Irish Sports
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Occurred to me after another post on a different thread .
My mate just came back from Kerry where he spent 5 weeks in his mobile , in the site next to where ours is . Weather was atrocious , wind particularly . He reckoned he was able to fish one day in seven ( and he lives for fishing ) .
He came across a good few illegal nets on his expeditions , nothing new in that , and the fishing / licences / compensation / natural rights debate has many aspects to it . There is obviously a market for wild fish which are no longer fishable , part of our birthright I suppose , but a thing of the past which diminishes us as a people in my book .
But the point is there are fewer fish there for the sporting angler . Two foreign fishermen of his acquaintance were around for two weeks , travel costs and accomodation etc would have been £1000 at a rough guess , straight into the local economy , caught 2 fish only which were returned to the water unlike those caught by the illegal nets . Thats £500 per fish , which is not uncomparable to the £300 I have seen proposed in other publications articles .
Bonkers value that , its like paying 300 euro to play Valderrama or the Old Head , also way out of most peoples league for value . Those 2 guys wont be back they said , poor value for effort involved , cant blame them . And they have been coming for years .
Not into fishing myself , tried it once or twice , boring pastime in my view . But there are 3 million fishermen apparently in our bigger neighbour , so there is a big market to tap into , plus continental Europe .
Any solution ? Any views ?
My mate just came back from Kerry where he spent 5 weeks in his mobile , in the site next to where ours is . Weather was atrocious , wind particularly . He reckoned he was able to fish one day in seven ( and he lives for fishing ) .
He came across a good few illegal nets on his expeditions , nothing new in that , and the fishing / licences / compensation / natural rights debate has many aspects to it . There is obviously a market for wild fish which are no longer fishable , part of our birthright I suppose , but a thing of the past which diminishes us as a people in my book .
But the point is there are fewer fish there for the sporting angler . Two foreign fishermen of his acquaintance were around for two weeks , travel costs and accomodation etc would have been £1000 at a rough guess , straight into the local economy , caught 2 fish only which were returned to the water unlike those caught by the illegal nets . Thats £500 per fish , which is not uncomparable to the £300 I have seen proposed in other publications articles .
Bonkers value that , its like paying 300 euro to play Valderrama or the Old Head , also way out of most peoples league for value . Those 2 guys wont be back they said , poor value for effort involved , cant blame them . And they have been coming for years .
Not into fishing myself , tried it once or twice , boring pastime in my view . But there are 3 million fishermen apparently in our bigger neighbour , so there is a big market to tap into , plus continental Europe .
Any solution ? Any views ?
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Have to craic down on illegal netting perhaps and with large fine and/or heavy jail sentences imo.
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understaffed. a rod caught salmon is worth €1000 to the economy. btw there were more salmon about last year than in a good number of years and next year there will be even more because the drift nets at sea were lifted 5 years ago and next years returning fish will be the offspring of them.
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Good news that Newmanix . But 1k per fish is a huge figure , some people must really love their fishing at that price . Dearer than golf , despite the crazy extortionate green fees in the odd club. Dont think visitor numbers are increasing though in either field of activity .
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from a fishing point of view, if u have the salmon - they will come, simple as that. I have paid €400 per day to fish in Waterford on the Blackwater(without catching!!) and then returned to Galway and paid €20 for a session and caught 2 in an hour.. In relative terms, Ireland is reasonable for salmon fishing. Some places in Scotland charge up to £10,000 per week for 5 rods on a river and the only other places are Russia(10K per person/week) Iceland(Same) Norway(£3k per week)............you see my point of view is that there are so many places available in Ireland for €20 per day and €40b&b, licence for 3 weeks €46, and these waters are as good as any. If anything we are not publicing the cheap/free spots for tourists because there are no big hotels paying failte ireland to do so!!!! Im in this game since I was 15 years of age and Im 39 now. Btw a lot of Irish people have taken it up since the recession- peace in the countryside/fresh air/nature/chance of bringing home a wild salmon/pub after
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A simple way to solve alot of criminal behaviour is to make it expensive to get caught. in this instance a 50k fine and 5 years in prison would soon put a stop to it.
In the same way proper sentencing and extravagant fines would stop alot of criminal activity as it simply wouldnt be worth the cost of getting caught. At the moment its just a please dont do it again johnny so its worth their while having a go. |
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Necessity knows no law..!
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Newmmanix - my uncle used to make a living showing fellas how to catch fish on the Blackwater.
He's nearly 90 and I doubt there's a living to be made at it now as you say. We never got Salmon as kids, my mother was sick of it from growing up beside the river |
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A modest living Cup
 Im lucky enough though as I run a fishery and have loads of customers. I wouldnt thank you for salmon,fed too much as a kid. Love fresh mackerel to eat. |
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My cousin has an apartmant in Youghal , presumably that is the Blackwater exit to sea . My aunt fishes ( occasionally) for mackerel I think , over the wall from the garden .
There was always a plentiful supply of ( wild ) salmon when I was younger , when I worked in Dublin in the early sixties there was salmon on the menu for lunch every day of the week , loved it , still do ( although its hard to lay hands on a wild salmon these days ) . The day that M V O'B won the Irish Derby with Chamour ( 6 month ban for dodgy substance allegedly when winning a maiden earlier that year ) he was fishing on the Blackwater when it won . Thats from memory , open to correction . In the 19th century there was a law that staff/ servants on the large estates were not allowed to be fed salmon more than twice a week . Things change ! |
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The other side of the coin was fellas losing their lives.
I always remember my mother talking about the day the gillies drowned. Will ask her for details next time I'm down. |
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With my inbuilt distrust of water ( dangerous medium in my book when it is moving or when there is no bottom ) , anyone involved in the fishing industry , particularly at sea , was doing my dirty work . For that I admired them , and did not mind paying a bit over the odds for the product .
In my early days , fishermen ran out of Ardglass in relatively small boats for herring and similar activity went on out of a lot of small ports / fishing villages in Ireland . EEC matters then took a hand , and in the course of that there were a bigger percentage of millionaires in Killybegs than almost anywhere else in the world . Not now , ghost town Killybegs , more or less , certainly few boats in the harbour last couple of times I drove through ( in last year ) . Preservation of natural resources for the people should be top of any Governments agenda , afraid we have lost that control and autonomy with successive changes in rules and regulations as legislative boundaries have changed within Europe . Some of the EEC countries play by the rules , most others say OK and ignore them to the extent that it suits them . Drove a good bit in Spain last year , brilliant roads ( no frost there ) , minimal traffic . The money spent there on roads which run parallel to perfectly good original roads to me was incredible , but cant blame them , presumably everyone else in Europe ( including Ireland ) was availing of regional grants for road building . OK if you use them or need them , but for the sake of dipping into the big pot it may prove ultimately to be money ill spent . And it was our money as well as theirs , and vice versa . Fishing industry ( at sea anyway ) decimated as far as I can see , wonder if there is a way back . River and lake fishing still is viable I suspect , but requires effort to maintain our excellent track record and to satisfy visitors and locals alike . Difficult balancing act . |
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so the co DOWN man has a caravan do you do any TARMACING yeboyya
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It was the Spanish trawlers that decimated our fish they hoovered up everything and even were let into the Atlantic Box where they milled the breeding grounds.
Next time someone is telling us what the E.U. gave us tell them they stole far more. |
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Like we said , Wildman , some observed rules , but most did not . Giving up a lot of our fishing business will prove very costly long term . Fish have a lot of opportunites about where they live given the nature of the planet . Except salmon and eels I think .
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Fish have a lot of opportunites about where they live given the nature of the planet .
Brilliant. |