Latest Report outlining DEFRA's future Intentions

[wurzel]

No Ian, there are planty of dover sole, bass. skate, brill, smoothhounds (worth money now)and lobsters, a bit later ther will be tons of sprats and herring,

as I keep saying there are tons of fish in the sea, you are like most other anglers, you only think of cod, nothing else exists, I have never denied the fact there is only a fraction of the cod there used to be, it,s only the reason why that we differ on.

[Ian Burrett]

wurzel:

you are like most other anglers, you only think of cod, nothing else exists,

You got the wrong man mate.

I personally couldn't care if i never caught another Cod in the rest off my life.

 

There are far more exiting species to fish for.

[stavey]

by wurzel: you are like most other anglers, you only think of cod, nothing else exists,

 

Hi wurzel, you obviously did not read my letter to my mp further up this page then.

[maximo]

well done to all,at least its a start and something is better than nothing.

wurzel at this time of year hardly anything does exist except cod on a lot of shore marks up north,unless you want a bag of rockling.

[Simon Everett]

Wurzel, unwittingly you have just backed our arguement 100%!!

 

There are sport fish, which we would like to see managed PREDOMINANTLY (but not necessarily exclusively) for recreational sea angling. Then there are plenty of other fish which have very little, or no, nterest to the recreational angler.

 

The conflict only exists where the commercial fisherman targets and OVERFISHES the recreationally valuable fish.

 

Soles - good for the table and the commercial man, poor job for the angler. Likewise hake and haddock.

 

Cod - traditionally a commercial species, probably valuable to the angler becuase they are good to eat and were easy to catch - poor sport though.

 

Small sharks - NEVER a commercial species until the traditional target fish were fished out and commercials went scratting about looking for something else to try and make a killing from. The market was manufactured, it is not an historical commercial fish, neither should it be. Here is ONE example of a LOW value fish to the commercial sector, but a HIGH (nay, very high) value fish to the recreational sector. It is sustainable fishing because of catch and release. It is totally unsustainable as a commercial target species - Tope, Spurdog, Smoothound. How many tope do you need to make £50 on the slab? An angling charter skipper can make that from each angler if there is a realistic chance of catching one - and they can catch it again next week, and the week after....suddenly that £50 on the slab has grown to several hundred in the recreational sector.

 

Bass - our finest sportfish which has only become a commercial target since it appeared on TV on a cooking program (Floyd, way before Stein). As stocks of other fish declined attentions switched to this magnificent fish. BUT the same pattern arises - a school bass is worth about £2 on the slab - then its gone forever. THAT SAME FISH allowed to grow to 4lbs is now worth £12 on the slab (but it has given birth to many more bass in between times)Given even greter freedom that fish, now 10lbs is worth about £70 on the slab and has been very effective at spawning during her life.

 

NOW, a school bass is of no interest to the angler - yet. It is too small to spend money going after. At 4lbs it is getting very interesting and anglers will spend £00s for the chance of catching one this size. When you get to the 10lber, suddenly, that is of massive interst to the angler and it is probably worth £000s in recreational value - but it is the same fish, just allowed to grow and not killed at the first opportunity.

 

I did a little exercise, and it frightened me. I caught a bass of somehwere between 5 and 6lbs this year - on a fly thankfully. It was fantastic sport. That was the first decent bass I have caught in 11 years of trying (if I had stuck a great lump of lead on the bottom with a big crab or something i could probably have done it sooner - or trolled a big rapala)however, I totted up the cost of my bass trips in that time - because I kept going to try and catch a big fish in a sporting manner - that fish was worth over £15,000 as a recreational fish. At 6lbs it was worth, at best, £18 on the slab - we'll give you £20. Compare and contrast the two scenarios Wurzel.

You say you will go out of business, WHY? You might not make a living from KILLING fish, but what about using your vaste knowledge to take stupid anglers out to catch the same fish over and over - and charging them more than you make now for the privilidge?

