all I have to do is catch the dam things now. Cheers dave

A friend is looking to buy a good quality uptider for use here on the NE Coast. There is no particular budget and any recommendations would be appreciated. Cheers dave

I am hoping to get over at the weekend but work has me in Norwich and it depends on the weather when I will be back. Anyone got any info on the new slipway at Ardwell. 4x4 required?. (yep ian i have one now ) if I dont make the weekend it will be monday or tuesday when I get over. theres a place spare snatcher if I do make it for the weekend. Cheers Dave.

<<<does an ebay search for Limpet mines. Is there really nothing that can be done? Dave

What I was trying to get across is that although the figures of 0-1 year olds look good for now the consistent factor over each of the years in that for every year of the survey the number of fish caught in the 5 year plus bracket is measured in 10ths of one percent and a couple of years it was zero! So it does not matter if the 0-1 year grades is estimated at ten times last years numbers cos under the current fishing practices not a single one of them is expected to last 4 years!. How can anyone expect the seas to return to their former glories when this is the case ...or we indeed going to have to put with calling a good days fishing 20 x 5 lb fish? Yesterday I was recording a film based on the state our seas are in ( Details are on NESA site) and the boat had anglers from all generations. The quote that struck me from an angler in his seventies was that when he started going out on charter boats and they dropped on a wreck and EVERY angler hit fish in the 5-10lb bracket the skipper would call rods in and move to another wreck in hope to catch something worthwhile! An 18 yr old regular and very competant angler on the same boat commented that his best cod was 14lb after 5 years going out regularly .. to give you an idea how regularly his dad has just upgraded the family pleasure fishing boat to a offshore 105! (hOpefully meand him will become good friends ) Over the years expectations of what we will catch has become tempered to the extent where what twenty or thirty years ago would be an attrocious day has now become worthy of a post here. In its prime of the seventies and eighties the fishing in the north sea would draw anglers from all over the country . If you wanted to book a full boat you booked for next year when you got of the boat this year. I remeber in the early eighties trying to get a booking on a boat in whitby to be told that they were booked 2 months in advance.I would bet anyone a tenner I could now get two places on a charter boat in whitby this coming weekend ( a bank holiday weekend) if I phoned at even this late stage. Its not a good sign, but since the qualit of the skippers has not declined and the boats have improved tenfold the only thing that has changed has been the number and size of fish caught leading to a decline in the numbers of bookings. Personally it saddens me to see a skipper applauding an increase in fish of under a 1lb when what we should really be working for is an increase in fish over 30lb. Paul please accept this as a comment on the state of fishing in the north sea and not an attack on you as the starter of this thread. As angles we now have the opportunity to start and put things right if we grab the opportunity given to us. Cheer Dave

Well the offer is there guys. The area has huge potential although other anglers from LA have commented that they are tiddlers...last weekend we had 13 fish for 1197lb thats a pretty impressive tiddler bashing!. I have had 7 days fishing there and caught 38 fish so far. Smallest 18lb and largest by snatcher at 182lb. I now have 7 seperate gps marks that I have caught at and not yet investigated an area that the original email suggesting I should give the place a try said averages 20-30 fish a day but they are all tiddlers under 100lb ...but it is only 100ft deep. Its a good sheltered launch and all the marks are within 2 miles of the launch site ( and the mackrel are on the way). There is some good pollocking but the only mark I have tried so far is in the middle of a whirlpool which suits 65hp outboards better than two paddles tbh;) If anyone fancies putting a trip together let me know as I would be happy to provide support/help. If the weather cuts up rough the bay is sheltered and shows potential for thornies and plaice, but I havent fishied it cos I have been fishing further out. There is a largish town with a choice of hotels and restaurants less than 5 miles away with gives a good social side to the trip. If anyone fancies putting a trp together let me know and we can sort somehing out. Cheers Dave

