Kilcoole and Near Courtown, 6-Nov-2008

[uvox]

As I said: "provided there's no conservation issue".

[diego]

Diego,,,,I've no problem with anyone keeping a few for the pot but forgetting about the rights and wrongs for a minute,,,,,how do you get any flesh from those tiddlers,,,i've got a few this year,,,all over 35cms(4) and i got some small fillets from them which were very tasty ,,,,but these were big,fat 35+cm whiting . , and still the fillets were small, (actually before he reminds me,,,,,,Fishface might have given me a couple of them ),,Well done to yourself and uvox on the session by the way

If you fillet a dozen of whiting (let's say 25 cm) and tossed them in some flour and pan fried them, they are nice!
My kids loved them and they are enough for the 3 of them.

Diego

[uvox]

Actually, I'm beginning to feel bad about these "small" fish.

I think I need to go to a priest and confess my sins.... oops, that's not very multicultural of me! Wait until I beat myself with an Irish Times...

Thank God I didn't mention how I kept a few 10 cm coalies to throw to the hounds at the stag hunt the next day.

[jd]

Wait until I beat myself with an Irish Times...

.

Did you ever think of writing a letter to them instead?

[uvox]

OK, I will!

And Seascapes too. Could do with another free book from RTE: http://www.rte.ie/radio1/seascapes/

U

[WrasseBasher]

nothing wrong with keeping a couple but i reckon you need fish over at least 30 cm to make it worth while and even at that you need a couple of em, all that cutting and gutting and her nagging about the smell and the good chopping board getting ruined and then you cant even give her some or youll have nothing left for yourself. let the tiddlers go if they can go back or at least try . i wonder would it bother people more if it were baby codling getting hammered i think so.

[Ashley Hayden]

The words BYE CATCH somehow keep coming to mind.

When the time comes and sea anglers are eventually fighting for a restored marine environment instead of talking about it, or worse still accepting what is presently out there, the 20cm size limit and the practise of keeping small fish will come back and bite ALL in the backside.

It is like the pot calling the kettle black. Bye catch from the commercial sector is a major part of our seas being in the state they're in. Anglers keeping small fish, and 20cm size will be used by the commercial sector against any future angling lobby.

Consider that...

[diego]

Last night I went to Ennereilly with my friend Giovanni, he drove his new 4X4 on the beach. It was freezing and therefore we collected all the plastic bottles and used tyres that we could find on the beach. The black smoke coming from the tyres was so hot that we decided to do a BBQ with all the tiny bass and whiting that we caught.
(Just kidding lads).
I agree that we should have a minimum size for every fish but it’s always up to the individual to respect them.
It’s not the first time that I hear about people keeping bags full of bass (even small one). We can enforce the size limit as much as we want but there are no ways to control every single angler on the coast.

Diego

[uvox]

Good for you Diego - getting out and doing something! Hope you enjoyed those whiting!

Bottles on the beach? But how could that be? Were the bottles over a 30 cm limit? Litre bottles maybe? Luckily there are anglers out there who make sure the small bottles are always thrown into the sea! But leaving keeper bottles on a beach like that....

What about the tyres? Was there a minimum thread on them?

[AndrewF33]

good too see your doin you bit for conservation !
all of them wee small whiting could have fed plenty of dogfish if returned dead !

[petekd]

Lot of fuss here about somebody taking a few whiting home to eat and to be honest, its nonsense. I would prefer and I'm sure Uvox would prefer to take home 30cm plus fish but if mid 20s are what he had, so what. There is a plague of whiting around at the moment on our shores as is self evident from reading any reports coming in. Whiting on our coastlines are not under threat, the place is infested with them. What harm if a fella takes 15 or 20 home with him if he is going to put them to use and eat them? The analogy has been drawn that would we have a different approach if it were cod or bass? Well, it isn't, its whiting and theres millions of them around at the moment. Much better you put them to use like Uvox did and releasing them into the sea to, for the most part die, out of sight, out of mind after all. Give the guy a break. Would there have been any comments had it been mackerel? Or if he said he was taking them for pike baits? I think not.

[uvox]

Truth be known I didn't take any home. But I knew a place where they'd be welcome.

And thanks for pointing out how this bass and cod analogy was imported. Irrelevant.

