big fish

[Bob Shotter]

Well you are certainly some man for one man

 

You are going to teach us how to anchor up for congers are you? - Well you better bring some up with you, because we havent got any.

 

The skippers in this part of the world havent had much luck catching wahoo, dorado or the Arctic narwhal either. Maybe you could give us a few pointers

 

It seems to have escaped you that the inexperienced north east skippers you refer to somehow managed to land the uk record ling (59-08-00 Bridlington, Yorks. J. Webster 1989) as well as the uk record cod (58-06-00 Whitby, Yorkshire Noel Cook 1992)

 

How these dumb skippers did that without your help god only knows.

 

Alan

 

Wow steady boys it were one of your own that said you don’t or cant fish at anchor page five post 47, then there is another quote referring to an all time great skipper from up north JB ‘I spoke to the late JB on fishing trips I had with him on this very subject. He said that there will be big ling and conger in the wrecks but Whitby skippers had certainly perfected fishing wrecks on the drift, but not at anchor. JB was (in my book) the most experienced charter boat skipper out of Whitby and one of the best small boat commercial fishermen. He Said to me that he had a lot to learn in regards to anchoring on wrecks and fishing them. So if he said the knowledge of that particular method of fishing wasn’t there (including himself) then I certainly took his word for it. Sadly JB never got the chance to perfect his hopes.’ See page four post number 37.

All I said was have a look at the film that I shot for a skipper who knows exactly how to fish a wreck and having fished with many I know that it aint that simple unless you know how and this bloke dose. Just trying to help but don’t worry I don’t need to travel up north to catch Ling as we have thirty pounders on wrecks just a mile or so from shore and loads of Congers on the hundreds of wrecks down yer in the far south west. One thing I would say though is that I had the pleasure of fishing with three of Whitbys best anglers while targeting 200lb skate in Scotland and they told me that Whitby was a sad place as Cod was all you got and around ten pounds was the norm Tiddlers so they are.

PS A 1989 record sounds like past glories to me

[mr motorola]

.....I had the pleasure of fishing with three of Whitbys best anglers while targeting 200lb skate in Scotland and they told me that Whitby was a sad place as Cod was all you got and around ten pounds was the norm Tiddlers so they are.

PS A 1989 record sounds like past glories to me

 

Who are these three "self proclaimed" best anglers? It is something i nor any angler i know of to be so bigheaded to give themselves this mantle , any angler who gives himself that sort of title isn't an angler at all , imo anyway.

 

Fishing is fishing , it isn't an exact science , if it was it would be renamed CATCHING.

I smell a bit of 'elite-ism' here and it turns my nose.

The record you skit at will take a HELL of a lot of beating and i personally don't think it will ever be beaten , not in my lifetime anyway.

Just my humble opnion.

 

Mr M.

[wildcard]

All I said was have a look at the film that I shot for a skipper who knows exactly how to fish a wreck and having fished with many I know that it aint that simple unless you know how and this bloke dose.

 

So you shot one film once and now you are an expert, maybe you should write a book.

 

Our skippers know exactly how to fish a wreck, they fish the same ones hundreds of times in their lifetime. This knowledge has been passed down from father to son in a lot of cases. Wrecks fish differently depending on what stage of the tide they were sunk originally which affects their orientation and what terrain they lay on. Different ones hold different species and need to be fished at different states of the tide.

 

Wreck fishing is very simple if you have this knowledge, the marks and the electronics. We stopped using wash balls to predict drifts when plot trails and vectors were introduced don't you know.

 

Alan

Edited July 12, 2010 by wildcard

[glennk]

Who are these three "self proclaimed" best anglers? It is something i nor any angler i know of to be so bigheaded to give themselves this mantle , any angler who gives himself that sort of title isn't an angler at all , imo anyway.

 

Fishing is fishing , it isn't an exact science , if it was it would be renamed CATCHING.

I smell a bit of 'elite-ism' here and it turns my nose.

The record you skit at will take a HELL of a lot of beating and i personally don't think it will ever be beaten , not in my lifetime anyway.

