One mans pest is anothers pleasure.

[Guest binatone]

Hi Spur hound.

 

They are saying the same thing here about whiting. I point my finger at the trawler fleet.

I rest my case.

[Captain Black]

Commercial fishermen will target whatever will make them some money:

 

From a friend who fishes Anglesey (he's talking about green crab).

. . . . they were exporting 4 tons per week from the Menai Straits last summer, how long will that be sustainable

From the June '05 South Wales Sea Fisheries Committee report:

Large amounts of dogfish were also being landed intended for marketing as 'whelk bait'.

 

 

John

[Guest binatone]

Who rattled your cage i knew you couldnt stay away.

Hello big cod. Sorry have been away chartering, then had to go and move some stones, then spent a few days running up and down the harbour. Not sure what I was doing there? Then went fishing on cheese rock then had a go at repairing a car or two think I will stick to commercial fishing? Unless you have anything lined up for me to be next week? I thought that I would have to have a word with you before you passed away, I am sorry to here you have an ageing disorder. You’re now fishing in the sixties? Was this from a boat or where you still within your mothers womb?

I did not realise that winter meant a spotty dog, when he said a dog fish was caught I did what he does best, I assumed. Big mistake on my behalf. I apologise to all concerned.

As for rattling cages? Is this a clue as to what I am to become (according to you) in the not to distant future?

I don’t mean to confuse you anymore than you obviously are big cod but when you said” I knew you couldn’t stay away” what you should have said was” I knew you lot couldn’t stay away”.

Crack on big cod don’t leave it (my next slating off) to long or you will be eighty before you’ve reached sixty and I would hate to think of you going prematurely blind with old age. Or is that because you’ve had one in your hands for forty years????

[big_cod]

Binitone do remember the first sea fisher I DONT THINK YOU DO yes at the grand old age of 10 my first trip on a yorkshire coble a pound weight 3 feathers and a boat load of cod not little big cod and oh a few dogs as well plus the odd 5lb haddock those were the days and here we are now trawled to death and frammys stones werent even discovered then you really do tickle me at times its good to see you back keep up the good work my sides are splitting.

[Guest binatone]

Binitone do remember the first sea fisher I DONT THINK YOU DO yes at the grand old age of 10 my first trip on a yorkshire coble a pound weight 3 feathers and a boat load of cod not little big cod and oh a few dogs as well plus the odd 5lb haddock those were the days and here we are now trawled to death and frammys stones werent even discovered then you really do tickle me at times its good to see you back keep up the good work my sides are splitting.

Now then big cod there’s a name from the past? Yes I do.

Do you remember the serene? That’s the first coble I went angling in back in 1970 or was it 71? Sick as a dog I was but still enjoyed my angling. Just fished with bait did ok won a few trophy’s by the time I got into my teens. Went off angling in a big way, when I started taking anglers off to sea in the early seventies.

Loved it again (angling) when I went fishing commercially but never got the time.

Had a bit of a reality check in the ninety’s and decided to have a go with a rod again (sea fishing that is) I do a bit of fly fishing when I get the chance and I love hammering the odd mackerel with a floating line at ravenscare in the summer.

Floating line sinking leader and a lead head. Cats whisker as good as any lures. Of course a net would be much easier but not quite as much fun.

End of nostalgic trip. Framies stones not discovered? Give your head a shack when I said he use to work there with lines, I meant overing it was long before you or I had learned which way to throw your ashes on a windy day. Frammie and his likes had found more ground than you and I are liable to ever find. long before we where born.

[big_cod]

Overing they were using fresh herrings in those days big blue skate then binitone, big turbuts, halibuts you name them lads caught it old frammy a proper fishermen did it the old way watch and compass you ever done that binitone them lads you have to take your hat to them guys, had a pint with old frammy a few weeks ago give a full run down of my family history in the east side of town a very interesting conservation have you got any family history in whitby binitone.

[Guest binatone]

Overing they were using fresh herrings in those days big blue skate then binitone, big turbuts, halibuts you name them lads caught it old frammy a proper fishermen did it the old way watch and compass you ever done that binitone them lads you have to take your hat to them guys, had a pint with old frammy a few weeks ago give a full run down of my family history in the east side of town a very interesting conservation have you got any family history in whitby binitone.

