Cornish sardine fishing at the close of 2020.

 

With a break in the weather Cornish sardine fishing recommences after the Christmas break. Late afternoon sees the Golden Harvest closing er ring net alongside the boat before pumping the fish aboard. As the day closes, the smallest of the ring netters, Resolute lands a small shot alongside the fish market in Newlyn.

FV Asthore landing Cornish sardines in Newlyn.

Switching from dusk to dawn fishing - the fleet of ring netters working from Newlyn in Mounts Bay have found it more productive to sail in the early hours and shoot before first light. Here the Asthore lands 21 tons sardines.  

Inshore fishing for Cornish sardines.

Set against a backdrop of waves crashing against the rocks off St Michael's Mount and surrounded by hundreds of screaming gulls, Serene Dawn...

is joined by the Golden Harvest looking for fish marks on which to shot her ring-net...

joined minutes later by the rest of the fleet - now all hands fishing only a few hundred metres from the causeway between Marazion and the Mount...

the Asthore had spent nearly two hours looking for fish marks along the western shore.  The images of the boats taken from screen grabs from the Newlyn webcam.

First #FishyFriday fish for February

Safe and sound as an anchor...

the hake netter, Karen of Ladram...

along with most of the fleet are tied up in port over the big spring tide...

fresh fish - this is what Newlyn is all about!...

fish like hake...

big prime flatfish like these turbot...

even bigger haddock...

and always a good selection of ray...

red mullet...

tub gurnard...

and of course big, bad, beautiful bass that Colin just could not resist giving the auctioneer the nod for...

it takes two to tango...

as the bidding wars continue...

 for some more prime flats from the beam trawlers...

Cornishman...

and St Georges...

who landed a big trip of monkfish...

in the fridge a few boxes of handline mackerel...

and pristine sardines from the Pelagic Marksman...

temporarily closed to the outside world - the refurbishment of the other end of the fish market continues apace...

looking back at the same view...

Stevenson's head auctioneer Ian looks for another bid to come forth...

despite the amorous attentions from young Mr Smart...

with the netters tied up there is precious little by way of big whitefish so these pollack made good money this morning...

before being whisked away to the back of the waiting Iceberg lorry...

dramatic skies on the dark side this morning owing to that huge moon still lingering over the town...

fish arrive overnight or early morning from all corners of the country...

the fleet riding high at high water...

which makes life much easier for Peter and the boys aboard the sardine ring-netter Asthore...

as they haul the giant net aided by the hauler...

onto the quayside...

carefully flaking it down...

and spreading it out...

before hauling it back on the boat...

into the huge aft net pound...

ready for the start of another night's work out in the bay.

Monday morning in Newlyn

Plenty of fish for plenty of buyers on the final Monday market of 2107...

more than enough to keep auctioneer Ian busy bidding up the price of Christmas fish...

like these whole monk...

glistening cod...

and hake from the Ajax...

in superb condition...

while the rest of the market was full of day-boat fish like these plaice...

and ray wings, prepared in the traditional way for hanging up to dry...

boxes from all corners of the North Atlantic...

though the cuttle season is now well and truly over they are fetching almost double the price of a few weeks ago...

ling, heads or tails...

that man Cod has been at the bass again...

though his arch rival Andrew struck a richer seam of these fantastic fish...

and also pulled in some pure gold cod, not often you see fish within hours of it being caught on the market..

it wasn't only the local handline guys on the bass, there were a few more pole and line fish from the Helford based, Boy James...

other inshore boats landing included the Harvest Reaper...

with some extra-large monk tails...

while the big beam trawler, Cornishman captured a few big turbot...

and some monster megs...

while the small gurnards were all boxed up and all went for bait...

the Ajax also put a big shot of haddock ashore...

while though the chilly interior of the fridge was full of quality handline fish the buyers crowded in to make their bids...

the other big boat to land was the beam trawler Trevessa IV with some cracking monk tails...

the Newlyn Harbour lights were better off to the tune of £100 when this box of donated haddock were sold for them...

the big plaice fishing might have dropped off but not the big plaice!..

a box of small eight-leggers...

yet again the netters landed dogs - hard to believe that the netting fleet have been dumping this amount of fish on a regular basis for years before an agreement was reached to land them...

no mistaking which fish market this is...

in one of the landing berths the Three Jays is all set for sea...

while the Little Pearl is in the process of landing her night's haul of ...

twelve tons of sardines.