Na Clocha Liatha

Happy you catch some fish (they seems to have left you a few) ... This is a real problem and not just in Ireland ... I come from the south of France where people (locals, other French in holidays and foreigners in holiday too) kill every single poor little gilthead bream, bass and other sea bream species, even the big fat mullets at the end of the sewage pipes. Everything is finishing on BBQ in the local campings or in garbage bins ... They also take all the shellfish and within 15 min they can clean a rock from his mussels ... And don't talk about game and coarse fish (especially pike), you need to go to a secret (but when I say secret it's really secret) or on private waters.

There is only left catfish (at least now we are famous for something) in public rivers, because nobody wants to eat them ...

There is for every fish a limit landing size, but who cares there is nobody for controlling ...There is a fishing police, but they are not enough and they are always scared to be physically challenge by what we can call poachers ...

Ireland has the real chance to have a nice fishery both at sea, game and coarse, and I think the governement should do something ...

I am not famous for my perfect English , but as Mitch says, these guys speak English only when it suit them ...

It's a pity to see people destroying natural resources (fish or game) in a country ... What will be left for the future ?

Thumbs up for the guys who cleaned up ...

Not to fuel a fire here lads but people use Wrasse for bait for lobster pots and they are all Irish. Plus Wrasse used to be a popular Bass bait. And if the small fish are to be used as Pike bait then is it any worse then buying packs of frozen fish? Granted the frozen fish might come from abroad or fish farms. And what happens to the Pike is another story. I seen five lads during the summer in Wicklow filling bags of small fish which were to be used as bait.

But really how would you be able to stop people from raping the shore line buts it's not just the foreigners.

Dont agree conor wrasse are as dave said a teratorial fish and it could take a while for stocks in the area to recover,and i dont think that filling bags of small fish like wrasse coalies codling etc is the same as small frozen fish which are usually sustainable species like mackeral.

are usually sustainable species like mackeral.

Ha! Mackeral?! Sustainable?!?! You must be having a laugh!

Dont agree conor wrasse are as dave said a teratorial fish and it could take a while for stocks in the area to recover,and i dont think that filling bags of small fish like wrasse coalies codling etc is the same as small frozen fish which are usually sustainable species like mackeral.

Sod I'm not trying to justify what they were doing. It was done in the past thats all I was saying. And I meant about small whiting, coalies and pollock being used for pike bait instead of frozen bags of mack or roach. I did say that these might come from farmed fish or abroad like the ammo stuff (think thats a UK company?). And I did make the point that what happens at the end of the trail i.e. the caught pike is another matter.

Stop trying to be all mature just cause your 30

There is virtually no meat on the small fish anyway so ridiculous.

Could SAI not do a poll on something like this and then send it, or forget the poll and just send a strong letter to the relevant authorities North and South?

Thanks for the replies lads, i knew i'd get a debate going Are there any laws regarding sizes of fish which can be taken or were those lads within their rights to take them. I thought that they were ,otherwise i'd have said something whether or not they could speak english. If there arent any laws ,there should be

Just to put another spanner in the works and it's something alot of us do not consider and possibly should?

Reports from easily accessed marks and pics of fish caught are all these guys need to head down there to bag up! Yes we all care but as they do not should we not be more careful with the info we are publicly posting online?

Just food for thought.

good point there kstaff and i think its something we should all take on board
we need to be a bit more carefull with photos and naming of venues we fish
if a member of s.a.i is looking for a location that they have seen a report on ,they can always drop a p.m
that is what S A,I is all about

this topic repeats itself over and over this is accross the board my friend, all types of fishing coarse game flyfishing the lot has been directly effected by this messin.
I for one am all up for one for the pot or more if I am 100% that it will be eating unless there is a limit you can catch i.e bass x 2 before all you all start swinging handbags i mean 3-4 fish like flatties nice sized whitting that kind of thing but what you have withnessed it just pure disregard too the sport this is not fishing for what we do it for,this is fishing for free food.
Again our coast lines and waterways are getting a constant hammering and all we will do its sit back and bitch about it, this man should have the right too at least report too someone who can take some sort of action as nothing can be more sure that if they have taken that amount of fish from the spacific spot they will be back over and over until that spot is barron.
My local river gets stocked for patricks day I have seen the same lads heading down too fish everyday constantly for months, in may I walked the full lenth of the river and never seen it as barron not a fish too be seen nothing no body even bothered fishing it after them few months.
Very sad.

