INVESTING IN THE FUTURE
Fighting to rehabilitate Fleetwood.
When I first started serious charter fishing out from Fleetwood back in the 1980s there were around a dozen angling boats. Granted, they weren’t all up to the same specification, nor were they all available midweek either. In fact, from memory, none of them were.
Fleetwood was very much a weekend venue, which, when you factor in the vagaries of the weather on the west side of the country, is not the kind of business venture you take on as your sole source of income... and then Andy Bradbury came along.
Before Andy, there was the small matters of Margaret Thatcher and austerity. Neither had any influence on sending the Fleetwood charter fleet spiralling down the plughole, but both were symptomatic of the time. Money was suddenly tight, and for many families there were far greater priorities to spend it on than fishing. It was something that affected angling communities nationwide.
Around the same time Fleetwood was also hit by the move away from local authority boat licensing, with all the extra financial burden that would involve, arguably sending the town’s charter fishing to the wall. Ironically, at a time when it was fishing as well as it ever had.
ANGLING PEDIGREE
There have been times in the period that followed when Fleetwood has had no charter fishing at all. On other occasions there would be the occasional short-term attempt that didn’t come to anything.
By that stage boat anglers locally were thinking that their charter fishing days were over and would never return. Then as I mentioned, Andy Bradbury came along.
A lifelong small-boat competition angler with a pedigree to make anyone sit up and take
note, he was a man who knew his local patch like the back of his hand. The big question was, how and why might he succeed at a port that had proved to be an angling graveyard for all that had gone before?
As you might expect, it took Andy time to encourage anglers to return. As for the fish, they never went away and have now been swelled in both numbers and species richness since the turn of the 21st century, with smoothhounds in particular an absolute godsend. There are plenty of plaice too, along with good numbers of decent tope, and a very good spread of other supporting species.
Granted, the winter cod fishing is nothing like it once was, but where is these days? All things considered, Fleetwood can hold its head up high in terms of the boat fishing it has at its disposal. More’s the pity that the local council doesn’t seem to embrace leisure fishing and the money it both can and does bring into the town.
ON THE MAP
Andy bought himself Blue Mink, a 31ft Mitchell, and single-handedly has put Fleetwood back on the fishing map. Unfortunately, picking anglers up from the beach and having them board and disembark by ladder wasn’t exactly ideal.
Having shelter from the predominantly south to south-westerly wind, and from winds in virtually any direction from halfway down an ebbing tide, thanks to exposing inshore mussel banks, provides some measure of compensation.
Very few days were lost, and there were fish to be had both inshore and off. Business was good, but at the back of his mind Andy always felt that a bigger, faster boat would offer improved opportunities. The big questions were, did the port deserve it, and could the angling business support it?
The answer came on June 1 this year with the maiden trip of Blue Mink 2, a 10.5-metres Procharter P4 with a massive 3.7-metre beam and powered by twin 350hp Caterpillar engines. Pick-ups are still by ladder from the beach, despite the fact that the Knott End ferry docks not 20 yards away.
That aside, the weather was perfect. Flat calm conditions, not a breath of breeze, the sun beating down, and plenty of fish. It could not have gone better. The hounds were off Cleveleys in their usual good numbers, tope were just starting to show, plus a few bull huss and thornback rays were managing to ‘hijack’ the baits before the dogfish could get to them.
The first fish on board was a small tope, caught by Blue Mink regular Dom Gaffney. Over the summer Andy expects to see plenty more ranging anywhere between 30-60lb, possibly bigger if previous summers are a barometer. There should be more plaice fishing to come too, both off Rossall and inside Morecambe Bay and, if necessary, inside the Wyre Estuary behind the drying banks if the wind gets up. On its day, the Wyre can be a match for any of the other plaice marks. Later there will be a switch of emphasis to winter species such as whiting, dabs and cod.
One noticeable feature of the past several years has been the change in timing of the seasons. The plaice would head off around October, the same month that would traditionally see the first of the cod and the last dogfish.
Now the plaice and dogfish linger much later, and in some seasons never disappear at all. Cod, on the other hand, now arrive later and stay well into the spring.
Andy Bradbury has made his investment of money and commitment to see that Fleetwood continues to grow as a sea angling destination. Now all it needs is for anglers to share in that future, which, in light of the way the fishing has been improving year on year, shouldn’t be such a big ask. ■