@Clive
Well-known member
Don't let the lure anglers off the hook. Here's what you get for around a hundred and fifty quid. It is a foot long and weighs about 5 ounces.....
I
I
Do you ever wonder
- Thread starter nottskev
- Start date
no offence taken … and I agree on the landing net shots, not that I’ve ever seen someone so that on a match.
this kind of thing?
There’s three clickers by his left hand!
I’ve had two heart valve replacements now … but still carry my AS1 on canals, usually barrow it when there’s a walk on the river
i honestly think more damage happens to fish when you’re trying to race them past lurking pike, especially on finer wire hooks
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Yes - that bloke is modelling the keepnets like a pro. And the excitement of fishing a seven keepnet venue is written on his face.
I fact-checked my own post just to see if I was imagining the fish-in-net-head business. One thing I noticed, or maybe realised, since we've all been seeing the pics for years: Angling Times (I googled its cover pics) promotes the all-lined-up-in-the-net-head aesthetic. It looks daft, the fish look as if they're on a slab, and I assume they'd been flapping about spoiling pics til they didn't have the energy.
Two valve replacements? I've had a lot of artery stuff done, but the heart, I was told, save for a slightly leaky valve, didn't give cause for concern. But that was a fair while ago. It's always good to hear about anglers who've needed repairs doing plenty of fishing.
steve2
Well-known member
He is a bit short on clickers he should have 7. God knows what the stocking level if you need 7 keepnets for a 5 hour match.no offence taken … and I agree on the landing net shots, not that I’ve ever seen someone so that on a match.
this kind of thing?
There’s three clickers by his left hand!
I’ve had two heart valve replacements now … but still carry my AS1 on canals, usually barrow it when there’s a walk on the river
i honestly think more damage happens to fish when you’re trying to race them past lurking pike, especially on finer wire hooks
Steve Arnold
Well-known member
When I sea fished I won a few club competitions with 80 - 100 lb bags (the "good" old days!). A day like that became hard work, speed fishing is certainly not sporting!
I am 72 now and learnt from those mistakes of youth! That was not even a match catch, just me showing an English visitor some good Scottish sea fishing.
Those bags were mainly of cod, but all good eating fish. It did not happen very often fortunately, I hated the filleting and bagging for the freezer.
How anyone can catch so many fish to fill all those nets? All that hard work and not a meal to be seen for that!
Going back to the gizmo theme, I admit I do own a Deeper Start castable sonar! After years of boat fishing I do realise the practical uses for such kit. Perhaps not as a "fishfinder" but for confirming features and obstructions, I use it a few times a year.
Other than that I try to minimise my kit to a shoulder bag, rod holdall with 2 rods and banksticks, lightweight chair. If feeder fishing I add my bucket in a bucket, one for groundbait mix and the inside bucket for feeders, spare hookbait etc. Oh, almost forgot the landing net - not for the first time!
If I cannot walk half a mile with my tackle I start looking at ways of reducing the load. Like most my age I have plenty of health problems, fortunately my heart and legs keep going.
No longer interested in catching LOTS of fish, don't really think I ever was, just the occasional good specimen keeps me happy. But I guess each of us have different needs and ambitions, mine has always been to find that perfect specimen fish!
Photo by the late Ian Gillespie
I am 72 now and learnt from those mistakes of youth! That was not even a match catch, just me showing an English visitor some good Scottish sea fishing.
Those bags were mainly of cod, but all good eating fish. It did not happen very often fortunately, I hated the filleting and bagging for the freezer.
How anyone can catch so many fish to fill all those nets? All that hard work and not a meal to be seen for that!
Going back to the gizmo theme, I admit I do own a Deeper Start castable sonar! After years of boat fishing I do realise the practical uses for such kit. Perhaps not as a "fishfinder" but for confirming features and obstructions, I use it a few times a year.
Other than that I try to minimise my kit to a shoulder bag, rod holdall with 2 rods and banksticks, lightweight chair. If feeder fishing I add my bucket in a bucket, one for groundbait mix and the inside bucket for feeders, spare hookbait etc. Oh, almost forgot the landing net - not for the first time!
If I cannot walk half a mile with my tackle I start looking at ways of reducing the load. Like most my age I have plenty of health problems, fortunately my heart and legs keep going.
No longer interested in catching LOTS of fish, don't really think I ever was, just the occasional good specimen keeps me happy. But I guess each of us have different needs and ambitions, mine has always been to find that perfect specimen fish!
