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Sea AnglingThe Isle of Man is unique, with a length of 33 miles and no more than 13 miles wide the coastline of the Island encompasses all of the fishing possibilities of England or Ireland but allows easy and fast access to all venues enabling any angler wishing to do so the opportunity to catch a wide variety of species in a short space of time. The most talked about aspect of the fishing in the Isle of Man is the summer shore fishing for Tope which has excelled of late with fish to 66lbs taken from the North West sand beaches during daylight tides, with all fish being taken on "normal" beach tackle. The many piers in the Island offer easy access to lots of very good and varied fishing. No licence is required for sea angling, which from pier, rocks or boat is excellent, especially for Pollack, mackerel, cod, whiting and plaice. Chief bait for ground fish is mackerel, but lugworm, sand eels and shellfish are also found. Jigging with white and coloured feathers and artificial sand eel for Pollack, mackerel and cod is successful. The Department of Tourism and Leisure, Douglas, issues a useful booklet on sea and river fishing. More Information About Manx Angling
The rock marks around the south and eastern coasts offer exciting and varied fishing with double figure Pollack, Coalfish and Mackerel taken by float fishing , freelining and spinning tactics whilst those anglers not worried about suffering the inevitable tackle losses can send there bait to the bottom to seek out the Cod, Ling, Conger, L.S.D's, Bullhuss and Wrasse which all feed amongst the prolific kelp communities which surround many of the rock marks the most popular of which are Perwick Bay, The Sound, Fleshwick, back of Peel Castle, Douglas Head, Maughold, Niarbyl, Scarlett and Langness. The northern beaches offer all that any beachcasting angler could ask for with all species available including Tope, Bass, Cod, L.S.D's, Cod, Coalfish and Whiting, some of the more accessible and more commonly fished stretches of beach are Blue Point, Point of Ayre, The Stone Boat, Manx Match, Jurby and The Vollan. There is also a week long shore fishing festival organised by the Ramsey Angling Club. Boat fishing in the Isle of Man is mainly concentrated around the rocky south coasts with the main charter boats port being Pt. St. Mary which gives easy access to some of the most productive inshore reef fishing in the UK with Pollack to 18lbs being the species which most anglers target although Cod, Ling, Conger, Coalfish, Mackerel, Tope, Wrasse, L.S.D's and Bullhuss are also sought by anglers. Live Launce (Greater Sandeel) is the required bait and is caught using small feathers over the Warts Sand Bank and are kept alive with aerators before being liphooked and fished on a flowing trace to tempt mainly Pollack, Ling and Cod. Ragworm is deadly on the boats taking Pollack, Flatfish, Gurnard and Dragonet but also tempting endless attacks by ravenous multicoloured Cookoo Wrasse and NFSA Specimen Ballan Wrasse. Fishing CalendarBrief History
In the Isle of Man, no one is ever very far from the sea. For its inhabitants, the surrounding waters have always been central to life, providing fish and sea birds to eat and weed to fertilise the soil. For centuries the fishing industry was a pillar of the Manx economy and intimately bound up with traditional ways of Manx life. It was asserted that in 1883 "one person out of every five depends on fishing for his daily bread, and one person in every four is directly or indirectly dependant on fishing for a livelihood". Many of the Manx people financially dependent on the sea never actually set foot on a boat. Instead they worked in associated trades and crafts such as net making, boat building, sail making and fish curing, all vital to keep the fishermen and seamen afloat. The Irish Sea has been fished commercially for centuries, but the most important target species have changed over time. Herring was the traditional catch. It was once so important that when the Dutch were thought to be poaching British stocks it caused the war of 1652-54. The defence of herring stocks led directly to the founding of the British Navy. Herring abundance has always fluctuated dramatically and there have been several disastrous declines in catches this century. In 1868 the Westminster Parliament, thinking that the sea's resources were inexhaustible, repealed all laws controlling fishing. Soon afterwards, improvements in fishing gear and the transition from sail to motorised fishing boats caused fish stocks to plummet and new curbs had to be introduced, slowing rather than halting the decline. Manx fisheries have been subjected to greater controls than those in British Waters. Most of us think of the decline in fish stocks as a recent phenomenon, yet in 1610 the Isle of Man government passed laws enabling it to close herring fisheries around the Island for six months per year and prohibit daytime fishing. Despite controls, the local herring stocks continued to dwindle. In 1894, encouraged by William Herdman, a Professor of Natural History at University College Liverpool, the Isle of Man government set up a pioneering Fisheries Board, to develop a better understanding of the fisheries and encourage aquaculture as a means of replenishing fish stocks. The science required to underpin this remit was carried out by a marine research station which had been set up two years earlier on the Isle of Man for the use of volunteer naturalists interested in marine biology. Now known as the Port Erin Marine Laboratory (PEML), the research station became part of the University of Liverpool in 1919 and later became the first institute in Britain to offer a degree in Marine Biology. Port Erin Marine Laboratory ResearchFor over 80 years the University of Liverpool