View Full Version : Welcome all sellag fishers
David Banks
22-Feb-09, 09:33
Hello Caithness lovers. I've just joined the Forum, and have selected what may seem at first an obscure pastime - wait and see. Does anybody still go fishan' fer sellags - no at 'is time o ae year, but in summer and autumn ? If you do, please tell us about the steps involved in a pleasant summer nicht at ae sellags. If ye havna had this simple pleasure, stay tuned.
David Banks, ex-Scarfskerry
I do not have a scooby what you are on about! The mind Biggles.
PS The guy who does my car's MOT is called David Banks.
We used to fish the rocks below Thurso in the summer amd selags were a standard face saver to a days fishing. There were also peltags and the bigger cuddings and sometimes in August we would catch mackerel. Limpet was the standard bate although a squashed crab or two would attract a fair dunt o fish.
I rarely see shoals of selags in close to the rocks these days and more rare to see kids fishing for them. Another environmental change is the complete disappearance of wilks from the Thurso rocks.
David Banks
22-Feb-09, 10:41
We used to fish the rocks below Thurso in the summer amd selags were a standard face saver to a days fishing. There were also peltags and the bigger cuddings and sometimes in August we would catch mackerel. Limpet was the standard bate although a squashed crab or two would attract a fair dunt o fish.
I rarely see shoals of selags in close to the rocks these days and more rare to see kids fishing for them. Another environmental change is the complete disappearance of wilks from the Thurso rocks.
Thanks Gleeber, good to know someone else enjoyed the rocks and goes. We would eat sellags and peltags the same nicht, but the cuddings were rather grey and funseless. Never caught mackerel, but out at the point at Ruthie Goe (usually pronounced Ruther Goe) in Scarfskerry, we infrequently would catch a lye (lythe?) in deeper water using a long rod and line. Limpet was our usual bait, collected at low tide just before fishin'. We had the gear to cast out own rippers, but did not like the amount of damage they did, so quickly gave them up. Being on the north shore, I rarely if ever remember the midgags being a problem, but have never tried anywhere between Duncansby head and the Ord.
The wilks at Scarfskerry haven, just on flat rocks (edge-up) east of the pier were thinning out when I went to Edinburgh in 1965. I sure enjoyed a plate o' wilks wi' a darning needle and a saucer of vinegar.
I do not have a scooby what you are on about! The mind Biggles.
PS The guy who does my car's MOT is called David Banks.
Something that might help you understand it a bit better Jox.
http://www.caithness.org/dialect/index.htm
Fished for many a peltag at the harbour and loved going to Staxigoe to collect welks. Thought they were disgusting though and couldn't bear to eat them.[lol]
Its a small world - just the other day I was looking in the harbour for these very same sellags that we used to haul out 50 and more years ago. There is also a scarcity of wilks out this way but I think their disappearance has more to do with economics (as a supplement to the dole) rather than ecological matters. Sea bass fishing off the shore is the 'in' thing nowadays - I did set up an old spinning rod for the job last year but never got around to it.
More importantly my paternal granny was a Banks wifie from Scarfskerry and Nova Scotia is my (second) next port of call in the colonies so I just might be looking for free digs with possible long lost relations !.
Thurso harbour was good for catching eels. Congers, but the ones from Scrabster were bigger. I once caught a small lobster on my handline off the old pier in Scrabster. Another time I fell into Thurso harbour and in those days the fishing boats were tied up 3 deep by the pier. I was under the boats for a while and I went through the mythical tunnel with the bright light at the end.
The selags nearly got their own back.
Jox
This will help
>> http://www.ambaile.org/en/item/item_audio.jsp?item_id=37774
cullpacket
22-Feb-09, 11:11
Go down the West Murkle road to the old Yankee base at's a bonnie and good spot
think it is called Fresgoe it's a nice walk from Thurso East. Eh white setelers
cullpacket
22-Feb-09, 11:18
Aye eh white settlers are hevin a job mangin eh cant, West Murkle is a bonnie and good spot down from the old American radio base, A nice walk from Thurso East
cullpacket
22-Feb-09, 11:20
Think it's called Fresgoe
Think it's called Fresgoe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresgoe
Try this it may help.
I thought the White settler thing died years ago ?? and racist comments were banned ????????????????????
Fresgoe is past Reay on the other side of the county.
Good God - a simple question about sellags and we go from racism ?? to people who dont know their local geography. As Wilkothing pointed out Fresgoe is ''literally' Sandside Harbour.
Amy-Winehouse
22-Feb-09, 13:58
Hello Caithness lovers. I've just joined the Forum, and have selected what may seem at first an obscure pastime - wait and see. Does anybody still go fishan' fer sellags - no at 'is time o ae year, but in summer and autumn ? If you do, please tell us about the steps involved in a pleasant summer nicht at ae sellags. If ye havna had this simple pleasure, stay tuned.
