22 replies to this topic

[paul h]

from a friend of mine at the main pier/breakwater at Gourdon harbour
Though I should post this , to make everyone who stores their keeps in harbours aware.

I always leave my keeps in the sea, not in the harbour for fear of having stuff tampered with/stolen, however during the winter I am forced to tie them from the breakwater here.House overlooks the harbour so I can keep a good eye on them, get a lot of anglers fishing from the pier,often overnight so always keep a good eye out.
At 2am monday 27th , I caught 2 anglers redhanded stealing lobsters and crabs from one of my keeps. Saw the whole thing from my house, went down with my truck and blocked their car in. They could do nothing but appologise and assured me it would not happen again.....and say how sorry they were.....only sorry they got caught ! They took the lobsters and crabs from the boot of their car and gave them back . I took the registration number of their car and reported it to the police . Only wish I had called the police on the spot now and got them arrested !
Got on to the council straight away ( have complained about anglers leaving the piers here in a mess for years  ) they are now looking at putting up barriers/fences to prevent car access , and signs as well as installing cctv.
Not saying all anglers are theives here !  but just a warning to everyone to keep an eye out !

[young ronnie]

Gone are the days when you could safely float your stuff in the harbour in lidded boxes and not have to worry about any pilfering. The only worry was somebody inadvertantly pumping their bilges too low and a drop of oil coming out onto the water..changed days indeed Paul,but thankfully not everybody is light fingered...only a few thieving bas*ards who give the rest a bad name. Send the c**ts out to Saudi Arabia where they have a very nice way of dealing with such people...I wont tell you what the punishment is,suffice to say they will have great difficulty picking their noses after it !!!

[Barry McCrindle]

We've caught divers in at our creels, pointed out they wouldn't have been to happy if I smashed their nice 4 x 4 window and helped myself to a CD. They have not got a grasp on the fact, that you spend money buying the creel, the rope, the buoys.  Plus all the time and effort to bait and shoot the creels. 
I know for sure that pair will never try it again, but there will be another pairs of half wits along to replace them no doubt

[paul h]

why do people think fish crabs lobesters ect come free and can have what they want people come on quay asking for a fry they want half a black full of fishbut wouid not give u price of a pint in return all they say is u never paid ought for the fish ???

[paul h]

cory of letter sent to world sea fishing forums ( angling site )


Dear Sir,
It is with absolute disgust I find myself having to write to you about the actions of some ‘so called anglers’ at Gourdon harbour. There has been a problem here in recent years ,of anglers coming from all over Scotland to fish during the winter showing little or no consideration for other harbour users who unlike them pay for the privilege . As a fulltime fisherman and harbour user , I am sick to death of having to clean up after them , and of having to ask them to move their inconsiderately parked cars, which should not even be on the breakwater .Piers are always left strewn with discarded fishing line and plastic rubbish, I have seen some light fires on the pier and one even had the sense to dump a washing machine in to the harbour! I have lost count of the amount of seabirds I have seen entangled with line and swallowed hooks , often left with bait still attached, we have several one legged sea gulls here at the moment , who have lost legs as a direct consequence of this . I have written to the press and complained to the council previously regarding this , I accept not 100% of anglers are guilty of this type of behaviour , but I’m afraid the vast majority who come to Gourdon in my experience sadly are.
However at 2am on Monday 27th October , two of these ‘anglers’ stooped to a new low, I witnessed and caught them in the process of stealing lobsters and crabs which I had stored in the harbour . They removed a storage keep from the water ,opened it and proceeded to steal my catch . I immediately went down in my vehicle and blocked their car in , so they had no exit. They were surprised to say the least and could do nothing but apologise and immediately removed my lobsters and crabs from the boot of their car and returned them to me . Caught red handed they could do nothing but claim it was a ‘’moment of madness’’ ,and assure me ‘it wouldn’t happen again’ it was obviously a planned theft as they knew which keep to target .The car registration number was noted and I have reported the matter to the police . I have been in touch with the council and they are looking into the possibility of erecting barriers to stop cars getting access to the breakwater. Signs will shortly be erected prohibiting unauthorised vehicles as well as cctv being installed .From now on any further incidents of littering , damage to fishing gear or theft will be reported to the police .
It is hard enough making a living at this time of the year having to contend with the weather and poor market prices , but to have my hard earned catch stolen ,really is despicable , those guilty should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves and have done nothing but tarnish the image and reputation of anglers even further .
[FONT='Calibri','sans-serif'] Yours [/font]

