Bass Ban

[jbhartin]

Guys I am in the Middle East ie Yemen - plenty of sand but no water - how I long for Benone and Downhill beaches. I apologise in that I have no idea if the ban has been lifted or not though having just returned here I would think that the ROI Gov have more important issues to deal with instead of winding up every angler North & South. Pure Greed was the beginning of the end for the Celtic Tiger I,m afraid and lifting the bass ban isn,t going to get them any more revenue - quite the opposite ..Would I be making my usual 3 or 4 trips per year to Inch Strand or the same to fish at Courtmacsherry with my long time friend Mark Gannon the answer is NO . However after reading all the bickering and arguing about the actual latitude and longtitude positions of where the trawlers may fish for bass I have to say it makes no difference at all as the trawler men will fish whenever and wherever they want and that,s a fact . For years the Greencastle trawlers have been raking the North Coast from Benone to Downhill and Portrush Strand and not a word has been said about it . I only fish at night and countless times we have seen them dragging their trawls up and down the beach - so close were they that we could easily hear the deck hands and the trawlers radio blaring. To prove a point one could always buy fresh bass in Limavady ( my home town ) the following day and no these were not farm fed items from Spain - they were FRESH ! I will change the subject here from Bass to Mullet as I love flyfishing for them . Have a look at this link which I hope works and you will see how greedy some folks can get - for me this is sheer greed on a grand scale but it could so easily be Bass and if so surely their end as a species .. If the link works note the mesh size on the net .. thanks for reading this regards to all
http://mulletflyfishing.hqforums.com/vp ... ight=#1081

[Tanglerat]

login/password needed for that site.

[jbhartin]

Sorry guys that that link I posted did not work as it required you to login etc I refer to http://mulletflyfishing.hqforums.com .. you need to register etc to see the link that I posted - I was able to view the link as I,m registered on that site - so sorry ..
Basically being an avid mullet on the fly fan .. the link referred to the wholesale slaughter of mullet at Port Erin in the Isle of Man .. I know from experience what a lot of anglers think of mullet ! but have you ever caught one ! . Pound for pound I don,t know of another fish that puts up a better fight - possibly a bone fish is about the same .. This site showed very detailed photo,s of 100,s and 100,s of mullet in various nets ( hair nets ) laying on a beach in the IOM .. more shots of them being packaged in fish boxes etc ready for export to where ever... obviously someone somewhere eats them although I,ve never personally ate a grey mullet myself I have heard that they are very tasty ..tight lines ..John

[Donnyboy1]

They are very nice but as detritus feeders they really taste of where they are from, open ocean is best.
Some in fact rate them higher than bass. We are funny about them in ireland, but other countries love them... France in particular!