"Eastern Europeans"* by and large are not fishing purely for sport, it is for the pot. And the seas they fish in tend to be poorer (Black/Caspian/Baltic) in terms of fish sizes so I think that education is the number one tool against this. They need to understand and accept that we do things differently here, informational posters in the tackle shops, signs at the marks, that sort of thing. You'd be surprised what an effect that can have.
Most times I meet foreign nationals out fishing (except the guys who are on fishing holidays from the Continent) they are always very very wary and that tells me that they tend to get the cold shoulder and are treated as outsiders by the locals, not a situation that engenders respect and can foster meaningful dialogue about the problem.

I'll be brutally honest here, I have in past years when I was younger gone out and taken maybe 10 nice pollack and killed every single one of them, then again they all go into the freezer and I might not fish again for 3 months - does that make me evil? Or is it worse to kill one pike because "they eat the trout" ? (that was the retarded line of thought where I grew up).

Then again, some people are just a**holes and will kill everything they catch, every time. I know Irish people who will kill anything that's longer than the distance between thumb and forefinger, for eating.

I can't see how legislation would work though; look at situation here in Limerick with the Mulcair - once a fantastic trout fishery, now overrun by dace - and I can only take 4 per session for dead baits because the river itself is protected. Any more and I can get done for it! So they benefit from the protection meant for other species whilst at the same time driving out a native fish.

Plus how do you legislate for a "fair" number for all of the different species we have in our waters, especially given that you have vast differences in different parts of the country as to what are the most common species? for example, 5 and 6 lbs pollack are common off the west coast, but they would be a super bonus catch on the East Coast, and on the west coast we'd be perhaps more inclined to keep a bass as they don't show up so much as on the East coast. I can't see how you'd mix and match the quantities and weights and sizes for all these different species.

Let alone enforce them!

ok, slightly off-topic rant, but that's my 2 cents

*which is a bit of a misnomer really because Poles and Lithuanians who might fish their native seas would live in Northern Europe, but anyway.

There is virtually no meat on the small fish anyway so ridiculous.

i asked a few of these guys that very question one day at rathmullen pier, for they were hitting everything on the head and dropping them in to a black bin bag, nearly everything they got was only around 4 to 6 inchs long, just wee pucker's, by the time they were packing up there must have been well over a stone weight of fish in their bag, now try to imagine how how many 4 inch fish it would take to make up that weight i asked them what was the point in killing and taking the fish, their reply was, they make great SOUP. now if these people are keeping all the small fish that they can catch, then what is our coast lines going to be like in say 5 to 10 years time

Better to file an official complaint and at least press for more enforcement. After all it works with the salmon to a good degree.

Sitting back and saying it will never work is, with respect, a bit of a cop out.

Its posts like this make my f**kin blood boil,And no i,m not a Racist ,its like an irish cliche at this stage .The way i look at it is that these narrow minded asswipes have no respect for our fishing shores,rivers ,lakes ,canals etc why can the latter be policed and protected and not the shore ie introduce a license fee or levy (i knew that would raise some eye brows)its the only way i can see some sort of structure,the way i look at it these funds could be used to secure our shores from poachers because thats what they are, if these guys could be taking home 30 wrasse whats to stop them taking over the BASS(SALMON/TROUT) bag limit and if they knew how i have no doubt they would!
I,m not saying the the fishery boards aren,t doing there jobs i just dont think they are doing enough.I think a license fee of eur20 per year is a fair charge .i,m only making the point of a fee because i cant see any other way.EVER.
In ten years from now who s to know what state the coastal waters will be in???
I could go on and on.I m going to finish on this note maybe signs should be put up on over fished marks ,translated into polish ,lithuanian etc RESPECT OUR WATERS AND RESPECT OUR FISH.

