Dogger Bank - German Bite

To say the least.

You chartermen no doubt will know more about boats than most so I hope big cod and binatone dont think im rude by telling them something they already know but I think Glennk\'s suggestion of all charter skippers buying an offshore displacement type vessel would be a bad idea. Ive been on one that had seats but being honest it was a shocking experience as the damn boat rolled like a barrel in a rapid. Too slow as well save your money boys even if it means spending it on more insurance its surely better than floating around in a hollowed out log.

Hello again, I was managing 210-230 regulally last summer but I was back down to 180 yesterday. I realise 230 isnt massive but I was improving well last year. Im still on the look out for something a litlle better adapted to fishing. Its full of rocks and kelp around here and swinging a lead around is not that easy. Does anyone do the xcast or a back cast ?

Went casting on the field today and was surprised that my distance is well down on that I was achieving last year. My timing must be way out. Can\'t wait to get back down to Kirkleatham with the lads and hope they can sort me out again. Looking forward to those warm summer nights having a laugh and flinging the 5 oz lead around.

Just been reading an interesting discussion on discards on this forum. In all the years at sea I never gave much thought to the harm we were doing. I saw it as a job that provided money for the family. Recently I got to thinking about just how much life we sent back into the sea with little or no hope of survival. I have been looking around the internet for more information on the subject. I found relatively little. The only thing I did find was something about north sea cod on the ICES website that appeared to say 1 fith of cod caught in 2004 was discarded (6400 ton from 33600t). I think this figure must be wrong, I wonder what others think. I also hope someone can highlight some more research on discards of other species for me to take a look at.

I am pretty new to this forum although I have frequented others for a couple of years since taking up fishing from the shoreline. I have got to say this is the best forum I have visited to date with a variety of informative and interesting topics. The problem of having conservation in with fishing discusions is one I do not understand . It is rather like watching the TV, if you see something you dont like you turn over and decid not to watch the same thing the next time it is on.

Just read through the topic. Is stavey\'s displeasure because someone disagreed with him or because the topic was closed. Ive read a few of this lads posts and although he comes across very strong and passionate I dont think he is the type to be overly rude and certainly not from what ive seen, the type to spit out the dummey because someone dissagreed. Ive seen far worse said and not removed in here in my short time aboard. I rekon stavey is miffed at the topic closure rather than any disagreement with any member of this forum.

An interesting one this. As someone who has only been sea fishing for about ten year and only got more interested in the last 3 or 4 years it is hard for me to agree from my own experience of sea fishing. My fishing has stayed constant over the period I have fished - so I have nothing to compare with. However I look at the pictures in the magazines and on websites from times before I fished and it is plain to see that shore fishermen caught a lot more fish in the 60\'s, 70\'s and 80\'s than they do now. Were they better fishermen back in those days or was there more fish about to be caught. Im not sure what has brought about the downward trend but my experience as a commercial fisherman lets me think we have played our part in it.

Sam made some good points there. Sea angler do seem to be making some changes which are making the magazine a little more appealing, although that is not difficult as I felt it lost all its appeal about a year ago. Some conservation is required. They have even started to do articles about fishing in the north east which was unknown in the past. They have written some informative stuff on fishing in my area of Northumberland. It is improving.

It should take you about 10 casts to get used to not using a level wind. After a couple of sessions you will have it mastered. My advice to anyone thinking of buying a mulitplier for fishing from the shoreline would be go without the level wind from the very start. A level wind will take 30 plus yards off a cast. Its well known that the majority of fish are caught close range but every so often they are that bit further out. With a reel minus level wind you can thumb the cast to drop in close when required or on the occasion they are further out you can let the cast go that bit further and catch the fish your friend with a level wind is missing.

Is early summer too long to wait for something so important to you all. Who is it that has been slandered.

The fish on the right looks like the summer kelpies we get here in Northumberland. They go almost golden in colour.

Some advice I took from a friend involved in politics was not to be too specific. Rather than saying John Smith the local estate agent is a corrupt son of a gun say something like - In my experience estate agents in general are far from honest.

Good point made by Seasider. Arguing never solves anything, arguing about what has gone and cannot be changed is worse still. If the past is also present and maybe future then it is wrong to bury it though. To make things better for the future you should be aware of what it is you wish to change. What are your views on changes required to improve the future for us all.

Someone who can make a good bacon butty .