Ragworms beached Belfast Lough

Was down digging lugworm for a trip recently but as I walked along the beach there where literally thousands of king ragworm strewn across the sand and everyone was either dead or dying, I have witnessed this once before and have never known why? I could hazard a guess that maybe its a breeding cycle but wouldnt be sure. All I do know is that Belfast Lough should be hiving with fish due to the abundance of rag, lug and mussels but it isnt and its a shame.

Anyone with any clues?????

Tight Lines
Aaron

its funny you said that mate me and a friend were up diggin lug and we stumbled across a whole pile of dead ones.we actually got 10 while We were diggin but they where a pure green colour and really chunky.

rag go a green colour when breeding and as far as i can tell the fish dont like them when green, well not when i used them

Ragworm do indeed die after breeding and the green ones you found all over the beach are useless as bait ( tried it before ). If you do a google search on the life cycle of ragworm there should be loads of information available if you are interested to know more.

Regarding your comment on Belfast Lough, it SHOULD be a great place for angling but due to overfishing/pollution this is no longer the case. The thing that has me totally confused is that if it was purely the trawlers that are causing all the problems then why are there not loads more small fish in the shallows or rough ground marks? Is it possible that the breeding stock has been wiped out or reduced to such a small quantity that it may never fully recover? I have heard stories from older anglers for years about the Spurgods, Rays, Bass etc that used to be caught in the Lough, not to mention the British record Anglerfish that weighed nearly 100lb-also caught in Belfast Lough. The answer must be that there is just not a sufficient quantity of fish in the lough to attract/sustain the species that it once did.

Such a shame/disgrace

Lee

Was digging rag the other day and could only manage a few small ones. Came across a load of dead rag as well. Must be the time for spawning. Ended up stopping digging as it was a total waste of time and we were only spoiling areas that will be full of rag in a month or 2.

you will always get a good few rag dead at this time of year, seems to coincide with water temps getting up/ breeding etc.
the 'milky' greens are pretty useless as bait as lee has said.

Interesting post, I was digging rag monday week ago, in a spot that alway produces a good qty of decent sized rag, and I got get fek all but small 2 to 3 inch rag. Normally I'd get enought to last a full day's fishing in about 15mins, but I had to give up after an hour last monday!

found the same myself, so like ronan has already mentioned. i'll give the rag a month or 2 to come back before i go digging for them again. but there's still loads of lug around so the fish will still have something to strip from my hooks until the end of june

must have been queen's rag week again....