Glenn, We have to keep in mind that the EU are responsible for the 12 mile limit onwards. Its good to know they are addressing the discards issue but its the sfc's who are responsible out to six miles which is where most RSA's fish. You and I have had discussions about the numbers of discards involved in the annual whitby herring catch (massacre). Unfortunately I had to drop the issue due to bad health but we all know it will happen again and from what I am told even local commercial fishermen are not happy with the amount of discards that are part of this annual commercials bonanza. These fish are the future of our sport. Paul has highlighted the good news in that report in that there are twice as many 0-1 year old fish ...but how about the fact there are only 0.06 of 5 year old fish...personally those are the ones I want to catch! I am not familiar with growth rates of cod but the report makes it quite clear that 99.94%of cod will not live for more than 4 years. Does this mean that the chances of seeing the return of days when whitby charter boats were catching 30, 40 and fifty pounders are just a pipe dream? I am going fishing with Stuart Johnston on tues and am looking forward to hearing how things used to be. That record will stand for a long time if we dont push the goverment here in the uk to sort out the inshore policy and allow this current bonus of 1 year olds to still be around in 2017. Cheers Dave

This good news but what are we going to do to ensure they dont end up as discards in the annual herring fishery slaughter. Now is the time to start planning an approach to ensure this doesnt happen again this year....just a thought. Cheers Dave

Sorry about that Elton ...i promise you I will ring you before breakfast in future Speaking of skate virgins I know at least one who lives in Grundisburgh Norrie thanks for the egg ID ...it appeared in the bait box at clean up time. I normally dont kill anything but mackrel but we did keep a couple of doggies when it became clear we were going to struggle for bait. I assume one of the fish we kept dropped it in a last effort to procreate. We did put it in the sea and it may survive. It was fascinating to see one that is not dry and crispy washed up on the beach...it was so transparent you could clearly see the egg inside. This area has fantastic potential particularly for a kayak trip and if anyone fancies giving it a go feel free to drop me a message as a weekend trip can soon be arranged this early in the summer. Cheers Dave.

I have readthis as a facinating thread . I have fished quite regularly from whitby over the last year or so and the two skippers I have fished with have both fished every drift they have set us up on. I had not given it a thought as to the fact that they are taking the paying customers potential fish using their experience and kowledge but that is my opinion.I can see the point that a more inexperienced boat angler could be expecting more help from the skipper in terms of tangles and landing fish. Perhaps its an indication of a skippers willingness to provide total customer satisfaction as to how they asses a particular days customers and the personal 1 to 1 help they offer. I have to say I can not complain over any trip I have taken last year or this as regards the service provided...I have left the boat on every occasion thinking the skipper has done what he can to catch me fish...what more can I ask. I would also say that in the twenty or so trips last year I never saw a skipper have " a couple of boxes" for the back pocket. Perhaps this sums up how hard the fishing is or perhaps I just missed every good trip that was to be had . I have been there on the day when a skipper came in early to have time to fillet fish but I have to say this is regretably an execption rather than a rule. I believe the pics were posted here and removed for whatever reasons the mods saw necessary. Personally as a NE angler I saw it as a skipper saying at last we caught something close to what we expect every day and hopefully we will in the future. Cheers Dave