scientists based on the Isle of Man have made pioneering studies of local fin-fish, shellfish, seaweeds and seawater. They have collected and recorded key marine data and acted as valued advisors - first to the Isle of Man government, then to the UK government and the EU. 100 years ago, little was known about the biology and ecology of local fin-fish. Research at Port Erin has considerably advanced our knowledge and contributed to global understanding of fish population dynamics. We now know, for instance, that there are two distinct stocks of northern Irish Sea herring - Manx and Mourne - which differ physiologically and in terms of their behaviour. From 1925 - 1986, Port Erin researchers recorded the numbers of herring landed, their weight, sex and age. In the early 1970s, following the collapse of the North Sea fishery, the Irish Sea was seen as an alternative source of herring. However, PEML data submitted to the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas, strongly supported the case for the closure and subsequent control of local herring stocks. Controls were duly introduced by the UK government from 1973 and by the EC from 1977. In the 1930s, faced by declining fin-fish stocks, Manx fisherman turned their attention to shellfish. There has been a commercial fishery for scallops, Pecten maximus, since 1937 and for queens, Aequipecten opercularis, since 1969. Together these fisheries are the most important in Manx waters, making up 60-80% of the value of all fish landed on the Island. Scallop populations are easily over-exploited by modern fishing boats, so it is vital to monitor scallop catches on an ongoing basis. To facilitate this Dr Andy Brand of PEML devised a data collecting system based on a grid which divides the north Irish Sea into 5km squares. Since 1981 local fishermen have filled in daily logs for the lab, recording which squares were fished, when, for how long and how many scallops were caught. The resulting database is one of the best in the world of its type. The time series data it contains inform annual assessments of the scallop fisheries which PEML makes on behalf of the Isle of Man government. PEML is assessing the benefits of closing scallop fisheries for extended periods to permit over-fished populations to recover. This could lead to fishery rotation to protect scallops from over fishing. PEML is also exploring the potential for scallop aquaculture. The Manx Fishing FleetThe majority of larger commercial vessels on the island fish for King and Queen scallops, though some fish for whitefish species. There is also an inshore fleet which fish for brown crab, lobsters and whelks. There is a closed season for King scallops which runs from June 1st to October 31st. Queenies can be fished all the year round. Dredging is used for the commercial harvesting of scallops around the Island. A dredge consists of a metal rectangular frame to which a bag-shaped net of metal rings is attached. The frames lower end is called the raking bar and is often equipped with metal teeth used to dig up the bottom. The frame is connected to a towing cable and dragged along the sandy floor much like a trawl net. Manx boats fishing for fin-fish are trawlers. Trawling is the most common fishing method and can simply be described as towing a net through the water. The trawl net is funnel-shaped and can harvest bottom-dwelling fish when dragged along the ocean floor. Pelagic fish can be caught by mid-water trawling, where the net is towed through the water column between the surface and the bottom. Other variations include stern trawling and side trawling, which refer to the position of the net relative to the boat during setting and hauling. Pair trawling can be used, whereby two boats are used to spread the mouth of the net wide although this technique is rarely used by Manx boats. Manx Government Initiatives & LicensingGovernment support is accorded to by way of grant and loan assistance for the acquisition and improvement of fishing vessels. Financial incentives are offered to encourage Manx registered/crewed vessels to land fish to local processors, technical services and education. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has its own fishery protection vessel, which operates within the Island's territorial waters. Scallops and queenies are economically the most important species and the mainstay of the Manx fishing fleet. The Island is noted for the Manx kipper, produced from the summer/autumn herring fishery. However, the fishing grounds around the Isle of Man also yield a variety of species which are valued by both commercial and leisure fishermen, notably cod, sole, skate and plaice. Conservation management of stocks to safeguard the future viability of fishing opportunities has resulted in the introduction of closed season restrictions, catch controls and minimum size restrictions on scallops, herring and whitefish species. Inland, the DAFF maintains a freshwater fish hatchery and produces both brown and rainbow trout to stock the Island's rivers and reservoirs. The future of the unique Manx salmon strain is also safeguarded, not only by collecting eggs from the spawning stock and nurturing them prior to release but also by mounting patrols to combat poaching. The sea fisheries regulations are similar to those of the UK. The Isle of Man has it's own constitution, however it has a reciprocal agreement with the UK with regard to fisheries management. The Isle of Man also has separate licence regimes for crab, lobster and whelks. A vessel must hold a commercial fishing license issued by the Isle of Man fishery office. Additionally, vessels fishing within three miles of the Island must hold a permit, which can only be issued provided the vessel has a registered length of less than 50ft. |
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