Gold rush.

[jukel123 9,322]

 

Back in the day I picked cockles for a living. It was seasonal about five months of the year. It was  a get rich quick game and it attracted lots of crazy people. There were gangmasters paying illegal immigrants washers, people who had never been on a beach before and people like me who got gold fever.

We fished two tides a day. Just fished and slept. The rewards were phenomenal. Guys could routinely make more in a day than they could in a month. Every day!

I bought all the gear. Two 4x 4s, two boats, and an ATV and trailer. I had 4 guys working with me.

I had been a commercial fisherman so I understand the tides, the wind and the dangers of quicksand. Imagine 5 men shovelling 20 p coins for hours on end. It was like a fruit machine constantly spewing the jackpot.

Of course there was all sorts attracted...muggers, who might try and steal your catch in the dark, sometimes by force, that didnt end well for them because we carried baseball bats, camp followers I.e prostitutes selling blow jobs from cars and pure evil gangmasters for which a life was nothing. For example one moonless  night one twat left a Portuguese kid on a sand bank with a 33 foot tide encircling him. We used the nearest boat to rescue him, not mine, a gang master's. We got to him and had to overpower him. His mind had gone and he was fighting us off , plus he had hypothermia. We dropped him off at A and E for them to deal with him.

Next morning one of my boats was holed as retaliation for taking a boat without permission. That was the mindset. I let it be known I would not retaliate in any way this time. Tit for tat, and luckily it blew over. This guy  could set fire to your house or have his heavies knife you in the back soon as look at you.

But they were great times. Greed was the name of the day  and we filled our boots. There was an element of looting about the game, no taxmen, no bailiffs and no policeman. They kept well out of the way . Just pure survival of the fittest. Great buzz.

Unfortunately they closed the cockle beds for conservation reasons, but geez it was good while it lasted.

https://youtu.be/iSviHR_N-tg?si=oyIPOW4daJqR4ZmP

[Greyman 31,365]

Bit like the elvers on the Severn mate 

Edited 7 hours ago by Greyman

[jukel123 9,322]

16 minutes ago, Greyman said:

Bit like the elvers on the Severn mate 

Yeah, I believe they are worth more by weight than cocaine in the far east market.  Fancy going into business?

Get that barge seaworthy and off we go.

[Daniel cain 48,491]

1 minute ago, jukel123 said:

Yeah, I believe they are worth more by weight than cocaine in the far east market.  Fancy going into business?

Get that barge seaworthy and off we go.

Give me a shout,if you need a deckhand

[jukel123 9,322]

2 minutes ago, Daniel cain said:

Give me a shout,if you need a deckhand

You're in mate. We need a young un for protection and I believe you have prior fire arms experience.

[WataWalloper 3,453]

Iv always fancied a bash at working on a boat, but iv only ever been out out, to sea three times, and all of them I was scared shitless haha summat about not being  able to see land is proper frightening to a city boy like me haha 

[byron 1,265]

The lads came up here from kings lyn in the seventies on the humber and ploughed em out mate. Disaster and greed.. sign been up here for years saying cockles contaminated..drawing a line from horse shoe point across to spurn point..

 

[jukel123 9,322]

6 minutes ago, byron said:

The lads came up here from kings lyn in the seventies on the humber and ploughed em out mate. Disaster and greed.. sign been up here for years saying cockles contaminated..drawing a line from horse shoe point across to spurn point..

 

They could be contaminated because eejuts would lose a land rover in quicksand and abandon it. There were half a dozen vehicles abandoned one night. Each of them oozing diesel for years to come.

[Halfhound 64]

2 hours ago, jukel123 said:

 

Back in the day I picked cockles for a living. It was seasonal about five months of the year. It was  a get rich quick game and it attracted lots of crazy people. There were gangmasters paying illegal immigrants washers, people who had never been on a beach before and people like me who got gold fever.

We fished two tides a day. Just fished and slept. The rewards were phenomenal. Guys could routinely make more in a day than they could in a month. Every day!

I bought all the gear. Two 4x 4s, two boats, and an ATV and trailer. I had 4 guys working with me.

I had been a commercial fisherman so I understand the tides, the wind and the dangers of quicksand. Imagine 5 men shovelling 20 p coins for hours on end. It was like a fruit machine constantly spewing the jackpot.

Of course there was all sorts attracted...muggers, who might try and steal your catch in the dark, sometimes by force, that didnt end well for them because we carried baseball bats, camp followers I.e prostitutes selling blow jobs from cars and pure evil gangmasters for which a life was nothing. For example one moonless  night one twat left a Portuguese kid on a sand bank with a 33 foot tide encircling him. We used the nearest boat to rescue him, not mine, a gang master's. We got to him and had to overpower him. His mind had gone and he was fighting us off , plus he had hypothermia. We dropped him off at A and E for them to deal with him.

Next morning one of my boats was holed as retaliation for taking a boat without permission. That was the mindset. I let it be known I would not retaliate in any way this time. Tit for tat, and luckily it blew over. This guy  could set fire to your house or have his heavies knife you in the back soon as look at you.

