The decline in British Cod fishing

[BUDGIE]

As Im sure Ive mentioned before I used to be a very keen sea angler.Despite owning my own boat my real love was beach fishing.For me the best of it was the Winters Cod fishing.Every October the smaller Codling of around 4lb would start to show them selves of the Kent beachs.Living a few miles away from famous marks sucj as Dungeness and Denge Marsh meant I could do several night tides a week.Come November the double figure fish would arrive.Yes it did tend to go in a cycle with peaks and troughs over the years but in general the fishing was superb.Most tides the amount you caught was limited only by the amount of bait you had!Fish were that numerous that local lads like my self would actually return any lightly hooked cod we caught! working on the premise that over the winter we would have enough deeply hooked/damaged fish to more than fill both yours and your neighbours freezers.

I was never lucky enough to catch a 20lb plus fish from the beach my self but saw several caught by others.They were often taken by anglers who had hooked up a small whiting and not realised,this in turn being taken by a monster cod!

Sadly since the late 80's this hasnt been the case.Excesive netting in many areas has removed entire year classes of cod.What is most disturbing that a lot of these fish are undersized for landing by the trawlers so are thrown back.Sadly although put back these fish are all dead,either drowned in the nets or crushed by the weight of the rest of the catch.A total waste.

No matter what is done now I dont think I will ever see a return of the sort of Codding i was lucky enough to have seen in my life time.Would be nice if my grandchildren and yours could though.Please take a look at this link and register your vote.Im not going to say thanks but Im sure our grand kids will....

new.PetitionOnline.com/COD/petition.html

[Max]

Well said Budgie.
Signed the list and i hope you will too.

[BUDGIE]

Nice one Max.The hardest thing seems to be persuading todays anglers that there is a problem.When a young lad tells me of what a great cod session he had last night and then I try and tell them about struggling across the shingle to the car and the fish bags splitting with the sheer amount of cod you had caught they give you that strange look! ..........just as I used to give the old boys when they told me about the good old days.

[anglerpaul]

Missed this one. But i signed up, to a good cause.