open shore competitions

[phill_itofish]

Peg it - and get the guy on the next peg to measure it and sign your card...proper match fishing!

sounds controversial lol so would that narrow the boundries that you can fish vastley and i'm asuming this would work better on beaches and rivers than on rock marks

[nodrog]

opens

i fish an open in cumbria where the nearest angler must sign your card before you recast into the water thus verifing the fish you have just caught. fish are measured and returned it works very well. also another match has a boy scout every 100yds along the beach and he signs your card. a donation is made to the scouts for there help. 50p per angler. it works a treat. on the licence issue, admin will take more than the revenue, and whose going to check a licence when your standing on the rock edges at dunstanburgh on a snowy jan at 3 in the morning. you already pay vat on equipment why another tax. yes i pay a trout licence, but the enviroment agency stocks rivers, takes polluters to court etc. what they gonna do, stock the north sea with cod for the foreign boats to take as much as they want? ask at the meeting what do we get if a licence is forced upon us? what we catch of the shore is less than 1percent of what is shovelled overbored [dead] by a trawller.if there desperate for money take some more of shell 321 billion profit last year or british gas 521 million profit this year.[other oil companies yet to announce there profits but you can bet they will have risen substancially. make no mistake, whoever is answering on behalf of the goverment at the meeting, has had plenty of time to sit down come up with all the answers . we need a sokesperson at the meeting who will come up with questions that will give him a hard time. this will also prevent a shouting match between the two sides where nothing will be achieved. at the end of the day , governments past and present have allowed fish stocks to decline to the extent they want us to pay for it. sorry not me.

[phill_itofish]

No, no, you misunderstood we're I was coming from mate...I reckon all matches should be pegged. I find there is a lot more skill in being TOLD where to fish than going to a venue where you reckon a couple of fish might come out of.
Especially if I'm travelling to an AWAY match anywhere in the country. It's more of a level playing field. Bait bans are daft as well! Half of the effort in match fishing is preparation...and that includes collecting your bait!
Just my opinions, it doesn't mean to say they are right or that everyone should agree with them, it's just what I reckon match fishing should be all about. Level and fair.

i'd give it ago mate i always pick the wrong mark anyway lol

[Red5]

I think because of the focus of some comps on heaviest bags there are a good number of people who target flatfish and go for as many as possible to bump up their total weight. How many are returned. Not as many as should be. I've noticed in our club a reduction in numbers of flats caught over the past few seasons and blame the fact on people taking them home or dumping them. I was told last Sunday that those that did return them all headed en masse to Amble harbour to release them. Great for Amble and the boats there looking for pot bait, but not so great for the beaches they originally were caught from like Embleton and Druridge. Pegged matches definitely make more sense in terms of conservation

[loopy]

Red I along with one other sorted through the vast amount of flatfish at the Amble Open, all fish handed over were sorted between dead and alive and two lot's released on a beach and one final batch as you say in the Harbor. The dead fish we had organized to give to local pot men for bait.
We believe we returned 2 thirds of the flounders handed over alive, had more fish been kept in water rather than plastic bags our returns would of been much higher. No waste or dead fish floating in the harbor. Some points for next year or will the Marine bill stop this type of match with proposed bag limits in the future. Catch and release is great fished most of my matches down South this way and it works if you are pegged, not sure you could do that up here for big opens that attract such a wide variety of Anglers not just match Anglers. that would be a lot of boy scouts from Lynmouth pipe to Seahouses.

[stewy07]

I think rovers are unique and a different style of fishing that relies on local knowledge of the area, swells and size of tides, which is a skill in itself 4 which theres no short cuts unless someones going to point it out to you. The same names are predominately up there, and they don't win from the same marks along the coast. However, I do think pegged matches are a good idea and agree that it is of a greater skill to cover a peg that u have to fish. Catching even a fish from a poor area can feel like a win and u will find out more about the area and tactics others have used to catch fish round about u so u can apply it next time. I think its a great way to learn more rather than being secretive about certain marks.