i recently fished the south wall in poolbeg, dublin, and as it got dark i met a few anglers on their way home so i said hello and any joy? as you do, they grunted something or other but a little boy with them proudly shouted and grabbed their cooler box to show me their result. a full box of mixed fish that you would use as bait cos they were so small! all i could say to the kid was mild and constructive as the issue was with the adults who legged it!
and you wonder why trawlers have a net/stitch size. bring on change.
i love fishing, i love eating fish that i catch, especially after digging the bait to go fishing,
but i release more fish than i keep even though my bro/dad/neighbour or myself nag for a nice meal!
i catch and eat, but mostly catch and release!
re wrasse, blennies, they are all part of an eco-chain that need to keep the cycle of life going.
remove one or two species and the whole cycle gets fukcde up and is very hard to fix!


love fishing love fish! try catch the same fish twice !

Look at boyces stinger what a spanking beautiful fish welll done if these lads caught it, it would have been slaughtered.
I am convinced myself that these lads have not completely moved from our fresh waters but the sea is a much lets say easyier place for them too bag up.
The mentality is buy a rod and you can catch an kill what ever you want as often as you want as there is no laws no permits nothing too stop the rot.
the pike anglers have signs up, course anglers the tend too be watching their waters very closely and I dont hear as much reports of finding nets or lads bagging sholes of bream as before as this it is plain too see the damage this is causing and I am sure some places will never recover from the constant hammering.
Lads this is the future of your sport your looking at if this keeps up we will all have too get on a plane too go fishing.
Not too tare and feather all these east europe anglers as they do not all have the same mind frame as we have all seen from some of them who have put up their posts up on this site and you can see that there is passion in the fishing. Guys this is directed too you if you are reading this please do not feel I am directly talking too you if you are like us and have a passion for fishing you will understand our frustration.

We were talking about conservation in an other post "one for the pot" ...

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 ?

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.

And when I mean police I talk about a real police, heavy fines ... After all there is regulation for driving on the road and a lot of other things ... If you do not respect them, you get fined ... That should be the same for fishing ...

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 ...

Our poor fish have to cope with overfishing (from commercials and professional poachers), pollution, habitat destruction, climate change ... They don't need people hunting them down no matter the specie, the size and the quantity for soup or cat food ...

There should be a legislation, with a minimum landing size for every fish and a bag limit ...

All nurseries site should be completely protected and well look after ...

Also education and information 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 ...

Everybody is focused on salmon, because it's a symbol but most importantly it bring money, but how many people are ready to spent money on fishing holidays for trout, pike, bass, rays ect...). As soon as fish can bring money to the states purses and create some jobs ... I guarantee you they will take care of everything ...

A lot of countries have already understand this ...

But for now, I think posters and explaining them that what they are doing is not tolerate and illegal in Ireland, and if they are confronted nearly every time they are doing this and they start to see posters on marks, tackle shops ... They will think they could be fined for this and maybe reduce their numbers ...

But guys unfortunately that's not just the fish that are slaughtered ... What about shellfish ? During a few months each time I was looking at my peeler traps on the Malahide estuary, I came across Asiatics people filling big Lidl bags (around ten) with cockles and another that we call in France "amande de mer" (sorry I can't find the English name) and a guy told me that they were there every day. Now they have left because these shellfish have nearly disapear, that's as well overfishing ... One time I ask them why they were keeping so much cockles... Restaurant ? shops? They reply that was not my business and they were a little bit aggresive ... But the result is here ... No more cockles ...

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

If any politician read this post or "one for the pot", please start thinking about it ... And you may find here a key to stop unaceptable behaviour and a little boost to the economy ...