Photo by the late Ian Gillespie
@Clive
Well-known member
When I sea fished I won a few club competitions with 80 - 100 lb bags (the "good" old days!). A day like that became hard work, speed fishing is certainly not sporting!
View attachment 32674
I am 72 now and learnt from those mistakes of youth! That was not even a match catch, just me showing an English visitor some good Scottish sea fishing.
Those bags were mainly of cod, but all good eating fish. It did not happen very often fortunately, I hated the filleting and bagging for the freezer.
How anyone can catch so many fish to fill all those nets? All that hard work and not a meal to be seen for that!
Going back to the gizmo theme, I admit I do own a Deeper Start castable sonar! After years of boat fishing I do realise the practical uses for such kit. Perhaps not as a "fishfinder" but for confirming features and obstructions, I use it a few times a year.
Other than that I try to minimise my kit to a shoulder bag, rod holdall with 2 rods and banksticks, lightweight chair. If feeder fishing I add my bucket in a bucket, one for groundbait mix and the inside bucket for feeders, spare hookbait etc. Oh, almost forgot the landing net - not for the first time!
If I cannot walk half a mile with my tackle I start looking at ways of reducing the load. Like most my age I have plenty of health problems, fortunately my heart and legs keep going.
No longer interested in catching LOTS of fish, don't really think I ever was, just the occasional good specimen keeps me happy. But I guess each of us have different needs and ambitions, mine has always been to find that perfect specimen fish!
View attachment 32675
Photo by the late Ian Gillespie
We were watching an old Out of Town episode that featured the Southern TV sea angling championship held off Cork. Local regulations meant that fish had to be returned after weighing. Given that most of them had been gaffed I thought that was a strange ruling.
Ray Roberts
Well-known member
Likewise with sea fishing, I won a few beach and boat championships when I was younger and when I look at match results for Dungeness, Hythe and other well known venues and the weights that I won with would have been more than the total reported weights of the combined anglers in most cases in more recent years.
Even back then the trawlers were in some cases so close to shore that you could have cast into them. We never seem to learn the lesson.
Even back then the trawlers were in some cases so close to shore that you could have cast into them. We never seem to learn the lesson.
Steve Arnold
Well-known member
Sea fishing, beach especially, seems more about the tackle and casting distance than the fish caught nowadays!
I was lucky to start sea fishing when Ian Gillespie was promoting the move to beach rods lighter than 16 ozs, most beach rods of that era were at least twice that weight. Some of my best catches were on a light bass rod and I won my section in the big Felixstowe open using a 1-3 ozs 10' carp blank rod. If I remember right I was 10th overall in a field of hundreds. I was quite proud of that as I was complimented on narrowly out-fishing the local expert pegged next to me. My catch was 5 codling and a whiting, he could only catch whiting. Think I was 17 at that time, the rod caught me a nice bass of 12 lb 7 ozs at Southwold around that time as well. My fishing ego was growing! I still want to catch big fish but now my old bones tell me not to be so silly!
The real GIZMO developments happened during that era for sea fishing, I think there were many changes to freshwater techniques around then as well. The Breakaway company with Ian Gillespie, Nigel Forrest and Norman Bickers developed many ideas into practical angling equipment. Certainly I could not have fished the beaches without a Breakaway lead when I used my light beachcaster rods!
Happy days, I feel privileged to have lived and fished through this era.
Now I am based inland and have settled for the rivers of France. I know they have been used for bait for decades, but I consider boilies as a "new" gizmo! I had never used them before moving here, now I use little else!
But there is a lot of plastic junk tackle available, the beginners might be suckers for that. I do not get caught too often myself, by the time I decide to get the plastic (card) out those gizmos have gone out of fashion and production!
Alan Whitty
Well-known member
Sadly as an ex-match angler I can only say that having watched many YouTube videos of matches on the Wye(a venue you fish Alex) the weigh in is simply a disgrace, also matches on commercials weighing their fish in virtual ballast buckets isn't exactly fish friendly either...
ian g
Well-known member
I've fished at Hereford a few times with my mate , I never use a keepnet but most do . Can't remember the last time I ever used one . I can understand in a match but not really on an ordinary session . I suppose a lot of guys are on practicing and want to see what they caught ?
