Christmas Bonus Sunday 27 December 2015

Christmas Bonus Sunday 27 December 2015

After all the rain I didn't expect such a beautiful morning today,
it would have been a crime not to give it a go, so Rob and I took the dogs for a walk ( ahem!)
A fair few pals turned up to take the air too, some overlooked bringing their dogs,



A couple of tip rattles didn't connect, so Rob's rig was scaled down and he was rewarded with a Flounder



The SunnyRhyl spotter was up



Mehmet was working his way through the book with Flatties, Whiting and Rockling









Still fishless I cast my last worm and wandered away for a chat.
Then my rod bounced good style and threatened to fall off the rail.

Now that's what I call a Christmas Bonus!



Back it went
- before the rule change this year that was a keeper but returning it felt good.
Everyone deserves a break at Christmas!



Don't forget the further rule change from 1 January 2016

https://sunnyrhyl.forumotion.com/t7577-bass-ban

https://sunnyrhyl.forumotion.com/t7595-petition-have-a-read

Nice one Paul missing my sea fishing at the mo .still very warm for time of year well done on the bass and putting it back

Great report/pics well done on the bass

And that's the beauty of sea fishing,well done Paul, a great report

Great report and pictures Paul looked a nice day and well done on the Bass.

Bonus indeed.

Itll be busy there tomorrow then!

Great report paul good to see their still about well done

Excellent work Paul

Great report and a nice bass Paul

Brilliant
Well done mate!!

good report mate well done on the bass

Great report and what a result well done

A great report and a fantastic fish. Well done Paul!

great report and pic`s shame to put it back though

Let's just all look forward to June when hopefully we will all be rewarded for our patience with large hauls of bass off the shore that this six month ban will undoubtedly cause an explosion of inshore bass stocks...

After all, Bass are well known to be quick growing (not) and breed from a small size... (42cm ensures they may have had the opportunity to breed once)

oh, and us recreational anglers were taking thousands and thousands of schoolies a week out of the sea, while those gill netters that have to scrape a living on our discards? at least the poor b*****rds can continue with their removal of one or two bass with their selective, fish stock protecting methods and their environmentally sensitive gill nets. We really should hang our heads in shame at the wholesale slaughter of the bass stocks at the hands of us butchering recreational anglers...

All sarcasm aside, This legislation is a step in the right direction. However I, like (I suspect, most) recreational bass/pleasure anglers return the vast majority of the bass we catch. My PB Bass of 11lb went back alive and well, thats a lot of bass to eat! In fact of the God knows how many bass I've landed in the last 15yrs I've targeted them, and I have been lucky (best session 38 bass in 1week on a fishing holiday to 8lb) I've only ever kept one!  

We need to look to Ireland and the measure of protection the bass get there. Recreational anglers are not going to damage bass stocks, a group of pair trawlers can take an entire overwintering shoal.

Bass are slow growing, slow to reach sexual maturity and are easily overfished as a result. Is a six month ban going to be enough? Will this be an annual event to allow the stocks to breed and recover? With a total ban on taking bass from jan-july its a small step. After this commercial fishermen can land by design 1 tonne per month from July-december, however gillnetting methods are not selective, they don't close their meshes when the owners 1tonne limit is reached.

The idea is to cut bass numbers landed from 2656tonnes in 2015 to 1449tonnes in 2016 a reduction of 46%

EU scientists claim it needs to be cut to 541tonnes just to halt the decline.

Oh, it is claimed by the EU that 25% of bass taken are by recreational anglers... Really?? That's a fair tonnage of bass! I'd like to know those beaches as I doubt they came from the prestatyn-rhyl-talacre shoreline!?! (I know its EU wide!!)

Besides, is it legal for me to buy a net and catch bass off the shore by setting my own net? Can I take 1tonne of bass home then? If I fish 7days a week, 365 days a year, catching 1 bass a day, i can legally take 365 bass, yet if someone else only fishes for bass 5 times a year but catch 4 bass each trip, he only gets to keep 4? Who's depleting the stocks more? The Max the other angler can take is 20. Over the year, whereas I've brought several industrial freezers as I've got 365 bass to freeze down...

So how was everyone's bass season just gone? I had next to nothing, "you should've been here last season I was constantly told!"

