How much is caught on charter trips?

[Toerag]

Snatcher:

Have you checked it out yet Toerag?

Yes, it looks like a great operation he's got going there, although 4 blokes+skipper in a 19/21ft orkney is a bit much really. Those pollack must go like hell in the shallow water, and the good thing is that they can be returned!

Reading through the posts it seems like ~10 fish per angler is about the norm (I'm not counting baitfish).

Alderneybassman - I can't believe how much of a crap week you've had, given that I've taught you everything I know and you've had good flatty tides!! £350 for the boat seems average, £35 per angler assuming 10 are fishing.

[stavey]

first of all let me apologise to toerag for slightly going off track a bit on this thread but we always seem to end up talking about the same thing ie, fish stocks/conservation/who's to blame/etc,etc,etc, partly this time down to me, so we are back to the same old arguements and opinions. this is ok and sometimes quite amusing and gives us something to talk about and i suppose after all this is a forum and it serves its purpose well for that. [get to the point stavey] right why am i stating the obvious? well i think we all want the same thing but lack any clear and agreed plans, we have all got are opinions on the only org that is meant to represent us have'nt we and its no good just throwing money in to it and hoping it will do all we want it to do, but at the same time if they expect rsa's to input finance then they have to lias a bit better with them than they have, also lets have some clear ideas and proposals on the most important things to us "conservation" and what we want, not who has qualified for the next tin cup then may be we can get behind them. what do ya think are we barking up the wrong tree, should i risk and invest my fifteen or whatever quid? they seem to be all we got.or have i lost the plot? answers on a postcard..............

[Jaffa]

Stopping all encouragement to use white rag might be a good start. Ban it in matches, have magazines treat those that use it like drunken driving.

 

Stop fannying about and make all matches catch and release - change the culture.

 

Commercial fishing industry/ recreational fishing industry: Both start off with the best of intentions but the market can turn them into monsters.

[Toerag]

Stavey - Ok I'll let you off!

Personally I think the best thing to do is increase size limits & corresponding mesh sizes to allow the fish to breed more. If the limits are gradually raised then the commercial boys won't be out of pocket. Bigger fish are less wasteful than small ones, and once the stocks have settled down everyone will be happy. The reality is that too many boats are after too few fish. A better situation would be a smaller fleet catching more per boat, but less overall. That way the skippers can earn a decent wage without being able to catch enough fish to dent the stocks. The other issue is money, if a commercial boat wishes to make more money it has to catch more fish, which seems to make a mockery of the current principles. How about 'nationalising' the entire fleet and paying skippers & crews a reasonable standard wage. That way supply could be matched to demand rather than the current situation where gluts of fish force the price down and fish is wasted.

[Jaffa]

Toerag:

How about 'nationalising' the entire fleet and paying skippers & crews a reasonable standard wage. That way supply could be matched to demand rather than the current situation where gluts of fish force the price down and fish is wasted.

The soviets tried that and came away with the most destructive fishing practices on the planet: don't even think about going there.

[spasor]

Toerag.

Most folk end up putting most fish back?

How many doggies can one familly eat. Even when fishing for the freezer, once the fish boxes are full, thats it.

I spend more time putting fish back than cleaning my catch. As do the majority of anglers I know. In fact, one of the most commonly asked questions I hear from skippers nowadays is. "Any of you guys want a little mackeral bash on the way back in?" And that`s for a few fish to take home.

Of course some anglers get the old `red mist` over their eyes on a good trip, only to feel guilty when they realise how many fish they have to clean.

[stavey]

how about we do some polls on here, like for instance one of jaffa's points, all matches to be catch and release only, and send the results to the nfsa and demand a responce to it. a little more use than just talking about it would you agree. although im on one i get a bit fed up when committee's of clubs or org's constantly undermine the people they are meant to represent and think they no best all the time dont you....

[Ken Davison South Wales]

I agree with Spasor, the vast majority of charter anglers go for the fun of catching not keeping.

 

I think you have to weigh of good trips against bad trips when it comes to wrecking and deep water catches.

 

Let's be 100% up front here, skippers are only going to tell you about the good days especially when they are touting for customers.

 

The same applies to mags, they are not going to do a two page write up about a blank day, get real gentlemen, use the the old savy a bit.

 

The catches report above would not in total pay the wages for one commercial fisherman for a day.

 

The last trip I was on ALL the bream went back and Scottys' undulated plus all the gar and doggies, and only half a bucket of mackeral was kept.

 

You may get the odd private boat keeping everything he catches and there are a couple of charter boats who think they are commercial and whilst do not agree with either of these morons the truth is their total catch for the year would not fill the corner of a pair trawl net.

 

It is not the charter trips or the day out beach angler that have a problem, they just fish for the fun and company and what they catch is a by product 90% of which goes back alive.

 

I do have a problem with club matches which do not practice catch and release. This does not mean total release, if someone catches a decent flattie, bass or cod and wants to keep it for the pot no problem, but to keep fish for the weigh in and then throw them away is a practice which must be stopped.

[Guest jay_con]

I partially agree with you jaffa. I hate to see anglers catching and keeping (or leaving to rot) huge amounts of fish that they could never make any use of, eg the makeral slaughter we see every year on our peirs. I guess this must be the same for a lot of you boys down south with other species such as dog fish which im told are a pest. I wish we had some here to catch as at times we catch nothing at all. Although I usually keep a couple for myself and

friends or family I do actually put most of my makeral back into the see. This culture of king hunter - "look how big my pile of rotting makeral is" should stop.

 

Conversley I see no problem at all in keeping the majority of cod I catch in a year. It feeds my immediate and wider family (although I do put the occasional bigger fish back these days). Doing this saves us the 4 pound a lb or whatever is we pay to mr Morrison at his supermarket and also stops me passing money into the hands of those bobbing rastards who we talked about the other day - The ones in court for alleged rule breaking.

 

I beleive in sustainable fishing - I beleive rod and line fishing is in this catagory.

 

Jaffa - Why you want to discuss white rag here I dont understand. I know you usually direct such comment at myself so am guessing that is your intention here. Ask yourself this :

 

If you banned the use of white rag - half of Tyneside would no loner have an excuse to take excercise.

[jabee]

If returning Mackeral, make sure you don't touch them - tbar or shake them off the hook. If you touch then they'll die.