110 pound tope slaughtered

[Guest Ferret1959]

Was the fish dead when it was landed?

Ifso no point if putting it back eh?

[glennk]

Banning commercial tope fishing would again only apply to English fishermen, the French will still be long lining the female tope who gather off the south coast to pup each year.

 

My favourite poster with yet another gem. Given up bashing the firemen for a while Mike ?

[Leon Roskilly]

Because you don't have a track record in killing song birds, you are not put at a competitive disadvantage by not killing them, you are not going to lose any money and birds are nice fluffy things.

 

Leon don't you ever go to work?

 

 

No Mikec I don't go to work, I simply wouldn't have the time!

 

The songbirds would help feed me, fresh meat involving no air miles, and should go well with my home grown potatoes and runner beans, grown at low cost to the environment, and with very little carbon cost.

 

And although the thrushes do keep the snails etc down, I'd have more strawberries, rasberries and redcurrants to eat myself in compensation!

 

But those evil continentals get to eat them and sell them in the boucherie, whereas we are far too civilised, so protect them.

 

The same as tope in years to come hopefully!

[sam-cox]

All you need is a nice fresh just caught bass to go with your runner beans and potatoes!

[Leon Roskilly]

All you need is a nice fresh just caught bass to go with your runner beans and potatoes!

 

Nah! They go into the bean trench as an excellent fertiliser!

[wurzel]

Fair point, never thought of it like that. At least the bye law would stop them being targeted though Wurzel.

 

Hello Glen

 

No it won't, the bylaw only effects the area up to 6 miles from land, in this area all the best tope fishing is well out side that.

The last large tope I landed weighed half of the fish in Question and made about £25.00, there is a growing market for tope and smooth hounds, the bylaw says nothing about smooth hounds and who can tell the difference onced skinned.

[skippytheroo]

3 pints of lager. What a donkey.

 

[message slightly edited to get rid of a swear-word. John S]

 

Tell you dont drink a lot glenn....... 2 pints lager

[glennk]

Forgot the crisps m8. You been away ?, been quiet for a while .

 

Wurzel are you advocating the catching of Tope and then skinning them so you can land them ?

[Steve Coppolo]

The Tope by-laws currently being looked at by various SFC's, (NESFC excepted. They've already passed theirs), won't do much to protect Tope, except in places where they run within 6 miles. I think it's widely acknowledged that the by-laws were only proposed to try to prevent the development of a commercial Tope fishery after a Lowestoft fish merchant declared an interest in doing so last year.

 

For commercial fishermen in areas where Tope don't run within 6 miles of the shore, there will still be nothing to prevent them from targetting Tope, and as Wurzel says, Smoothounds will still be a free for all.

 

Whether you view the Tope by-laws as a victory for anglers/Tope or not, depends on how high you set your targets. I think the local by-laws need to be backed up with National legislation to do any good, and even then, I believe that would only protect them for up to 12 miles out.

Edited July 7, 2006 by Steve Coppolo

[lucky_]

Getting a 100lb fish out of his net and seeing the damage it had done would ensure that if by some miracle the fish was still alive it wouldn’t be for long.

This just says it all really! Basically you're saying if the fish isn't already dead when the net is hauled it deseves to be executed anyway because of all the trouble and inconvenience it has caused by getting tangled up in the net. I guess this goes for dolphins and turtles too eh?