Re:Angling Reports on the site

Is it my imagination or are there very few fishing reports being posted on this site apart from what the Northern lads are sending in? Are the rest out there not fishing or just not posting on the site?

Gordon

Hi Gordon

Wondering the same thing myself. Can't believe no-one is fishing.

Suspect that people are being a bit "careful" in case a mark that is productive gets trawled by some web literate netsman. This has been raised before and to be honest as a theory its plainly nonsense. All the commercial guys know where the fish will be at any given time of the year... otherwise they would not be in business still. Almost all of the charter skippers are ex-commercial skippers or experienced hands.

What has happened (as I understand it) is that lots of information is being swopped by private message (PM) and email amongst the registered members... another reason why you should register...

Everyone will always be suspicious of "guests" on a site like this....

Fishing away lads, just not catching anything of note! Dont really see the point of posting reports of blank outings, my skill level would not be high enough for me to presume that because I didnt catch fish no fish were there!

I know I'm not getting out these days, nor expect to much before Xmas, thanks to work commitments.

I wonder are a lot of people not posting unless they've caught? It might be better (in a worrying sort of way) to be able to see if the number of blanks is increasing - and it might be useful for some to see which venues have blanked lately. It's my view that venues blank. Not anglers. Or so I keep telling myself.... :lol:

If a commercial fisherman wanted to scope out the site, they could as easily register as a member as log in as a guest - who'd know the difference?

As for commercial fishermen getting info, I doubt they're too worried about the few flounder, eels, coley, pollock or wrasse that most of us would be likely to get this time of year.

They'd be much more interested in black/lemon sole, monk, plaice, cod, haddock & rays, all stuff we're fairly unlikely to catch. A further point is that most of the water we cast into wouldn't float a boat of any size anyway, so where we're fishing is generally inaccesible to them.

I can see how some poacher might be interested to hear where a few bass were to be had so they could nip down the beach with a sack full of trout net to stake out at low water, but that's about the size of the threat as far as see.

Boat angling is a different story to some extent, in that reporting a good haul off a wreck or bank/reef would be something a commercial might be interested in. But all you have to do to avoid that is to omit exactly where you were fishing.

If everyone is paranoid about giving marks away, it might be better if we posted catch reports by county only, and anyone interested PM the poster for the specific mark? Sad if it comes to that though...but a good reason to have a 3 mile MPA right round the coast...

I fish around once a week and usually don't blank (touch wood) but I don't put in the time and effort anymore to write a report for the Limerick marks I fish as no one else does. It takes forever to use this site from my home connection so I email on my catchs to other local anglers who I'm in contact with. I'd also be worried about other anglers taking excessive amounts of fish from the marks I fish. Theres been alot of foreign anglers around the Limerick and clare region killing everything that swims including inedible fish such as wrasse. I saw on the forum some fella boasting about how many boxes of ray he took this year. What he does is up to himself but I sure as hell would want to pass on information about my ray marks to some one that would do that.

Donagh

Doanagh has a couple of good points there. I get to hear a lot of reports of 'foreigners' cleaning the place of fish - both fresh and saltwater varieties. There are also folk out there with rod and line who have no respect for the fish either - I'm not going to dignify them by referring to them as anglers.

No doubt a cross section of one if not both groups read this forum - some probably looking to see where in their locality they can get what fish.

It might come to the point that we have to stop posting specifics of boat and shore locations (as opposed to catches) as I mentioned previously and info on marks given out only in response to PMs from people you know. Like I said, that'd be a sad day.

Needn't happen if the RFBs and the Government and Gardai got their act together and lean on poaching in a big way - but that's not terribly likely to happen until serious damage to freshwater stocks happens - the game/coarse anglers are much better than sea anglers at getting together and getting stuff done.

As regards anyone boasting of taking boxes of fish (catch and release is fine - more power to you if your catch report runs into tons) just ignore their posts and hope they go away. If they get no info and no attention I'm sure it'll not be a lot of fun for them here.

Donagh I fish the limerick area and at the moment between work and family commitments I can't get out for an fishing and the only way I get my fix is by reading the reports on this site Please post more often. If you write the report in word before you log on then copy and paste it into the reports section it only takes a few seconds. It's also ood practice you never know you could be writing your memoirs in years to come and be glad of the record " Memoirs of an estuary fisherman" :lol: :lol:

Or Donagh could put me on his e-mail list. I'd be happy to donate my work's considerable bandwidth to this worthy cause of getting his reports up :lol: Just leave the exact location out....

i'll write one 2moro!

What about
1... locking down the boards ? as in only registered members can view and post
2.. implement a kudos or reputation system ,where only members with a certain reputation can view the reports section ie someone with 30 posts or more
A lot of the forums I frequent use this system, and this is the only forum I use that allows guests to post .


Andy

not a bad idea bOogaloo. :idea:

Needn't happen if the RFBs and the Government and Gardai got their act together and lean on poaching in a big way - but that's not terribly likely to happen until serious damage to freshwater stocks happens - the game/coarse anglers are much better than sea anglers at getting together and getting stuff done.

Sandman, the guards have nothing to do with fisheries protection, have always washed their hands of it and only serve to back up fishery officers where violence has occurred or been threatened, if they even do that.
The fisheries boards have no role in sea fishing except for salmon, sea trout, bass and molluscs, absolutely no powers in relation to any other species in saltwater. Hands tied. You could blame the politicians for not introducing legislation, but who's going to listen??

What about
1... locking down the boards ? as in only registered members can view and post
2.. implement a kudos or reputation system ,where only members with a certain reputation can view the reports section ie someone with 30 posts or more
A lot of the forums I frequent use this system, and this is the only forum I use that allows guests to post .


Andy

I'd agree with locking the board to guests etc, i'd have no bother with the 30 posts rule either only i haven't posted 30 times and wouldn't want to spam the place to just reach that limit. I'm only a 'learner' really in terms of sea angling so enjoy reading a lot of the reports and sections of this website to learn more tips and tricks etc, as i gain more experience, i'd post more often but until then i'd hold back.

Noel.

I would be interested in locking the boards also. If a core group of regular registered users were the only ones viewing the catch reports I'd feel alot happier about posting up certain venues.

I do feel people should take the time to record their blanks also, regardless of skill level, it can often be just as good an indication as to how a venue is fishing

Liam