Just an update on this issue lads .I returned to Na Clocha Liatha this morning to fish the rising tide. There were noticeably far fewer fish here this week. I know that its getting a bit late in the year for daylight fishing , but i did get 4 corkwing wrasse, and a couple of small pollock and coalies(lovely for soup ). I was there on my own for about an hour, then the East european lads from last week, plus 3 others, turned up."Any fish?", one of them asked.That was my cue to have a rant at them ,,,red flag to a bull and all that. "No!", says I, "Didnt you clear the place out last week.?"."We only took a few, "he said. "You filled a bag to bursting with small fish , I walked over last weekand saw the bag " I said,,"What country are you from?"."Latvia" they said.........."How would you like it if the Irish went to Latvia and took all the fish home to save themselves a few bob on food,,most of us take the odd fish home but you took 35-40 wrasse from here last week and now theres no fish". I told them it was disgraceful and that most of the Irish anglers would feel the same as me about it. I also said that I was sorry that i didnt say something last week but i didnt think they spoke much English.They set up and had a couple of casts, catching one tiny pollock between them(they threw it back ).Then they up and left,,, hopefully not to clean out somewhere else. To be fair, i didnt feel any animosity from them after I said my piece, and they could have just told me to hump off or something similar . I felt much better having got it off my chest and would recommend that if we all did something similar, they would soon get the message. In case you all think im stone mad there were plenty of people about, plus i had my flotation jacket on to dive in to the water if they turned on me .If it was evening time im not sure if i'd be so brave

Just an update on this issue lads .I returned to Na Clocha Liatha this morning to fish the rising tide. There were noticeably far fewer fish here this week. I know that its getting a bit late in the year for daylight fishing , but i did get 4 corkwing wrasse, and a couple of small pollock and coalies(lovely for soup ). I was there on my own for about an hour, then the East european lads from last week, plus 3 others, turned up."Any fish?", one of them asked.That was my cue to have a rant at them ,,,red flag to a bull and all that. "No!", says I, "Didnt you clear the place out last week.?"."We only took a few, "he said. "You filled a bag to bursting with small fish , I walked over last weekand saw the bag " I said,,"What country are you from?"."Latvia" they said.........."How would you like it if the Irish went to Latvia and took all the fish home to save themselves a few bob on food,,most of us take the odd fish home but you took 35-40 wrasse from here last week and now theres no fish". I told them it was disgraceful and that most of the Irish anglers would feel the same as me about it. I also said that I was sorry that i didnt say something last week but i didnt think they spoke much English.They set up and had a couple of casts, catching one tiny pollock between them(they threw it back ).Then they up and left,,, hopefully not to clean out somewhere else. To be fair, i didnt feel any animosity from them after I said my piece, and they could have just told me to hump off or something similar . I felt much better having got it off my chest and would recommend that if we all did something similar, they would soon get the message. In case you all think im stone mad there were plenty of people about, plus i had my flotation jacket on to dive in to the water if they turned on me .If it was evening time im not sure if i'd be so brave

Fair play to ya! You took a big risk though - things could have went very very bad (glad it didn't though). Hopefully that will warn these lads off for the future

Just an update on this issue lads .I returned to Na Clocha Liatha this morning to fish the rising tide. There were noticeably far fewer fish here this week. I know that its getting a bit late in the year for daylight fishing , but i did get 4 corkwing wrasse, and a couple of small pollock and coalies(lovely for soup ). I was there on my own for about an hour, then the East european lads from last week, plus 3 others, turned up."Any fish?", one of them asked.That was my cue to have a rant at them ,,,red flag to a bull and all that. "No!", says I, "Didnt you clear the place out last week.?"."We only took a few, "he said. "You filled a bag to bursting with small fish , I walked over last weekand saw the bag " I said,,"What country are you from?"."Latvia" they said.........."How would you like it if the Irish went to Latvia and took all the fish home to save themselves a few bob on food,,most of us take the odd fish home but you took 35-40 wrasse from here last week and now theres no fish". I told them it was disgraceful and that most of the Irish anglers would feel the same as me about it. I also said that I was sorry that i didnt say something last week but i didnt think they spoke much English.They set up and had a couple of casts, catching one tiny pollock between them(they threw it back ).Then they up and left,,, hopefully not to clean out somewhere else. To be fair, i didnt feel any animosity from them after I said my piece, and they could have just told me to hump off or something similar . I felt much better having got it off my chest and would recommend that if we all did something similar, they would soon get the message. In case you all think im stone mad there were plenty of people about, plus i had my flotation jacket on to dive in to the water if they turned on me .If it was evening time im not sure if i'd be so brave

Fair play to ya! You took a big risk though - things could have went very very bad (glad it didn't though). Hopefully that will warn these lads off for the future

Maybe it was all a dream ,,,,,naw, it really happened