Monday morning in Newlyn

It's a Robert Jones sort of sky this morning gracing Mounts Bay...

with most of the fleet at sea...

though there was still one strange looking vessel floating in the harbour...

Monday morning's market was full of MSC certified hake from the netter Ygraine

and the Silver Dawn...

along with a few spurdogs...

cod...

and haddock...

young Roger managed to track down a couple of good John Dory hauls over the weekend...

while the netters added plenty of big whitefish

 like pollack and coley to their hauls...

these guys must be thick on the ground if they ended up being caught in a gill net...

some of the inshore boats picked up some top quality red mullet...

bass...

and mackerel...

time to take bait for the Girl Pamela...

evidence a few sardines came ashore last night...

nice little yacht for a project for someone has come up for grabs...

almost there...

another classic autumn morning sky in Newlyn.

 

What a night!

At this time of year, St Ives the most popular tourist destination in the west of Cornwall plays host to the St Ives September festival, a celebration of the arts in all its wonderful shapes and forms and for which St Ives reserves its own special status - for a tiny town is boasts its own Tate gallery. But it isn't just the creative arts for which people meander upalong and downalong throughout the cobbled streets - it's music too. In the street, on the quay and in various pubs and bars an eclectic mix of musicians make the journey to the far west, for some its almost an annual pilgrimage. Last Friday night you could have caught the man whose song, The Gael' became the theme music for the film, Last of the Mohicans - for that you would have needed to get to the online box office pretty sharpish because the tickets for the tickets to see Dougie McClean were hotter than a Pengenna Pasty - on the other hand, though the tickets were also straight out of the oven, you could have opted to get an earful of St Ives Fishermen's Shanty Shout - hosted in the truly unique setting that is Porthmeor Net loft, below Porthmeor Studios.

Here's what you missed, recorded in full by adopted Frenchman Alban Roinard. The net loft was packed with an expectant crowd enjoying local beers and buzzing with conversation until Cadgwith fisherman Martin Ellis, star of the film Bait and his own Cadgwith taxi service took to the makeshift stage and gave a particularly heartfelt performance of The Cornish Fisherman song to a hushed crowd - and there were plenty more singers and songs to follow. Enjoy!

Mid-week storm

With fifty knot gusts and plenty of rain sweep across the harbour this morning there's a whole host of visiting boats, mostly scallopers sheltering in Newlyn this morning...

the Morning Star and Sylvia Bowers...

Albion...

Belgian beam trawler Artevelde...

and outside the Cornishman and Billy Rowney the Lass O'Doune...

despite the weather there were slim pickings for the buyers with only a handful of boxes of most species like these line caught mackerel...

while megrims...

ray...

and monk were in short supply...

though there were a good few line caught bass snapped up...

some having to be patient before picking up their fish...

meanwhile, with more weather to come, assistant harbourmaster Jedna was busy telling skipper Will Gillespie where to go...

so that Lionel could supervise the berthing arrangements in order to accommodate...

the arrival of the Enterprise closely followed...

by the Spanish stern trawler...

Udra who, as a flagged vessel,..

is in to make one of her obligatory UK landings...

four big scallopers in the port...

all working 17 dredges a side and drawing well over 4m of water present a logistical challenge to have the boats berthed and landed...

making their way to the gaps, the Enterprise followed by the Udra.

 

Monday morning in Newlyn.

One things for sure, the roads won't be jammed with September trippers headed for any of the local beaches...

so hopefully they will head for any of the dozens of local restaurants and pubs that serve freshly landed fish like these brill from the market on Newlyn...

at this time of year sardines are a must-have...

so you would do well to head for 45 Queen Street in Penzance where they currently do a top job with their sardines and chermoula...

there were seine caught spurdogs...

from the Acionna...

and whole monk...

looks like these big Mediterranean octopus are here to stay...

beautiful handline caught bass...

and blackjacks from the Maverick...

a box of the best...

a handful of haddocks...

and, if John Dory are your thing, then there's no better place to head...

than The Shore in Penzance, especially as there may well also be freshly cured bluefin tuna on the menu too...

won't be long before that 'box of the best' is making its way back to Pysk Fish headquarters in Falmouth...

the Karl fleet at rest...

those sardines scales get everywhere it seems...

two sail boats with classic lines graced the pontoon berths over the weekend...

while the not-so-classical lines of the two biggest sterns in the port lie side-by-side this morning at high water...

looks like a couple of hours mending, or more, still to do on Danny's big sardine net...

local artist Robert Jones perfectly capturing the handline fleet at sea fishing for mackerel back in the day - more of his work can be seen in the Thomas Henry gallery in the heart of Newlyn.

 

Fish of the week 35 - plaice

 

Every plaice has a different number of spots, sometimes almost none and unique colour range.

That spotty favourite! Plaice are caught in demersal trawls, beam trawls and, to a lesser extent in gill nets. The main fishery occurs 20 miles off the North Coast of Cornwall where place spawn during February and March. The peak landings occur during this time and in September.

Plaice stocks have increased dramatically over recent years and stocks are now well above sustainable levels. fishing pressure reduced for several years but since 2015 it has increased significantly off the south coast but its still within precautionary levels. It is within sustainable levels off the north coast. Plaice is a versatile and often affordable flatfish that we should all be eating more of. 

In 2021 a total of 168 tonnes of Plaice were landed to Cornish ports with a value of £469k (MMO data) according to the Cornwall Good Seafood Guide where you can find more information on this lovely eating fish.

Plaice are right eyed flatfish that live on the seabed where they are well camouflaged, being able to change colour to match their surroundings. They are opportunistic feeders living on small invertebrates such as crabs, worms and crustaceans. During the daytime they are often inactive, hiding in sand, emerging at night time to feed.

Eating plaice:

These tasty fish figure in every fish cook book. The flesh is a brilliant white when cooked and many recipes call for the fish to be cooked whole on the bone. They can be readily interchanged with Dover sole, lemon sole or other flatfish recipes.