Alan Whitty
Well-known member
Keepnets are not really the main problem, it's the pouring of what are basically small fish, from ounces to a pound into a (proper weigh net on the Wye) but leaving them bouncing around for 5 minutes, because of jumping unsettling the scales, having 40lbs of fish can't be much fun for those on the bottom, specially when theirs is a low gravity world, its a miracle catches remain good after years of plunder....
Alan,
I have no doubt that there are some who just don’t care and some who should know better, but apparently don’t … but I’d hope that the majority of matchmen on there have some kind of idea.
it really can’t be that difficult to bring the 2nd or third last ring through to the top ring and NOT pour the fish all the way down a long net, can it?
equally, a “5 minute” wait for scales to settle is barmy, those I’ve seen (and done myself) are pretty adept at calling the median on an oscillating scale.
personally, I never draw near the epicentres anyway!!
Alan Whitty
Well-known member
Agree about the net, but you must have seen the scenes on video of 40 lbs of fish prattling about, match fishing for fish of that size is better on venues where maximum catches of thirty pounds are expected, that's my opinion anyway, Shrewsbury on the Severn has started producing good weights of mainly dace, but roach too, don't anglers realise that a percentage of those bags die, thus go to reduce future catch rates, after all its not rocket science, look at the North Sea cod....
i reckon a very small percentage actually, deep hooking probably causes more deaths IMO.
North Sea cod … all down to successive governments (inc EU) being unwilling to make the swinging cuts to quotas that were actually needed for sustainability.
Alan Whitty
Well-known member
Well I wouldn't want to be an 8oz chublet under 40lbs of my mates, as they're internal organs normally have no weight on them...and I'm not anti match fishing, but just watch the weigh-ins on Clive Branson's video, it's good viewing for an anti-angler Alex, specially on a venue with footpaths running directly behind the match length....
When I lived in Chester in the 90's, we made a few trips every year- a 2.5- 3 hour journey at times - down to Hereford, the Belmont stretch, to fish for the winter roach. I don't have any pics. No camera phones, no social media. I'm not making a point against match anglers, but going to Hereford to plunder the wintering shoals does seem to be a "thing" now, as if posting a pic of a netful or landing net full, on social media is a rite of passage. I know a couple of anglers - they don't look in here - of distinctly average ability who go to bag up, take pics at whatever cost to the fish, and look like the experts they aren't. Meanwhile, the real experts, doing features, brand promotion stuff etc, use the fish for purposes outside the pleasures of catching and returning them. Spectacular river fishing is rare these days, and it gets me down to see such a lot of ego trip vid's and pics.
How do you feel, watching the last couple of minutes of this?
How do you feel, watching the last couple of minutes of this?
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mikench
Well-known member
I squirmed Kevin. Deplorable and made worse by the feature being promoted by AT who should know better.
Honestly … I can’t see what you object to about that?
Fish in a landing net in a bucket of water, so supported apart from a short time of lift. They’d spend longer out being unhooked by most people.
AT have been promoting the fishing on the Wye on winter for at least 20 years. I’ve been fishing the river at least a couple of times a year for that length of time and have seen it go through changes in populations of migratory fish (and residents). There was a proper dip in form about 2012 from my memory, but it seems busier than ever since covid (from what I hear) and isn’t sufferring too much.
Most people take longer to unhook a fish? That little bucket section is 42 secs, and that's the edited version, shortened to exclude getting them out of the keepnet, into the landing net and bucket, then returned. If I saw anyone taking that long to unhook a fish, I'd suggest they crush the barb down and strike bites more quickly.
Let me take a step back to answer the implication I'm being too fussy. I remember watching a John Wilson programme with other, non-angling people present. It's all good til he catches a decent fish - I forget what - and we move into the phase where he holds it up, turns it around, rhapsodises about it, pokes and strokes it, says let's-get-him-back-straightaway, doesn't, pokes and stokes a bit more ........ Someone said, Is that what you do when you're fishing, Kev? I was embarrassed to think they'd think that's what anglers do, and in this case, I'd be embarrassed to be found messing a bucket of fish around pointlessly (the video was actually useful, but who needs to be shown a chublet in a bucket?) while chatting to camera. I like catching plenty of fish as much as anybody and I'm not above taking pics either. I just don't go for this type of nonsense for clickbait, self-promotion, brand promotion etc.
Sorry, should have had a comma not a full stop … I meant the lift out of the bucket section.