A Morning In The Life Of A Commercial Fisherman

[sam-cox]

Its early April and its mild, low water is at 05.00 and you’re a crew for a commercial fisherman.

The plan is to fish the very last of the ebb tide and the very first of flood tide.

 

Fishing for bass your using gill nets drifted when the tide is running at its weakest.

You leave your mooring at 03.00, first thing first the kettles put on.

 

Its been blowing an Easterly six for the previous three days and there is plenty of color in the water. The wind has now dropped to a force 3 but there is still a nice chop on the water. Expectations are high these conditions are good for bass and the chop will help keep the weed out of the gear.

 

Its only a short 50 minute steam 6 miles up river to where you intend to shoot your nets, just enough time to get the gear ready and drink a tea.

Your mind is racing with thoughts, what you caught from where this time on these tides last year for one.

A decision is made to put two 400-yard fleets close in on the South shore, and another two fleets very shallow across the mouths of some creeks on the North shore.

 

The gear is marked at one end by a dan and at the other by a large orange buoy; the dan is thrown over the transom of the boat while she is steaming forward. This pulls the nets into the water until finally the orange buoy goes over and the first fleet is shot. This process is repeated for the other three fleets at the chosen marks and the kettle goes on.

 

Now the sun is starting to rise and as you sip your tea you feel like the luckiest man alive.

 

The gear can’t be in the water to long, as it could start to twist up or catch lots of rubbish if left until the flood tide starts to run hard. So the tea is finished and a course steered to the first fleet of gear.

Its day light as the dan is lifted on board and the bridle rope starts coming through the hauler.

The first fish to come through is not a bass but a large female thornback of about 10lb; 5 bass of around one and a half pounds each follow this.

Not as good as you had hoped but a start.

The second fleet has only two bass but there are four large thornbacks as a small consolation.

It’s now time to haul the two fleets you shot on the North shore in the shallow water.

The first of these has fifteen bass of between 1.5lb and 2.5lb, you start to cheer up.

The second fleet has the same amount of bass with one of around five pounds and another large thornback of about ten pounds.

 

A course is set for home on the auto pilot and you start to wing the thornbacks and flake the nets out.

 

You have around three and a half stone of bass and two and a half stone of thornbacks; this is about £230 of fish.

Not bad for 5 hours work.

[sam-cox]

I have only crewed on a small 35 foot commercial fishing boat in the past for a few seasons.

The above is just a out line of a mornings fishing inshore.

As most anglers dont have any conception of what happens on a commercial fishing boat I think it could be help full if the commercial fishermen on hear would give a outline of what they do.

 

We one took my Dad out when I was working on a fishing boat. He is well known to hate gill netting and at the time I thought it brave of both him and the skipper to agree.

 

We were fishing the Kentish Knock for bass and were doing quite well, that day we had 68 stone of bass all around 2lb.

My Dad couldnt belive that there wasnt any taged fish in the catch, the skipper explained he had never had any tagged fish.

 

He was lieing, he told me he had caught a few tagged fish well up river but couldnt be bothered to help distroy his own living by helping the likes of my Dad.

 

I did used to feel sorry for commercials and still would hate for there to be none around our coasts, but there very clearly isnt the cod there was, and the bass stocks now need to be well managed to ensure its fucture.

[Brian Carragher]

You have around three and a half stone of bass and two and a half stone of thornbacks; this is about £230 of fish.

Not bad for 5 hours work.

 

Assuming that there are only two of you on board, yourself and the skipper that gives you a share of £57 for your days wage. Less if there is another on board. If there are two crew and a skipper then your share would be about £36

 

Not a bad for a days work that starts at 3am is it

[maidstonemike]

The first of these has fifteen bass of between 1.5lb and 2.5lb, you start to cheer up.

 

It doesn't cheer me up mate. Taking small Bass for profit is ruining Bass stocks.

[Norrie]

Nothing new in netting undersize Bass.....I have a book called Sea Fishing,by C.O.Minchin, published in 1911,nearly 100 years ago. in the section about Weymouth and Portland, the author says...

