Boat Fishing Monthly

[Ken Davison South Wales]

In my limited experience of fishing for bass (50yrs) I have never fished a mark where all the fish were the same size.

 

I fish from the beach with a 15lb main line and a 60lb tapered shock leader, depending on conditions a hooks tied to 8lb - 15lb line.

 

I normally keep fish in the 2lb range and only one or two at the very most.

 

On a charter trip I only take two rods which I try to aim at the species we are likely to catch, this does mean at times my rig is over rated for what we are targetting as it does not always go our way weather wise and marks are changed accordingly.

 

Are you suggesting after paying any thing from £40 to £60 plus cost of bait that I should down tools??

[Bob Jerunkel]

However you slice it, your average angler knows 36 cm is the limit, untill it changes, you wont change their thinking. Most of the fish were returned alive, 2 or 3 per angler were kept. You seem to have the idea that all were kept almost regardles of size, which is not true. The main picture was a 50cm fish, and many were around the 42cm mark.

 

Get off the band waggon, do the finger pointing and shouting at the powers that make the rules, this achives nothing. Personal opinions are a right, but this is small minded selective bigitary, using only selected facts, with a view that is best described as blinkered, I wont get more descriptive ! ! !

 

 

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To be fair there are people finger pointing and shouting at the powers that be to get the rules changed.

I believe the man you berate in your earlier post is one of them.

Most educated anglers know that they have been pushing for an increase in the MLS for bass.

They also know that the new MLS will be 45cm and possibly increased to 55cm in the future and they know that the consultation for this increase starts very soon.

A charter boat load of so called anglers using the current MLS of 36cm as their standard doesn't make it any easier for those people trying to get things changed.

You say that they don't know any better but they were aboard with a professional charter skipper and an angling journalist.

Surely both should have their fingers on the pulse.

I did like the Dave Harris bass article though.

Just shows that there are anglers and there are people who go fishing.

[Ken Davison South Wales]

I just cannot see how you can point the finger, whilst it might not suit your ideals they were not breaking the law.

 

Their bag limit of two to three fish each was not a slaughterhouse and as I read it the fish ranged in size from 36cm up.

 

It is very hard for anyone to tell a guy put that small but legal fish back if it was the only one he has caught.

 

I am far more concerned with the activities of pair trawlers than 30 bass devided ten ways

[wurzel]

You've got it about right Ken.

[Guest CJS2]

. . . and an angling journalist.

Just shows that there are anglers and there are people who go fishing.

 

As an angling jurnalist I state facts.

 

Fact, fish were kept 2/3 per angler from 36 to 50cm most over 40cm.

 

Fact, the largest part of the time was at anchor, with bait, catching a mixed bag.

 

Fact, as a guest, it is not my place to criticise the paying crew, or the profesional skipper.

 

Fact, the rules were adhered to, any personal opinions are erelevent.

 

Fact, I to, have suported the move of those that are workng to get things changed.

 

Fact, I have given my time, effort and financial suport. Not a lot of thanks came from it!

 

Fact, untill the rules are officialy changed no one can do more than express a view.

 

Fact, I personaly adhere to a 45cm limit on all my own trips, that included the trip in question, I took no fish!

 

Fact, there are anglers, and there are those who talk about it!

 

Fact, 30 legal fish aint gona make a happeth of differance, to the wider problem.

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2005 by CJS2

[Sharkbyte]

Its incredible to think what some sea anglers have been reduced to if the article is anything to go by.

 

Quantity not quality.

 

Thank god no big bass were caught. I very much doubt one would go back.

 

 

Nice post Simon, I agree whole heartedly with your opinions. One thing I would add though, A 10lb bass will not only be producing more viable ova than a first time spawner but the fry they produce will quite likely be of a stronger strain. To have overcome the odds by living long enough to attain that size the genetic makeup of that particular fish and will have to be 1st class. This will then be partially inheritated by the fry they produce.

Add this to the equation for reproductive potential and we may be looking at considerably more times the potential for those fry to go on and grow into a double themselves.

 

I'm sure I have read in the past of minimum and maximum size limits having been placed on some species of fish abroad. Maybe somebody knows more on this?

[wurzel]

I just cannot see how you can point the finger, whilst it might not suit your ideals they were not breaking the law.

 

Their bag limit of two to three fish each was not a slaughterhouse and as I read it the fish ranged in size from 36cm up.

 

It is very hard for anyone to tell a guy put that small but legal fish back if it was the only one he has caught.

 

I am far more concerned with the activities of pair trawlers than 30 bass devided ten ways

 

Youve got it about right Ken, the rest are waffling like a bunch of anoracks

[Stoaty]

I really can't understand why there is all this fuss about people taking a few bass or enjoying themselves by catching bass in whatever legal means they care to use. The sea around here is heaving with them. There's more bass about than pout and dogs. It seems to me whenever someone mentions bass or taking a few bass people go way over the top and pillary them. Work was done some years ago in creating bass nursery areas and as far as I am concerned they worked. The bass stocks around here are substantial. They are better now than they ever were in the late 60's, 70's, 80's or 90's

 

So long as no body goes and starts taking thousands of tons of bass from their breeding grounds there will not be a problem with bass stocks.

