Our Foreign friends killing everything

Hi after our trip on Friday night up the swilly we watched a couple of different Foreign people feathering and catching loads of very under sized fish and killing them.
Alot of people came down to speak to us while we fished and they also commented on those same people and were getting angry over it.
I would normally say something to them as this is a subject close to my heart that pis..s me off but after the year I have had I was just happy to be fishing again.
Alot if places I go this is happening and it's time we need to speak to these people and let them know about the size limit of our fish, and yes I understand they are probably eating them but they need to realize they can't keep everything.
One group was catching 3 coalies at a time and all very small and they all went in the bag ( won't be eating at that Chinese) lol
Think we need to speak nicely to these people to save our fish

this has been brought up before and i think education is the way to go

it is definitely not a foreign phenomenon either - there are plenty of irish lads at it also

i know of plenty responsible eastern anglers as well as the guys filling the bucket with undersize

you take any group of anglers and you have some of both - if these people have different traditions etc. deal with different species we just have to work with educating them on the norms in this part of the world

Your spot on mate. It needs to be publish more about the rules etc, even to the extent of posters on piers local papers and even tackle shops etc for people who don't read the forms and mags or our seas are going to be empty

Maybe it is time to have a active recruitment drive and see if some of the new Irish would like to try fishing with the locals

i can gaurantee there is very few irish at it,,,they might keep a pollock thats 15 inches long but they are not keeping the ones that are 5 inches long like i seen on downpatrick head one day.all that is needed is brains

This is not just confined to sea fishing ether. I do a lot of fly fishing also around my local decal lakes where the bag limit is 4 fish only per day. But I’ve witnessed or so called foreign friends take bags of about 40 fish. Plus they also use illegal methods and these are so called policed fisheries. So my point is if they can’t stop this around a few lakes there’s no way in hell we can stop it around or shores.

the problem is that the people we spoke to were very angry, and it only takes one person to lose the head with it and end up in trouble over it.
i am defo going to speak to the ones who are commiting these acts when i see this mindless acts that is destroying our seas and explain to them the rules on fishing here.
Taking 40 -50 fish a day, and undersize might i add, cant and wont be tolerated anymore.
local clubs, fishing forms, magazines, tackle shops and local fishing people need to join in, in spreading the word of the size limit, quotas and the mindless killing of fish just because they caught it.
its our future and our chirldrens, and speak to those in question. nicely might i add.

I got myself a 2 week ban from the site for voicing my concerns on this very issue sometime ago, I havent seen as much of the communist block fishermen since the recession and since lidl put their prices of frozen prawn up. I have actually had them come up to me on various marks and ask me for the fish before I had even landed them as well as trying to sponge bait of me because theirs wasnt working. I would help anyone out and have done over the years but I have yet to meet an eastern european that fishes for sport only. I read the usual politically correct terms like "education" on the posts and it sends a shudder down my spine and its liberalism like this that has got us in this situation. I dont agree that there are irishmen killing undersized fish and this again is just another way of appeasing the pc brigade, you would be as well closing the site down if members cant discuss openly there opinions. Its hard to keep your emotions in check when you see a foreigner with a bucket full of undersized wrasse,pollock and coalie walking away from what used to be productive marks.

Its most definatley not just FN's at this craic and there are plenty of Eastern european anglers who fish for sport and return small fish, Size limits cannot be inforced and as this seems to happen on piers and breakwater's maybe the authorites should ban fishing with feathers or even ban it altogether not just the FN's but the pondlife these places attract during the warmer month's..

Its most definatley not just FN's at this craic and there are plenty of Eastern european anglers who fish for sport and return small fish, Size limits cannot be inforced and as this seems to happen on piers and breakwater's maybe the authorites should ban fishing with feathers or even ban it altogether not just the FN's but the pondlife these places attract during the warmer month's..

Very well put Keith, you echo my sentiments exactly, ive met FNs who keep all they catch and other FNs who release most of their catch and by the same token ive come accross Irish aglers who keep all they catch. Piers do seem the worst for this behaviour, signs and local fisheries officers are IMO the way forward.

is there a mimimum landing size for fish in the republic(apart from Bass)? i know there are moral size limits but ive never heard of legal ones.
if there isnt then these lads are doing nothing wrong and telling them anything different will fall on deaf ears.

