Fishing out of Wells

Michael Frary
Deputy Harbour Master and former fisherman

Wells has a small resident fleet of eleven fishing vessels. This has stayed fairly constant for the 30 years I have been fishing out of Wells. On occasions we have had a number of visiting boats from other ports.

The local boats range in size from seven metres to about thirteen metres and are crewed by two or three people. Their main catches these days are crabs, velvet crabs, and lobsters. The main areas fished are the Docking Shoal, Race Bank, North Ridge, Dudgeon Shoal and Lynn Well, where most of the lobsters are caught.

In times gone by these areas were renowned for whelk fishing which had been established for a great many years. The velvet crab industry has only taken off in the last three to four years. The velvets are either processed in Ireland or sent to Spain and Portugal live. The crabs and lobsters are sold to local hotels and restaurants and any left are sent to Cromer for processing.

The average working day of a Wells fisherman is approximately fourteen hours and they can work anything up to 40 miles from the harbour. The crews often have to haul up to 500 pots per day; it's not easy work! Visiting vessels are usually fishing for brown shrimps which are transported to King's Lynn.

In recent years, we have had three angling boats taking fishing parties searching for cod off the wrecks, and for skate and tope on the sandier bottoms. During the summertime, as the tide flows, flotillas of small boats can be seen heading out to sea to catch mackerel. The harbour bed by the quay has recently been re-seeded with mussels. This offers staple work for the fishermen throughout the winter months.