floundering about

[LING_BASHER]

Well i am not sure about you lot but in the last 2 years i have noticed my flounder catches have dropped about 200 per cent, infact some marks such as Inter paints and the Wansbeck where you could always go and catch flounder have produced the odd fish if any for me in the last two years.I am doing nothing different and i am still fishing the same marks.Something is up!!

[TC]

I agree, Richy.

Flounder was something you could reliably catch in the Tyne a couple of years back.....very rarely catch them, now

[alan]

funny you should say that Richy we were discussing this last time i was fishing and i personally have had very few from the Blyth area and i also believe that there has been less coalies this year.

[tich]

Same for me, have not had a decient flatty since last summeralthough I/ We have had a few canny whiting this winter as for Cod whats one of them?... all the ones I catch are about 6ins long and weigh no more than 8oz my mates have had one or two the best to about 2.1/2 lb..Using all the usuall baites,, One lad in the boozer said his old man used to use cooked bacon ???? he said it never failed.I suppose if nowts doing you can always eat it,I think its also something to do with the trawlermen fishing closer and closer to the shore, saw/ had one last summer actually had one end of his net tied to the legs of Blyth pier while we were spinning for Mackerel.Afew days later the same boat that in casting distance, was off the Pipe at Whitley Bay needless to say we caught nowt... mebbies there should be some law prohibiting trawlers from fishing within say a mile of the shore..This would atleast give all the little ones I usually catch (and return) a bit of a chance to mature and breed

[alan]

I remember that net/boat tied to the pier,some tinker cut his rope off as well,think they were Salmon fishing m8 seen them lift a few in.

[BILLYB]

Only way to get the fish back is a total ban. Trawlers can not be trusted to fish certain areas, and there is nobody out at sea to police them. Some got paid to decommisson boats and went out and bought a boat under the limit and just carried on doing the same job So this shows they are going to cheat. Or we at least must get out from the E U and have a ban on E U members trawlers fishing whitin a certain limit of the U K Iceland saw what was happening in the sixties, now icelandic fish make up most of our imports