What also amazes me are the staggering claims about mini-whiting casualties. I have to say 100% of my mini-whiting go back alive. Why? I hold my rod all the time, and strike everything. 60% die on others? Why?

The reason the casualty figures are so high is clearly related to the style of beach fishing - propping up a beachcaster on a tripod and using a three hook flapper and then reeling in only after reaching some point in the pysche where you're sure either all the bait is gone or that spurious argument that a "cod might take the whiting" (BS) ain't gonna happen, or all the jiggling has stopped, or you've finished reading your X5 maintenance manual or whatever - and then wondering why some whiting don't survive is just denial. That aint' fishing, that's trapping. Why not set a long line and come back the next day? Of course the fish die - they've hung themselves.

You want more whiting to survive? Hold your rod and strike. Ban tripods and monopods. If you're not capable of holding a rod for 8 hours on a beach at night or in cold weather, well maybe then some weight training in the gym could help. Or perhaps Bridge.

Use buckets of sea water to wash the windscreen of your SUV as far as I am concerned.

[lampoon]

Pete, thats how it all started with cod and bass in the first place, everyone saying theres loads of them so we can take bags of them home so i think saying theres loads of whiting keep 15 or 20 is a bit naive, especially coming from somebody with your angling experience.

[oneillphil]

I think the Bass & Cod analogy is very relevant the same thing was said about Cod and Bass, sure there are loads out there, until one day "oh s**t " they are gone, this how it starts you have to treat them all the same.
So as long as there is no conservation issue its ok to take what ever size you want, how do you think it starts becoming a problem.

and eric on the competitions

im happy with the 20cm limit for competitions , to be honest i think the minimum size of fish should be abolished and all fish should count with a minimum hook size in order. for me competition angling is about catching whats in front of your peg if it so happens to be a 20cm whiting im happy to do it.

Fishing is a sport, trying to catch the best fish you can to get some sport not the most you can to rack up points thats why its called fishing and not catching.

[eric]

Fishing is a sport, trying to catch the best fish you can to get some sport not the most you can to rack up points thats why its called fishing and not catching.

then you dont get match angling and thats the only reason i can assume you gave it up

[petekd]

Lads, my point on this is simple. Whiting at the moment are in plague proportions in areas on our coasts, unfortunately, my experience of catching them does not match Uvox in so much that the majority of them I catch end up belly up unless lightly liphooked and caught in close. If faced with a choice of letting them float away downtide or putting them to some use at home, then I know which option I'm going to take. We arent talking about competition fishing, thats a different issue, we are talking about bye catch from pleasure sessions. I am not advocating people go out and fill bags with small fish so lets get that straight. I dont know anyone who I've fished with who would actively go out and target small whiting in a pleasure session. The cod, bass analogy isnt working for me as for one, I have never been in a position to haul loads of small cod/bass 3 at a time after a baits been in the water a minute or two, and for another, the vast majority of damage to cod and bass stocks is by commercial overfishing and poaching.

We can agree to differ on this one lads, its just my view thats all. If by putting something back, it suddenly makes everything OK, when the chances are high its going belly up then I dont get it? Whats the difference in that, in real terms, than the guy taking a few home and getting a bite to eat off it?

Anyone who knows or who has fished with me will know well I do not condone overfishing of any type. What I dont condone either is waste.

[WrasseBasher]

WELL ALL BE TAKING THEM SOON ENOUGH WITH ALL THE POISON BEEF AND PORK ABOUT, AT LEAST YA KNOW WHERE THE WHITING CAME FROM. . IF YA WANNA TAKE EM , TAKE EM... ITS NO ONES BUSINESS BUT YOURS YOU CAUGHT EM MATE. . 30 CM IS MY OPINION ONLY AS I DONT THINK ITS WORTH IT IF LESS, BUT IM SURE OTHERS WOULD DISAGREE ON BOTH SIDES. THEY DIDNT GO TO WASTE SO THATS THE MAIN THING.
TRAWLERS DUMP TONNES OF UNDERSIZE FISH AND A FEW ANGLERS TAKING FISH MEANS NOTHING.

[bigballs]

no probs with taking a few fish the table after all thats why fishing was invented to eat but them pics did look bad id say no one would commented about it if the pics had not been in the report

[nthclare]

Great report that was a good evening's fishing nice variety there nice bag fair play to you for sticking the cold weather