 

Bass have taken over from doggies as a nuisance fish for us.

 

You should channel your energies into the species that are really suffering. Cod and eels as an example. I read that eel stocks are down to 2% of what they were 20 years ago. But I don't see anyone on here getting all misty eyed and emotional about anyone taking an eel.

 

Fishing is not a sport to me. It's my pastime. It's about enjoying myself. Somedays I like to play around, experiment, catch cod and thornies on a float perhaps, or try for mini species. Somedays I target a species and if I felt like I wanted to feather through a shoal of schoolies to see whats below. I would like to think that my peers could accept that I am just an angler enjoying himself.

[sam-cox]

I really can't understand why there is all this fuss about people taking a few bass or enjoying themselves by catching bass in whatever legal means they care to use. The sea around here is heaving with them. There's more bass about than pout and dogs. It seems to me whenever someone mentions bass or taking a few bass people go way over the top and pillary them. Work was done some years ago in creating bass nursery areas and as far as I am concerned they worked. The bass stocks around here are substantial. They are better now than they ever were in the late 60's, 70's, 80's or 90's

 

So long as no body goes and starts taking thousands of tons of bass from their breeding grounds there will not be a problem with bass stocks.

 

Bass have taken over from doggies as a nuisance fish for us.

 

You should channel your energies into the species that are really suffering. Cod and eels as an example. I read that eel stocks are down to 2% of what they were 20 years ago. But I don't see anyone on here getting all misty eyed and emotional about anyone taking an eel.

 

Fishing is not a sport to me. It's my pastime. It's about enjoying myself. Somedays I like to play around, experiment, catch cod and thornies on a float perhaps, or try for mini species. Somedays I target a species and if I felt like I wanted to feather through a shoal of schoolies to see whats below. I would like to think that my peers could accept that I am just an angler enjoying himself.

It wasnt a few bass, there were 8 or ten anglers who kept two or three sizable fish.

 

 

It wasnt a few bass, there were 8 or ten anglers who kept two or three sizable fish.

 

 

the Dave Harris artical was excelent and showed the full protentuall of what a days bassing should involve.

Not tidler snatching like the bass magic artical.

[Simon Everett]

I concur with your sentiments about enjoying yourself Stoaty - the difference here is that the people concerned (and we can only go on appearances by what was written) were actually trageting the shoal with a multi-catch method. That is not enjoyment, that is taking advantage beyond enjoyment.

 

I think the journalist could have been a litle more sensitive in HOW this was reported then. I have only glanced through - and my copy has disappeared back to Plymouth for half term so I can't refer to it - but from what is coming out in the debate (from CJS posts) the boat moved, either to the mark to take advanage, or from the mark when enough was enough. I don't know which.

 

I don't like the Navman competition either. They have paid lip service to a catch-and-release competition by putting up an extra prize for the heaviest fish released. Congratulations to them for that, we need more such leading examples for anglers to follow. There are still too many big bass being killed purely for glory, and to win a high value prize. The entire competition could be catch-and-release. It is a slow metamorphosis that we are going through at the moment, more and more catch-and-release recognition is appearing - the Shimano Mission has a catch-release section too - so it is beginning to soak in.

 

Bas have always been an emotive subject. Cod and eels are not as high up the ladder as bass in the reputation stakes. That is not their fault, but it means they don't have the same passionate place in our hearts. The cod are in the poor situation that their status has been deminished by thousands of them being shoveled into boxes. Eels get NO publicity at all (other than by the Anguila Club) but you don't read about peoples' exploits to go and catch eels. No publicity=no concern.

 

It is a question of attitude that I think we are talking about. The approach to the subject, the fish and how it is perceived by the general public. Sea Anglers are still seen as bobble headed fools putting ragworms on hooks. With this kind of attitude I can see the BMP becoming pilloried in cartoons as the Government's Charter for eating lugworm sandwiches - I can see MAC now.....

 

We need to portray a vision of caring, sensitive, responsible and sporting minded activity - not a free for all.

I am surprised that anglers actually enjoy catching small fish on heavy tackle, especially when they are so easy. That is an activity reserved for obtaining bait and to my mind not worthy of £30 worth of charter fee.

 

It is also a question of the numbers and how the article is laid out. Had an angler been flounder bashing and caught some bass this size there wouldn't have been the backlash. The biggest picture and the headline is aimed squarely at immature bass bashing. If other species were taken on the same trip, bigger fish, different methods - where are they? They do not feature. The writer has set out to do a feature on the "numbers of bass" angle, not a comprehensive report on the dayincluding the "lesser" species because he knew, being a bass article, it would sell. The feature could have been tempered by including a section on why the MLS needs to be raised - to protect these immature fish - how this shoal could have been 4lb - 5lb fish if the larger MLS had been introduced in the first place, 15 years ago. With a bit of balanced journalism like that, I don't think we would be having this discussion at all.

 

The APPEARANCE of the feature at first sight is that it has sensationalised a charter trip which targeted shoaling bass of a small size with feathers - that is the immediate angle that comes off the page. If the writer had intended something else then t hasn't come over clearly - the fact that the writer's thoughts have had to be explained here is testimony to that. It should be clear in what is printed, not need qualifying afterwards. If that is necessary than it is a poor piece of writing.