Sign the petition lads and ladies, protect the best sport fish off our shores

Oh and email your local MP while your at it to let him know...

http://www.ukbass.com/2016-a-ban-on-all-bass-landings-from-january-to-june-but-a-1-bag-limit-for-anglers/

Have a read of this, I quoted the points I think are important, I don't usually go on a rant but I feel passionately about protecting our bass stocks as once they are gone, we can't wish them back, I'm my experience when it's dead it stays dead, you can't harvest tonnes of 3lb bass then catch them again at 8lb, they are no longer there.

John Darling's Bass on shore and sea is a brilliant book too, have a look if you can.

Well said ouchthathurt

Sorry if its in the right place, and I don't mean to hijack the thread, but when I get the bit between my teeth...

Just don't anyone mention the war!!

Or Cod quotas...

Or the persecution of my fellow Iraq veterans who face prosecution for acts occurring in a warzone whilst serving their country...

(Am I next? After all I "neutralised the enemy threat" 4 times in Afghanistan (for ever) so will I be hauled through the coals in the next decade??)

God I could go on and on and on....


AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH...!!!!!!

ouchthathurt wrote:

Sorry if its in the right place, and I don't mean to hijack the thread..."

I came off Facebook, don't do other fishing forums and don't bother with the fishing mags any more, if it wasn't for Jack drawing our attention to the new regulations then I wouldn't have been aware of them ( at least not until the other day when I got an email from the sailing club) so I am happy for this and related threads  to stay current as I suspect a lot of fair weather anglers heading our way in the Summer will be blissfully unaware of the changes.

The nets thing is just barmy, it will encourage them!
Makes me think that whoever was drafting the regulations might have had good intentions but little knowledge.

Can't help but think that my late in the year Bass was a fortuitous opportunity to spread word of the change and the petition

It was your comments on how that bass you caught would have to go back that made me twitch. Your bass was (I'm assuming) sizable, would your taking it for the table (if, again you would've done given the choice? Or released it, I can't know your mind) have affected current bass stocks? Of course not, you are well within your right to take that fish as compared to the 2000+ tonnage taken last year, one bass is a literal drop in the ocean.

I believe you are an angler with integrety, and do not take fish you have no use for, yet on the face of it, you, me and every bass angler/general sea angler who lands a bass is being disproportionately victimised as a result of this legislation. I'm all for saving our bass stocks, I return all bass I land, (except one 15yrs ago!!) But I cannot see how recreational sea anglers can remove 25% of EU bass stocks? I can only dream of being so successful!!

The quota needs to drop below 540 tonnes to halt the current decline, it has been estimated that in 2016,

"...the bass spawning stock will be about 5278 tonnes which is 28 tonnes above the level of "critical levels" where the species may not be able to sustain enough recruitment to recover the existing stock as expected, remaining depleted for extended periods..." (Sea angler magazine issue 526)

"... To put into context, 2010-2013 bass landings were 5667 tonnes per YEAR..." (Sea angler magazine issue 526)

28tonnes above critical levels is not a lot, that's 28 commercial boats all catching their one tonne limit in one month. There is more than 28 commercial boats in the UK, let alone the EU.

However as Sea Angler mag quotes again, the research is based on little scientific evidence, random trawl samples, a short tow of a net in the Solent and another in the English channel, not exactly a conclusive study of Bass stocks, in fact there has been very little study of UK Bass stocks in 5yrs...

I want my 6yr old to experience the thrill of pulling an 11lb bass from the shore, I still can't forget the feeling, but we need to secure the stocks from all "bass takers" after all, its legal for me to set nets for bass and sell them on, so am I constrained by the 1 bass rule? Or can I fill the boot with 1 tonne of bass?

What happens if I catch a bass that is deep hooked/exhausted/stressed/damaged and dies after I've released it? We have all returned pout etc that don't survive the release, no matter how careful we are. if I fish its corpse out of the breakers and take it home for tea, what happens? I didn't mean to kill it, I released it with every intention of allowing it to swim away, but despite my best intentions, it croaked anyway. Remember, approx 10% of LIP HOOKED sea fish die after release, despite the angler doing everything right. Pressure changes, swim bladder problems, stress, exhaustion all play their part, deep hooked fish suffer a higher mortality rate. (Circle hooks may be the answer) am I up for prosecution for taking this bass that died after I released it??

I would be interested to hear the views of others on this subject.

(I'm not a nutcase and would love to hear other opinions, its the only way we learn)

Dickens had it right when he wrote ` the law?, the law sir is an ass`
As I`ve said before the task of policing this particular piece of idiocy is pretty near impossible, with one fisheries officer covering Liverpool to Barmouth.

He's better get his walking shoes on!!