via paper.li
Wednesday 23 November 2011
Tuesday 22 November 2011
Top chef brands Northern Ireland fish laws outdated - - Belfast Telegraph
Top chef brands Northern Ireland fish laws outdated
3ShareThis
Monday, 21 November 2011
A Northern Ireland restaurateur has branded the management of the seas around Northern Ireland “a complete failure”.
Bob McCoubrey, owner of the celebrated Mourne Sea Food Restaurant, is backing a campaign by the Northern Ireland Marine Task Force (NIMTF) calling on the Government to deliver laws to safeguard fish stocks.
The NIMTF is calling on the Assembly to urgently bring forward a Marine Bill. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that does not have one.
Today is World Fisheries Day, but Mr McCoubrey said Northern Ireland was squandering one of its most valuable resources.
“Management of our local seas has been, to date, a complete failure. From the discharge of raw sewage to the discarding of tons of fish, we have totally failed to make the most of one of our most precious resources,” he said.
“We need Government to become proactive rather than reactive.”
Campaigners say a Marine Bill is essential to secure a future for Northern Ireland’s fishing communities and the fishing stock.
Another PNA country closes its waters to foreign fishing
PNA tuna fisheries. (Photo: PNA/FIS)Another PNA country closes its waters to foreign fishing
MARSHALL ISLANDS
Monday, November 21, 2011, 23:40 (GMT + 9)
Three countries of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) have closed their waters to foreign fishing vessels so they can maintain sustainable tuna fishing limits.
Tuvalu last week was the latest to make the announcement, notifying all foreign purse seine fishing vessels that they are no longer welcome in Tuvalu waters for fishing purposes.
The country’s move follows that of Nauru two weeks ago when its waters were closed after having reached its fishing limits. In June 2011, the Solomon Islands Cabinet decided to close its fishery too.
"A lot of countries have used their fishing days and therefore have to close the fisheries, wait until next year and then they can reopen and start fishing again," Nauru Agreement spokeswoman Anouk Ride said, Australia Network News reports. "There might be some local operators still going, but all the foreign fishing vessels now have to stay out of the waters of Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and Nauru."
The PNA’s conservation and management of tuna entails key measures including limiting the number of days fishing vessels can operate in the PNA’s 14 million sqkm-territory. The area provides around 30 per cent of the world’s tuna supply.
For this purpose, the PNA runs a Vessel Day Scheme for foreign purse seine vessels, giving them a total number of fishing days divided between the eight PNA ocean states, which can also trade days between them. If a PNA member country uses up their days, it must close the fishery and purchase fishing days from another country to keep fishing efforts in the PNA area within sustainable limits.
Last year, PNA committed to establish hard limits on fishing beginning in 2011, which led to fishery closures by Tuvalu, Nauru and the Solomon Islands. The latter then bought fishing days from the Marshall Islands and sold these days to Korea.
In 2011, Papua New Guinea bought fishing days from the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau so PNG can continue to sell fishing days in its waters and keep its fishery open."Despite the challenges they have as developing countries, Nauru, Tuvalu and Solomon Islands have enforced their fishing day limits by closing their waters to foreign tuna fleets,” said PNA Director Dr Transform Aqorau. “They have made a short-term sacrifice of revenue in order to make a longer term gain of getting a higher price for their fishing days and to ensure fishing is kept in sustainable limits.”
“We are all very proud of our leaders who have taken these hard decisions to help the PNA reach towards its goal of creating the world’s largest sustainable tuna purse seine fishery," Aqorau added.
Related article:
-
Govt imposes limits on foreign fishing vesselsBy Natalia Real
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com
via fis.com
~≈~From The World of Fishing News Team~≈~
Monday 21 November 2011
Bass Champions Fly Home to Medford
Bass Champions Fly Home to Medford
November 20, 2011 7:52 PM
MEDFORD, Ore -- Medford Oregon is now home to this year's Western Regional Bass Tournament 1st Place Champions. Colby Pearson and Jacob Wall returned home on Sunday with their first place trophies.