Hi Snatcher. Glad you enjoyed your trip away. I certainly did. It would seem we got lucky with the weather with only the wind on Friday causing any problems. The lack of mackrel really was a problem and snatcher about summed it up when he said he caught more skate than he did mackrel for the weekend!! We launched on the thursday at 10am to catch the tide on the slipway, moored the boat up and went off in search of digs, petrol and a few other essentials like tins of beer. We got out fishing at about 12.00 and by 3pm had 14 mackrel...not a good sign. The chosen mark was one I had not fished before as I was trying to experiment with new marks rather than stick with proven spots. There was originally meant to be three of us going as this is an ideal number on my boat allowing you to leave the rods out while a fish is hooked, but the third person cried off at the last minute. This meant we had to reel in the second rod when a fish was hooked. I am still not sure what happened when we hooked a fish on a rod that had been reeled in by 20 or 30 turns to get it off the bottom whilst we played another fish, but we did manage to land both fish safely. Day one finished about 8pm with 5 fish landed and we retired to the pub for a couple, into the indian for a meal and we were both so tired we went back to the B&B and slept well. Friday saw a slight increase in wind speed which was to prove a problem later in the day, but once again mackrel proved totally elusive so after a quick count up of the previous days left overs we had about 11 baits if you counted the ones that had already been used. We started inshore for small stuff...about 50 yds offshore into 160ft of water. The plan being to fish small bait rods for thornies and hopefully a black mouthed doggie whilst fishing with feathers to try and boost the bait situation. The mackrel did not show but the doggies did and there is only so any of them I can put up with so we went out to a new potential skate mark with ten mackrel remaining. The wind had now picked up and initially we struggled to get the anchor to hold but when it did we once again were quickly into a skate. The day finished early when at about 5.30 snatcher had a skate on and the anchor started to slip again we decided that when that fish was landed we would pack up go back to the digs and "have a night on the lash "...a decision I was going to regret come saturday morning. In one of the local hotels I got talking to the barman who was a keen angler and knew nothing about the skate fishing in the area. I offered a trip out next day as we needed a third person to enable us to keep the rods down when a fish was hooked but he had to work. About 1/2 hr later Kirk turned up who said he would love to go out with us so arrangements were made to meet him at 8am outside our b&b. I have to say that by this time my tonsils were floating from far too many beers and redwine and did have to be supported on the way back to the b&b. We were woken at 8am by Kirk ringing snatchers mobile to find out where we where. A quick coffee at the bakery next door...we seem to have chosen the only b&b in town that does not do breakfast and out to the boat. With a sea as flat as a mirror it was a pleasure to be out on a day like that. A half hour after mackrel gave us a much wanted 20 fresh baits (snatcher managed to double his catch of these to 2 in toal) and it was out to yet another area I have not fished before slightly south of the previous days mark. This time three rods went down and I was just setting the clutch on the first rod to go down and struggling to get it to hold when I realised it was because the line was being tugged by things other than the tide. Not a bad start and it wasn't long before Kirk had broken his duck with a male of 117lb. Fish came at regular intervals after this with kirk getting 3 and snatcher two including the weekends biggest fish of 182lb. The final fish took a while to land as snatcher was posing for the camera a lot and this meant we had missed the deadline for the slipway so recovery of the boat involved winching it over sand for the last few metres. This venue is a pleasure to fish and there seem to be plenty of skate to be had. I am becoming convinced it is a skate spawning area as it seems to have a large number of large males and a similar number of small females with a few large females chucked in to make things intresting. I would welcome any comments on this and in particular an ID on the egg found on board the boat. We dont know where it came from but it does seem small to be a skate egg and I dont know if doggies lay eggs or not. I have now spent 9 days at this venue in total with two days where we unable to fish leaving 7 days fishing for 38 skate and a best day of 12 skate. The average size is somewhere around the 100lb mark but there are some serious tiddlers (18lb is the smallest) affecting that average. If anyone wants more details of where we were fishing pm me and I will tell you but I would rather not put it on a public forum for obvious reasons. A local hotel with 15 bedrooms has offered a special rate of 25 quid per night if we put a group together and I would say the area is ideal for kayaking for those who like that kind of thing and I have still to investigate an area where I am told skate can be caught in 100 ft of water but the average size is 30-50lb, with up to thirty fish a day making up for the lack of size. That for now remains to be investigated. Thanks for the great company snatcher and cant wait to do it again...first week in june is in my mind as I type this Cheers Dave

