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The Good Old Days


glennk

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Hi Norm,

 

Ok it wasn't in the same session but I guy up our way caught a 19 pounder and then a 13 pounder in his very next session - less than a month ago. Both in restricted time matches and one in a restricted boundary pegged match. Both from the shore. My average cod size this year from the shore is around the 5 pound mark, my last 2 sessions have seen me catch 4X6 pound cod, and 3x6 pound cod. I'm really enjoying this season and feel I will be into a double figure shore cod by April.

 

 

Hello Glenn

 

I've been doing a bit of beach fishing lately, spurred into action after attending a meeting last March with local anglers and DEFRA where every body was complaining to the officials that there were nothing left to catch the sea locally according to them was devoid of anything worth catching especially from the shore.

When I suggested they were wrong I was booed and jeered at.

I came away feeling I had to prove a point and arranged to borrow a beach caster from Steve Cops and when the next combination of tide and weather was right headed for the beach with Steve.

After a few practice casts, the first from the beach for around 32 years, once I was happy that I was getting the distance I needed settled down to fish the best part of the tide, a couple of hours past before I had a decent bite which produced a codling of about 7lb, not a monster but I felt I had proved my point, we fished until the tide died for few throw backs and a few good bites missed suggesting we could have had one or two more better fish.

Any way I thoroughly enjoyed the session and bought my self a beach caster the next day and the next decent set of tides I was back on the beach catching codling between 2 and 4lb.

This winter I've managed a few trips and my catch rate is much the same as yours Glen but a bit smaller fish, I have now got two beach casting rods and christened the new rod a couple of weeks ago with a 3lb bass, again not a monster but not bad for the first fish on a new rod.

The last time I was out there were rumours of a 14 and another of 9lb caught further along the beach

so there are a few bigger cod starting to show.

 

How does this compare to 35 years ago?

Baring in mind I was a beginner at sea fishing then, I had done plenty of freshwater fishing but not much sea fishing, my sea fishing started by catching whiting from the local piers with heavy fresh water gear and progressed from there and after a couple of years I considered I was getting it sussed.

The best cod I caught from the shore was 15lb and the best I helped land was 22lb,I can remember catching several fish up to that one. I can't ever remember seeing the amount of tids that seem in abundant at the moment, often a session with two or three mates would only produce a couple of fish between us though there was a good chance one of those fish was close to double figures. The size of codling we are catching at the moment were usually what we would catch in the spring, what we called the spring run.

There was always a dead period around January and February when the bigger fish moved off to spawn .

 

We soon realized that standing on a beach freezing for an all night session was not necessary as often the feeding time was just a few hours at a certain time of a tide the rest of the night was a waste of time, so we worked out the best times at different marks and adjusted our fishing trips to suit, some places fished better on the ebb some the flood, this allowed us to fish more often as you could fish a few hours during the peak time of the tide and still be up for work the next day in stead of planning an all nighter just at the weekends, it was not unusual for me to fish every night for a week when the cod were in and the tides were right, changing venues depending on tides and not fishing for more that 4 or 5 hours at a time.

 

Fishing from the beach during daylight was considered a waste of time and never bothered, except for the odd match where little was ever caught and usually won with a rockling or a couple of dabs, with one exception, I remember winning a match with a couple of plump codling, but that was during a NE gale and conditions were down right dangerous with most of the competitors heading for the cafe.

 

Beach fishing ended for me when I bought a boat, but that’s a different story.

 

I don't think much has changed in that if you are in the right place at the right time with good bait you will catch fish, it's always been the same you have to work at it and that applies to all fishing.

Cod seem to be making a comeback on the North sea coasts that looks to continue for a few years yet,

It's a bit frustrating for me knowing that there are plenty of larger cod further off from what I see in my commercial catches, I can't explain why more are not coming with in casting range of the beaches of Suffolk and Essex or even to the angling boats fishing just off the coast, it might be the amount of small fish close inshore making to much competition for the food available and once things settle down a bit it will come back to less fish but a bigger average size. I just missed the heady days of the late 60's and early 70's, 35 years ago I was often told that cod fishing ain't what it used to be and we used catch more bigger fish.

All I can think of is that those bigger fish must have started off as tids some time in the early 60's and perhaps the best is yet to come.

I fish to live and live to fish.

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I've been boat fishing since 1977, and during that time I don't think much has changed. The fishing seems to go in cycles (there are many theories of the 7-year cycle). One year you catch loads of cod, then it get less and less until everyone is shouting that there's no cod left in the sea. Then it pick up again and suddenly, like 2008, it's the best cod fishing that anyone can remember. It's the same with other species too. I can remember being 17 or 18 and regularly going out from Leigh and helping catch over 50 smoothhounds, all in double figures with two or three twenties on the boat - and that was in among the bass and stingrays that we were also catching. Years later and the size of the hounds went down and you were lucky to catch a double, nowadays they're back in the 20s again.

