FOUND A BIT OF RUFFE!
I was working up in my birth county of Yorkshire recently and sneaked away for just an hour with James Robbins of the Shakespeare Superteam to take some advertorial pics and have a few casts with top Yorkshire matchman Wayne Bartholomew.

The venue was Underbank Reservoir near Grenoside and Wayne knew I needed to catch a tommy ruffe for my all time species list.

We tackled up with basic ledger fishing tackle plus a feeder rod. Small chips of garden worm and garden worm tails were the bait. The ruffe seem to like the deeper water in the reservoir and the area where they come from is quite tight in area, so casting accuracy was important.

We had very little time available to us, so with the baits out, I was concentrating hard and almost instantly saw a faint rattle on the ledger rod. This turned out to be a perch short of half a pound.

I was also watching the feeder rod, though the ruffe are small and not likely at range to show as a bite on the rod tip. That said I did see a faint tip rattle but was unsure.  I left the bite to develop, but eventually decided to retrieve and could feel there was something small on the hook. I couldn’t believe my luck when I wound in the feeder and saw a small fish on the end which Jimbo identified immediately as a tommy ruffe.

He then went on a celebratory run across the corner of the dam, he was more excited than I was! Thanks to both James and Wayne, I’d achieved another new species. That’s no 97 now, and three new ones for the year!

I’m really enjoying getting in a little coarse fishing and finding that some of the learning curve I’m transferring to sea fishing, but more of that in a later blog.

BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR TAGGED HUSS
We’ve recently been informed that CEFAS have been tagging spurdog, bull huss, tope and smoothounds during recent ground surveys and WSF has been asked to make anglers everywhere aware of the possibility of catching one of these recorded fish.

The tags used are round Petersen tags, one yellow and one red which are fitted via a stainless steel pin through and either side of the upper base of the dorsal fin. You can’t miss them if you land the fish.

If you do catch a tagged huss, or any other fish for that matter, it would help greatly if you could record the length and girth of the fish if possible, the girth being taken from just in front of the dorsal fin around the body, its area position of capture and the date, plus any other information you feel applicable and forward the info to CEFAS. Please also return the fish alive and unharmed so that it can continue to hopefully feed back information to CEFAS to further future protection and habit understanding.

The huss have been mainly tagged around the Cardigan Bay coastline, so anglers fishing around North Wales should be particularly observant when landing huss. The same applies to the spurdog which have also been released in the Celtic and Irish seas.

Interestingly it appears that spurdog have been recaptured after earlier studies some 40-years later, which is quite remarkable and also frightening as it shows how vulnerable some species of fish are to over fishing, especially commercial over fishing. It also highlights the importance of tagging programmes in the long term!

You can get more information on the CEFAS tagging programme by visiting http://www.cefas.co.uk/projects/tagging-elasmobranchs.aspx

FINNING OUT
It’s great to hear that Scotland is to outlaw the taking of shark fins for the Asian market and this will apply to all Scottish based vessels immaterial of where they are fishing, and also to any other vessel fishing inside the Scottish zone.

Special permits have been required to take shark fins since 2004, but the rule is now to become absolute with no exceptions.

European Union countries have been the main exporter of shark fins with untold numbers of blue, thresher and porbeagle sharks, amongst other shark species, being heavily fished resulting in a dramatic downturn in overall numbers and breeding stock.

Scotland’s Rural Affairs Secretary, Richard Lochhead has urged Brussels to follow Scotland’s lead and said, “Some shark populations are close to extinction, so I am delighted that Scotland is bringing to an end such a barbaric practice. As one of Europe’s most important fishing nations we have a duty to show that we are serious about protecting the sustainability of our seas, their stocks and the wider marine eco-system, not just through words but with action.”

The taking of shark fins is one of the most horrendous and wasteful commercial fishing practices with the fins cut from the still live sharks which are then thrown back over the side to sink to the bottom and die a lingering death. In effect 90% or more of the shark is wasted!

Louize Hill, Marine Policy Officer of conservation group WWF Scotland, said: "We warmly welcome this ban. Shark finning is an incredibly wasteful practice, with many species targeted threatened with extinction. It has become clear that the only effective way to protect these vulnerable species is through a ban. We back the strong line taken by the Scottish government and urge the European Commission to follow Scotland's lead and ensure sharks are offered full protection in all European waters."

The Shark Trust’s Director of conservation, Ali Hood, said: "We applaud Scotland on its further action in urging the European Commission to review the finning legislation and ensure all sharks caught by European vessels are landed with their fins naturally attached."

The UK government is to now follow suit and will stop issuing special permits that condone this slaughter. Shark finning was banned by the EU as early as 2003, but loopholes were left allowing this horrendous practice to continue including in UK waters for UK registered vessels. Finally we hear the UK government is to put a full ban on all shark finning around the UK, and not before time!

Spain and Portugal are still killing sharks for their fins and need to be brought in line ASAP!

Although this legislation won’t fully stop the commercial killing of sharks, it will require that all sharks landed have their fins still naturally attached and this, in itself, will dramatically reduce the killing of sharks as the fins are the by far the most valuable part for the Asian market fetching as much as £200 per kilo.

Is it me or do I finally detect that common sense is beginning to prevail and the realisation that our stocks of sea fish are in actual danger is finally dawning on the people at the top that set the rules? Let’s hope so!