[markh]

Quote

cory of letter sent to world sea fishing forums ( angling site )


Dear Sir,
It is with absolute disgust I find myself having to write to you about the actions of some ‘so called anglers’ at Gourdon harbour. There has been a problem here in recent years ,of anglers coming from all over Scotland to fish during the winter showing little or no consideration for other harbour users who unlike them pay for the privilege . As a fulltime fisherman and harbour user , I am sick to death of having to clean up after them , and of having to ask them to move their inconsiderately parked cars, which should not even be on the breakwater .Piers are always left strewn with discarded fishing line and plastic rubbish, I have seen some light fires on the pier and one even had the sense to dump a washing machine in to the harbour! I have lost count of the amount of seabirds I have seen entangled with line and swallowed hooks , often left with bait still attached, we have several one legged sea gulls here at the moment , who have lost legs as a direct consequence of this . I have written to the press and complained to the council previously regarding this , I accept not 100% of anglers are guilty of this type of behaviour , but I’m afraid the vast majority who come to Gourdon in my experience sadly are.
However at 2am on Monday 27th October , two of these ‘anglers’ stooped to a new low, I witnessed and caught them in the process of stealing lobsters and crabs which I had stored in the harbour . They removed a storage keep from the water ,opened it and proceeded to steal my catch . I immediately went down in my vehicle and blocked their car in , so they had no exit. They were surprised to say the least and could do nothing but apologise and immediately removed my lobsters and crabs from the boot of their car and returned them to me . Caught red handed they could do nothing but claim it was a ‘’moment of madness’’ ,and assure me ‘it wouldn’t happen again’ it was obviously a planned theft as they knew which keep to target .The car registration number was noted and I have reported the matter to the police . I have been in touch with the council and they are looking into the possibility of erecting barriers to stop cars getting access to the breakwater. Signs will shortly be erected prohibiting unauthorised vehicles as well as cctv being installed .From now on any further incidents of littering , damage to fishing gear or theft will be reported to the police .
It is hard enough making a living at this time of the year having to contend with the weather and poor market prices , but to have my hard earned catch stolen ,really is despicable , those guilty should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves and have done nothing but tarnish the image and reputation of anglers even further .
[FONT='Calibri','sans-serif'] Yours [/font]

your probably wasting your time there, with maybe half a dozen exceptions, everyone that uses that sight are convinced that by fishing comemrcially you are the spawn of satan, and a rapist of the seas.

Posting it in the scottish section of the sea angling forum might get some response, but not all good

had a few heated debates on there over the years to be sure 

visit shields pier, or probably any of the piers around the coast and its a fecking midden, visit shields in silly season when the mackeral are in and its a disgrace, I've seen em throwing fish at each other, throwing live fish for their dogs to catch, cutting their tales off and throwing them back to see if the can still swim and so on and so on and so on

they'll haul 100 mackeral in, and then leave em dumped at the end of the pier cos they are too heavy to carry, but only after they've gutted them on the pier and left the mess behind, like its really hard work to kick it over the side, least the crabs would get a feed

I'm an angler but it makes my piss boil it really does, I've had days when I've taken a full bin bag full of rubbish off the rocks at ardnamurchan, lure packets, bait wrappings, old line, carriers, cans

the one nicking from the keep pots probably think it doesn't matter cos, you're a commercial fisherman, you're evil already and probably raking it in.

I wouldn't have let em go, I'd have given them a choice, Mr Plod, or your car keys - you get your car keys back when you've spent a day mid january hauling pots or gutting fish to see how easy it

quick nurse!  the medication, I'm going off on one again

[fastcat]

Thanks for posting this Paul 

Hello to everyone,this was me , probably know my name from another site  :

Yeah, probably am wasting my time writing letters, but so angry had to get it out my system, had a few replies on that angling forum so far.......just want to make them aware they will be watched more than ever now .
Was sheer bloody luck I caught them !  Was wide awake at 2am and just happened to look out the window ! 6th sense I think , not heard anything back from the police yet, but hopefully they will pay them a visit, really wish I had called the police on the spot now  , their car was totally blocked in and they could go nowhere, but didn't really think when I was at boiling point !! 