 

Mullet are always at Weymouth in summer,and there would be more of them and of BASS,if the local fisheren were not allowed to net the narrow waters and destroy the young fish."

...the book is actually FULL of comments like that...so as i say, nothing new in it..... and they were probobly saying the same things 100 years before that one....

[JB]

Its early April and its mild, low water is at 05.00 and you’re a crew for a commercial fisherman.

The plan is to fish the very last of the ebb tide and the very first of flood tide.

 

Fishing for bass your using gill nets drifted when the tide is running at its weakest.

You leave your mooring at 03.00, first thing first the kettles put on.

 

Its been blowing an Easterly six for the previous three days and there is plenty of color in the water. The wind has now dropped to a force 3 but there is still a nice chop on the water. Expectations are high these conditions are good for bass and the chop will help keep the weed out of the gear.

 

Its only a short 50 minute steam 6 miles up river to where you intend to shoot your nets, just enough time to get the gear ready and drink a tea.

Your mind is racing with thoughts, what you caught from where this time on these tides last year for one.

A decision is made to put two 400-yard fleets close in on the South shore, and another two fleets very shallow across the mouths of some creeks on the North shore.

 

The gear is marked at one end by a dan and at the other by a large orange buoy; the dan is thrown over the transom of the boat while she is steaming forward. This pulls the nets into the water until finally the orange buoy goes over and the first fleet is shot. This process is repeated for the other three fleets at the chosen marks and the kettle goes on.

 

Now the sun is starting to rise and as you sip your tea you feel like the luckiest man alive.

 

The gear can’t be in the water to long, as it could start to twist up or catch lots of rubbish if left until the flood tide starts to run hard. So the tea is finished and a course steered to the first fleet of gear.

Its day light as the dan is lifted on board and the bridle rope starts coming through the hauler.

The first fish to come through is not a bass but a large female thornback of about 10lb; 5 bass of around one and a half pounds each follow this.

Not as good as you had hoped but a start.

The second fleet has only two bass but there are four large thornbacks as a small consolation.

It’s now time to haul the two fleets you shot on the North shore in the shallow water.

The first of these has fifteen bass of between 1.5lb and 2.5lb, you start to cheer up.

The second fleet has the same amount of bass with one of around five pounds and another large thornback of about ten pounds.

 

A course is set for home on the auto pilot and you start to wing the thornbacks and flake the nets out.

 

You have around three and a half stone of bass and two and a half stone of thornbacks; this is about £230 of fish.

Not bad for 5 hours work.

 

 

Hi Sam,

First of all, I know nothing of bass fishing. However, your explanation seems to be a good representation of small boat commercial fishing. I don't know whether £230 is an average day's work or not, but for the purpose of this post I will assume that it is. I would like to take your analogy a stage further.

 

Gross earnings for the day: £230.

Less commission and wharfage, usually 10%: £23.

Less fuel, national insurance contributions and other sundry expenses: £20.

Total boat earnings after daily expenses: £187.

 

The standard way that boats share out earnings is on the basis of "half for the boat, half for the crew". Using this equation, half of the £187 goes to the boat for insurance, harbour or marina dues, repair or replacement of nets, boat and engine maintenance, payments to the bank (if the boat is not owned outright), etc, etc, etc. This leaves £93.50 to be divided between the skipper and crew. Assuming there are only two crewmembers, this shares out at £46.75 day's wage per man. Most small commercial vessels average approximately 200 days at sea per year. If the above is an accurate representation, you will expect to earn £9,350 per year before tax as a crew member.

 

JB

[DoubleShotDamo]

Its early April and its mild, low water is at 05.00 and you’re a crew for a commercial fisherman.

The plan is to fish the very last of the ebb tide and the very first of flood tide.

 

Fishing for bass your using gill nets drifted when the tide is running at its weakest.

You leave your mooring at 03.00, first thing first the kettles put on.

 

Its been blowing an Easterly six for the previous three days and there is plenty of color in the water. The wind has now dropped to a force 3 but there is still a nice chop on the water. Expectations are high these conditions are good for bass and the chop will help keep the weed out of the gear.

