Na Clocha Liatha, 10-10-09

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 .Rant over

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NO ENGLISH f...k load of crap
these guys havent just arrived here GAURANTEE they can understand every word you say
its a pity we dont get some of those 3 or 4 mtrs swells on this side of the country
any way good to see there are still fish there well done dave

Nice few fish there, well done. Next time you see folk filling bags with fish, especially small ones (fish not people ), tell them in no uncertain terms that we practice catch and release in this part of Europe. After that it's up to them whether they respect this or not but at least you will feel better about it! Let's face it, if we were in their country we would be expected to conform with their practices and traditions. There is nothing racist about educating folk in the ways of your country.
Great to hear the other lads cleared up after them, they are few and far between, respect

Glad you got some fish before they're all gone mate. It's the same up here. Fish after fish no matter what size they are straight into a bag and they look at us as if there is something wrong with us when we put the fish back.

Some of the local lakes have been almost cleaned out of pike as well.

It's high time the authorities made these folk aware that their behaviour is totally unacceptable.

Nice variety of fish again Dave.
Terrible to hear about all the small fish been kept - at that rate marks like that will be barren in a short time unless something done about it. Maybe all the angling clubs around the country should lobby the government to introduce a mimimum size for all fish not just bass - and prohibit the killing of certain species like wrasse before it is too late.

However, despite all the fish the East Europeans take the trawlers fishing in close to the shore are doing far more damage. Over the last month or so I have seen nets or marker bouys only 100-500 m out from the shore and trawlers crusing in very close. So in addition to lobbing for a minimum retention size for all fish caught on rod and line the angling clubs should also campaign for a minumum distance for commercial fishing - that would make a much greater difference in my opinion.

With the Green Party in coalition now would be the time to try to press for such regulation as that should appeal to their supposed "green" ethos as I doubt they will have a single TD after the next General Election.

Two things:
1, Kstaff is right, stop posting reports which have soo much detail, ie pictures with background etc, as this is pretty much all they have to go.

2, Reading through all the posts the same pathetic attitude comes up over and over, ie write a strongly worded letter.....contact the authorities.....blah blah blah. Too much talk not enough action, personally I confront them and find that through persistance, they either stop or leave. But by action I dont mean that everyone should take this approach if they are not comfortable with it, as was said in an earlier post simply putting up a few posters in tackle shops or at the venue would be a start.
As a rule these guys can all speak German or Russian, and most universities or colleges could translate an English poster to Russian & German. At our work we translate all Health and safety info into Russian as we have Latvians, Lithuians, & Poles in our workforce and Russian is their common language, if through SAI we could agree a common format poster I could get it translated and it could be posted on here as a downloadable document so that those that wanted could print it off and hand it out to 'offenders' when they come across them?

Nice variety of fish again Dave.
Terrible to hear about all the small fish been kept - at that rate marks like that will be barren in a short time unless something done about it. Maybe all the angling clubs around the country should lobby the government to introduce a mimimum size for all fish not just Bass - and prohibit the killing of certain species like wrasse before it is too late.

However, despite all the fish the East Europeans take the trawlers fishing in close to the shore are doing far more damage. Over the last month or so I have seen nets or marker bouys only 100-500 m out from the shore and trawlers crusing in very close. So in addition to lobbing for a minimum retention size for all fish caught on rod and line the angling clubs should also campaign for a minumum distance for commercial fishing - that would make a much greater difference in my opinion.

With the Green Party in coalition now would be the time to try to press for such regulation as that should appeal to their supposed "green" ethos as I doubt they will have a single TD after the next General Election.

Crabing boats, or Mussel/oyster dredgers perhaps

Two things:
1, Kstaff is right, stop posting reports which have soo much detail, ie pictures with background etc, as this is pretty much all they have to go.

