going back in time

[paulthespark]

when I'm fishing from the beaches and piers winter and summer I often think when nothing is happening what it would be like if [and this is pure fantasy ] we could transport ourselves back say 500 years and fish the same marks as we do today with our modern gear and baits, this is long before trawlers , pollution and our insatiable appetite for sea food fu##ed everything up, can you imagine the variety and size of the species of fish that the north sea and our coast did produce, just a thought.

 

[big phil 123]

Might catch a dinosaur

 

[codcatcher3000]

500yrs ago ? plenty of 30lbs ..and a blank would be just about unacceptable...

 

[phill_itofish]

So its not just me then lol

 

[andyco]

I was watching the movie Perfect Storm the other night, so ended up doing a bit of research on the Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap - imagine fishing there 500 years ago with modern gear!

Good article here:

Collapse of the Grand Banks Cod Fishery | Britishseafishing.co.uk

 

[Paddlesac]

You might need to go back a bit more to be free from trawlers!

You might need to go back a bit more to be free from trawlers!

found this on wikipedia;

An early reference to fishery conservation measures comes from a complaint about a form of trawling dating from the 14th century, during the reign of Edward III. A petition was presented to Parliament in 1376 calling for the prohibition of a "subtley contrived instrument called the wondyrchoum". This was an early beam trawl with a wooden beam, and consisted of a net 6 m (18 ft) long and 3 m (10 ft) wide,

"of so small a mesh, no manner of fish, however small, entering within it can pass out and is compelled to remain therein and be taken...by means of which instrument the fishermen aforesaid take so great abundance of small fish aforesaid, that they know not what to do with them, but feed and fatten the pigs with them, to the great damage of the whole commons of the kingdom, and the destruction of the fisheries in like places, for which they pray remedy."[1]


Not much changed in the fishing/conservation world in the last 600 odd years!

 

[Fishery Pokery]

I would be happy with 50 years ago with today's tackle. Often wonder what it must have been like.

 

[marco1967]

I would be happy with 50 years ago with today's tackle. Often wonder what it must have been like.

30 years was great , reopen the pits I say !!!

 

[roybert]

45 Years ago I can remember catching some canny size Cod from the pilot house and often had some very big coalies from under the town bridge and all these fish caught on an old Diawa glass fibre rod and a Garcia Mitchell 600 ap, bait we used was Raggy,Herring and Kipper. Seen our Col catch a 3lb flatty down the side of the ratty on a hand line using kipper, them were the days man.

 

[beachbuddy]

45 Years ago I can remember catching some canny size Cod from the pilot house and often had some very big coalies from under the town bridge and all these fish caught on an old Diawa glass fibre rod and a Garcia Mitchell 600 ap, bait we used was Raggy,Herring and Kipper. Seen our Col catch a 3lb flatty down the side of the ratty on a hand line using kipper, them were the days man.

I Roy kipper was the boy were the pilot used to climb his ladders to the right side was a piece of rock that you could see a lo water,when we got sick of fishing we use to try and catch the rats with the kipper heed.that place should never had been pulled down.