 

Its only a short 50 minute steam 6 miles up river to where you intend to shoot your nets, just enough time to get the gear ready and drink a tea.

Your mind is racing with thoughts, what you caught from where this time on these tides last year for one.

A decision is made to put two 400-yard fleets close in on the South shore, and another two fleets very shallow across the mouths of some creeks on the North shore.

 

The gear is marked at one end by a dan and at the other by a large orange buoy; the dan is thrown over the transom of the boat while she is steaming forward. This pulls the nets into the water until finally the orange buoy goes over and the first fleet is shot. This process is repeated for the other three fleets at the chosen marks and the kettle goes on.

 

Now the sun is starting to rise and as you sip your tea you feel like the luckiest man alive.

 

The gear can’t be in the water to long, as it could start to twist up or catch lots of rubbish if left until the flood tide starts to run hard. So the tea is finished and a course steered to the first fleet of gear.

Its day light as the dan is lifted on board and the bridle rope starts coming through the hauler.

The first fish to come through is not a bass but a large female thornback of about 10lb; 5 bass of around one and a half pounds each follow this.

Not as good as you had hoped but a start.

The second fleet has only two bass but there are four large thornbacks as a small consolation.

It’s now time to haul the two fleets you shot on the North shore in the shallow water.

The first of these has fifteen bass of between 1.5lb and 2.5lb, you start to cheer up.

The second fleet has the same amount of bass with one of around five pounds and another large thornback of about ten pounds.

 

A course is set for home on the auto pilot and you start to wing the thornbacks and flake the nets out.

 

You have around three and a half stone of bass and two and a half stone of thornbacks; this is about £230 of fish.

Not bad for 5 hours work.

 

 

Sam, where did you copy that text from, or did someone type it for you? It is grammatically correct, for a longish piece of text. All your other posts are grammatically poor or average at best, including the one posted straight after the above!

 

What's your point? Why try to stir up more trouble and bad feeling between commercials and sea anglers?

I, for one, am not a fan of commercials, but am getting a bit tired of all this "tit for tat". We all have our points of view, but lets have some cheery posts and not try to start a thread of "commercials Vs anglers" anymore!

[sam-cox]

I typed it on word then pasted it.

 

My reason for this post was to try and give anglers a image of what goes on, even if only a glims.

 

It wasnt to try and stire up trouble, I feel it could be helpful if the commercial fisherman on hear maybe could do the same.

Like I said in my post I do think we need to realy get ato grips with our fishery managment.

 

The implementation in full of the BMP will realy help both anglers and commercials.

 

If you do not like my posts please do not read any more of them.

[Guest binatone]

I typed it on word then pasted it.

 

My reason for this post was to try and give anglers a image of what goes on, even if only a glims.

 

It wasnt to try and stire up trouble, I feel it could be helpful if the commercial fisherman on hear maybe could do the same.

Like I said in my post I do think we need to realy get ato grips with our fishery managment.

 

The implementation in full of the BMP will realy help both anglers and commercials.

 

If you do not like my posts please do not read any more of them.

Well done Sam. If I get the time I will jot something down and maybe add a few photos if you want.

Like you say if people don’t want to read they don’t have to.

I could also give you a list of all the paperwork we have to sign up to the management systems we have to abide by and a very long list of the penalties that we will have imposed on us if we don’ and that’s before we chuck the ropes off.

[sam-cox]

Spelling and Grammar

 

I am sick tiered of people picking me up on my spelling and grammar.

 

On my last post someone picked up the fact that my spelling and grammar was for once correct.

I replied that I had typed the post on word.

 

This forum is meant to be an angling forum not an English lesson.

 

Also to ask if I was trying to course trouble offends me. I was trying to start a healthy conversation that may have been of benefit to some anglers on here.

 

As I said before if you find yourself not liking my post then please do not read any more of them.

 

 

nice one bintone, would be cool to hear a Wurzel acount to.

 

We do not all have to agree on hear, but at least we can try and educate our selves to understand someones opinion.