The two young anglers compete as a team in the tournament which was held at Lake Saguaro in Arizona. Although Pearson and Wall attend different high schools they fish as a team. The two won the Oregon State High School Championship last spring. Now after their regional win they are headed to Alabama for Nationals. There the two will represented the entire Western Region.
The regional tournament included high school and college competitors. Although the young men were only competing in the high school division they were still able to out fish all but one college team.
Pearson and Wall explained their strategy was to fish shallow and catch the maximum amount of fish the competition allowed, which was five. The two caught all five fish and had the second biggest batch, over all at the competition, out angling all of the other high school teams.
Wall's father, Steven Wall, explained both boys got into fishing at a young age. He said bass fishing isn't huge in the Northwest, usually fisherman in the area prefer salmon and other deep water fishing. Wall says many people don't realize how many bodies of water in Southern Oregon offer great bass fishing. Which makes it no surprise the young fishermen were able to find sponsorships giving them the chance to compete. Sponsors provide equipment and funds to get the competitors out and fishing.
The team explained, before Western Regional they spent time researching the lake and strategizing their game. Wall says they are now not only excited to go to nationals, they started researching on the plane.
Pearson and Wall both wanted to say a special thanks to some of their sponsors including:
- Big Bass Baits
- Baitdomain.com
- Eagle Claw
- Hiroshima Customs
You can find out more about the competition by clicking here.
via ktvl.com
~≈~From The World of Fishing News Team~≈~
Sunday 20 November 2011
Coarse Angling: Match raises £600 for RNL charity - Sunday Sun
Coarse Angling: Match raises £600 for RNL charity
Nov 20 2011 Sunday Sun
LAST Sunday’s annual Charity Coarse match on the Derwent Reservoir opened a lot of anglers’ eyes as to just what the potential of this water is.
The match was a sell-out, with all 100 tickets eagerly snapped up, and thankfully, the roach in the reservoir fed well to make it an interesting event. In a very close result, Darlington’s Angling Centres Ray Stubbs took the glory with 24lb 6ozs, Peter Scott representing Northumbria Water took second with 23lb 4ozs and Big Waters Nigel Ripley completed the frame with 22lb 3oz. The match raised a total of £600 for the RNL.
The generally mild weather has saw sport throughout the region remain quite steady, at Aldin Grange fish are feeding well, Luke Wood from Lambton took a good net of carp, tench and ide, his mum Julie took roach, carp and ide to 2lb 8ozs. Stanley’s Eddie Hearn targeted the ide with maggot and was rewarded with a nice 35lb net.
Pike fishing at Esthwaite Water continues to be good with many reports of double figure fish falling to both deadbaits and lures. Grant Pearce from Darlington has a session to remember taking three double figure pike to 22lbs on lures and static deadbaits. Hexham’s Peter Johnson took a 21lb pike and a couple of jacks from the car park banking. General coarse anglers are also enjoying the benefits of this water with nets of roach and perch to 30lbs from the boathouse banking. General coarse tickets for roach and perch fishing cost only £10 per day!
Whittle Dene Reservoirs remain on good form with roach and gudgeon featuring in nets this last week.
Ide, roach and perch are making up the bulk of weights at Big Waters’ Dissington Pond.
A recent stocking by the Environment Agency saw some 3,000 tench and 6,000 rudd shared out between the QE Reservior, Killingworth Lake and Washington’s Mount Pleasant fishery. Local rivers also benefitted with 6,000 barbel and 8,000 dace being split between the Rivers Wear and Skerne and Clow Beck.
via sundaysun.co.uk
~≈~From The World of Fishing News Team~≈~
Barbel Fishing on the River Swale - 77 - YouTube
via youtube.com
~≈~From The World of Fishing News Team~≈~
Big cod heads list of bumper catches | Coarse Fishing Catch Reports | Angling Times | Gofishing UK
Big cod heads list of bumper catches
Fish Catches
16 November 2011 14:51
Boat anglers are enjoying a bonanza due to the fact that the summer fish haven’t quit the coast because of the warm weather, and the winter species have moved in boosting everyone’s fishing prospects.