Something that has changed in the last 30 years is the baits being used to catch fish. 20 Years ago you'd have to use peeler crab for the hounds, fresh herring for the thornies and lug tipped with squid for cod in the Thames - nowadays you'll catch everything on whole squid and the other baits don't get a look in!

 

One thing's for certain though, Murph has always struggled to catch fish - so nothing's really changed for him! Ha Ha. :rolleyes:

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One thing's for certain though, Murph has always struggled to catch fish - so nothing's really changed for him! Ha Ha. :rolleyes:

 

I work on a quota system. One fish per year.

 

That said, my new reels arrived today and I've already exceeded my annual quote by two fish, so I might have to see if it's not too late to re-negotiate with the bureaucrats in Brussels. I'll tell them I'm fishing for prawns. Works for everyone else :D

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Here's that codling you caught that night Wurzel.

 

IMG_2854.jpg

 

I remember you had a heavy cold at the time, but still came fishing. It snowed on us, too.

 

IMG_2850.jpg

 

It's always been a case of those who work at it, catch the fish. I don't think things have changed much. Success is directly linked to the amount of effort you put in. I agree with what Dave and Wurel both say, it goes in cycles. The only thing that seems to be different these days is the size of the fish. I can't ever remember there being more fish, but there seems to be less bigger ones. Having said that, the average size of the thornbacks we've been having for the last few years is very good, most being in, or very near, double figures. All in all, things are pretty good around here. I can certainly remember it being a lot worse, back in the mid to late 80's, for example.

 

Elton. Have you wiped those new reels clean yet? You'll get terrible thumb slip if you try to cast with them in that state! :D:lol:

DRUNK DRIVERS WRECK LIVES.

 

Don't drink and drive.

 

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Elton. Have you wiped those new reels clean yet? You'll get terrible thumb slip if you try to cast with them in that state! :D:lol:

 

Stop it. You put me off my stroke ;)

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Some interesting points being made, most of which I agree with, but.....

 

Why do we have such big peaks and troughs in some species, and years of good recruitment yet embarrassingly low average sizes in others?

 

Over Extraction.

 

If you spend it as you earn it (rumours of a 30% increase in 2009 Cod quota!) you'll never have much in the bank (healthy mature stock), and then, when times are lean, you have no savings to fall back upon and no interest (reduced levels of recruitment) to tide you over.

 

Very much like Browns fiscal policies! 'In the red' was a phrase coined following past years of Labour rule.

 

 

Take the East coast Cod situation. We've seen good numbers of immature fish for a few seasons now. Finally, anglers are making some pretty good catches of what can only be described as distinctly average fish. A 5lb Cod(ling) being no more than a baby, or an infrequent double being a mere junior. Don't get me wrong, I'm as happy as the next fella with a couple of plump 5lb'ers to take home but I do so with the anticipation that in a few years time the fish I released, dropped or never caught will be the twenties or thirties I really want!

 

Say the next few years bring less favourable conditions for Cod recruitment along with a decision to increase landings, the continued play of political tennis with regards to the discards argument, and the dishing out huge lumps of the available Cod quota in one go, early each year, leaving nothing for the remainder. What then?

 

The glut of what we're seeing now will be eroded away in next to no time....again, we / I can kiss the thought of those possible 'twenties' and 'thirties' goodbye and we're* on our ass's with sweet FA till next time round. No Ta. I'm not about to take that on the chin.

 

 

If we look at the local Bass fishing, I defy anyone to say that it's good. It has it's moments, yes...but the proof is when the guy who caught that 12'lb'er goes out and does it again the next trip....maybe the next week.....possibly the next month or even the next year. Invariably they don't. More often than not they are freak fish which means that we may as well chuck our treasured John Darling Bass fishing books in the bin. If you haven't got the numbers of respectable sized fish, you'll never work out the patterns, tides, weather conditions, marks etc conducive to their continued successful targeting.

 

Why aren't we overrun with decent Bass, in addition to schoolies?

 

Simple answer, they take to bloody long to a reach desirable size, 10-15 years or more and by their very nature, as indicated above, they are often too predictable for their own good. The tons of 40-45cm Bass being pulled out of our estuaries and offshore banks, wholesale, are / were the 8lb+er's and 'doubles' of 2015 onwards!

 

 

Of course, all said and done, we can all point to the fella who regularly catches some big fish. He may be a local,a forum goer or a guy regularly featured in 'readers catches'. Chances are, he tours the length and breadth of the country to make the most of charter skippers that have come across a localised pool of big fish , hits the horizon in his boat every weekend or spends colossal amounts of hours fishing for each of the specimens we get to see. Not much use to the fellas who don't have the resources, money or that amount of time available, but are still bloody good anglers, despite certain claims to the contrary.

