Seminar on protecting the coastal environment [rag stocks]

[davetilly]

I am talking at this tomorrow on the protection of our rag worm stocks,you can see my speech on my blog or come along to the EPA offices in molsewort street .
http://celticguidedfishing.blogspot.com/

[Al and Jordan]

that was a great article dave, very informitave. i've often wondered what those wee green egg sacks are. the spot we dig our worm baits in belfast lough is starting to come down with them at the moment. for the last few years they've had me stumped as to what the heck they were. there is a wide variation of sedament in our digging spot with big mussels and cockles the size of golf balls at the extreme low tide line in the mud with big pissers present too. and the furthur you move up the beach towards the shore we get the black and blow lug in the more shingley stuff. sadly a tackle dealer now has boys digging it hard sending a lot of lug off across the water by the thousand we used to get a half dozen 8inch black lug to every turn of the fork, but over the last 8 months or so you're lucky to get 1 to every other turn of the fork. we would always dig responsibly only taking what we needed and avoiding digging in the same place twice in the same month. but those lads just dig massive trenches in the same spot every other day. needless to say the spot has been fairly well dug out . one of his lads even had the cheek to come over and ask us if there was anywhere else in the area you could dig worms as they were getting scarce
sadly when money comes into the equation mans greed always seems to win out. so good to see someone responsibly collecting bait with more in mind than just a prophet margin fair play to you man. i don't know about other anglers. but i would deffo be more inclined to give my buisness to someone like yourself who practices good ethics.
see you in the summer for some peeler when we make our smoothie run down the east coast and keep up the good work. other diggers should use your buisness model as a framework for themselves and we as anglers can make an impact by showing support with our wallets when choosing a supplier
all the best,
Al.

[davetilly]

Thanks a lot Al it went great and i meet a lot of like minded people who want to save what we have.

[John D]

Hi Dave.

It's important and refreshing to see this critical issue being brought to the public's attention.

Unfortunately I viewed your post too late and missed the opportunity to hear you speak.

However I did visit the site and there is some great reading there!

Good work,
John D.

[fisherman59]

a shop in tallaght supplied rag last week who supplied them?

[John D]

If it's not in season then he needs to be kindly asked to refrain until it is in season.

When you think about it we all hold the future of rag in our own hands. I don't say that lightly. All we have to do is make sure we refrain ourselves from purchasing rag (if it's offered for sale) during their breeding season. If I remember correctly it is from October to March.

John D.

[samo]

it could have been farmed rag.