one for the pot

Just a report from yesterday, sat 10-10-09,at Na Clocha Liatha, wasnt going to do one cos you all know where it'll end but what the hell

People:me

Duration:3pm-7pm

Tide:high approx 4-30pm

Weather:fine

Bait:rag,mack

Rigs:flappers, mini rigs

Results:pollock, coalies, blennies, wrasse, shore rockling, whiting




Report:Got setup at the rocks and had fish from the first cast, small pollock and coalies. Some Lads were fishing there already with no success, they tried in close and landed some coalies straight away. As the tide came in I got some Corkwing wrasse, 20cms approx. Some Eastern European lads(3) squeezed in between meself and the other lads already there , and started to catch wrasse. I'm thinking to myself,"These'll be going for the pot!",and I was right . Fair enough, I can understand keeping a few for the pot,and i got a good recipe from a west cork guy for wrasse, even though I wouldnt keep wrasse myself, but these guys just kept pulling wrasse after wrasse after wrasse out and throwing them into a bag,it was like a marine version of ethnic cleansing . I went over to have a look at how many they were keeping and they had a plastic grocery bag full to bursting with wrasse ,tiny pollock and coalies, half of them still alive and flapping about.Blennies must taste crap because they threw them back . They had no english but im sure they knew i disapproved (the "eyes" stare again,i'll never learn,"your mother will never be dead",says my wife ), then again i'm thinking is this any of my business Maybe someone on the site here could enlighten me on the following .Am i right in thinking that wrasse are territorial, and so by removing the population it could take ages for the place to recover, or am i worrying too much?They must've had at least 30 +wrasse between the 3 of them(and they didnt even get snagged once ). I was talking to a local guy sitting up on a bench who was watching and he told me that in the past few weeks he's never seen so many groups down there , and what were they all catching??Reading back over this i hope i dont come across as racist,if they were Irish guys i'd have had a go at them for keeping that amount but these guys had no english. Maybe i'll get a few leaflets printed re catch and release and if i see this in future i can hand them out. Once again, i've no probs with guys keeping a few for the pot but if this keeps up therell be none left .To make matters worse, when the irish guys left they gave their bait to them.Needless to say , when they themselves left 10 mins later they didnt offer anyone the bait.To finish, i got a nice shore rockling ,,,,i wonder what they taste like????????I usually enjoy fishing there , but the whole episode left a bad taste in my mouth.To finish on a positive though, the original "Lads",who were fishing (and boozing ) there restored my faith in human nature by going around cleaning up the site of bottles and rubbish as they were leaving.Fair play lads ,and there were plenty of other friendly lads, one of whom asked me if I wanted anything in Viking Tackle as he had to shoot over for bait

... In fact I think no fish species is sustainable ... They all could be endangered following over fishing ...

Fish stocks are a real issue for a lot of countries, and we are directly concerned about the lack of fish in some places and a lack of good sized fish ...

I think it's possible to managed and to look after stocks ... How USA and Canada do ? They have their greedy locals, their share of foreigners who don't care and they are able to offer fantastic fishing (and not only on private waters) ... I have fished for pike and trout (both private and public waters) in Quebec and I have not seen so many fish in my life , a friend of mine has fished for stripped bass on the east coast of the US and he was absolutely amazed by the number and quality of the fish ...

What are they doing that we don't do in our European countries ?

Maybe education ?

the reason there now fishing the harbours is they were been thrown in to the canals there was a patrol of lads all along the canals emptying keep nets off foreign nationals and pushing them in to the canals this is true have witnessed this also a polish lad buying fishing gear off my buddy told us he walked in to a tackle shop in cavan and the owner refused to sell him bait or gear to fish the lakes people have different methods of dealing with this taking of small fish stock but i think a law will have to be inforced because all sensible anglers do not take every little thing they catch i think we better get used to the taste of blenney might be all there is left

Totally Agree lads. We should be looking to the US and Canada for our inspiation here, but from Sea angling perspecive, it won't make much difference until there is some Lobby of Brussels and we sort this Bycatch Dumping crap out. If we go the USA route we will have to expect as Anglers to pay a licence fee. This fee would go to a central Department who focus os the betterment of angling ONLY I dread the idea of a fee, if it's just another stealth Tax. If this licence fee was paid directly to a department, then is could be used to put the much needed bodies into policeing our waters.

Also, we should be looking to protect out Nursery areas, Large Harbours and Esturies should have commericial fishing Banned.

Lots to think about on this one.

In Canada they call it "conservation license" and the funds goes directly to the fish and game department. The money is well used with habitat conservation, various project in order to get healthy fish and game stock, and the most useful, a real and efficient environmental police. I think it's quite the same in the US.

I think there is also very strict laws with a lot of control regarding trawlers. I have read somewhere that they can't fish close to the coast, and they privilege sport fishing as it bring more money than the commercial ...

Also in Japan (they are mad about fishing), I have seen a reportage regarding the creation of artificial reefs ...

I am not against a license IF the money is well used ...

I completely agree that nurseries site should be completely protected and well look after ...

Also education is very important (clubs and fishing schools), and all the serious anglers should promote C&R, even for the pin whiting, they keep us awake and if they disapear we will suddenly miss them too ...

With a very healthy fishery (both for inland waters and sea) a state can generate big revenues with angling tourism, and us a lot of pleasure with more fish and more big fish ...

A lot of countries have already understand this ...

I have always wonder how it is possible to make this understand by the autorities ? Petitions, demonstration, economical studies ?

If any politician read "one for the pot", please start thinking about it ... And you may find here a key for a little boost to the economy