Mark Davey from Milton Keynes proves the point with this 23lb cod, caught from the Weymouth-based Duchess II on a squid mackerel cocktail fished on a Pennell rig.
The boat's skipper Jeff Clarke revealed that over the same weekend his crews also landed big numbers of black bream and pollack to 16lb.
via gofishing.co.uk
~≈~From The World of Fishing News Team~≈~
Different techniques with the humble maggot
Different techniques with the humble maggot
The maggot, or ‘gentle’ as I believe they were once called (not by me!), is perhaps the most universal bait accepted by all our fish. Even predators such as pike are caught using maggots.
I still haven’t found out why they were given such an odd name, perhaps referring to the ‘gentle’ craft of angling – or in comparison to other larvae – such as wasp grubs, they are a lot easier to procure!
I must admit to using wasp ‘cake’ only once in my angling career. I was given a bag of the stuff by a Trent angler and to be honest, the dead wasps and detritus put me off. The grubs were magnificent though.
A firm believer in flavours and enhancers, I always add a little ‘something’ to increase the pulling power of the humble maggot. Scopex is perhaps my favourite, but there are lots of manufacturers out there producing excellent attractants to help us get a few more fish on the bank.
I’d like to share a couple of tips with you, which are quite easy, the first involves Horlicks powder, that well known malty drink.
If you clean half a pint of maggots through a riddle, to remove all the dust and debris, then add just a tiny amount of water and sprinkle with Horlicks. It’s amazing how sticky they become.
You’ll find you can mould the maggots into small balls, ideal for catapulting or throwing into your swim. As soon as the sticky ball of maggots hits the water, the powder starts to dissolve, enabling you to keep a very tight baited area and concentrate the fish into one spot. And there is the added bonus of a lovely malty flavour permeating the water.
The next tip takes a little more time. Again clean half a pint of maggots and put them into a three-pint bait box. Then pour boiling water over them. The idea is to ‘cook’ them. You may have to repeat the procedure a couple of times, until the maggots go stiff and rubbery. Try a few at a time, until you get the rubbery texture.
Don’t cook the maggots in the kitchen though, believe me they sniff a bit and won’t win you any brownie points.
Anglers use ‘cooked’ maggots when fishing over silt; they don’t disappear into the ooze like live maggots and it’s something the fish may not have seen before.
~≈~From The World of Fishing News Team~≈~
Saturday 19 November 2011
Ah, to be young, free, and able to fish at will | Bermuda Tight Lines
Ah, to be young, free, and able to fish at will
-->It has that wintry look about it. The light fades quickly during the afternoon, taking on that yellowish tinge that means that the summer is truly a distant memory and that there are gales and worse to come. It has that wintry feel about it despite the fact that the warm temperatures seem to be persisting rather longer than they should. Winter is all but here, whether we acknowledge it or not.
Not that we have to look too far into the future. This weekend’s weather is not conducive to any offshore adventures and serves to highlight the fact that it is virtually impossible to make angling plans more than about 24 hours ahead of time. This works out alright for those who aren’t tied to work or familial commitments and who can take off to go fishing as and when they please. Lucky devils!
Speaking of lucky devils, as is so often the case, things that happen offshore fall into the realm of the unbelievable. Some of these events are so unlikely that the crews who experience them decide that it is far better never to mention the occurrence to what will be a hugely unbelieving public, thereby incurring their demeaning scepticism. This type of happening should help to explain where the expression “fish tale” comes from. Over the years there have been no shortage of them, and certainly, no shortage of doubters.
But as does happen occasionally, truth is stranger than fiction and just recently a local boat out commercial fishing had such an encounter and while it has not been widely disseminated, it has, in fact, been substantiated.
The boat in question, which will remain nameless to protect the innocent, was working the eastern turn on the Bank when a tuna strike was had. The fish peeled off a pile of line as they do and was in the process of being reeled in when the hook-up suddenly turned wild and more line was stripped off the reel and it felt as if the tuna had put on some serious weight.