Why not start them with nesa and see how popular they become? Mayb a series during the summer one night and take it from there.

[YoursTruly]

pegged open matches

It would be a very sad day if open matches become pegged.

Paul, pegged matches make it a level playing field! i think not, its down to the luck of the draw.

you also talk about preparation for match, bait etc well does not your choice of venue come under preparation for match. Example: the chances of your dad drawing Cullernose point if it were pegged would be a lot less than slim, he chose to go there and it paid off for him now some of it is down to luck but after all he did have a choice of wether or not to fish that particular spot and he got his reward.
In a pegged match your stuck with what lady luck throws at you and dont tell me you have not had a situation when you have drawn a peg with no chance of catching a fish let alone winning and all you want to do is go home, now wheres the pleasure in that.

As for catch and release, well in theory it sounds great but in practice it can be flawed as some anglers start targetting the smaller fish to gain points and because of their size it is touch and go if they make it back alive.

I chose not to fish many opens some years ago for reasons best kept to myself.

[jamcod]

peg an open what rubbish how on earth can you do that , fished the silloth open thats pegged but its all one beach and all flatties , jamcod

[CHUKKA]

Its the state of the fishing thats partly to blame. In the past few years more and more anglers have got cheesed off with the lack of round fish and have started targetting flats.

Most anglers would much rather weigh in a bag of cod but if they aint there you can't catch em.

This winter the fishing was reasonable up to around xmas time (its the same most years)then its been crap since. Im not sure if its anything to do with the changes to netting from Jan but I think its only partly to blame.

I think we are going to have to get used to scratching from xmas onwards for the the next few years at least. Unless there is a sea running its just not worth the effort and its become a total lottery to try and catch a cod.

Its pointless banning flats or introducing limits etc as they are all thats there, we just need to make more matches after xmas pegged or zoned, measure and release.

SAMF and the National Sea league have it spot on with measure and release converted into points and weight. It just needs very strict enforcement to stop the cheats!

[nodrog]

opens

lads, both the opens i refer to are not pegged. first prize in one is a holiday for two to the canaries with one thousand pound spending money and entry into the world marlin championships. winner stood next to me last year, scout signed his card. granted boundries were smaller than over here, but hey, take your chance!

[jamcod]

whats the point of catch and release or bag limits in opens to save fish stocks as it not the shore fisherman thats caused the shortage or so we all say!! doe,s it also mean that the fisherman on this site thats on about cod shortage wont be jumping into a boat to fish inshore this summer and drag even more cod out the sea , cheers jamcod

[nodrog]

open

the opens i refer to are heaviest fish comps, thus ensuring you return your smaller fish. winner last year had cod 5ib year before a bass 14ib won it.might be the way forward. what do you think?

[jamcod]

with you on that one nodrog but how many fish do survive after being caught and the one,s put back bleeding do they really live ? is the only answer to stop fishing all together, . jamcod

[dubla]

opens

Hi
Can i jusy say something about any open competition i hope this helps
Why put a limit on any shape or form of fish this should not be ARE WE NOT SEA ANGLING????. All angling clubs are in it to catch fish be it flat or round.We still have this argument time and time again if you put a limit on any fish i think this encourages waste and maybe a little bit of cheating.WASTE meaning if you have a limit on say 5 flatfish you catch 20 of them in a match percentages are some will dye because anglers WILL keep them longer untill they catch a bigger one. we all know flatfish swallow our small hooks and bleed to death then out of those 20 we catch we keep the 5 biggest and TRY to return the smaller ones.This is all nonsense.we dont penalise the anglers who catch cod,coalie,pollock if we did WHAT A WASTE not to mention these fish are now becoming harder to catch.Oh and by the way dont mention conservation cos that does not come into the equation cos if you put a limit on these then we are cutting our own throats!!!!!!
I THINK ALL FISH THAT ARE RULED TO CATCH SHOULD HAVE NO COUNT
LIMIT AFTER ALL WE ARE SEA ANGLERS CATCHING SEA FISH

[jamcod]

here here well said jamcod