Passive Fishing – What is it?

Passive Fishing Methods

Passive Fishing Methods:

When it comes to fishing, the availability of oceans, seas, rivers, canals, lakes, ponds, streams, and other bodies of water to fish in obviously varies from continent to continent and country to country.

Since I am a resident of Belgium, I have written this article in mind the way in which “Passive Fishing” is practiced in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Still, there will be many landmarks.

You can also have a look at this article: “Passive fishing can get active”

What does “Passive Fishing” mean?

Relaxing in your chair at the water’s edge as your pole is propped up on its support, and all of this while feeding in a predetermined location. Spending time outdoors, appreciating the peace and quiet, and maybe even having a picnic with the family.

All of this, while the pike is being baited with live fish or the eel is being enticed by a worm, and without moving to a new fishing place. What a delicious possibility it is.

Therefore, in this situation, the fish are the ones who have to be active, while you can choose to be passive, but in a very enjoyable way.

Fishing with a longline (longlining)

Since prehistoric times, people have used lines and hooks to fish. It’s therefore safe to say that this technique ranks up there among the oldest types of fishing. The baited hooks on the transverse lines are cast out beside the main line.

When compared to other fishing methods, longline fishing is both energy efficient and selective. In comparison to fish taken with trawl nets and static nets, longline-caught fish tend to be of superior quality.

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However, only a small number of British fishermen use lines to catch fish in the North Sea. Norway, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands rely heavily on and benefit greatly from longline fishing.

On fish characteristics that are difficult to fish with trawl nets, like stony bottoms, the longline fishery can be profitable.

With this technique, fishing boats can cast anything from a few hundred (for the smaller boats) to tens of thousands of hooks (larger vessels). This technique is suitable for fishing at any time of the year.

Fishing with jigs (Passive Fishing)

Passive Fishing
[[File:Slabbing jig fishing lure.jpg|Slabbing_jig_fishing_lure]] – Dusty.crockett (talk)

You can also take a look at “Artificial Fishing Bait”

Jig fishing, like longline fishing, makes use of hooks and lines. Over the course of several centuries, this technique has been refined and improved. Jigs are the tools of choice in this kind of fishing.

The hook is traditionally concealed under a sinker (sometimes known as “cold lead”). To attract fish, a cover is placed over the hook to make it look like the fish’s natural food.

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To make the lure look more like a school of little fish, anglers would often jig it up and down rhythmically in the water. On the other hand, some fish can be caught simply by lowering the bait to the right depth.
Some fish will bite only from looking at the sparkling hooks, so you won’t even need feathers or plastic lures.

This type of fishing was first done by a solitary angler using a solitary line with a single baited hook at the end of the line. In particular the French, Spaniards, and Portuguese fished for cod using this method using smaller boats known as “dories” that were towed behind a larger mother ship. After some time, more hooks were attached to the line, which made it possible to reel in multiple fish at the same time.

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Some fishermen in Europe continue to practice this form of fishing on a smaller scale; for instance, the small-scale mackerel fishery in South West England uses this method. In most cases, this refers to boats that are up to ten meters in length, and a single fisherman will use a fishing line that has 20 to 30 hooks.

The lines are then typically manually retrieved at this point. This method of fishing is still used today, but with developments in technology, it is now feasible to fish with multiple lines at the same time.

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For instance, jig machines are utilized quite frequently in today’s society. The jig machine is a piece of equipment that can be driven in one of three different ways: manually, electrically, or hydraulically.

The electric drive is the one that stands out the most due to how straightforward the installation is. These jig machines have a number of various programs built into them, making it possible to fish for a variety of different species of fish at the same time.

The Handline Method

The usage of handlines is most common while fishing for sea bass around areas of shipwrecks where there are dense populations of the species. This fish can be caught with little more than a fishing rod. Anchoring near a wreck, sandbank, or other structure where fish are known to congregate is necessary for fishing.

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This type of fishing is typically done by vessels that are not very large. As a consequence of this fact, this kind of fishing is extremely sensitive to the state of the weather. The fishing season for sea bass goes from May until October, although the best time to catch one is from April until December.