David Banks, ex-Scarfskerry
Yes David. As a matter of fact I was out fishing on Friday, didnt catch anything but thats how it goes sometimes
kwbrown111
22-Feb-09, 15:39
The bit at the yankee base is Fersigoe and near there is the Spur i think
Huna slip used to be the place for sellags:lol:
cullpacket
23-Feb-09, 00:17
Not often i am right but I am wrong again at't what my faither called it, had a deek an it's called East Raeberry, Pudding Goe West Murkle as I said, Bonnie an good for eh cuddies!!
cullpacket
23-Feb-09, 02:13
spelit it wroneg Daviy Thanks kw brown Fersigoe is the right spelling, yes I do know my geography as for God it is fiction not fact a bit like Xmas, No I aint racist bothy man Caithness is full of white settlers it's a Dounreay thing, going back in history 5 generations ago my family were white settlers, You might be 1K. Orger little wonder not a scooby !!!!
Mr Banks thanks for your post brought back a lot oh nice memories at Thurso East
Cheers
Hello Caithness lovers. I've just joined the Forum, and have selected what may seem at first an obscure pastime - wait and see. Does anybody still go fishan' fer sellags - no at 'is time o ae year, but in summer and autumn ? If you do, please tell us about the steps involved in a pleasant summer nicht at ae sellags. If ye havna had this simple pleasure, stay tuned.
David Banks, ex-Scarfskerry
Caught many sellags in my day. Peltags now and then and sometimes a Gunnyplucker. Thurso and Scrabster harbours and the Rocks beneath the Glebe were the most popular hunting grounds.
How are you doing, Mr Banks? It has been a long time!!!!
So are they Coalfish? Caught quite a few of them last year down at Longberry. Some people don't seem to like them for eating but I find them ok. From what I've read the flesh can spoil more readily than Pollock so you are best cleaning them soon after catching.
So are they Coalfish? Caught quite a few of them last year down at Longberry. Some people don't seem to like them for eating but I find them ok. From what I've read the flesh can spoil more readily than Pollock so you are best cleaning them soon after catching.
Coalfish (Coalies) are called cuddies they have a bad rep as an eating fish, but they are a member of the cod family. Im not a big fish eater but love beach fishing.
I used to go out rock fishing for Cuddies when I was younger, I remember my grandfaither intoducing me to it and I had a handline. My grandfaither had more hi-tec gear, he used a long bamboo cane with orange cord at the end.
Nowadays I fish the rocks for Pollock and the beach for Bass. I will have to get you down to Thurso beach one night Gleeber, might even catch a Cuddie or two.
David Banks
23-Feb-09, 21:17
Its a small world - just the other day I was looking in the harbour for these very same sellags that we used to haul out 50 and more years ago. There is also a scarcity of wilks out this way but I think their disappearance has more to do with economics (as a supplement to the dole) rather than ecological matters. Sea bass fishing off the shore is the 'in' thing nowadays - I did set up an old spinning rod for the job last year but never got around to it.
More importantly my paternal granny was a Banks wifie from Scarfskerry and Nova Scotia is my (second) next port of call in the colonies so I just might be looking for free digs with possible long lost relations !.
Good to hear from you Davie. As I remember it, sellags became scarcer as Dounreay dumped waste heat into the sea. Let's not talk about anything else which might have gone into the sea. Wilks were also plentiful at Scarfskerry harbour when I was peedie, "50 and more years ago."
When I lived in Scarfskerry, 1947 to '65, we were the only Banks family there at that time - and from a line of Banks' from East Mey. When did yer granny live in Scarfskerry?
David
Nothing to do with the sellags/cuddies/wilks, but the Scarfskerry conection.The granny was Margaret Henderson Banks who married (I think) in 1918 and she would have been around 20 then. That would probably be a bit before your time (as it was mine !).You have me wondering now if the granny actually came from Scarfskerry, I remember regularly going to Whitebridge,Rattar as a bairn, to visit an old man (Robert Sutherland) who would have been Margaret Bank's father -in -law - i.e. my great grandfather, if that makes sense.
You are saved (this year anyway) from some gollach knocking on your door!. I did get as far as pricing flights, rv hire etc., for your part of the world but the Grand Canyon and a few days in Vegas are already booked for this year so maybe the Cabot Trail and all these things will be 2010.
George Brims
24-Feb-09, 02:32
I think (heck I'm from Watten so what do I know about sea fish?) that cuddings are the same fish sold as coalies South of Hadrian's Wall. My aunt (born in Bower, lived in Newcastle) used to buy them to feed her cat, because (beside the fact the cat was pleased) they don't stink the house when you boil them. Of course she wouldn't even consider eating one herself. Like most Caithness folk, the only white fish worth regard was a haddie - even a whiting was second-best.
I remember my brother coming home from working the boat with Daney Simpson - was it the Primula - I can't remember - but he came home with the ugliest fish we had ever seen.
"I'm going to eat it," he announced but we all turned our noses up at it
He ate it (pan fried). "Delicious," he said.
