To the keen sea angler the challenge of a winter cod is the stuff of dreams. In recent years it has become harder and harder to catch cod, whether it is because of my casting or the falling numbers, I do not know.

I feel for many of our professional fishing colleagues who see their salaries plummet with each EEC ruling, however the same people allow trawlers of all nations to fish our shores for cod.

So is the cod doomed? What can be done to save this species? I believe we should be looking to the Salmon for the answer to this question. Some years ago the Salmon was in the same position, its high price drove people to poach and the numbers plummeted. Stocking of small par seemed to do little to improve numbers against the over fishing from large trawlers out at sea.

Some far thinking soles started farming Salmon, this did have an ecological downside in some estuaries where overcrowding in small pens caused disease and alarming numbers of sea lice.

Are escaped fish causing problems with our wild Salmon? I think we will have to see in the long-term. The plus side was that they could provide the supermarkets and food industry with a constant sized product all year round. The price of Salmon fell and it became profitable to chase the wild stocks.

Today, we see more Salmon in our shops and rivers, I am glad to see cod farms are being started in Scotland and Norway, I can only wish them all the best as I feel that they are the cods best chance of survival.

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