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An average of seventy days per year are spent fishing by handline fishermen. The majority of the time, fishermen employ artificial lures like shads, pilkers, spoons, jigging, and crankbaits. On occasion, though, they also utilize live bait such as rags, razor clams, or soft crab.

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In recent years, there has been a drop in the stocks of sea bass and fish. Overfishing of these stocks is one of the likely explanations that has been cited, along with other factors such as climate change and the poor growth of young sea bass. However, these factors are not the only possible causes.

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This has not gone unnoticed, and as a result, steps have been taken to conserve the stock of sea bass. The plan for the management of the sea bass includes these many protocols. For instance, certain regions and times have been designated as off-limits for fishing for sea bass, and the maximum quantity of fish that a recreational angler is permitted to bring into their home has been cut down.

Fixed net fishing (Passive Fishing)

Static net fishing is the predominant method used for subsistence fishing on a modest scale in the Netherlands. Standing nets can be used not just for fishing along the coast, but also for fishing in more remote fishing areas and in interior waters. Standing nets are versatile and can be used for all three types of fishing.

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A fishing gear known as a static net has an upper string that is outfitted with floats, a weighted lower string, a single or multi-walled network in between, and a single or multiple-walled network in between the upper and lower strings.

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Both sides of the standing net are secured to the seafloor by anchors. A standing net is positioned so that it is perpendicular to the seafloor and does not move in response to any form of current or other tractive force.

In principle, recreational fishing in the sea and in coastal waters with static nets is illegal in the Netherlands; nevertheless, an exemption may be requested from some coastal municipalities. Because of this, the use of these nets for fishing is authorized in a handful of coastal communities, but only under particular restrictions.

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The standing net approach typically takes place within a zone that is twelve miles in diameter. Fishermen who use static nets and those who fish from vessels are both present at this location. As a direct consequence of this, the fish cutlery can become highly crowded.

Because of this, the majority of fishermen who use static nets communicate with other vessels and fishermen in the area to coordinate locations and determine free fishing estimates.

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However, as a result of the growing number of people using the sea, it is nearly inevitable that arguments will occur amongst the many users of the water.

These kinds of conflicts might happen, for instance, when the gear used by fishermen with cutter nets and fishermen with static nets collides. Both of these fisherman will suffer as a result of this, which highlights once more the significance of communication in order to avoid conflicts of this nature. It is essential that positions be coordinated effectively with one another.

Using various containers and baskets to fish

Pots and baskets can also be used for fishing, which is another type of passive fishing. A relatively limited number of anglers from the United Kingdom and France use pots and hives to catch cuttlefish and whelks in the wild.

The bulk of fishermen who use pots and pans in the United Kingdom and France target brown crab and lobster as their primary catch.

(News Article: Fishing News 20221219-20221225 – Lobster fishing: Seychelles’ season to open only for 2 months in 2023)

(News Article: fishing-news-09-19-2022 – Canadian lobster, snow crab backers defend fisheries after “red listing”

Both Dutch and Belgian fisherman have tried their hand at fishing using these techniques, but the use of these techniques is still relatively uncommon in the Netherlands at this time. The Oosterschelde fishery for lobster is the one and only notable exception to this rule.

The countries of France and Great Britain along the Channel are the most common locations for the practice of pot fishing. When it comes to fishing, one season does not seamlessly transition into the next.

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In these countries, pot fishing is a form of seasonal fishing that can genuinely provide a decent living for its participants. There is a great deal of variability in the names given to pots, as well as the decorations and methods used to make them.

In most cases, bait is employed in the process of luring a target species. The different kinds of bait that can be utilized also come in a very wide range of varieties. The species that are intended to be caught determine, to a large extent, the kind of bait that is utilized.

Finally

This concludes the points I wanted to cover in this article. I really hope that you got anything useful out of it. You are free to contact me at any time if you have any concerns or questions or find any errors in the information that I have provided.

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