WHITBY COD BONANZA

[clem]

Hi Challenge,

So called black fish was Scarborough's worst kept secret for a number of years in the early ninetys in particular when the TAC's were tightened up it started at back-end, dec. time but when quota got tighter it used to be a steady trickle through the year and yes I have witnessed it. I t did not really affect us as we were under 10M. but on those dark winter nights spent on the pier if we was shot tight in on a dodgy forecast then it was happening and by the time the fisheries officer was having his cornflakes it would be chopped up - gone.

I would agree Challenge , never seen undersized codlings landed these all got shovelled over the side.

The only person I remember been prosecuted was some old bloke who had half a dozen porks stufffed up his jumper and he was in the papers and everything.

Its blowing a gale from the north here cannot even sleep!

[Guest challenge]

Happy dude.

Only a year or so ago on here (from this part of the world) people where saying that the commercial industry had destroyed there hobby of sea angling because they could not catch what they wanted or thought they where entitled to catch.

We had assumptions galore thrown about by people who where looking for somebody to blame. Faire to them they knew no better. Tails of what commercial fishermen do and don’t do, story’s from friends of friends, next door neighbours, ex commercial fishermen who wanted to tell them what they all wanted to here.

A year or so later there are tons of fish, best reports of cod on the inshore grounds that have been reported for years.

Like the good old days, cod bonanzas fish on every drop are just a few of the reports that we have been reading.

Great stuff I say, no more reports of Blinders or illegal fishing. Or greed among commercial fishermen. Strange? Or is it? The fish have eventually come to them; I reported some great catches on here and got ridiculed because we had gone to the fish in order to catch them. I suggest you try the same.

Clem

I don’t think that anybody would deny that black fish landings did take place at some time. What your post was suggesting was that it still goes on today? We have been through all this before (the reasons why it happened and the reasons it stopped) it’s an argument that has no way of resolving it’s self because it couldn’t resolve it’s self at the time of it happening.

You would have a job to witness many trawlers landing in scarbourgh today, never mind them landing under size illegal fish. So if they did land all that illegal fish and all the money went into there back pockets as suggested, then it didn’t do them much good at the end of the day.

The reason that trawler men shovel undersize codlings back over the side would be for exactly the same reason that you lads in your under 10mt boats through them back over. Suppose it does sound a bit more dramatic when you say shovel rather than throw.

Regards.

[big_cod]

All i can say that what we are seeing is extremly good news for everybody concered commercial fishermen and anglers alike the signs look excellent i persionally never went aback of 5 miles all last week and believe me the fishing was as good as it was 10 years ago the boxes were all overflowing by the end of the day, i had regulars on every day this last week and they were extatic not just cod but some cracking pollock and ling upto 25lb the sea is alive at the momment june is always a very good month and same as every year its allway bananza time at this time of the year once the algie has vanished but it is the sheer volume of cod on the grounds you can actually let the boat drift for say over a mile on the rough and you have constantly got somebody into cod its alive with them the reason for this explosion of fish could be the amount of crab potts that have been on the grounds over the last few years and it has meant less commercial fishing effort but who really knows all i know is its been fantastic fishing for the lads shads, pirks, they have all been hammering fish even one of the local trawler skippers told in the pub yesterday it was like the old days.

[glennk]

Hasn't quota's and days at sea meant less effort too Paul ? Where I used to see 10 boats I now see 1 or 2. Surely the EU restrictions are a bigger part of the equasion than crab pots ?

[Guest challenge]

All i can say that what we are seeing is extremly good news for everybody concered commercial fishermen and anglers alike the signs look excellent i persionally never went aback of 5 miles all last week and believe me the fishing was as good as it was 10 years ago the boxes were all overflowing by the end of the day, i had regulars on every day this last week and they were extatic not just cod but some cracking pollock and ling upto 25lb the sea is alive at the momment june is always a very good month and same as every year its allway bananza time at this time of the year once the algie has vanished but it is the sheer volume of cod on the grounds you can actually let the boat drift for say over a mile on the rough and you have constantly got somebody into cod its alive with them the reason for this explosion of fish could be the amount of crab potts that have been on the grounds over the last few years and it has meant less commercial fishing effort but who really knows all i know is its been fantastic fishing for the lads shads, pirks, they have all been hammering fish even one of the local trawler skippers told in the pub yesterday it was like the old days.

Good point about the amount of pots on the ground. That could be a good reason why we had tons of fish offshore? Because there where no nets on the wrecks and trawlers cannot fish them and we where the only boat capable and prepared to go the distance to fish them with our anglers?

Cannot wait for a break in the weather so I can pop out with darlik again and catch what he has been catching for years, because the trawlers never fish there and it never gets netted and angling boats for some reason never fish there this time of the year.

But it’s good to see fish again in the places where the local party boats and there anglers fish.

I hope that the weather hasn’t messed up the conditions to much for angling.

I heard a rumour today that under 10 meter boats have only got 8 stone of cod per month till the end of the year? Is this true?

Regards.

[Guest challenge]

Hasn't quota's and days at sea meant less effort too Paul ? Where I used to see 10 boats I now see 1 or 2. Surely the EU restrictions are a bigger part of the equasion than crab pots ?

Wasn’t it you who said that pair trawlers caught 20 times as much as a single trawler and therefore the few boats that are left are catching more and doing more damage than the larger underpowered fleet of yesteryear?