Darned right it was delicious. It was a MONK FISH - now a star performer in the best restaurants clear across the world.....I bet they're all fished out now in the Pentalnd Firth...
George Brims
24-Feb-09, 19:51
I remember my mother buying one from Heather Fish, who used to sell around the doors from a Mini van. It was all she had left by the time she got to us. When mum put it in water in the sink, all the wee fake seaweed fronds on its skin stood out. Ugly but tasty, though there's not a lot of meat in the tail compared to the size of the horrible ugly body!
A cousin who used to work on a boat out of Scrabster once slipped on the deck and landed with his arm on one, and it latched on to him. The teeth point backwards so his mates had to cut the thing apart to get it off.
Spent years fishing from the pier and boats at Scrabster and off Holborn Head and reckoned a Sellag was up to about 4 ozs. then between 4ozs. and a pound and a half became a Peltic and anything above that was a Cudding but off course they were all coalfish.
We never ate them because they were considered inferior but often gave them away to anyone from England who was hanging around the harbour, or more commonly used them as bait for mackrel, lythe and congers. The great thing about the harbour fishing was you could often make out the fish in the water particularly over sand or any white object.
When the white blob of bait disappeared into a mouth you struck! I've never had fishing quite like that again. Once hooked out a hundred peltics and cuddings and eight mackrel at one session in the harbour when a boat had carried out a gutting and dumped the debris in the harbour drawing in every predator for miles around.
Think it's called Fresgoe
Think yer meanin Fersigoe (well that is what we called it) - many a happy time I had there wi my Dad usin my handline and catchin cuddings! :)
Oops just realised this was answered by another poster! (Note to self:- read the whole thread before opening beeg gob!)
Spent years fishing from the pier and boats at Scrabster and off Holborn Head and reckoned a Sellag was up to about 4 ozs. then between 4ozs. and a pound and a half became a Peltic and anything above that was a Cudding but off course they were all coalfish.
We never ate them because they were considered inferior but often gave them away to anyone from England who was hanging around the harbour, or more commonly used them as bait for mackrel, lythe and congers. The great thing about the harbour fishing was you could often make out the fish in the water particularly over sand or any white object.
When the white blob of bait disappeared into a mouth you struck! I've never had fishing quite like that again. Once hooked out a hundred peltics and cuddings and eight mackrel at one session in the harbour when a boat had carried out a gutting and dumped the debris in the harbour drawing in every predator for miles around.
Them were the days. we worked roughly the same sytem for peltics, cuddings etc. Anybody remember when the herring came into wick river? days hooking herring from the quay was something beyond even dreams.
Had a peltic today from Longberry. Was a lovely day down there, calm sea and sunny sky.
However are there any recognised spots in the Wick area that don't involve a climb like that at Longberry. My knees aren't up to it! :(
Had a peltic today from Longberry. Was a lovely day down there, calm sea and sunny sky.
However are there any recognised spots in the Wick area that don't involve a climb like that at Longberry. My knees aren't up to it! :(
You could try what we used to call the "heid rock" that is the rock that juts out below the old coastguard station on the "sooth heid" (south head) it was always good for a variety of species of fish and reasonably easy to get to.
Greenrunner
26-Feb-09, 23:46
Any of you ever use a sellag pock (net) ? If I remember right a ring about 2 foot diameter with a loose net and a handle.
Nope, never heard of one but how would you get close enough to a shoal to make a scoop. They used to be fairly flighty, a bit like a flock of birds all moving as one.
Ive seen an old photograph and in it an old fisherman is standing with what is described as a sellock net. I think the photos in the town hall in Thurso. I can't imagine how they manged it either.
Greenrunner
28-Feb-09, 01:11
We used to stand at the end of Gills peir and trawl the pock. The handle was probably a broom handle! Used to catch lots that way. Seems a very crude method but it was for food!
Greenrunner
28-Feb-09, 01:15
Also just recalling that the action was to sink the net and capture sellags with an upward movement as they passed over. Huna slip was also a favoured spot
cullpacket
02-Mar-09, 02:01
Had a mang at a map dated 1844 and it was written Fierce Goe thanks for your input
I'm poking my nose in here, though I know nothing about the subject.
However I've just found this and thought it might amuse you.
Why do they cry “Soor Sellags” till
‘E fowk o’ Thirsa toon?
Chust ‘cause they’re lek sellags –
Ye canna keep them doon!
We used to fish for them from the 'boordies' at Wick harbour. On a clear day you could see a mass of them in the water. We used to use a wee gut handline which were sold in John S. Duncans. After a while it got a bit boring so we would move to the 'pointie' as we called it (the harbour entrance) in the hope of somethin a bit more exotic! We would sometimes get dogfish there.
That was back in the good old days when there were a lot of boats fishing from Wick and every lunchtime they would be queing up to land at the market. We would then get a sail round to the inner harbour. This is what we did nearly every day of the summer holidays.
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