WEST MERSEA BOAT NICKED FOR 20 UNDERSIZED BASS

[maximo]

do you not think part of the angling problem with keeping small fish is that anybody can roll up and fish no questions asked,i honestly dont think they know any better.

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Hi Sam,

 

What you state below is not altogether true.

 

"The only commercial fisherman I can think of who may catch lots of undersized bass are prawn trawelers.Who fish shallow creeks with small mesh."

 

I contacted our local SFC in Swansea about a trawler which came within half mile of the beach.

 

He was not very happy about the current mesh size which as I remember was 48mm.

 

He said as I always believed that a trawl under tow distorts the mesh and the size is decreased.

 

Where this trawler was there were no flats or other commercial fish apart from bass and the great proportion of them would have been under size.

 

I understand what you are saying about anglers taking under size fish but it is hard to convince them when that is all there is to catch due to the wholesale slaughter of small and large fish by commercials.

 

It is a bit of the chicken and the egg situation.

 

Maximo has hit on another point a lot of them are clueless about minimum sizes.

[Davy Holt]

C T:

probably a scoTTish skate angler collecting bait!

grow up CT..

[basshead07]

im at southend pier next weekend if tides rite i mite see u there:) (if u there)

[chappers]

Sam

I have listened to you going on about 90 mil nets for the past i don't know how long saying that large fish bounce off and undersize fish swim through and escape, and then laughably saying that anglers take more undersize bass then gill netters.

Your having a laugh, on this occaission this guy was caught with 20 undersized fish which both he and his merchant were willing to sell, this is one haul, wish I could catch 20 bass in one session.

What or more to the point how was he catching undersized bass if he was using 90mil nets.

This was also only the time that he was caught what about all the other times he has got away with it in the past.

According to your own method of multiplying that by all the other dishonest anglers, then multiply his catch by all the other dishonest commercials(and we all know they are out there) and you are talking about a s**t load of fish.

Most anglers who take undersized fish just need educating, your spanish angler is a prime example, he comes from a country where everything no matter how large or small is fair game.Whereas every comercial fisherman knows the minimum landing size and anyone landing undersized fish is just fragrantly flounting the law.

We all know that there is nothing to stop someone shooting a net under 90mil and therefore catching undersized bass.

If someone is going to break the law by selling undersized bass then they are going to think nothing of using a smaller meshed net.

You are living in a dream world if you think that an angler is more likely to flount the law then someone who relys on selling undersized fish for their living.

[bigdunny]

Sam I read your post with interest, dont think its macky that should get out more.... no disrespect, but its you who should get out more, I have never seen such bias towards commercials, in your eyes they can do no wrong, yes we as anglers dont do ourselfs any favours at times, but according to you and your post commercials cabn do no wrong, they dont catch undersized fish, inshore trawlers arnt to blame for decimating fisheries, myself and Davy Holt are still waiting on your reply about the clyde still showing no sign of recovery, and the inshore trawlers being blacked out and fishing the lochs at night, or about the thread on handling mackeral, where it was proven that commercial boats ditched 0000's of tonnes of mackeral that wasnt wanted. Then we have new news just in the last couple of days about 60 odd spurdog that was ditched by commercilas down south and washed up on a beach, I could go on and on. I know anglers aint saints sam But neither are commercials by a long shot !!

 

[ 12. September 2005, 08:11 PM: Message edited by: bigdunny ]

[Guest conger tamer]

Davy Holt:

Davy Holt:

probably a scoTTish skate angler collecting bait!

grow up CT..

davy

you openly said you used small bass as bait a while ago!! go play with your mondeo lol

[Davy Holt]

Hiya,

 

re big fish Bouncing off nets.. it just dont happen, back in the late 70ies I used to help a guy up at Arrochar on Loch long earn a living from 200yrds of 4" (100mm) mesh gill net. We shot the net 2 or 3 times a week as required and it was left over night. That net caught everything from 6" Pout & Dabs to 52lb cod & 16lb Plaice (returned alive due to being spawn bound)

[sam-cox]

bigdunny,

if you had read my posts in the past you would know I realy dont like trawling for obvious reasons.

However when it comes to monofilement gill netts thats a different storey.

90 mil netts will only catch sizable fish, only a few undersized fish get caught and then only on the gill spikes, these fish are then carefully taken out the net and released within seconds of comming out the water.

The 20 undersized bass caught at Mersea were almost definitely caught on rod and line. I know who the fisherman is and he has been feathereing the shoaling bass, just looking where the birds are working and chuchs feathers at them.

I also agree with the bass management plan to help anglers be able to catch more bigger fish.

The commercial fisherman are to blame for our decimated fish stocks, but if we can stop commercial fishing from one mile out and get the MLS up to a senseble size then maybe a substainable commercial fishery could be created.

Surely to farm our seas in a substainable manor has to be better in the long run than farming the fish.

Surely in the end all there will be is one or two fisherman in each port, putting less preasure on the stocks.

We are to good at catching fish nowdays for there to be lots of boats all chaseing a few fish.

bigdunny, Im not a commercial lover or hater I just see a way of life thats way out of balance and I feel if it could possably be resolved it would be a good thing.

Anglers need to be polised more often and nicked when caught with even just one undersized fish, as do commercial fisherman, if polised properly there would be far less undersized bass taken.

[sam-cox]

Davy, the fact that yopu left the nett over night says that your nett was a fixed net.

The bass are targeted using 90 mil mono drift netts.

These netts are drifted for the last half of one tide until the first half hour of the next tide.They can not be fished with any real run to the tide there fore are only fdished around an hour.

Anchored tremmel netts fished inshore do however catch lots of small fish and unwanted toot, but if worked ofshore this becomes less.