Well that depends if you want me too or not? Frammie was and always will be special as far as I am concerned. I talked to him too not so long ago. Just the same as he was thirty odd years ago when I first met him. Thank god some things don’t change.

I have never had to rely on just a watch and compass. But I did set the old Decca up a few times for frammie when he could do nothing with it.

[Ian Burrett]

Quote from Wurzel

By the last post from Ian, he still does not get the piont I was makeing,

or is it that he does not know the difference between a lesser spotted dog fish and spur dog.

 

Typical all knowing Wurzel comment.

I can't be sure of exact numbers but i would guess I have caught at least 5,000 lsd's and probably 2000 Spurs.

 

You will be saying next it's global warming and loss of zoo plankton that caused them to disappear from the North sea

[wurzel]

Hello Ian

 

quote

You will be saying next it's global warming and loss of zoo plankton that caused them to disappear from the North sea

 

I was not aware that they had disapeared.

 

I agree spur dogs were caught in large numbers, more often than not by accident while fishing for some thing else, and there were and still are a few boats mainly long liners that follwed the packs where ever they went,in this area they would suddenly turn up and the sea seemed full of them and everybody would have a week or two of catching them, then they were gone and there weren't one to be found any where, next you would here boats 50 miles north were catching them as the packs moved on up the north sea, they suddenly stopped coming , I find it hard to imagine that they were all caught, there has been one or two better catches well off shore in the last two or three years so perhaps they will return.

 

Lsd's are hardly effected by commercail fishing at all, I know some are kept for pot bait in some areas, but it's a tiny fraction , most fishermen try to oviod them , and most that are caught are reliesed and being near on indistructable most swim away. The trawlers in this area don't seem to catch many any way, small mesh gill nets catch plenty in certain areas but as soon as you use meshes over 100mm you catch very few. The main gill net mesh size used at Whitby was always 120mm so I doubt they would catch many and now the mesh has been increased to 140mm for cod it is nighon impposible to catch one. I am also pretty certain that the rock hopper gear with 120 mm cod end would catch very few lsd,

 

In this area (Thames estuary) there has been a big increase in lsd, I do put this down to warmer sea and if they start turning up along the shore at Whitby in increaseing numbers they will do so for the same reasons, not any thing that has happened to the Whitby fleet.

 

 

As it happens I can remember catching my first one.

I was about 12 years old ,fishing from the beach at Slapton Sands Devon, after getting a bite that pulled me rod off the rest I wound in a spotty dog, I was well chuffed , recast and got another 5 minuets later, to me in those days it was a red letter day.

[big_cod]

Well that depends if you want me too or not? Frammie was and always will be special as far as I am concerned. I talked to him too not so long ago. Just the same as he was thirty odd years ago when I first met him. Thank god some things don’t change.

I have never had to rely on just a watch and compass. But I did set the old Decca up a few times for frammie when he could do nothing with it.

 

The days when fishing changed completley decca came on the scene suddenly it was a bananza commercial jigging was the order of the day, went a few times myself with our late friend alan bocock wasnt he the first man to jig those wrecks at the back of 20 miles no other angling boats had been out there he was the first ,i also went with mikey lock jigging no small codling in those days all box lenthers, i remember alan saying to me got 3 codling about 5lb ---6lb a trebler as we know it, his words were chuck them back to small paul they had to have there tails litterally hangin out over the box ,had some fish on that boat dark island ,was he or the mara the first to do the long trips offshore it could have been mara another very knowledgable gentleman arthur cargill billy usher cooked the breakfasts for the anglers dont know why they gave it up really must have realized you could catch enough fish on a 10hr trip rather than pay all that money when you dont need to buts thats another story,now you mentiond serene was that coble not owned by mr eric wilson the owner of whitby angling supplies always remember him going jigging one night only for a few hours of runswich bay i was catching mackeral of the end of the peir if i remember he only went for a couple of hours the boat was laydened with fish when he came back the good old days nice to remernise.