Ron
you say that if the trawlers were fishing for cod then anything under 8lb would simply pass through the net. then why is the mls so small cause an 8lb fish must be around 50cm length.
Also we all know that once a trawl net starts to fill the mesh size efffectively shrinks meaning that all undersize fish get trapped and then end up dead.
if the cod fishing fleet were only catching fish upwards of 8lb then cod would be the most plentiful fish in the sea.
or am i being stupid and have mis-understood your post.
p.s don't take this the wrong way and get all defensive and threaten to stop posting as i am one of the many who enjoy reading you catch reports.
dicky.
Hi Dicky.A Cod trawl setup will be completely different to a trawl set up for say Sole or plaice fishing.A Cod trawl needs to fish ''faster''..You need to tow quicker in order to catch Cod,also the trawl headline needs to fish higher in the water too as the fish are not always tight to the bottom.Smaller boats achieve this by fishing much larger mesh in the first part of the trawl,meaning less drag through the water,but the fish need to be a bigger stamp than the ones we are catching to get a decent haul and too not pass through the bigger mesh.A Trawl fishing for soles would fish smaller mesh in the first part of the trawl and ''Tickler''chains from the otter boards and on certain parts of the quarters and ground rope to basically ''Tickle''the flatfish from the sand and doesnt need to to be towed over the ground so quickly.With the much larger mesh in the cod trawl the smaller fish will pass through (The vast majority) anyway.Youre right talking of the mesh in the codend part of the trawl ''Bunging up''and trapping smaller fish but nothing is perfect.Im not saying a boat fishing for soles will not catch any cod,of course it will and vice versa for a boat looking for cod catching a small amount of soles but no where near enough to make a days money.I actually know of noone in the Thames Estuary specifically targetting Cod.
Deepsea trawling is slightly different,massive horsepower means that a catch of cod while fishing soles or Plaice is likely but this would tend to be bigger Cod anyway.
The penultimate way for Cod fishing and indeed Bass too is infact pair trawling,Large net,no trawl doors and you can tow faster.....How many boats do you see pairing in the Wallet? Ive never ever seen any,you do on occasions see them off of Southend pier (The Gilson Boats) These again are not fishing Cod but Whitebait and on occasions,Spratts.Although there looks to be a lot a lot of fish in the Wallet,they are on the same line and there probably in the scope of things are not that many at all.Roker are a different story,they are everywhere and there are tons of them,there really is no fear of these being wiped out.If they hit them too hard,the market price drops to pennies a Kilo so what would be the point?.....Soles are where the money is and the quotas have again been cut on these so what will happen to this fishery? We will have to wait and see.When you are next out and angling,look at which way the tide is running,watch the trawler get his gear up,he will then run down the tide before he shoots away again into the tide,he will tow slowly,head to tide,he is working Soles and flatfish with a few Roker thrown in.A small inshore Trawler working into the tide has less chance of catching a bag of Cod than I do of becoming a mod on this site!
Oh one more observation,Beam Trawlers are not used for Cod Fishing,beamers are used basically for flatfish,again mostly soles and Plaice,a beam trawl is next to useless for Cod fishing.
Ron
