Daiwa Open, dec 7th

[mike]

Me and wor lass ( thats Donna) fished the Daiwa open last sunday down at Kilnsea on the Holderness coast with a few of the lads from the Total Sea Fishing forum. To cut a long story short it was a very slow day fishing wise with only the odd fish showing here and there, the winning fish was only just over the 4 lb mark and came from old hall on the humber. Wor lass did it too us all again and won the ladies section with a codling of 1 lb 7 3/4, and managed a creditable 38th overall out of 902 entries. Me? all i had was a rockling fest
oh well if the scale returns where anything to go by the cod stock levels in the north sea must be really low as only about 50 codling where weighed in from the total of 902 entries, things is looking bleak for the future aint they

[Ant]

Well done to Donna!

Did she pick much up in the way of prizes Mike?

[Doc]

Mike, theres loads of cod out there, you only have to ask the trawlermen and they\'ll tell you exactly whats going on. In their opinion, and they should know (apparently), all the fishing sectors are showing huge numbers of cod. So much so that they are having to dump large quantities overboard because their quota\'s (TACs) are so pityful. No matter where they go fishing its the same picture, from the Northern North Sea to the Norwegian sector, from Iceland to the German and Dutch sectors its cod everywhere!!!!

Asking them to explain the dearth of cod inshore and the usual response is \"global warming\" or that \"they are there, but they are up in the water feeding on herring and sprat\".

To put it into perspective I carried out a fish survey 2 weeks ago off Ringboro (East Yorks). We used a 6 metre otter trawl with rockhopper gears, deployed from the stern of a 17m trawler, we carried out 16 number 2km trawls, trawling from within 200m of the shore to nearly 3km offshore. Total area of seabed covered; just over 1/5th of a square kilometre, total number of cod; 21. This relates to 1 cod every 1.5 kilometre band (6m width) or in real terms for every square kiometre there will be 105 cod. In addition to this, just less than 50% (10) where undersize. So in real angling terms the picture is worse and relates to 55 sizeable cod every square kilometre. In all probability, there were more anglers fishing the Daiwa open than there were cod available. If you consider that 200m is the greatest distance offshore anyone is likely to be fishing (Including topecatcher and young Jordan M.), you can split a square kilometre into 5 bands, so 1 sq km would cover a 5km stretch of coast. Given the distance from Bridlington tp Spurn Point is approximately 70 km, taking into account the sq km split (70 divided by 5 = 14 x 55 = 770) Therefore there were 902 anglers chasing 770 cod, simple isn\'t it. absolutely NOT!!!!, because we haven\'t taken into account the efficiency of the sampling gear e.g. the trawler, which does not operate at 100% efficiency. Given that most beam trawls operate at an efficiency of approximately 33%, I would estimate that the otter trawl over that particular ground (fairly rough patches) would operate at about 45% efficiency. Therefore we should multiply the original sum by 2 (near as damn it). This gives a figure of 1,540 cod between 902 anglers and works out at 1.7 cod per angler, Yes, well no not really, because!!!

Not every angler is going to be able to catch at the same distance as other anglers (casting ability), not all stretches of the coast have the same carrying capacity of cod. For example Brid south beach would not have the same spread of fish (cod) as say the stretch between north Withernsea and Tunstall/Hilston, due to conditions on the day, tidal size and water depth. It once again just shows that generally, success on the day boils down to choice of venue, casting ability or variability and a huge slice of luck.

The largest cod we had during the survey was 5lb, so there is no evidence of \'BIG SPRAGG\' inshore, although the biggest fish we had weighed just under 18lb, was caught approximately 200m offshore, tasted absolutely gorgeous, and was a Halibut. What a fish!!

Well done Donna, I hope you didn\'t get another Fladen suit in the prizes, Ones enough !!!!!

Nigel

[Gwyn]

Mike
I fished the Diawa at Aldborough, very little came from there I had one whiting, one guy had a bass of about 2lbs and a whiting, heard of a cod of about five pounds from attick but do not think he was fishing the comp bet he felt a fool if winning fish was 4lb.
There were a few more whiting taken but all to small, a few of the locals were coming out to fish after comp had finished all said that it was fishing after the top of the tide and down to the bottom but not as the tide was coming in.

Gwyn

[alan]

Nice post Doc.............

[mike]

Hi Ant, LTNS,
Prizes? £ 50 in cash, a little trophy plaque and a couple of daiwa logo\'ed towels etc, bit dissapointing really as even the junior winner got a rod out of it, think we really ought to press the point that women aint 3rd class citizens in the angling world and at least deserve the rewards that the rest get for their achievements.
( a personal oppinion, not that of Donna , shes just chuffed to win summat)
Nice reply Nigel, very informative, sorta sums up the absence of the coddies quite well, you cant catch what simply isnt there can you ?

[Ant]

Nevermind eh, shame the prizes aren\'t better for the Ladies but it\'s probably down to the expected turnout of them. What would happen if they had top weight overall? I just ask as a open up here recently saw Matthew Holroyd do well and he forfeited the junior prize and I think he was second overall and his old man and him got the pairs title. Nice to have a prize for the winners of the ladies/juniors, but it\'s only to acknowledge that they\'re turning out and if they were the top rod on the day then I\'m sure they\'d be treated to the same prizes as if they were a adult male.

[peter.m]

I have got to admit in the New Hartley Open that we don\'t put on a ladies prize but you only get about three fishing and if they do well we try to have a good prize table so they should pick up something anyway. Juniors however I think usually get a very raw deal and that is why for a few years now we have given them free entry and all of them get a prize wether they catch or not. The difference is we want them to come back year after year and they have to be accompanied by an adult anyway who pay their bit. The juniors can still pay the full fee and fish for the main table in addition to what they win in the junior comp. Steven Smith won again last year and took one of the top prizes off the main table as wellso it can be done.

Early plug while on the subject, this seasons comp is Sunday 22nd February 2004 and there is a first prize of £1000. See you there. :P