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Re: Mullet - Cork Harbour

Fri Jun 24, 2016 8:55 pm

Update:
My spot - which is a short walk from where I live - was good to contact with 2 or 3 mullet on the fly every day - when the tide suited.
It was netted in May 2014.

Just so you know when it comes management of a fishery. I have not caught a single mullet there since - nor have the people that originally netted it.
Where mullet are concerned it is only a stroke of the pen to preserve them. However this assumes the fishery is not managed by idiots.

Re: Mullet - Cork Harbour

Wed Jun 29, 2016 1:14 pm

Mullet for sale in my local Tesco today, £7/kg.

Re: Mullet - Cork Harbour

Wed Jun 29, 2016 1:57 pm

You are f***king kidding me. Is that in Donegal?
This is up there with the time I saw wrasse on sale in the fishmonger's in the English Market in Cork

Re: Mullet - Cork Harbour

Wed Jun 29, 2016 3:21 pm

Apart from the well documented netting of recent years we are still suffering from a few others that are proving hard to combat even though they would appear to be operating illegally.
There is the individual that is operating from Lower Aghada and is netting Rostellan, Saleen and areas of East Ferry. This specimen would appear not to have any licence to operate his beautiful skiff. he has also abandoned last years boat on the hard in Aghada. He ties up at the pontoon at Aghada too; something that goes against the spirit of the new pontoon. Obviously a fine example of somebody that respects others.
It looks like the man in the red boat from Cobh is not well. While I would not wish illness on anybody, apparently there is a son there who would be capable of netting too.
There is talk of netting in the Crosshaven area.

The authorities (IFI & SFPA) have been contacted (by numerous people). I know that IFI have been down to Aghada. I know that SFPA have been trying to meet the chap. To date I have not heard of any success so the netting goes on.

Some shame. Some farce.

Re: Mullet - Cork Harbour

Thu Jun 30, 2016 9:05 am

This is the problem all over the west coast too.The "Stroke of the Pen" is the easy bit, enforcement is another matter entirely.

Re: Mullet - Cork Harbour

Thu Jun 30, 2016 9:55 pm

Enforcement assumes that there is legislation in place to back it up. We can argue forever about how efficient or inefficient the enforcement is - but without legislation defining what is or is not permitted under the law- we have NOTHING. I suspect that - compliments of the current tv cookery mania - fishmongers would have a lot more bass for sale if the current legislation was not in place.

With regards mullet 'The stroke of a pen' is a position that I will not be move from. Unlike salmon fisheries, there is no traditional -spanning generations - fishery to be regulated and ultimately compensated. There are probably no more than a dozen fishermen in the Republic could produce a receipt for a commercially caught mullet - and even then would not not span more than a couple of seasons. In other words - the state could protect mullet as valuable resource forever with a simple 'stoke of the pen'.

In this regard, whilst our fishery agencies are in general staffed by competent and occasionally 'exceptional' people, the political bosses who have the power to enact the legislation under which the agencies have the power to operate are a completely different matter. In my experience, back to when we gave our fisheries away for absolutely nothing - discussing all things marine , maritime or piscatorial immediately is greeted with a blank expression as if you were suddenly speaking some obscure foreign language. It is as if Ireland - instead of being surrounded by one the biggest and most valuable fishery blocs in all of Europe and being internally threaded with thousands of rivers and lakes - was actually located somewhere in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

Re: Mullet - Cork Harbour

Wed Aug 24, 2016 8:58 pm

2 months on and all my usual spots are devoid of mullet.
On a daily basis I am watching the Lower harbour being systematically cleared of mullet by one or two individuals that I know never previously fished for mullet in their lives.
It will take years for the stock to recover to reasonable sized mullet and possibly longer for the fisheries agencies to realize that they could have put a stop to it in the first place.

Re: Mullet - Cork Harbour

Wed Aug 24, 2016 9:55 pm

In the scheme of things the Marlog is a case study in mullet depletion. The area of the marina was never directly netted (that I know anyway). Kevin from Bellavista maintains a bread bag on the marina. The mullet were a target for the paying customers from around Europe staying and fishing here.
The bread in the bag now gets washed out where we used see the mullet fighting to suck the bag! On my last few times walking around the marina I saw one lonely mullet.... From a population a few years back of hundreds.

It's beyond sad really.

Re: Mullet - Cork Harbour

Fri Aug 26, 2016 9:40 pm

The protection of mullet as a valuable resource is such a SIMPLE measure with no hidden complications and given the total lack of activity one wonders, who - if anyone - is representing us at board level.

Re: Mullet - Cork Harbour

Thu Apr 20, 2017 7:34 am

After three years of being deserted mullet have again taken up residence in one of my spots and in reasonable numbers also. Unfortunately they are mostly juveniles. I estimate that it will be a viable fishery around 2023. At which time it will be probably netted again in the interest of making someone half a day's pay. And so the process will start over again.
Brilliant way to manage a fishery!

Re: Mullet - Cork Harbour

Wed Sep 06, 2017 8:49 pm

Scratch previous post. Netting of our few remaining mullet resumed today. Wake up IFI.

Re: Mullet - Cork Harbour

Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:15 pm

I gather that the price of mullet has hit a new high.
I recall in a previous era that it was common practice to pay a bounty for the most obvious predators of game. Therefore tv chefs should probably head the list now.

Re: Mullet - Cork Harbour

Wed Oct 11, 2017 6:43 pm

the numbers seem to be recovering in my area,but alas nothing like the numbers that used to dwell there,i´m in the areas Jim has mentioned around the estuaries behind the harbour,dare i say it,its recovering...slowly..all because of the lad that abandoned his boat at aghada on the hard,the lad with the beautiful skiff as Jim put it,was run out of the place he was meant to be looking after and i think ventured a little bit west of the harbour(kinsale i heard)that and the unfortunate health of the red boat man...
maybe i´m wrong about those reasons why i think the the mullet are recovering,but it certainly helps when they are not being netted consistently.
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