Happy new year all! Hope everyone had a nice Christmas. Sorry for a lack of updates recently, I’ve been busy and the fishing was slow I just haven’t been in the zone. I got myself prepared for some fishing over the Christmas break but the weather put an end to that. So here’s to a new year and another fresh start. As you all know the decision on bass conservation was decided mid December.

Catch and release will be allowed for the first 6 months of the year and commercial fishing will be banned during this time with one terrible outcome. That is that inshore Gill netting will be allowed to carry on expect for during the months of February and March. Not only have they allowed this ruthless means of fishing but they have also allowed them to land 1300 tonnes a month rather than 1000 tonnes.

Gill netting destroys shoals of breeding fish during the first 6 months of the year and over a third of all bass landings a year are down to this method of fishing.

And to think that the fishermen will even obey to these landing quotas is another thing. I was told by a local fishermen that he expects a tonne every 3 days while gill netting the inshore wrecks… That’s mental! How these fish can go unnoticed by the authorities is beyond me!

There is a petition at the moment running to water down these new laws on gill netting. Please sign it and make the government realise this shouldn’t be allowed and isn’t fair.

Click Here

or go to this webpage:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/116747

Many thanks for your support, hope everyone has a good 2016!