From the Irish examiner 04/12/2014

Dear Sir

The internet is alive with reports of a massive haul of mullet  estimated at 140 tonnes a mile south of the cork coast by herring trawlers . Such a huge shoal of migratory mullet will likely have included thousands of protected bass also . While there is nothing illegal or indeed even intentional maybe, in this reported  haul it is in my opinion, a sad event and indicative of inappropriate exploitation of  our marine resources . It will have a major impact on numbers of mullet and bass in our Co.Cork harbours and estuaries next year , on  species such as otter, porpoises etc. that depend on them and the tourist industry. I appeal to our ministers to introduce a reasonable commercial-free fishing  zone around our coastline to protect our wildlife and young fish and to create a modern inshore coast guard  to protect our marine ecosystem.

Save Our Seas ! 

sincerely…..

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There doesn’t appear to be any denial in relation to the accident even though the following extrapolation is extraordinary in its contemplation it must be close to a reasonable extract derived from the following numbers below

The average size of mullet caught during the CSBF 2013 was – 2.62lb, lets call that 1.2kg

1 tonne = 835 Mullet
140 tonnes = 116,900 Mullet

Mullet and bass are sociable so there must have been as stated above an associated impact on the protected population of bass. The internet was in fact NOT alive to the impact or an expression of outrage, one person did absorb a lot of flack so…

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What does 140 tonnes convert to?

800 Dolphins or

62,000 White fronted geese or

400,000 Red squirrels or

1,000 Common seals or

17,500 Otters or

13,000 Swans or

35,000 Golden Eagles or

40,000 Atlantic salmon or

140,000 Pine martens or, in other words, a very serious accident impacting seriously on a national natural resource.

I felt it was going to happen way back around the 18th November and to a large extent it did and is still. Its still out there. I had planned to work out an article yesterday and today for Fly Fishing & Fly Tying with David. Unfortunately the real world is getting in the way a lot at the moment and the wolves have to be kept from the door so today was a no and we didn’t complete the article.

Speaking of doors the fly I am fishing with at the moment is, I feel, about to open one door another bit, don’t get me wrong there’s nothing revolutionary about it and after all there is nothing new in fly fishing, but what I could do with it yesterday just enhanced another aspect of bass on the fly VERY successfully. More of this later.

Thanks to David for the support, craic, and general good time! We saw fish hunt, we saw fish follow, we had hits and we had misses and we had long periods of inactivity. We didn’t have any big fish – but would I rather be anywhere else than where I was yesterday morning and afternoon – No I don’t think so.

Its not too often you can get these conditions running into early December on the Wexford coast

AND There’s another chance this week yet and under the current timings I think I’m going to have to try and take it. More juggling and out come the bigger flies, shorter leaders and the #9 lines.

I think I’ll stay on home ground though and fingers crossed – but its going to be exciting and I cant wait.

Its the start of a new promise – more fly fishing and time for Jim Hendrick for a while.

England

“The first sale value of ALL commercial landings into England [Sea Angling 2012 is ONLY about England] is only £164 million and that includes a wide range of species such as lobsters, cockles, monkfish, lemon sole, hake that are of no direct interest to recreational anglers. If from this list you include only the species of interest to both commercial fishing and anglers alike, you are left with commercial landings worth just £35 million at market in 2012.

So those fishery resources upon which the recreational angling sector across England are dependent, and which drive £2 billion worth of expenditure, are ONLY WORTH £35 million to commercial fishing! Yes, that’s right! First sale landings value – what the fishermen receive – is less than 2% of what sea anglers put into the economy.” –John Morgan UK Bass

For an extensive review of the UK Report jump to this link HERE

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Ireland.

The Minister of State with Responsibility for Natural Resources, Fergus O’ Dowd T.D. today warmly welcomed the findings of a new national economic study which has revealed for the first time that angling and angling tourism in Ireland is generating a dividend in excess of €0.75 billion within the Irish economy every year.

The study, commissioned by Inland Fisheries Ireland, shows direct spending on angling in Ireland amounted to €555 million in 2012, with indirect spending worth an additional €200 million and totalling €755 million.  Recreational angling was also found to directly support 10,000 existing Irish jobs, many of which are located in the most peripheral and rural parts of the Irish countryside and along our coastline.

For an extensive review of the Irish Report jump to this link HERE

The report notes

• There is evidence of a decline in recreational angling participation levels in recent years
• Decline in participation attributed to a range of factors including:
• Economic recession
• Poor weather
• Quality of fishing
• Illegal practices

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Jim Levison has been photographing the outdoors for the past twenty years. For the last eleven years Jim has been guiding saltwater fly anglers off the fabled waters of Montauk Point, New York, in search of striped bass, blue fish and false albacore. Jim spends about one hundred days a year on his home waters in the Northeast constantly photographing new images for his stock portfolio.

Read the interview HERE at FlyDreamers