Cod, off the menu

[wurzel]

Overfishing can and does wipe out stocks. Long-lining for thornbacks in Cardigan Bay for example. One team wiped them out. What was a thriving thornback area now rarely throws up any at all.

 

Speak to any of the charter skippers from Aberystwyth and Aberdovey for more info.......it's quite a personal thing over there!

 

Hello Worms

It has not wiped out the thornback stock only the few that entered Cardigan Bay the total Irish Sea stock of Thornback is healthy and Cardigan bay will eventually restock as the liners have no doubt moved on.

Any way Thornbacks ain't cod

[wurzel]

There used to be a supurb turbot fishery on the skerries years ago. Somehow they dissapeared.There used to be a supurb scallop fishery on the exeters reef, somehow they dissapeared.

 

Hello Barry

 

 

But the overall turbot stock is fine, but I know what you mean I have experienced the same, when we first started fishing an area for soles we caught several large turbot as a by catch, unknown to us or any body else these fish had obviously been coming to that bank for years and it didn't take long to catch them up now we catch one every now and again, if we stopped fishing turbot would again become resident to that area, is it over fishing or just fishing?

Again Turbot ain't cod.

 

Don't know much about scallops only that they live in sand not on reefs.

[barry luxton]

Hello Barry

 

 

But the overall turbot stock is fine, but I know what you mean I have experienced the same, when we first started fishing an area for soles we caught several large turbot as a by catch, unknown to us or any body else these fish had obviously been coming to that bank for years and it didn't take long to catch them up now we catch one every now and again, if we stopped fishing turbot would again become resident to that area, is it over fishing or just fishing?

Again Turbot ain't cod.

 

Don't know much about scallops only that they live in sand not on reefs.

 

Evening Wurzel,

 

An accidental 20lb turbot was caught down there this year to the amazement of all. I know guys who used to go fishing for them down there and catch ...........loads. To me that is fishing for them on an unsustainable basis.

 

http://www.savelymebayreefs.org/saveoursea...BayDefault.aspx

 

Sorry the link includes lyme bay, however it does also include the exeters, just to indicate that it indeed used to be dragged. Must have been a bit of warming that flattend it off.

 

I done it as a link instead of doing one of those boring blady blah, long posts that Steve hates.

 

So if you are around Steve go and have a cup of tea, don't open it.

[barry luxton]

Barry, as you know, every year the scientists feed their figures into various models and come up with doomsday scenarios with regard to cod. They then give their recommendations to fisheries managers and politicians, so that the last remaining cod may survive. The fisheries managers and politicians completely disregard the scientists recommendations and set quotas at levels that will finally do for cod stocks - for good. This has been going on for years and years. Don't you think that if the scientists had been right, just once, the cod would be a thing of the past by now?

 

So, how do you explain the cod fishing we, and people in other areas, are now experiencng, which is better than it has been for years?

 

Like I said, dodgy figures.

 

You haven't come up with a counter argument regarding depleted stock due to fishing. If they are dodgy figures according to you, you come up with some so we can have a look at them. Anyway, what brilliant cod fishing are you talking about? Yes i know commercially they are capped. However todays landings compared with past are miniscule in comparision.

 

Yes i know anglers have been having it good for the last three years, lots of codling, i would put that down to the restriction on commercial landings of late. Tell me where on holiday have the twenty and thirty pounders gone that we used to see. Or do they have some kind of trigger mechanism, that makes them bu@@er off when they reach a certain size. Why do people have to call codling cod, when we all know that they could grow to a far larger size given half a chance, where have the bigger ones gone, answer that one?

[H.A.]

I've just booked a holiday to go long-lining from Whitby to the NW Scottish Lochs ... mostly spurs, I understand.

 

I may put the smaller ones back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS I really love the genre' of our native commercial fishermen.

[Steve Coppolo]

You haven't come up with a counter argument regarding depleted stock due to fishing. If they are dodgy figures according to you, you come up with some so we can have a look at them. Anyway, what brilliant cod fishing are you talking about? Yes i know commercially they are capped. However todays landings compared with past are miniscule in comparision.

 

Yes i know anglers have been having it good for the last three years, lots of codling, i would put that down to the restriction on commercial landings of late. Tell me where on holiday have the twenty and thirty pounders gone that we used to see. Or do they have some kind of trigger mechanism, that makes them bu@@er off when they reach a certain size. Why do people have to call codling cod, when we all know that they could grow to a far larger size given half a chance, where have the bigger ones gone, answer that one?

 

No point in coming up with figures unless they are accurate, Barry. As no one has found a way to count each individual fish yet, I think it's pointless you asking me to come up with some. If it makes you feel better, though, I can come up with as many meaningless figures as anyone else. How about 29,598? Or 345,098, 009?

 

All the big cod, along with heaps of codling, must be here in the Thames estuary, Barry. Tell you what, chuck that old braid away, load your reels up with mono and come and have a go for some of them. If things keep going the way they are, I reckon the 20's and 30's will be around in reasonable numbers by the winter 0f 2010/11. However, if it warms up a bit, well, we'll just have to be content with the codling.

Edited October 27, 2009 by Steve Coppolo

[wurzel]

You haven't come up with a counter argument regarding depleted stock due to fishing. If they are dodgy figures according to you, you come up with some so we can have a look at them. Anyway, what brilliant cod fishing are you talking about? Yes i know commercially they are capped. However todays landings compared with past are miniscule in comparision.

 

Yes i know anglers have been having it good for the last three years, lots of codling, i would put that down to the restriction on commercial landings of late. Tell me where on holiday have the twenty and thirty pounders gone that we used to see. Or do they have some kind of trigger mechanism, that makes them bu@@er off when they reach a certain size. Why do people have to call codling cod, when we all know that they could grow to a far larger size given half a chance, where have the bigger ones gone, answer that one?

 

In your case Barry the bigger cod were all around you, I remember last winter you were angling from Folkestone catching the odd codling, we were working near by with a reasonable catch of large cod with several approaching 30 lb, we will be down there again in the near future you are welcome to come and see for your self.

[wurzel]

I've just booked a holiday to go long-lining from Whitby to the NW Scottish Lochs ... mostly spurs, I understand.

 

I may put the smaller ones back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS I really love the genre' of our native commercial fishermen.

 

You are not allowed to target spur dogs and if you happen to catch one over 1 meter you are not allowed to keep it.

 

Most of the spurs we catch are over 1 meter

 

 

Spur Dogs ain't cod!

[ColinW]

I think there IS a reasonably accurate way of saying whether cod stocks are good or not. It is US shore anglers. If stocks are good we catch them, if they aren't we don't. We don't have the option of chasing them in boats to their last refuges, all we can catch is what comes to us. It seems (from reading reports) that on that basis some areas on the east coast are seeing a bit of a recovery, probably due to commercial fishermen packing the job in, since I'm not aware of it suddenly getting colder. Unfortunately, where I live there is no sign of any improvement.

[H.A.]

Some lucky booger caught a 12lbs cod from Hayling Island beach two nights ago.

 

Today, a poxy, little, red trawler laid static nets (trammels for cod?) 300m out for the entire length of the Bay. They're been set so as to overlap at each end resulting in approximately 2/3 barriers to fish swimming in from deeper water. The lengths of set nets stretch approx 2 1/2 miles!

 

They shouldn't be allowed within a mile of the beaches!!!

 

Pigged orf!!!!!