Just my humble opnion.

 

Mr M.

 

Not quite sure about that Karl. Admitedly anyone who goes about claiming to be a great angler very likely isnt and has some sort of an ego problem. The best anglers I know are usally very modest. I think in boat fishing the largest part of the hard work lies with the skipper so most boat anglers arent actually that good. Its the skippers job to learn what grounds and wrecks fish when. The variables involved are endless and a quality skipper must take into account, Tides (size and state eg ebbing or flooding), he must take into account time of year, water clarity, he must advise on tackle and bait. So what Im saying is that in boat fishing it is a science but most of the hard work is done for you by the skipper, which is part of what you pay for. Its the skipper who is the great angler on most boats (regardless of who the skipper is) and often the lad who catches the fish has had good advice and a stroke of luck.

 

As a shore and kayak angler I know from experience that again, the fishing is a science and the angler is a life long scholer. Over time you begin to notice patterns. Fish are creatures of habbit and will often arrive at the same time same place depending on a set of variables such as time of year, water colour, water temp, wind direction, swell direction, tide state, tide size, food availability etc etc etc.

 

Two up and coming great anglers that I know are putting in a lot of effort at the moment and coming up trumps.

Edited July 12, 2010 by glennk

[mr motorola]

Not quite sure about that Karl. Admitedly anyone who goes about claiming to be a great angler very likely isnt and has some sort of an ego problem. The best anglers I know are usally very modest. I think in boat fishing the largest part of the hard work lies with the skipper so most boat anglers arent actually that good. Its the skippers job to learn what grounds and wrecks fish when. The variables involved are endless and a quality skipper must take into account, Tides (size and state eg ebbing or flooding), he must take into account time of year, water clarity, he must advise on tackle and bait. So what Im saying is that in boat fishing it is a science but most of the hard work is done for you by the skipper, which is part of what you pay for. Its the skipper who is the great angler on most boats (regardless of who the skipper is) and often the lad who catches the fish has had good advice and a stroke of luck.

 

As a shore and kayak angler I know from experience that again, the fishing is a science and the angler is a life long scholer. Over time you begin to notice patterns. Fish are creatures of habbit and will often arrive at the same time same place depending on a set of variables such as time of year, water colour, water temp, wind direction, swell direction, tide state, tide size, food availability etc etc etc.

 

Two up and coming great anglers that I know are putting in a lot of effort at the moment and coming up trumps.

 

Thats a great reply Glenn .

You mention that fish are creatures of habit , the same can be said of your instance too Glenn ,which can turn a different light on the subject. Your constant trial and error of fishing marks and returning to the ones that fish well could be a habit also , knowing that the fishing was good on that particular area on that particular tide and time is cause to believe in just that.

I stated that fishing is called fishing simply because no-one can pre-determine (not even a very educated skipper) that putting you on the mark will produce fish ; he will have a good idea that fishing at that time of day or tide should produce the goods but that is down to fishing it over a number of times (habit).

 

As i previously stated , it is not an exact science and even the most accomplished angler AND skipper , to which i have had the pleasure of fishing with both should hold his head up high and tell you the same.

 

Carl

[Bob Shotter]

How presumptuous some of you are I said ‘three of Whitbys best anglers’ that’s not them self proclaiming to be that good they are far to modest for that, no it’s me giving them the title and I do so as this thread is called ‘Big Fish’ is it not? Well these guys, two lads and a young lady all landed Skate over 150lbs and one took the best fish for the three day stint with a 210lber Oh yes and you can see that in the movie ‘Giant Skate of Oban’ also free to download on the web site www.rodbenders.net on the DVD page. What’s more having fished myself regularly from my late teens and I’m now well into my sixties you can perhaps realise I seen all sorts of anglers from the UK boat champions from a few years back to the holiday angler out for the first time.

As for the skill factor you are quite right the angler can only be as good as a skipper who can put his boat on the right spot which was my point however there are those that can and those that can’t even when they have all the fab equipment to make it a real easy job. You are also right as I have witnessed on many an occasion right time, tide, position, drift etc and fish showing but no takes. The bottom line here is however as Barry has been asking Where are your big Congers Whitby can you catch them or not?