This was explained when the fish was brought alongside the boat and, instead of being the expected tuna; proved to be a blue marlin in the 650-pound range. This windfall of prime lobster bait was duly gaffed and boated, at which point the hooked 40odd pound tuna popped forth from its maw, thus rewarding the fishermen with what they had expected in the first place in addition to the big bonus. At no point had the hook ever been imbedded in the marlin. Best of all, the tuna was still in perfectly marketable condition. So, not only did this event have a happy outcome from the fisherman’s point of view but the fact that here was hard evidence in the cockpit to support the story. Not to mention, that there must still be some trophy fish lurking the deep waters around this Island.
This is by no means the first story of a billfish being caught, having inhaled some hooked offering but it also provides some insight into just how tenaciously a predator will hang on to its prey. Marlin stories are probably exceptional but there are plenty of accounts of wahoo chomping down on a hook or leader and not letting go until after they are residing on the floor of the boat, never having had the hook actually snag them.
Another positive is that this is evidence that there are some fish out there. It’s not as if there have been a whole lot of fishing opportunities but there are some wahoo and tuna on the offshore grounds and where there was one blue marlin there are probably others, be they few and far between.
Another species that has always been at least an occasional here is the bluefin tuna. A mighty fish that is the subject of all sorts of international management measures and economic controls, the bluefin tuna was recorded here many decades ago but since then only a few have been caught. Most of the lack of success stems from the sheer size and power of these fish that up until relatively recently never really had to cope with anything approaching adequate tackle.
A quick look at giant hot spots and world records shows one thing: these big fish are caught in relatively shallow water. The Gulf of the St. Lawrence, arguably the world’s largest estuary and a fabled piece of bottom for giant bluefin angling has an average depth of about 60 fathoms. So, while that powerhouse can run and strip off hundreds of yards of line, the boat can follow it wherever it goes until finally the fish tires and then the end of the battle is imminent. In the deep water that surrounds this Island, a hooked bluefin can point its nose toward the bottom and peel off a load of line that has not be dragged back with little or no real assistance from the boat, no matter how manoeuvrable it is.
Although the conservationists and various fisheries managers are gravely concerned over the fishing pressure on the bluefin throughout its rather extensive range, the reports form sport fishermen and commercial operators in the Canadian Maritime provinces and United States northeast are reporting increasing numbers of large fish. While at first, this seems like good news, it also rings alarm bells for a couple of reasons.
Not least of these is that an abundance of large fish usually comes at the expense of small fish. In other words, a healthy population of fish should have lots of little ones (younger specimens), a fair number of middle sized and aged fish, with a relative handful of granddaddies making up the real giants. So when the giants are numerous, the question has to be asked: where are the younger fish? Like most populations, youth should dominate the numbers and the age groups gradually peter out as they get older. If all that is left are the old folks then that population is in big trouble with extinction maybe not all that far in the future. That is the scenario that the fisheries managers are trying to avoid. Most anglers and fishermen look at the here and now without too much concern for ten years’ time and that is all too often where the problem lies.
The upshot of this situation, from our point of view, is that with the migration pattern of the bluefin tuna taking the large fish out of the mouth of the St. Lawrence and back across the Atlantic with a general trend toward more southern climes, the likelihood of at least some of them traversing our waters is extremely good.
This means that local anglers may well encounter one or more of these leviathans over the next few weeks. In the past, catches have been made during December and fish answering their description have been seen off the southern and eastern portions of Bermuda’s Edge during January and early February when tunas have often put in an appearance at the East End of the Island. Local longlining operations have also met up with bluefin during the spring but those boats are operating a lot farther afield than any anglers would normally. Still a rarity for most locals, the one thing that you can be certain of is that if you do happen to hook into one, you will give a new meaning to the expression Tight lines!!!
via royalgazette.com
~≈~From The World of Fishing News Team~≈~
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