 

In the US they had exactly the same reaction when the Striped Bass moratorium was introduced (moratorium - no kill by anyone for any reason). The commercial fishermen kicked up that they would be out of business. They had a hard 5 years, but survived on other things. Then the Stripers were present in HUGE numbers - not just little fish either, but big ones in numbers. The commercials sitched to taking anglers out in between their commercial activities. They soon learned that sitting making tea and pleasant talk to a twit with a rod and reel was much easier (and better) money than hauling wet nets full of crap and having to mend them where a seal had torn it to shreds. Now they are all milionaires, making the same money from the same quota they had beore - only in 3 weeks instead of working hard all year for it.

I bet you wouldn't really want to swap your 12 months labour to get £20,000 for a 10 month holiday and £50,000 would you.

[stavey]

I absolutely agree simon, may i ad that there is one other fish you forgot to mention and i have caught many bass as well as these on the fly and i would argue that pound for pound they edge it as the best sporting fight, and they are of no significant value what so ever to commercial fishermen and that is grey mullet.

[ColinW]

I make no apologies for going on about cod. Cod were what made it worth going fishing in the winter. There is no debate about why they aren't there any more. They aren't there because of overfishing. Not because of temperature change, not because of seals, not because of us anglers, just overfishing by commercial fishermen.

I don't know which of your obscene practices in particular has caused the damage, emptying the sea of sandeels, wrecking the seabed by dragging six ton weights across it, netting all the spawning fish or dumping tons of dead codling back into the sea; but what I do know is that it IS YOUR FAULT.

[Leon Roskilly]

stavey:

I absolutely agree simon, may i ad that there is one other fish you forgot to mention and i have caught many bass as well as these on the fly and i would argue that pound for pound they edge it as the best sporting fight, and they are of no significant value what so ever to commercial fishermen and that is grey mullet.

Like These?

 

 

TL - leon

[ColinW]

The key word in stavey's post is "significant". If they have any value at all, even if it's only a couple of quid a box as pot bait, then commercial fishermen will kill them. The fact that they are a valuable resource for anglers is completely irrelevant. They have as much concern for us as the smackheads who steal your £100 car stereo to sell it for a fiver to buy drugs.

[Simon Everett]

Here folks - to try and raise a little support and dispel the apathy. Instead of whining that MPs don't write back on here, use that time and energy in writing another letter to your MP - but write a more effective letter - here's how:

 

In your letter ask a question or demand an action.

 

Dear MP, did you know......

 

Dear MP, as a stakeholder in the publicly owned resource of our sea fish I demand that recreational sea anglers be recognised as stakeholders.....

 

Dear Mp, will you please give your support to the new MLS for bass being introduced at the moment by DEFRA. It is important that this measure is taken to protect the future stocks......

 

Keep your letter SHORT and to the point. Make ONE point in your letter, not lots. If you have several thing to say - write them down on a spare piece of paper as a list - then write ONE letter for each point on that list and send them in at different times - this takes less time than trying to write one long letter and is easier. The MP will appreciate it, because it is easier to read and takes up less of their time - it also counts more, because every letter scores a point on the importance scale - so 10 letters making 10 points is 10 times more important than 1 letter stating those same 10 points.

 

Your suport is very valuable, especially at this time where the biggest changes ever seen are taking place -THEY REALLY ARE. If we can get the first stages of the BMP introduced (raised MLS and closed season to protect the spawning shoals) then in just 3 or 4 years the fruits of those labourrs will show to you as suddenly you will be able to catch PLENTY of 2lb bass - a few years after that those 2lbs fish will be the 4 and 5lbers (with many many more double figure fish showing up as more make it through the guantlet...) We have been banging our heads against a wall for over 30 years on this subject, we haven't given up despite the bruises. Now the wall is begining to crack - now we need to hit it with a sledge hammer and the first bricks will come out!!

 

Thanks for writing, keep up the good work - and I hope you haven't taken this the wrong way. I am just trying to inspire and help as many willing anglers as possible - bass today, as the first step, many others in the next few years, conger, small sharks, mullet, what else?

 

Kind regards,

Simon Everett

Now I really have got to do some work to earn my keep!