FishingGuernsey

There have been a few off the shore but patchy and they seem to have moved away a bit again. The water is very murky this way so that might be why.

There have been quite a few mulet sighted here down the cliff marks. Some big ones as well but they are playing the normal game of ignoring everything except the groundbait and the lime on the rocks etc. I have seen large shoals of smaller fish in the marinas as well feeding off the mud etc.

A shame that the response from SFC does not really answer the questions. There is still no advance on the bag limit situation other than it has been referred to politicians who have no idea whatsoever. I hope we see some commercial response to this but I very much doubt it will happen.

We already have them here though not sure that many people bother or any prosecutions ever take place.

I know i'm tired this morning but there's a real sense of Deja vu on here today...

You don't need to kill a fish for a record. Wrasse survive very well to be weighed in a large bucket of water if they are cared for and looked after, been done plenty of times and I have seen an 8lb wrasse go back alive after being taken to be weighed. Same for many smaller species if they are handled correctly. Now what to do with a giant tope or large species is a problem...

The ballan wrasse is small but I guess it's northern range for them The water here is 9C at the moment and we had a wrasse of 5-12-0 at the weekend so could be worth trying up there when the water warms up for fish moving northwards? or maybe not.

Theres a differnece between returned alive and returned with a chance of survival. Depends how they are treated and how long out of the water etc etc

I'm not sure it matters which boats get licenses because if any second pair team comes along and wants to catch a lot of fish, they will do just that, OK it's hit and miss and some have failed but they were not experieced in pair work. The local team seems to do very well for itself and they catch well in the winter months before going seperate ways in the summer when the fish aren't shoaling up. The issue with more vessels and decreased landing limits would be a double whammy on the local boats, they would claim hardship and start to claim benefit etc etc. The view is that there is barely a balance as it is between fish and commercial capture, more capture could just push it over the edge and then we have a problem which can't be solved for many many years while stocks recover. Result, they are all out of work as they used all of their resources. I would welcome any ruling to stop fishing for spawning fish. As was said on another site, rabbits have a close season for breeding, is a large future stock of young rabbit worth more than bass to Guernsey economy?? Like hell it is.

Barry, the two boats Toerag mentions landing in Cherbourg are the Guernsey pair team, not French vessels. I personally have no problem with visiting RSA in fact I ant more of them. I am not keen on more commercial vessels though as I personally beleive our waters are already pressured and my beleif is that they will collapse should licenses be issued to more big boats like the Jersey and UK fleet. The people against the RSA are commercials. It is still very much them and us and the commercials here truly beleive that they are the only ones who should be allowed to catch the fish. This is not so much about protection of species as protection of Salaries of some. Look at the double standards where it's OK for them to catch more than RSA lands in years in 2 hours trawling but they still want RSA limited. OK, fair enough, so just leave the first question, what was the bass stock like say 15 year ago? Has it collapsed or was it never there?

There have been sightings of large fish pounding into shoals of Mackerel and the like in channel island waters, I think they were considered to be tunny but maybe there are other fish in there. Perhaps you have to try fishing for them to catch them!! Teasers in areas where Macky shoals etc are knows to be present???

But how many bass did they ever get that far North? Isn't it too cold water up that way?

Hi Wurzel, I don't know if the rules were bent, broken or not at all. That's what the investigation will look at. I know that ths was reported by other commercials as the commercial house here is starting to break down due to the activities of a very small minority of them. If another commercial deemed it necessary to report, he knows more than I do about what they are allowed to do, he must have felt something wrong to do this against some powerful opposition. I can perfectly understan that the fish not be wasted, it's more the big picture I am concerned about than an isolated (hopefully) incident. The landing limit laws seem to need improving and discard bans introduced to stop mindless catching. Surely you know when trawling if there is an extra 8 tonne or whatever being pulled? Technology nowadays is superb. I am suggesting they keep to catching only what they need to bring the level to their landing limits and then don't catch any more of that species (edit: Accidental bycatch accepted). As for DEFRA, no thanks, I'd have to work for commercials.

As I understand, the third vessel was not involved in the pair trawl activity, it was called when the catch was realised to be so big in order to offload them. I will stand corrected if i am wrong, but that I understand is why they are being investigated.

The third boat was a Guernsey vessel, he just steamed all the way to Brixham... The main haul was landed in france, we don't see much of the big trawled hauls here, not enough market. No, it was 28 tonne total but they only needed 20 it seems, perhaps the boats are on a 5/15 limit this month? (i.e. they have to elect either 5 a week or 15 a month in advance).

The latest news that I am hearing is that this is all above board and perfectly legal as the catching vessel gave the fish to the other to avoid them simply being dumped (8 tonnes overcaught...). apparently this is perfectly legal. I think this gives the question: "What the hell is the point of a landing limit?". Will be watching the outcome of this with interest, jut to see how much of a mockery this all is. What numpty created these rules?

What your missing is that the pair team allegedly got rid of several tons so that they could continue to fish for the breeding shoal. What is the point of a landing limit if the fish are simply passed to another boat (and possibly another and another) until they have all reached their limit, ther'll be potters landing 5 ton soon... the idea is that when you have your fill YOU STOP FISHING

The latest news on this issue is that there is an investigation underway by Guernsey SFC, DEFRA and the french authorities into transshippment where several tons of bass was alegedly passed to another vessel at sea to avoid the pair team going over their landing limits. The third vessel landed fish at Brixham. I hope that if this did happen, the book is thrown at them. Bass is not bycatch when fshing for Bass and therefor I understand that transshippment is not allowed in these circumstances. If someone want to explain it, please do.

Only if day 1 is the last day of a calendar month i think and day 2 catch is 1st of the next month.

Good news all. It's official, there are loads of Bass in Guernsey so no need for conservation. Our pair trawl team took a confirmed 28 tonnes in a single 2 hour long haul this weekend. With the bag limits proposed by SFC to conserve stock, I make that, at an average of 2.5kg per fish (generous to say the least), 5,600 rod anglers taking their max limit of bass from Guernsey waters under the proposed limits. Well if there are 5,600 anglers coming to fish for bass in guernsey the tourist industry can shout happy from the rooftops, they'll have never had it so good... Not happy. Andy

Pic of that mark from the edge of the recognised track: The ropes start on the left of the left most group of rocks.

The ropes down that cliff are 18mm mooring ropes tied to big metal spikes about 30mm thick banged into the softer parts of the cliff behind rocky parts for support when it's wet. I weigh about 18st and they held me, my gear, and the full shirvy bucket (which weighs 24lb full). Getting some steel from a mate who works for a steel fabricator/welding firm, about 4ft long and 20mm wide reinforced steel. Reckon they will be OK but might test them on a slightly less dodgy area first. Lots of places that fish well are already roped. If someone has gone to the trouble of roping, it normally means it's worth fishing!! just check the ropes before using them, there was a rope ladder on the botom of those ropes further down but it looked rather dodgy and some of the wood steps rotten. The pics came out well as they were taken with my phone. I wasn't prepared to go back to the car for the digi camera when we got half way down and I realised I forgot it...

Nice, we go down a few cliffs but nothing like that... nice when you get down them though, well appart from the swell which came in when we were fishing.

Woldn't recommend mullet caught at sewage outlets... Best to return all Mullet. Pollack are a bit boring to eat, better returned. Can't say I like the look of rockling either, not that I'm sure how you could eat them, just like a bag of jelly.

Guess you could mean Scad as well, aka Horse mackerel, not much kop for bait though they do bleed a lot so might work for some species like conger.