not happy with nrw I should coco!

[mintylad]

Gents I have just spent the morning reading the responses to the consultation and can only conclude there is a unanimous displeasure over the effectiveness of the organisation. I am reluctant to say that any of these responses will result in change. If I can draw your attention to the response from an international oil giant VALERO. By the sounds of it they are trying to adhere to all environmental directives which they can only be commended for. Yet it would appear that they are receiving very little assistance in this matter. The pembroke refinery has provided employment to countless families in the county including my own for over 50 years but I am sure that sooner or later they will cease operations if not assisted by the government. If these giants cannot get definitive answers then what hope does it give to the rest of us? I don't want to think our efforts have been wasted! I am not sure what else can be said on the matter apart from the fact we just have to hold out that sooner or later sense will prevail. Just hoping it won't be too late for anything good to be done no point shutting the gate once the horse has bolted.

Mintylad

[grey duster]

Those responses are an eyeopener.The one that got me was 300+ Carmarthen anglers on the Towy caught 189 sewin last year

[jj1]

The same club 25 years ago was doing around 1000!

[mintylad]

And of those 189 I accounted for 15 not wanting to sound clever. Most of them were taken in August after the supposed main run of fish so I am lead to believe. I would imagine a high percentage of permit holders recored a nil on their catcch returns. Men will leave clubs if they don't catch a fish its just a downward spiral from there on.

[grey duster]

I like you(not blowing a trumpet)caught 15 sewin last year.I would like to see some figures from Llandysul anglers for the Teify.

[jj1]

Quite a few more replies. Whats interesting is the fishing guys want more action about febs yet the birders want it stopped lol.

[johnevs]

Is this 189 seatrout for the whole season if so there's something drastically wrong somewhere
or is this just a certain clubs figures, not the entire river as a whole??

[Teifi-Terrorist]

Is this 189 seatrout for the whole season if so there's something drastically wrong somewhere
or is this just a certain clubs figures, not the entire river as a whole??

That's one club, but still nothing compared to their membership size, quality of their water and also angling hours put in.

TT.

[jj1]

That club has the best night water below abercothi, it also has some outstanding day water water not to mention miles and miles of the cothi and gwili., i was getting over 200 sewin a season in the ninties there, it was truly outstanding, when the run was on 30/40 sewin a night was coming off one pool alone and up to 7000 fish a season off the whole river. Its just a crying shame what has become of such a magical water

[jj1]

Its not just the other problems that have affected the system, we as anglers have had a big part to play in the problem, most fish where knocked on the head up until the late ninties, certain areas got hit hard, the bridge pool on the gwili was a bottle neck and anglers used to kill huge amounts of sewin there, over 100 schoolies in a night was quite common on the right tides. It was the sight of an angler lumping a black bag full of sewin away from that pool that set me on the road to being more c+r minded. The sewin numbers crashed there not long after, down to around a sixth in 3 seasons! Lets hope wag does take notice of the0points that have been raised as wales as a tourist fishing destination is worth far more than just a pillaged nation!

[grey duster]

I hold my hand up.I have never caught anything like 200 in a season,but everything silver i caught years ago was knocked on the head.I honestly cannot remember any anglers operating C+R.Times have changed,perhaps too late.

[jj1]

I was fortunate that i worked afternoons for most of the 90's, allowing me to get to the river3/5 nights a week, its a long season too on the lower river and sewin could b caught frm start to end of season, huge numbers infact as the shoals where still intact as they came past you. I saw on quite a few occasions litteraly thousands of sewin passs me at the wier, runs sometimes lasting hours as they swam past, indervidual nights of 20+ sewin where atainable and nights of 10+ where common, many of these where big fish too, in june 1994, 3 of us caught 8 doubles between us in one night with steve my mate getting a pb 18.5lb sewin amonst them. In late august to october, if the cothi was low, the pumphouse and wier would hold vast black shoals of them (twps y dail). The river there is big, 40+ yards wide and the entire pool is half a mile long. Wormers up llandeilo used to get similar figures and undeclaring was rife, the true catch must have been much much more than the declared. I will never see these numbers again in my life time which is truly sad.

[jj1]

Another ominous factor that most people dnt realise is that in 2002,the then goverment signed over our inshore fisheries to europe, which, if you check the stats, a few years later the decline in stocks intensified!
One bit of good news to report though, the trawler working out of bideford that was claiming grandfathers rights has been stopped, this vessel had been creating havoc with migratories and bass populations within the bristol chan'l and its approaches, lets hope they can sort the two spanish vessels reg'd in milford out next! These pair get caught on a regular basis, fines up to 400k havnt disueded them either!

[grey duster]

I used to fish the Elwy and Clwyd in North Wales.In some parts the rivers were that narrow you could literally jump across(i could not do it now),but some of the postage stamp pools,at times,as you say,were black with fish.