[barry luxton]

It’s quite simple Barry. Anchoring up on wrecks from Whitby has never been perfected. Why, well because there has never been a need for it.

I spoke to the late JB on fishing trips I had with him on this very subject. He said that there will be big ling and conger in the wrecks but Whitby skippers had certainly perfected fishing wrecks on the drift, but not at anchor. JB was (in my book) the most experienced charter boat skipper out of Whitby and one of the best small boat commercial fishermen. He Said to me that he had a lot to learn in regards to anchoring on wrecks and fishing them. So if he said the knowledge of that particular method of fishing wasn’t there (including himself) then I certainly took his word for it. Sadly JB never got the chance to perfect his hopes. Lets hope that some other charter skipper one day does.

 

Totally missed this post, yes i would agree with you Tommy on what you have stated, i have had the exact same conversation with J B before his demise. Don't matter how much huffing and puffing i havn't seen any evidence of hot or cold water to refute what John had said previous. The location of the spread of conger and also the detail of icelands 300lb der came from different sorces, (all lies then) Shall i look again at the net and find yet more to show that everywhere around the uk holds the fish that whitby finds ellusive or are the facts going to be ignored as those who have never treid have said, na, there's none there full stop. Forget conger for a second, how many up the north east have caught ling at anchor throughtout a tide, on a wreck answer that one or don't the ling feed in tide, on a wreck. Must have as big cod has said he knows of one boat that fishies at anchor on wrecks all the time. Perhaps he will be kind enough to confirm.

 

Hiyer Deen'O' how you doin, can you give us some detail of your ling trip this year where you told me you had them upto 30lb. Show me the foto, again and no i don't want to look at the foto of your 15.5lb bass instead. Me all i could manage was one that was over twenty, didn't bother to weigh it as i have had a lot better. Got a misserable foto of it, you show me yours and i'll show you mine.

[wildcard]

The jury is still out whether conger eels exist off our coastline which can be caught by rod and line anglers. They are washed up on the beach, but these fish could come from anywhere. They are caught in nets occasionally, so they are there. What if these fish do not feed because the water temperature or salinity does not suit them?

 

Consider this quote from here; http://www.riverhumber.com/

 

The Humber with its canals and tributaries, (which include the rivers Hull, Ancholme, Derwent, Ouse and Trent) run off an area of 9,550 square miles (24,750 square kms.), which is about 20% of the total land area in England. This provides the largest single output of fresh water from Britain into the North Sea.

 

So 20% of the total land area in England drains into the sea south of us which will have a major impact on the temperature and salinity levels.

We also have some big rivers to the North of us.

 

If conger eels need static baits at set periods of the tide, why don't the longliners catch them?

This was very big business throughout this area for decades. Incidentally one of the best Whitby longliners was JB.

 

Alan

[barry luxton]

Indeed i have looked at the salinity issue with regards to the north sea including various depths and tide flow both up and down the north sea. Will go back to it and have another look.

[Brian Carragher]

I think Deene'O indtead of dribbling you've done worse than that

 

You've just scored an own goal, if you want to bring something to the table at least make a worthwhile contribution instead of making out yourself to be some sort of self proclaimed expert "I was asked to have a look at this thread" not by anyone on here I'm sure, was that just some attempt to drum up some traffic for your vids?

 

You say "were one of your own that said you don’t or cant fish at anchor page five post 47" but you don't bother to quote the relevant passage because if you did it would destroy any argument you were making or looking to cause, here's what was written "As you've guessed theres no boats up here that currntly fish at anchor for conger but things are changing as more and more anglers are prepared to try something different "and thats a whole lot different to the inference that you're making

 

If you want to have sensible debate then do so but be prepared to be accurate as own goals don't count

 

No one has ever said boats up here don't fish at anchor or can't fish at anchor, all thats been said id that anglers want and expect to catch cod and the most effective way to do that consistantly is to drift

 

Your turn if you want to dribble