 

 

What I'd like to see.

 

Firstly, tougher controls on the available catch. Before Peter flips his lid (considering the huge pressure under 10's are already under), tougher controls on the big boys and their disgraceful stranglehold over available quotas. The figure I have been told is 93/7 split between the over and under 10's!) A fairer distribution to the under tens has many benefits. I have no figures to back this up but for starters common sense tells me that the under ten fleet employs many more fishermen per 100 ton of quota than the over tens. Result, less fish caught, more commercial fishermen and futures for the younger guys born into the industry.

In return I'd like to see legit small operators 'deal' with the flotillas of unlicensed little sh1ts raiding our inshore waters, usually under the cover of darkness and an increased sense of custodianship from those taking the p1ss and flooding local markets with their, all too regular, big hits of juvenile fish.

 

I'd love us (RSA and under tens) to jointly pull the rug from underneath the parasitic fisheries management 'industry' and our respective bullshit representation and get the result that we, and fish stocks, all deserve. Pie in the sky? Get into the realms of block voting, and well.....a subject for another day!

 

In answer to the question. "The Good Old Days, Just How Good Were They ?"

 

The other week I was wishing a client a good weekend and the subject of our regular angling trips came up. We told him that we'd been doing well on the Cod(ling) and he was somewhat surprised having heard of the Cod's demise in the media. He asked how big they were, "well, loads of 3lb'ers and good numbers of 4's and 5's". "Oh", he said, "we used to fish for Cod off of Deal, years ago". "Any big ones?" we replied. "Biggest one I had was 36lb's, lots of twenties...... but we never got the camera out for them!"

 

My answer.......a different league........unless Magistrates are born liars or the Deal boats are keeping schtum???

 

 

Some of this may seem a bit doom and gloom but I am aware that we do have to count our blessings. To put it in perspective, I have probably had the most enjoyable year's sea fishing to date. More hours on the water than ever before, some handsome fish (and crustaceans, Elton ;) ) caught and a few competition prizes in the bag. I'm already looking forward to 2009, hopefully featuring that proper Cod I'm longing for, some early Thornbacks, a full on springtime assault at the Stingrays, a good go at the Bass, some excellent summer Smoothies and Sole, and maybe a Tope. Oh, and a boat caught, record Mullet. :D

 

PS. Whilst I obviously relish a challenge, overcoming Article 47 presents a far greater one than the Mullet or the proper Cod, except that the cost of failure goes far beyond mild disappointment. :o

 

* We being not only us anglers, but the tackle dealers who are selling loads of gear off of the back of the recent Cod resurgence, Charter Boats that are doing a roaring trade, diggers and bait suppliers who are regularly selling out and the magazines banging out articles on home grown winter sport, and dare I say say it, bloody good blokes like Peter (Wurzel) who are reliant on a sustainable (to his livelihood) share of the quota's being dished out.

 

 

Edit: Bloody hell, is that the time? How come the other members logged in never post anything (Google.com, Yahoo.com, Cobion.com, MSN.com, Gigablast.com)?

:lol:

Edited by Sharkbyte
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Ah! The Good Old Days

 

 

Grimsby_452287a.jpg

 

(Grimsby Fish Market - 1910)

 

 

That looks a lot of fish Leon especially as its all piled up in one spot. But have you any idea how much is there in tonnes and how that compares to the modern day fish markets where all the fish are nicely presented in boxes ?

 

I bet theres just as many fish as thaton the quoy's at Whitby, North Shileds and Peterhead most days of the week. The only difference is you wont get anywhere near with a camera before they drop you off the side of the pier.

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it's not so much the quantity Glenn, look carefully at the size of those fish!

 

 

 

And these:

 

449642185_b7ed427e67_m.jpg

 

 

2508563624_2e6aa84263.jpg

 

2507736469_c838d86c3a.jpg

 

 

The only problem is that if those days of big fish were ever to come back, I'd need to buy new beach rods (more like the retired relics in my loft, but not so heavy) and start using 30lb line again.

 

(But catching dabs wouldn't be as much fun as now).

Edited by Leon Roskilly

RNLI Shoreline Member

Member of the Angling Trust

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I wonder where the fishing grounds were where those fish were caught? I read a book a while back entitled "Fish On Friday", which chronicled some of the history of the European fishing fleet. If you think that the recent programmes on trawlermen are scary, try putting yourself in the shoes of some of these people! From what I remember, most of our fish came from waters off Canada!

 

I found some great old photos here, too:

 

http://www.york.ac.uk/res/unnatural-histor...boats/index.htm

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