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South Coast Bass and Pollack landing restrictions

PhilR

PhilR

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Can anyone tell me the 2024 regulations regarding taking bass and pollack (RSA only).
 
PhilR said:
Can anyone tell me the 2024 regulations regarding taking bass and pollack (RSA only).
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At this moment a commercial fishing boat is pulling a trawl net with a cod end full of dead fish around the sea just over the horizon from where you stand on your favourite fishing mark.
It's probably not a British boat.

And you want to take a couple of bass or pollock home????!!
 
PhilR said:
Can anyone tell me the 2024 regulations regarding taking bass and pollack (RSA only).
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I would imagine same as 2023, unless the Angling MisTrust or those guys at BASS get involved again!

Thnik it is decided in Dec for the next year.

Never heard of any restriction on Pollack!
 
So is it that the foreign trawlers have paid for the quota to our government , but we have not paid for ones to take home from British beaches ?
 
As far as I know it’s close season for bass Jan- feb then 2 per day. No pollack restrictions yet but it could come in as now cod and ling are mostly extinct on the south coast the pollack stocks have been hammered. Catch numbers and size a fraction of what they used to be.
 

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Leginfisher said:
As far as I know it’s close season for bass Jan- feb then 2 per day. No pollack restrictions yet but it could come in as now cod and ling are mostly extinct on the south coast the pollack stocks have been hammered. Catch numbers and size a fraction of what they used to be.
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Thanks.
I've read the pollack proposals, but I didn't know if they have been agreed.
 
Leginfisher said:
As far as I know it’s close season for bass Jan- feb then 2 per day. No pollack restrictions yet but it could come in as now cod and ling are mostly extinct on the south coast the pollack stocks have been hammered. Catch numbers and size a fraction of what they used to be.
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Tbh I think it’s a sensible move, if it happens. Yep the commercials take more but a charter boat or two can soon put a serious dent in a wreck’s population.
Especially when you consider they’re out every day the weather is suitable and we still see a lot of pictures of charters with fish boxes full of pollack.
Multiply that by several boats a day for the same general area and it soon adds up.
 
Mr Fish said:
Tbh I think it’s a sensible move, if it happens. Yep the commercials take more but a charter boat or two can soon put a serious dent in a wreck’s population.
Especially when you consider they’re out every day the weather is suitable and we still see a lot of pictures of charters with fish boxes full of pollack.
Multiply that by several boats a day for the same general area and it soon adds up.
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In full agreement. I was castigated by a few folks on here, when I asked why a skipper had 7 pollock on his own btw, in his chill bin in a video he’d posted last year.
 
I've witnessed utter idiots that continue to fish deep wrecks where barotrauma is almost inevitable, yet use it as an excuse for not releasing pollock! They can devastate a wreck in one day of their greed-but-no-need approach. "You could show some restraint and move elsewhere!" is the obvious statement but some are fkn thick and incredibly selfish. Gets my goat seeing/reading about any and all forms of overfishing whether its commercial or "recreational'
 
Topwater said:
I've witnessed utter idiots that continue to fish deep wrecks where barotrauma is almost inevitable, yet use it as an excuse for not releasing pollock! They can devastate a wreck in one day of their greed-but-no-need approach. "You could show some restraint and move elsewhere!" is the obvious statement but some are fkn thick and incredibly selfish. Gets my goat seeing/reading about any and all forms of overfishing whether its commercial or "recreational'
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I don’t wreck fish now or at least haven’t been for years, mainly due to price and the fact the fishing is crap compared with even 15-20 years ago (go figure).
But when I did go, if it was a good day I’d often sit out a few drifts and everyone else on the boat thought I was mad.
I’d say how many pollack and cod do I really need? And the reply was always ‘well the commercials will only take them, don’t leave anything for those feckers’

Which to me is completely the wrong attitude. I get we’re all angry at commercial greed but committing the same crime helps fish stocks not at all.
It’s like saying I only shoplifted a couple of times but that bloke over there stole a van full, so it’s okay really. Neither one is okay.