Snatcher, Oneof the things I want to try and find is a B&b with wireless network. The last one at easter although faultless in terms of facilities were not even on the net so when I discovered I had left my size charts on the kitchen side we had to wait till we got home before we knew exactly what we had caught. The laptop will be in the van. Cant find my chesties but not a problem. There is still spare place if anyone can get to oban on thurs fri or saturday ring me on 07970553581 and you would be welcome to come out (skate gear is available) See you at 4 am Cheers Dave

Well ....job sorted and we are off at 4 am tomorrow. There are only the two of us going so if anyone likes last minute trips let me know. Cheers Dave

I noticed the forecasted winds had dropped . I will PM you my address. Still not sure of a departure time as the job is still not finished despite working all day Saturday sunday and monday. Hopefully I can finish it today. Still not had a reply from the other guy going so their may be a spare place if anyone wants to be a last minute standby. I think it may be only a works nymber I have for him and I will see if he answers today. Will ring you at a more sensible time of day. for now I have to get back to work. Cheers Dave.

Hi Brian. I was supposed to be going out on Flamer 2 to make up some numbers with some firends. Problem is the job I am working on is running behind and we hoped to have it finished today but we will have to turn out tomorrow. I was hoping to arrange a sharking trip with him as we have been discussing this over the winter. Never mind as I have the end of the week to look forward to and hope to get amongst the skate again. The forecast is not looking particularly good at the moment with winds to 20 mph but we will have to see what happens. Cheers Dave

Thats good news nick. Saves me having to buy some. Although I am going out on a charter on Monday from Hartlepool I dont think they have appearead on this coast yet. You cant beat fresh bait IMHO...although the smelly ones do work they are horrible to use. Cheers Dave

So when are you going to allow catch and release results to enter Paul Or are you worried that small tope beats big cod or ling on most occasions? Dave

I have looked at both but been to sea in neither. I have to say I would go for the raider based on what I have seen . Our local distributor has them ex stock...or he did at the back end of last year before the tax man caught up with me . Will be a while before I can afford to look again. Dave

A meeting was held yesteday betweeen David Milliband, Graham Slesser (from the NESA site) and myself to discuss the potential introduction of an angling license. David Miliband had promised to answer questions from Graham and local anglers. Graham went armed with some written questions from the forum regulars which were handed to him and he promised to answer each one individually. We took the opportunity to ask him if he would be prepared to meet NE anglers personally and answer their questions. He agreed that it was in all anglers intrests that they are fully informed about the Marine Bill white paper and asked us to contact his office to arrange a date and time for a meeting between him and anglers. More details are available here http://www.nesa.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=12988 We will keep you informed as to the progress in arranging this meeting. Cheers Dave

Hi Mustgofishing, I went through the same process last year in trying to set up a shark trip. In the end it went better than expected but I would say there is a wealth of conflicting opinions out there as to what is suitable. Bilbo's advice is spot on and a lever drag reel is an essential along with the right trace to suit your intended target species. We were targeting porbeagles and the tackle recommended is all slightly up rated from what bilbo described. Good luck with your hunt . Cheers Dave

I agree Ian, we had fish of 18lb/21lb/23lb and 28lb which really pulled the average down. I have no idea why there was such a high proportion of tiddlers on a mark which last year gave us 8 fish for 1000 lb plus. I have no idea when they spawn and at what age . Something that sets me thinking is that all the males we caught had scratches on their backs as if they had swam under barbed wire...are these spawning battle scars? We went to the area to follow up last years trip and as such tried different marks away from the original mark we fished which is an obvious trench. We also talked to a local who fishes for them and he put us onto some other marks. One area is renown for 20-30 sub 100lb fish in a day ...and is also in a very sheltered place which should be fishable in all but the worst conditions (those stopping you actually getting there) It may not be an attractive proposition for a hardened skate angler chasing a PB but if you consider a majority of anglers in our area are hoping for a 20+ fish some day it could be great fun on light tackle in 100ft depths. One of the highlights for me from the trip was hooking a skate accidentally on a 20 class gear with a small strip of mackrel. The borrowed gear I was using included a penn LC reel with digital line out meter.I hooked it at 129 mtrs and got it to 88mtrs before it decided to return home to the deeps and the lack of a lever drag left me with a straight hook...a fun 20 mins. We have been getting some good bags of pollock but sadly our couple of hours after them this time were a total blank when on the previous trip we did 40+ fish in a couple of hours...but that is fishing for yah. We only went to the area to find out if last years one session was a one of or the norm for the area...the jury is still out on that decision...but what is clear is skate are plentiful in the area as are pollock. I will be going back Cheers Dave