Congrats on the site by the way guys ! looking good ! 

[quiet waters]

in the same situation i think i'd have phoned round for a few able bodies and given them a damn good kicking, then thrown their car keys in the water for good measure.

[sam]

It's like it in Brid as well, some are fine, some are complete tossers. I nearly got hit by one of their lines the other month, the idiot reeled his line in, swung it all the way across the pier in front of me, and was about to cast off again before I said something. Did he apologise? Did he fuck. Then they leave their rubbish all over, but that doesn't matter because they're "putting money into the community".

[westword]

i know this problem only too well  gear and stuff being f >:(cked  around with when these arsholes appear.find a good vantage point wait them out ;then get down there and kick f >:(ck out o them is ma answer

[fastcat]

Posting on their site was a bit ''interesting''  lol  got a bit heated last night, a few of them had comments deleted by the mods :    Story will be  in a local paper tomorrow, so they will get my name  , expecting more ''debate'' then 

[markh]

Quote

Posting on their site was a bit ''interesting''  lol  got a bit heated last night, a few of them had comments deleted by the mods :    Story will be  in a local paper tomorrow, so they will get my name  , expecting more ''debate'' then 

sounds about right.  I have to stop myself getting involved with it when anything regarding commercial fishing rears its head

[quiet waters]

there was £260 worth stolen here last weekend, plus the two cages they were in!!! the culprits better hope they don't get caught if the owner is who i think it is? big campbell will have their ba's and no mistake.

[bryan DE127]

is that big Cambell keat that got his lobesters stolen QW if it is the boys that stolel them better watch he dose not find them.

[quiet waters]

i'm assuming so, they were stolen from machrihanish and i can't think of anyone but campbell, i noticed his boat for sale a while back on FAFB so don't know if he sold it or bought another, depends, he goes thru big boat, wee boat phases, naw seen him in a while, always good craic, tho he's naw big campbell anymore, not because he's slimmer, i just caught up.

[johntar tt10]

Old Uncle Mat, my great uncle in fact, had a tip when his Lobbies were getting stolen from his keeps.

He split wilkinson sword razor saftey blades then put them into the lay of the keep rope, said he could always spot the culprits,
always wondered how?

Probably end up a guest of Strathclyde's Finest if you tried that nowadays though !

[quiet waters]

surely not, just being a smart man, self cleaning ropes, no bother with weed, officer!!!

[bryan DE127]

you were right QW it was Campbells lobsters that were stolen. i spoke to his older brother Stuarthe was a fo here in Arbroath in the 80s. two young lads stole them and sold them to a chinkey .they better watch out if Campbell has a dram in him.

[Adoration II]

heard about the razor blades john few years back tats crap stealing mans living think campbell keeps them 4 scatter o months so he gets touch at xmas 2 rite an all way the better money dont get on tat good way him but tats terrible xmas bonus away was ther many stolen ill ask about

[quiet waters]

he's naw the slimmest of lads is campbell keytes, i remember when we were doing the survival course in the local swimming pool and i was second man into the liferaft, first man was charles cake face jnr. he helped me in and then i had to haul the third man out the water, it was campbell, so i did what we'd been told, grabbed his lifevest and then dunked him three or four times to get him a bit of momentum before hauling him in the doorway, he was floundering like a big whale, half in, half oot, having swallowed half the pool and calling me for everything, then the instructor turned a hose on him, best laugh i'd had in years, me and charles had to end up pulling the fourth man out the water while he got his breath back!!!!

[Adoration II]

pmsl its alot harder as it looks anyway ma bed time nite nite

[irishmariner]

These dickheads dont understand, its simple, but heres another way of looking at it: would you put your hand down to steal an artists paint while he is painting a nice trawler or ship???? Especially if he is from Donegal and half mad????I rest my case........................