2, Reading through all the posts the same pathetic attitude comes up over and over, ie write a strongly worded letter.....contact the authorities.....blah blah blah. Too much talk not enough action, personally I confront them and find that through persistance, they either stop or leave. But by action I dont mean that everyone should take this approach if they are not comfortable with it, as was said in an earlier post simply putting up a few posters in tackle shops or at the venue would be a start.
As a rule these guys can all speak German or Russian, and most universities or colleges could translate an English poster to Russian & German. At our work we translate all Health and safety info into Russian as we have Latvians, Lithuians, & Poles in our workforce and Russian is their common language, if through SAI we could agree a common format poster I could get it translated and it could be posted on here as a downloadable document so that those that wanted could print it off and hand it out to 'offenders' when they come across them?

PaddyB you have hit the nail on the head right there - we HAVE to take action. If the SFPA and CFB cannot prevent this disgusting practice, then it is up to us to ACTUALLY DO something about it (talking gets no where). Posters and signs in English, Polish etc... at marks would be the first step in the right direction. The idea of a downloadable poster is also excellent. In the past I too have been guilty of standing idlely by watching juvenille fish being slaughtered by this is something I'm commited to changing. In other countries (such as New Zealand and America) recreational angler groups are very powerful and are well able to implement and enforce legislation through the actions and vigilance of their members - why can't we do the same?

[RockHunter]

In other countries (such as New Zealand and America) recreational angler groups are very powerful and are well able to implement and enforce legislation through the actions and vigilance of their members - why can't we do the same?

Without legislation that outlaws the keeping of undersize fish they are perfectly within their rights to keep fish of any size and number apart from bass and sea trout so printing out posters is a complete waste of time. Even legislation wont stop it but a least then an angler can threathen to report them which might make them think twice.

Crabing boats, or Mussel/oyster dredgers perhaps

No - definitely netting

Last edited by RockHunter on Tue Oct 13, 2009 5:17 pm, edited 2 times in total.

PaddyB you have hit the nail on the head right there - we HAVE to take action. If the SFPA and CFB cannot prevent this disgusting practice, then it is up to us to ACTUALLY DO something about it (talking gets no where). Posters and signs in English, Polish etc... at marks would be the first step in the right direction. The idea of a downloadable poster is also excellent. In the past I too have been guilty of standing idlely by watching juvenille fish being slaughtered by this is something I'm commited to changing. In other countries (such as New Zealand and America) recreational angler groups are very powerful and are well able to implement and enforce legislation through the actions and vigilance of their members - why can't we do the same?

precisely, good question, there are size limit recommendations and guidelines already in place in the UK, check the links here and here.

all fish in co.wiclow belong to ME! AND IF I HEAR OF ANYONE ELSE TAKING ONE IT WONT BE FISH THATS GETTING BATTERED!

all fish in co.wiclow belong to ME! AND IF I HEAR OF ANYONE ELSE TAKING ONE IT WONT BE FISH THATS GETTING BATTERED!

that's the spirit

In other countries (such as New Zealand and America) recreational angler groups are very powerful and are well able to implement and enforce legislation through the actions and vigilance of their members - why can't we do the same?

Without legislation that outlaws the keeping of undersize fish they are perfectly within their rights to keep fish of any size

Ok then so we'll go back to the original plan of doin fek all but moan about then terrible foreigners

Two things:
1, Kstaff is right, stop posting reports which have soo much detail, ie pictures with background etc, as this is pretty much all they have to go.

2, Reading through all the posts the same pathetic attitude comes up over and over, ie write a strongly worded letter.....contact the authorities.....blah blah blah. Too much talk not enough action, personally I confront them and find that through persistance, they either stop or leave. But by action I dont mean that everyone should take this approach if they are not comfortable with it, as was said in an earlier post simply putting up a few posters in tackle shops or at the venue would be a start.
As a rule these guys can all speak German or Russian, and most universities or colleges could translate an English poster to Russian & German. At our work we translate all Health and safety info into Russian as we have Latvians, Lithuians, & Poles in our workforce and Russian is their common language, if through SAI we could agree a common format poster I could get it translated and it could be posted on here as a downloadable document so that those that wanted could print it off and hand it out to 'offenders' when they come across them?

think this is a brilliant idea,is there anyone out there with the software to do this,i dont or i would do it now!but if its put up here ill print off a load and put them up in our areas.

lads continue the debate in the issues section, thanks