Cod limits

It was mentioned that skate stocks were damaged by anglers on the west coast, the comment about anglers killing them just to take pictures then dumping them etc is an irrelevant emotional statement that should not be associated with the majority of decent anglers who fish from our shorelines and keep fish for the table. Killing fish just to take pictures then dumping them is wrong which I think nobody here or any decent angler would agree with. I would say that using this as an example is wrong as these fish are also fished for commercially. To say that local marks are overfished for cod too is silly. Cod shoul in and out and marks like monkstown produce good catches time and time again no matter how many anglers fish there. Once their food source is there the fish will come in to feed. I don't understand the comment about being hypocritical because If I want to eat fish I go out and catch it for myself, and If I had my way I would suggest that people should not eat fish that they didn't catch themselves. See how quickly fish stocks would return then. I target a species and I dont kill hundreds more fishing for it.

I did say that the rod and line does not have a significant impact on salt water species and I stand by that but I am mainly talking about cod here. A single cod can reproduce very quickly with mature females laying between 3 to 9 million eggs per season. These reproducing females need protection from trawlers not anglers. The fact is that you are wrong if you think that shore anglers damage fish stocks

I think in some cases anglers saying that there needs to be a limit put on catches probably reflects more on their prejudices than their understanding of ecology. I come across so much prejudice by fishermen towards foreigners especially polish people because so many use fishing as a food source. I am not saying that anyone here is guilty of this but I think in some way we are all a bit guilty. I strongly disagree with this bad mouthing of foreigners but have not confronted people when i hear it even though I know its wrong. I think that some fresh water species in certain locations have been affected by overfishing by some foreigners because they were irresponsibly keeping bags of fish thus wiping out local populations. But not all foreign or Irish fishermen for that matter are so irresponsible. I do a lot of freshwater fishing so I have seen this first hand. Do we as sea anglers carry some of these prejudices?

That's a well reasoned post Tom and I'm inclined to agree with it. It's a bit off the subject of the thread but I support the two fish limit for bass as I believe the same fish return to the same shorelines year after year. Where do you stand on this?