O I forgot that’s when the inshore angling boats where not catching much.

[Happy Dude]

Happy dude.

Only a year or so ago on here (from this part of the world) people where saying that the commercial industry had destroyed there hobby of sea angling because they could not catch what they wanted or thought they where entitled to catch.

We had assumptions galore thrown about by people who where looking for somebody to blame. Faire to them they knew no better. Tails of what commercial fishermen do and don’t do, story’s from friends of friends, next door neighbours, ex commercial fishermen who wanted to tell them what they all wanted to here.

A year or so later there are tons of fish, best reports of cod on the inshore grounds that have been reported for years.

Like the good old days, cod bonanzas fish on every drop are just a few of the reports that we have been reading.

Great stuff I say, no more reports of Blinders or illegal fishing. Or greed among commercial fishermen. Strange? Or is it? The fish have eventually come to them; I reported some great catches on here and got ridiculed because we had gone to the fish in order to catch them. I suggest you try the same.

 

i live and fish in scotland so i really don't give a hoot about the fishing in whitby or yorkshire.

 

there is more to sea angling than killing cod all day.

 

when i was young no-one fished our patch for cod during the summer, it was all haddock on the soft ground, now although they say haddock are at a 30 year high there is still no haddock on the inshore (3 miles off) ground, none, not even undersized ones.

 

Only a year or so ago on here (from this part of the world) people where saying that the commercial industry had destroyed there hobby of sea angling because they could not catch what they wanted or thought they where entitled to catch.

 

this part gets me, i don't think it's too much to expect to get the same from my hobby today exactly what i got from it 30 years ago when i was a boy, ie, good catches of fish for my time, money and effort.

 

now those days are gone, is it the anglers who caught all the fish??

 

for a short time there was a worthwhile population of sized haddock in loch fyne on the west coast, it costs us about £50.00 in fuel to tow the boat there and about £15.00 in petrol for the boat.

 

we would get maybe 30 in size haddock for our day plus dozens of undersize fish all returned alive.

 

a couple of boats from further down the loch swept it and took everything for creel bait for the more lucrative langoustine creel fishing, now no-one goes there, not worth the fuel to catch pin whiting and dogs.

 

a mark i used to fish at st.abbs on the east coast for plaice, here we would anchor on the sand and get maybe 1 plaice for every 20 or so dabs, dabs to 1.5lb as well, now there is only dabs and very small, why??

 

because on their way back from the prawn grounds if they didn't get enough prawns the boats drop their nets in this bay and get a few boxes of flatties to sell for creel bait,

 

i haven't seen a plaice from here for 8 years and the average size of the dabs in now undersized

 

20 years ago in luce bay on the west coast there used to be an annual influx of spurdog during the summer, big gravid females in to drop their pups, longliners moved in to target the large heavily pregnant females because there is more money in them as the fish was sold ungutted, each fish proabably 3-4lb heavier than than a normal spur, now there is none, they haven't been seen for 20 years.

 

my 2 sons fish with me now aged 16 and 11 and they think they have a good day out with me these days but they are only getting a mere shadow of what the fishing was like when i was their age

 

pull your head out your arse and see that it's not all about cod

[big_cod]

Wasn’t it you who said that pair trawlers caught 20 times as much as a single trawler and therefore the few boats that are left are catching more and doing more damage than the larger underpowered fleet of yesteryear?

O I forgot that’s when the inshore angling boats where not catching much.

 

John there was still plenty of cod on the inshore grounds every year the boxes would still fill if you thought that there was no cod on the inshore ground s them you maybe should have had a trip off with me its just this year its hectic fishing and it makes my job just a little easyer.

Edited June 15, 2007 by big_cod

[chappers]

Nor is it just about cod on the East Coast/North Sea I can remember when winter was prime time to catch cod all round the coast, but now the only place it seems to be worth targeting them is mainly confined to the East Coast, And challenge as for thinking that there isn't any black fish landing going on any more then, give yourself a quick slap and wake up, I personally have seen boxes of undersized fish in Cornwall moved straight from the boats into the chip shops/resaurants.Not to mention the probably thousands of unlicensed guys who fish rod and line and sell their catches at the back doors of restaurants. Also when boats are caught with illegal fish, for whatever reasons eg over quota, undersized, illegal nets etc. What the f**k do you think they were planning to do with those fish?....give them away to friends ? Of course not they have a market for them round the back door of the fish market.

[barry luxton]

Nor is it just about cod on the East Coast/North Sea I can remember when winter was prime time to catch cod all round the coast, but now the only place it seems to be worth targeting them is mainly confined to the East Coast, And challenge as for thinking that there isn't any black fish landing going on any more then, give yourself a quick slap and wake up, I personally have seen boxes of undersized fish in Cornwall moved straight from the boats into the chip shops/resaurants.Not to mention the probably thousands of unlicensed guys who fish rod and line and sell their catches at the back doors of restaurants. Also when boats are caught with illegal fish, for whatever reasons eg over quota, undersized, illegal nets etc. What the f**k do you think they were planning to do with those fish?....give them away to friends ? Of course not they have a market for them round the back door of the fish market.

 

I know this is off topic as usuall, if there was gill tagging, don't care if the above post was true or not it would put paid to any back door selling. end of.

 

The people who would dissagree with this the most will be the ones who have the most to loose.