And there’s also to my mind a vast difference between taking a couple of fish for the pot from the shore and being parked on a wreck all day with fish in a barrel, which is what pollack fishing can be. Or was 🙄
And yep, they won’t go back alive but as you say, that doesn’t excuse just taking more and more.
 
Mr Fish said:
I don’t wreck fish now or at least haven’t been for years, mainly due to price and the fact the fishing is crap compared with even 15-20 years ago (go figure).
But when I did go, if it was a good day I’d often sit out a few drifts and everyone else on the boat thought I was mad.
I’d say how many pollack and cod do I really need? And the reply was always ‘well the commercials will only take them, don’t leave anything for those feckers’

Which to me is completely the wrong attitude. I get we’re all angry at commercial greed but committing the same crime helps fish stocks not at all.
It’s like saying I only shoplifted a couple of times but that bloke over there stole a van full, so it’s okay really. Neither one is okay.

And there’s also to my mind a vast difference between taking a couple of fish for the pot from the shore and being parked on a wreck all day with fish in a barrel, which is what pollack fishing can be. Or was 🙄
And yep, they won’t go back alive but as you say, that doesn’t excuse just taking more and more.
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I have been on a charter with some Poles, they took everything, even congers and were bemused when I released my catch. It’s a strange thing watching gluttony, some kind of feast or famine mentality that is still a legacy of WW2 and eastern bloc behaviour. Great blokes to work with, but I’d never take them to my shore marks as they are so proud of their sink full of bass photos.
 
Where’s Wally said:
I have been on a charter with some Poles, they took everything, even congers and were bemused when I released my catch. It’s a strange thing watching gluttony, some kind of feast or famine mentality that is still a legacy of WW2 and eastern bloc behaviour. Great blokes to work with, but I’d never take them to my shore marks as they are so proud of their sink full of bass photos.
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The Slovaks were the same in Norway. Brought literally everything they caught back.
 
I remember a TV programme about a commercial skipper who netted wrecks and cleared them of all the pollock. When asked why they were there and he was able to catch so many he said it was because they were spawning.
Fast forward a few years......
 
From what I've seen on the local news & online, I think a ban for commercials and RSA's is certainly on the cards.
I've only ever caught one Pollack (from the shore). It was undersize, and put back as quickly as possible.
Shallow shore mark so no chance of Barotrauma.
Personally, I think we should be allowed to continue to catch them from the shore, with maybe a bag limit similar to Bass, and maybe a similar closed season too. I agree something needs to be done, and not just with Pollack & Bass, but not many shore RSA's go Angling every day, and a 2 fish bag limit wouldn't be a big drain on stocks, perhaps once a week.
 
It sounds like there are still some pollack on the SW wrecks from the above comments. You are lucky as in the SE I’d probably be fair in saying a catch of 10-15 mostly single figure fish for whole charter would be considered a red letter day. Lucky to fill one fish box!
A closed season when they spawn would be good but charters and commercials rely on them as limited options for species then.
Charters can have good catches but the weather restricts them much more than the bigger commercial boats. I can remember a a trip where skipper had to go to 12 wrecks before he found one not boxed in. And that had no fish on it otherwise that too would have been netted no doubt. Oh well, the writing is on the wall. The cod and ling have more or less all but gone, and the pollack will go the same way. Commercial pressure will ensure they still have quota but it will just be a matter of time before the pollack too goes the same way as the cod and ling.

Happy Christmas everyone🤣
 
Trampster said:
From what I've seen on the local news & online, I think a ban for commercials and RSA's is certainly on the cards.
I've only ever caught one Pollack (from the shore). It was undersize, and put back as quickly as possible.
Shallow shore mark so no chance of Barotrauma.
Personally, I think we should be allowed to continue to catch them from the shore, with maybe a bag limit similar to Bass, and maybe a similar closed season too. I agree something needs to be done, and not just with Pollack & Bass, but not many shore RSA's go Angling every day, and a 2 fish bag limit wouldn't be a big drain on stocks, perhaps once a week.
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Hopefully a ban will come in but if does I wouldn’t bet against it limiting recreational anglers to 1 or 2 fish and no restrictions or tiny reductions for the commercials.
 
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