I went a bit further south than LA due to the lack of accomodation. It would be an understatement to say we did well so I dont think the fish were preoccupied with spawning. 3 anglers, two rods for two days for 18 fish. It was a dream come true. There was a lot of tiddlers ( comparatively) but we all managed a 100+ fish and the best fish was 164 lb. Norm if you want a report and pics you will have to bribe me Cheers Dave

Wurzel. Seems there is a conflict of opinions here...steve is saying he never sees an enforcement officer and yet you say in your area they prosecute everything...seems there are local variations in the efficiency of local sfc's. By making sure the sfc's are properly funded it would help to even out these local variations. In our region the nsfc area is 1/3 of the nesfc..it would make sense to me if the committee bounderies were changed to even out the actual coast covered by each patrol vessel. From what I understand the partrol vessel is at sea 3-4 days a week in our region ...so its a lottery ..if you choose the right days of the week you can get away with murder ...its just a matter of knowing the right days. Surely a major capital investment like a patrol vessel should be utilised to its maximum ...if its maximum utilisation is dependent on funding then something is seriously wrong with the funding mechanism for the sfc's. If a particular sfc has a large area to cover then surely additional funding for patrol vessels should be available. Certain areas have longer coastlines to control so additional funds should be available...or perhaps even out the areas they cover to provide even law enforcement throughout all regions. By improving the funding for enforcement of the laws in each sfc region ( or whatever they become) both RSA's and commercials would reap the benifits. The current situation where the councils pay the bils does not work as we can all see by their attitude to gritting the roads when its icy. These are the people currenly funding the enforcement of inshore bylaws and we all know they will cut back at every available opportunity. If they see no prosecutions they will reduce funding accordingly ...a bit of a catch22 situation. If the patrol vessels had the funding to be at sea 7 days a week the situation may be totally different. Has Steve highlighted a major failure in the workings of the SFC's in that they are ineffective to the detriment of both commercials and RSA's? The white paper clealy states that its time to update some centuries old legislation and I would certainly agree that is the case...all that remains is to get the wording of every new paragraph of every new law to be to the likeing of every RSA and commercial fisherman out there.....piece of cake...or not as the case may be. Cheers Dave

Steve, What it means is what it says. They are encouraging members to conform to their recommendations. Perhaps its a total coincidence that this is what they are battling for as a law. (and were hoping would be the case) The point of the marine white paper is to address a whole range of issues as to how our fisheries are run not just matters pertaining to bass. Personally as a 100% dedicated conservation minded angler, a member of the sacn exec committee, a member of SOS and a member of NSFC I find it hard to be passionate about one species when there are dozens out there under far greater threats of overfishing. I may be biased but only because I have never caught a bass as they are not a predominant species in this region. There are a lot of species on the ICES threatened lists ...but as far as I am aware bass are not one of them...this may upset bass anglers but I think you will find that a lot of anglers north of the M62 have a similar attitude.(and I do believe that north of the m62 represents over 60% of the british isles coastline) I support the aims of the original BMP if only only the basis that it made the government recognised that RSA's should be recognised as stakeholders and opened doors that previously were shut to RSA representatives. Perhaps it was one of the reasons that the white paper proposals were even started. I could never see a time where bag limits were accepted here "up north"...we simply fish in different ways with different methods and it will be a long time before changes to what people do know will be accepted. Dave