are we a dyin breed????

was talkin to an old greystones local who was tellin me of days gone by when he was catchin decent cod and bass from the pier on a regular basis.. and good size tope from the beaches ( granted he's 85 next month)... i asked him when the last time he fished was and he said 3 years ago, he reckons it doesint have the same stocks at all as compared to 3 r 4 years ago.. ''gave up long ago son'' he said... how do you lads reckon shore fishin in this area around this time of year compares to last year or 2004 ... iv met so many people like him lately who reckon its a dyin sport.. can be pretty disheartining when your sittin there, you get asked if you caught anything, you say ''no not yet'' . . and your politley told ''a sure your only wastin your time son.. theres f all fish round here now''

i have fished there a lot in the last few weeks and the fishing isnt great but i think our expectations are to high i have had right laugh catching doggies and some pollock and i lost a big fish so the big uns are still around
croppy

Nothing worse than some person coming up to ya and saying sure you will catch nothing here. It happend so many times at carrick - during the mackeral bashing season as well.

what i would say is that there was significant damaged to all fish stock over the past few decades largely due to over fishing by commercial fleets. but there has been some legislation passed which prevents the commercial fleets taking as much as they used to. i have notices an increase in the amount of small cod i have been catching lately compared to last year. this could be an indecation that the cod have been allow to recover some what and perhaps in years to come the cod stocks will return to half of what they used to be. it has been a long time since i have seen a cod over 4 pound being caught from the shore now. fish stocks and quota's is a largely political issue and if no party is going to take on the issue of lowering fish quota's then we can kiss our fishing on the east coast good bye.

the other reason why some species are not showing up is because of global warming. it has been shown that the waters around ireland are increasing in temp so of the species dont like this temp and have started to move to more northern regions for example salmon and cod.

was talkin to an old greystones local who was tellin me of days gone by when he was catchin decent cod and bass from the pier on a regular basis.. and good size tope from the beaches ( granted he's 85 next month)... i asked him when the last time he fished was and he said 3 years ago, he reckons it doesint have the same stocks at all as compared to 3 r 4 years ago.. ''gave up long ago son'' he said... how do you lads reckon shore fishin in this area around this time of year compares to last year or 2004 ... iv met so many people like him lately who reckon its a dyin sport.. can be pretty disheartining when your sittin there, you get asked if you caught anything, you say ''no not yet'' . . and your politley told ''a sure your only wastin your time son.. theres f all fish round here now''

Have been fishing Greystones since 1975:shock: ,and the stocks have definately dreid up compared to when I started.I used to catch 5lb codling every other weekend,large plaice2/3lb,3/4 lb pollock and 4 or 5 good Bass in a season,a good haul for a beach.Not like that anymore,mostly coalies and doggies.But it won't stop me going out there,I always live in hope that theres still a big fish for me to catch.

do dogfish have any predators that feed on them? i recently had a go at a trawler crew ( stupid move i no but they annoy me so much sometimes) in skerries harbour.. they were sorting there catch on the side of the boat and the caught mounds of dog fish, instead of doing the easy thing a just flickin them back over the side they went to the bother of takin about twenty crates onto the boat, puttin the dogfish ( and im sure i saw some bull huss) in to the crates, haulin them back up and leaving there to die slowly and rot beside another 20 that were there from the week before. why!!?? one of them said dogfish are breeding at a rapid rate and they destroy sprat stocks... i dunno!?? some of the little flatties they were chopping up were disgustingly small.. barely the size of your hand...

i would imagine it was bait for the whelk pots same as in dunaloghaire

Yeah i was in tescos well a few months ago now. And they had brown/rainbow trout there, and the size of these things, it was discraceful. Whats the minimun size for brown and or rainbow trout? These were maybe approx. 20-25cm?

I only went back sea fishing this year . Im fishing on and of the last 10 years. Back then i was a complete learner sill am now but thanks to the internet getting there!! When i started fishing nearly 10 years ago i never used shockleaders or rigs with beeds and swivels and crimps.My rig was 50lb and 30lb hook lenght all just tied together.Granted i lost a lot of rigs but i caught a lot more than i do now.I think i blank more now than i catch but that could be because i like to try new places that i never fished before!! :?

I remember fishing the giants causeway when i was 16 and catching huge cod and coalfish on a 7ft peir rod, I still use that rod because of the amount of beauties i have caught on it and it is the same rod the girlfriend caught her first fish on at the weekend

do dogfish have any predators that feed on them?

yup.. skate.. and larger sharks like blues...

i have heard and i dont know how true it is that bull huss will take a doggie fillet

Iv always been told doggies are no good as bait, that there ''to hard''? i remeber choppin one up once to try it an a good handfull of worms spilled out of its guts.. thats how ya no a true scavenger i guess... iv a mate in uk who eats the bloody things!

I eat them every now and then quite nice fluffy fish.Trick is to get the skin of !! Found if you put it in hot water for a few min's it come's right off.

Anyone who eats dogfish regularly (this'd be spurdog, not spotted) will skin them as follows.

Have a hook or nail in the shed doorpost (or something like that). Ensuring fish is dead (a hard smack on the back of the head is the most humane way), cut through the skin all the way around the fish just in front of the pectoral fins. Slit the skin from the cut around the 'neck' to the tail along the belly.

Scald the fish all over in the sink with a kettle of boiling water to loosen the skin. Hang the fish on the nail/hook by the gills, grab both pectoral fins and pull down hard in one movement. The skin should peel off like a rubber glove. Gut, tail and head, cook according to taste. I found them better eating after being skinned and sat in the fridge for a day or two after skinning (with a little salt rubbed onto the flesh inside and out) but then I did get them fresh.....

I consider spurdog an endangered species on my patch so no longer eat them but if they are plentiful elsewhere I see no harm in a feed. Most commonly described on restaurant menus as 'flake' or 'rock salmon'.

I fished Greystones in the early 80's and the cod stick were unbelievable. We would go out in the boat and get 2 or 3 boxes of cod on a good day. Then a certain angler became a commercial fisherman and set nets. Low and behold the stocks were wiped out in a few years.

Secondly, there were great plaice to be had until the boats from Wexford started collecting seed mussel just off the shore around Ballygannon and Kicoole. Once the food source was gone the plaice disappeared as well.

I still fish but there occasionally but doubt that these stocks will ever fully recover.

On a positive note the tope stocks are better than they ever were.