But they were great times. Greed was the name of the day  and we filled our boots. There was an element of looting about the game, no taxmen, no bailiffs and no policeman. They kept well out of the way . Just pure survival of the fittest. Great buzz.

Unfortunately they closed the cockle beds for conservation reasons, but geez it was good while it lasted.

https://youtu.be/iSviHR_N-tg?si=oyIPOW4daJqR4ZmP

Brilliant read bud. I’ve a few tales myself I’ll type out once I get time later. Would you have been dealing with agents or processors at the time? Youngsters will never know the buzz of finding an earner and flogging it for all its worth

Edited 5 hours ago by Halfhound

[jukel123 9,322]

28 minutes ago, Halfhound said:

Brilliant read bud. I’ve a few tales myself I’ll type out once I get time later. Would you have been dealing with agents or processors at the time? Youngsters will never know the buzz of finding an earner and flogging it for all its worth

There were numerous competing buyers from all over the world waiting for us as soon as we reached shore. We had a good relationship with a Dutch guy who always paid top dollar . He would have paid us on the day  but  I preferred he paid us at the end of the week. He came to my house...too many dangerous prying eyes on the shore.

The arrangement  suited us both because he had a reliable source of income every week too.

Of course we had to pay tax on our earnings and we did so religiously without fail.

[NEWKID 28,446]

2 hours ago, jukel123 said:

 

Back in the day I picked cockles for a living. It was seasonal about five months of the year. It was  a get rich quick game and it attracted lots of crazy people. There were gangmasters paying illegal immigrants washers, people who had never been on a beach before and people like me who got gold fever.

We fished two tides a day. Just fished and slept. The rewards were phenomenal. Guys could routinely make more in a day than they could in a month. Every day!

I bought all the gear. Two 4x 4s, two boats, and an ATV and trailer. I had 4 guys working with me.

I had been a commercial fisherman so I understand the tides, the wind and the dangers of quicksand. Imagine 5 men shovelling 20 p coins for hours on end. It was like a fruit machine constantly spewing the jackpot.

Of course there was all sorts attracted...muggers, who might try and steal your catch in the dark, sometimes by force, that didnt end well for them because we carried baseball bats, camp followers I.e prostitutes selling blow jobs from cars and pure evil gangmasters for which a life was nothing. For example one moonless  night one twat left a Portuguese kid on a sand bank with a 33 foot tide encircling him. We used the nearest boat to rescue him, not mine, a gang master's. We got to him and had to overpower him. His mind had gone and he was fighting us off , plus he had hypothermia. We dropped him off at A and E for them to deal with him.

Next morning one of my boats was holed as retaliation for taking a boat without permission. That was the mindset. I let it be known I would not retaliate in any way this time. Tit for tat, and luckily it blew over. This guy  could set fire to your house or have his heavies knife you in the back soon as look at you.

But they were great times. Greed was the name of the day  and we filled our boots. There was an element of looting about the game, no taxmen, no bailiffs and no policeman. They kept well out of the way . Just pure survival of the fittest. Great buzz.

Unfortunately they closed the cockle beds for conservation reasons, but geez it was good while it lasted.

https://youtu.be/iSviHR_N-tg?si=oyIPOW4daJqR4ZmP

Love that mate..

We used to collect cockles and winkles in the Exe estuary, not to sale just to eat..

My mums side of the family has worked the Exe estuary for years, seine neys for salmon (now banned completely, they abd another family, the Pyms were the last to have the licenses. I. Managed to get my lad out for a day a youngster on their last season, we had 4 salmon, proper hard graft, I loved it.. my cousin works eel traps on the river now, they are all smoked locally abd sent to London, fetch a fair lump in the fancy restaurants. He also works a few long lines for bass and bream, the exe estuary is pretty huge, so his knowledge is amazing for finding fish on it ...

On my dad's side my grandad was still netting salmon into his 70s, in Ireland, little place called Blacrock near Dundalk... I've said on here before how he went to prison in his 70s for refusing to pay for a license to fish the estuary, he claimed his grandfather and father had worked the same way, he was the 3rd generation and been at at for over 50 years, they had no right to demand or legislate his birth right/way of life.... the courts disagreed and he ended up in the maze fir 3 months ...told me he met some of the best people in his life in there lol... 

He would take his small Orkney fishing boat off shore a few miles and collect baccy off of ships, he made a fortune, him and his then Mrs owned a snooker hall behind there house, a chip shop, a small shop and he had an ice cream cart he pull onto the promenade and chat up woman while selling ice creams all day... lol... he had a stream of people coming to the house, all asking for Fisher (his nickname), to buy baccy... when he died I heard from cousin he had around £40k in cash in his room... me, my brother, my dad and a few cousins carried his coffin to the cemetery for the burial... that was the last time I was in Blackrock... his Mrs fudged a will and my side of the family got nothing, she stitched it right up...they had a lot of propery...he was a great rougue, I'd listen to him all day..my old man said he was a compulsive liar, he wasn't a good dad, but he was an interesting grandad once I got to meet him....