I'm sure matt Hayes said it was the law and if it ain't it should be

I'm sure matt Hayes said it was the law and if it ain't it should be

i might be wrong but i think there are minimum sizes for the uk/north but never heard of any for down south. people can try to educate all they want but anyone who is taking a bucket of small fish for a stew isnt gonna be too bothered about someone telling them its wrong morally,
if minimum landing sizes are introduced it becomes a different situation as they are then breaking the law.

Hope someone can tell if it is law. And I was making the point of the bagging of 40-50 under size fish a day how does that affect the fish stocks in that area over a year not being able to grow or breed

I got myself a 2 week ban from the site for voicing my concerns on this very issue sometime ago, I havent seen as much of the communist block fishermen since the recession and since lidl put their prices of frozen prawn up. I have actually had them come up to me on various marks and ask me for the fish before I had even landed them as well as trying to sponge bait of me because theirs wasnt working. I would help anyone out and have done over the years but I have yet to meet an eastern european that fishes for sport only. I read the usual politically correct terms like "education" on the posts and it sends a shudder down my spine and its liberalism like this that has got us in this situation. I dont agree that there are irishmen killing undersized fish and this again is just another way of appeasing the pc brigade, you would be as well closing the site down if members cant discuss openly there opinions. Its hard to keep your emotions in check when you see a foreigner with a bucket full of undersized wrasse,pollock and coalie walking away from what used to be productive marks.

Well said mate. Iv even seen our "friends" come in to local parks and golf clubs to net tiny roach and dace from ponds to bring home. Our seas and waterways are not policed properly at all and they never were even when there was cash in the country so it aint going to happen now, complaints to the fisheries from anglers always falls on deaf ears

http://www.bim.ie/uploads/text_content/ ... 20Size.pdf

I would remove the word foreign.... then this thread makes sense....

Why, it was foreigners I saw and it was foreigners that Matt Hayes and Allan Yates mentioned also

Matt Hayes and Allan Yates

Oh, the irony. Sure they're both foreigners too. And if push comes to shove, aren't you yourself a foreigner when you're fishing the Swilly?

Nick - i have seen this happen countless times in portrush - i have even confronted people in a calm and polite manor to explain what should and shouldnt happen to undersized fish, i find it difficult to keep my cool in situations like this but i genuinely did on this occasion - it becomes a very different situatuion very quickly when you confront someone who cant speak the language and the aggression that is displayed when "they" think they are right is unreal.

while i am in full support of this and the comments you have made we'd need to be very careful in how we would go about this face to face.

i got asked for a dogfish once when i fishing buncranna pier by a polish man - i made a deal with him that he could have it if he stopped taking the little fish from the sea. a deal was done an two dogs later all three of the polish men where happy and no more small fish got taken. i am not advocating the death of doggies but i felt it was the lesser of two evils.

dave

I got myself a 2 week ban from the site for voicing my concerns on this very issue sometime ago, I havent seen as much of the communist block fishermen since the recession and since lidl put their prices of frozen prawn up. I have actually had them come up to me on various marks and ask me for the fish before I had even landed them as well as trying to sponge bait of me because theirs wasnt working. I would help anyone out and have done over the years but I have yet to meet an eastern european that fishes for sport only. I read the usual politically correct terms like "education" on the posts and it sends a shudder down my spine and its liberalism like this that has got us in this situation. I dont agree that there are irishmen killing undersized fish and this again is just another way of appeasing the pc brigade, you would be as well closing the site down if members cant discuss openly there opinions. Its hard to keep your emotions in check when you see a foreigner with a bucket full of undersized wrasse,pollock and coalie walking away from what used to be productive marks.

Well said mate. Iv even seen our "friends" come in to local parks and golf clubs to net tiny roach and dace from ponds to bring home. Our seas and waterways are not policed properly at all and they never were even when there was cash in the country so it aint going to happen now, complaints to the fisheries from anglers always falls on deaf ears

Mate I also got myself banned from other sites for voicing my opinion, I got myself into a fight one-time on rathmullan pier for lifting their buckets of small fish and throwing them back into the sea. I found the most memorable time was what I witnessed on Downhill beech, there was Chinese guys shooting nets out from some sort of a gun and tying the ropes to there tow bar of their jeep and driving up and down the beech just scooping everything!