Wreck Netters

[Leon Roskilly]

See:

 

http://www.anglers-net.co.uk/sacn/latest/i...ex.php?view=393

 

Tight Lines - leon

[stavey]

leon, in my opinion wreck netting and rod and line fishing on these wrecks is not a good thing for especially cod and pollock stocks, lets face it anybody who fished these wrecks in the seventies must remember what it was like ripping up stone after stone of cod on lumps of metal with treble hooks attached, and then one 10lb cod at a time was not good enough we had to attach to that some big feathers as well to get treble shots.

 

It does make me feel a bit ashamed when i think i actually took part in such a barbaric and un sporting activity, sport angling it certainly was not and to see this practice is still being used by some so called sea anglers disgusts me.

 

Well we are reeping the rewards now along with the commercials are'nt we charters steeming off up to 40 plus miles to find a wreck with if your lucky a couple of dozen middleweight cod to class as a very succesful catch.

 

I will probably get slated for posting this on here but it does lead me to my point in doing so and this is, some of these very same wrecks should be protected and made a no take zone so as to give these stocks some sanctuary in the summer months, anglers and commercials can chase these very same cod in the winter when they come inshore to breed instead of hammering them all year round. if you want sport angling during the warmer months may i suggest the mullet and bass on the appropriate light tackle to realy get a sense of what sea sport angling is all about.........

[Stoaty]

quote:

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if you want sport angling during the warmer months may i suggest the mullet and bass on the appropriate light tackle to realy get a sense of what sea sport angling is all about.........

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Not everyone, including myself, is interested in fishing for mullet or small bass. I enjoy conger fishing, as do many others. Closing off the wrecks will spoil the fishing for those of us who like big Conger, Ling Pollack and Sharks.

 

If I wanted a thrill from light line fishing I would go fly fishing for salmon.

[stavey]

stoaty, i said some" i did not say all" of them, maybe after a period of time you could alternate between wreck closures, fishing on some for a period and then closing them down to allow for recovery and re-opening fishing on others that have been left and allowed time to recover, and so on.......

[Stoaty]

Not all wrecks fish on all tides. Some fish at certain times of year. From some ports very few wrecks are available to anglers. I would assume that the most productive wrecks would be protected as it's pointless protecting the less productive wrecks. Would all this be factored into your plan? I return all eels I catch alive and eat any by catch. We need to educate people, we do not need to keep hounding them with negative laws.

 

What we need to do is increase the mesh size in all nets so the smallest fish they catch is a 15lb cod. Fish stocks would soon improve and in a few years time the sea would be full of 15 pounders for the commercials. Until then we would have to support the commercials. It's a good solution just needs political will.

[Jaffa]

Thats the wrong way around as i understand it. Wreck Anglers/netters taking 30lb/40lb cod do more damage to the gene pool of the cod (and therefore the chances of them coping with environmental change)than all the small stuff being discarded over the side of my local prawn trawlers?

 

Save the small fish, kill the big has been the commercial mantra for years and its looking increasingly wrong. Im not sure either the commercial or angling sectors have taken this one on board yet?

[Stoaty]

Cod betwen 11 and 15 lb are mature spawning fish. If you increase the mesh size enough maybe even to start taking fish at 20lb you will have a much larger gene pool. What we are doing at the moment is simply not giving the fish a chance to spawn in numbers. ALL nets should have this larger size mesh. I know this would end prawn trawling but you can trap prawns. This is far more friendly to fish stocks. We have to be hard about this.

 

Of course it's not going to happen because our politicians are weak.

[Leon Roskilly]

How others see us!

 

I was copied into this email from a diver:

 

" Having just visited three wrecks some 18-24 miles off Plymouth, each wrecksite littered with dead congers estimated between 15-45 kg in weight, and fishing lines, lures and weights everywhere, this is the "fun" that they feel we are threatening to stop.

 

Should we adopt a different approach and video the carnage to put on the 6.00 o'clock news."

 

 

 

Tight Lines - leon

[stavey]

stoaty, i dont think mesh size is the answer now" it is all a little bit to late for that, if you was to make nets big enough for a car to go through it would make little difference on these wrecks they have got so much mono tangled around them now with without the need to have even more added to strangle to death what little fish are left.

 

If we expect the commercials to make sacrifices then we must do the same its the benefits we have to think about that will come a little later on from such measures, surely you cant say that protecting and giving fish stocks a chance to recover in some areas is not good for sea angling?

you may not agree with such drastic measures but these are drastic times, or do you view the picture like binatone and wurzel do?

 

I am not having a go at sea anglers like i said i have been guilty myself of taken to many of these fish in the past when there seamed plenty.

 

by the way stoaty do you self impose a bag limit on the so called by catch you take home to eat?

[Old Man of the Sea]

Hello, chaps!

I take it from your comments that a lot of wreck netting goes on in the English Channel. How many wreck netters are there? And is this method of fishing on the increase or decline?

 

In the area of the North Sea with which I am familiar, wreck netting is now almost finished. On the grounds within forty miles of the land there are probably only two or three boats operating, which net the very occasional wreck. Their catches have proven to be worth less than the cost of the damage they do to their nets, so this method of fishing is no longer economically viable.

 

Maybe Wurzel can tell us the state of wreck netting in his part of the North Sea? (By the way, thanks for the welcome, Wurzel.)

 

Wreck netting has almost vanished from the wrecks the anglers work between Hartlepool and Grimsby, and out to forty miles from land. The wrecks have now had several years' rest from this type of fishing. However, there does not seem to have been an increase in cod catches from those wrecks in the years since the wreck netting finished. At least, this is what I am told by my angling and chartering friends. This tallies with what the wreck netters say.

 

I realise you cannot always compare different areas, but at least, on the surface, what I have just stated may prove to be a relevant factor.

 

Over to you!