Your story reminded me of a lot of those old boys, the man who first took me lamping, ferreting, fishing was like a 2nd dad, he was right into his salmon poaching...would never take me inwas too young, but told me great stories about it after a night netting the river... been lucky to have those sorts in my life, I miss them to be honest...

[jukel123 9,322]

14 minutes ago, NEWKID said:

Love that mate..

We used to collect cockles and winkles in the Exe estuary, not to sale just to eat..

My mums side of the family has worked the Exe estuary for years, seine neys for salmon (now banned completely, they abd another family, the Pyms were the last to have the licenses. I. Managed to get my lad out for a day a youngster on their last season, we had 4 salmon, proper hard graft, I loved it.. my cousin works eel traps on the river now, they are all smoked locally abd sent to London, fetch a fair lump in the fancy restaurants. He also works a few long lines for bass and bream, the exe estuary is pretty huge, so his knowledge is amazing for finding fish on it ...

On my dad's side my grandad was still netting salmon into his 70s, in Ireland, little place called Blacrock near Dundalk... I've said on here before how he went to prison in his 70s for refusing to pay for a license to fish the estuary, he claimed his grandfather and father had worked the same way, he was the 3rd generation and been at at for over 50 years, they had no right to demand or legislate his birth right/way of life.... the courts disagreed and he ended up in the maze fir 3 months ...told me he met some of the best people in his life in there lol... 

He would take his small Orkney fishing boat off shore a few miles and collect baccy off of ships, he made a fortune, him and his then Mrs owned a snooker hall behind there house, a chip shop, a small shop and he had an ice cream cart he pull onto the promenade and chat up woman while selling ice creams all day... lol... he had a stream of people coming to the house, all asking for Fisher (his nickname), to buy baccy... when he died I heard from cousin he had around £40k in cash in his room... me, my brother, my dad and a few cousins carried his coffin to the cemetery for the burial... that was the last time I was in Blackrock... his Mrs fudged a will and my side of the family got nothing, she stitched it right up...they had a lot of propery...he was a great rougue, I'd listen to him all day..my old man said he was a compulsive liar, he wasn't a good dad, but he was an interesting grandad once I got to meet him....

Your story reminded me of a lot of those old boys, the man who first took me lamping, ferreting, fishing was like a 2nd dad, he was right into his salmon poaching...would never take me inwas too young, but told me great stories about it after a night netting the river... been lucky to have those sorts in my life, I miss them to be honest...

I've done salmon netting in my day...lots of em.lol. Also long lining.   Brilliant times.

Greyman was on about elvers attracting big money. There used to be a caul on the river near my house. Every full moon elvers would gather in their hundreds of thousands and be temporarily trapped by the caul. I used to take my kids to net them with kids hand nets. They would then carry them over the caul into deeper water so they could be on their way. Eels are endangered now   I  bet you my kids carried hundreds of thousand of pounds worth of elvers  at today's black market prices, back in the seventies.

I also used to take them forking for eels. Wade into  the shallows of rivers, overturn rocks and stab large eels as they tried to escape. The kids loved it but the wife complained about missing forks from time to time.

Great days.

Edited 4 hours ago by jukel123

[NEWKID 28,446]

1 minute ago, jukel123 said:

I've done salmon netting in my day...lots of em.lol. Also long lining.   Brilliant times.

Greyman was on about elvers attracting big money. There used to be a caul on the river near my house. Every full moon elvers would gather in their hundreds of thousands and be temporarily trapped by the caul. I used to take my kids to net them with kids hand nets. They would then carry them over the caul into deeper water so they could be on their way. Eels are endangered now   I  bet you my kids carried hundreds of thousand of pounds worth of elvers  at todays black market prices, back in the seventies.

I also used to take them forking for eels. Wade into  the shallows of rivers, overturn rocks and stab large eels as they tried to escape. The kids loved it but the wife complained about missing forks from time to time.

Great days.

We used to catch the eels with our hands as kids...same as you wade in the small steams that run into the Exe, we would turn the stones and scoop the eels up onto the mud banks, we'd get loads...my mum used cut up the bigger ones and fry them in butter, she loved them.. 

My Dad told me my grandad would catch them by wrapping offal in wool, he drop it off a small bridge and leave it over high tide, this was over the same stream we would scoop them... the eels would get their teeth caught in the wool and he'd go back a few hours later and pull them up...never seen it done but no reason to disbelieve it...

We'd catch loads of decent eels on liver, our house as kids was the last one on tnd estate and backed onto the council field, right behind that was the tidal Exe, I could see it from my bedroom...caught hundreds of eels on liver or worms, small bass on maddies dug straight out of the mud banks...we cook them over the fire we would always have going lol... used to snag mullet with treble hooks (so wrong looking back, but we didn't know)... had a few funny years and times as kids, but some great memories f***ing around on the tidal exe and exe estuary 

[jukel123 9,322]

I was just going to ask if anybody had caught eels using wool. Blebbing they call it in Scotland. I've never done it but I've been told by older fisherman that they used to catch them by the hundred weight using that method. Shipped them off to Billingsgate by the sack load.

[jukel123 9,322]

My funeral poem. Hopefully not for a few years yet.https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54932/sea-fever-56d235e0d871e