Sea Angling for Spearos

[fakahany]

great thread guys....
I personally thought that the lure you made Mr.X from the spoons' head can be doubled as a flasher .... and we can also use bright colored lures in flashers ..Extracting the hooks.
and here is a site that is really helpful on how to make your homemade lures:
Looking Fishing Homemade Lures And Fishing Trip Secrets?
those were just my 0.05 cents
correct me if I am wrong please!

[Mr. X]

Thanks for all the interesting insights. I don't get to fish that often (and I have other interests) so a really fancy rod would be wasted on me. I will take a look at the Shakespeare catalogue - they usually have some interesting rods at reasonable prices. Just took a quick look at Jims, they carry several reasonably priced rods (as well as more expensive ones):
Shakespeare Tidewater Bass rod (2oz-4oz)
Shakespeare Salt MPV Rod (2oz-4oz)
Shakespeare Salt Bass Rod (2oz-4oz)
Leeda Northstar Bass Rod (2oz-4oz)
The Shakespeare IN2 Estuary Rod at (1oz-3oz) for £11.19 seems like quite a bargain. They also carry the Shakespeare MTI Bass Rod (3oz-4oz) for more than 10x the price at £119.99
Pity they don't yet fit coaster reel fittings on cheaper rods, I like the idea of positioning the reel for balance myself. Other than that, it is hard to see what the high-end rods offer over the middle of the range carbon rods, which usually have Fuji reel seats, lined Fuji rings & quite often spigot joints these days.

I notice all the bass rods have black foam handles. My previous rods all had cork handles, which I quite like.

Originally Posted by ADM

Are you over this year Mr X? If you can wait that long I have an Odessa Bass you can have for £15, few scratches and one ring replaced by my "expert" (lol) hands... I have too many bass rods and need to get rid of a few.

Can't post it though as he sections are over 5ft. Bloney post office.

Sounds like just the ticket ADM, although not sure yet about Guernsey. We're considering leaving the car at home & relying on the buses/Shanks' pony/taxi - is that practical? Maybe finding somewhere to stay close to beach/fishing/spearing is key.

[atomichaggis]

Mr.X,
I'd give the vast majority of cheap shakeys a miss. The real bargains are the odessa and predecessor and a couple of their old spinners... prolly more i never heard about (flylines are good too) but you gotta do your research. Ugly Stik range does what it says on the tin too... got an old faithful 20lb boat rod from the range.
Don't ever buy a shakey reel tho!!!!

[foxfish]

Mr X, I (& I am sure Andy & tom) have enough tackle for you to use if you ever make it over here. In fact I think we have enough to start a shop!
Buses are 60p a ride any where, but again we would be here to help.
The only problem is the f....g great trawlers fishing our stocks to oblivion!

[foxfish]

I have been searching through my old photos, I found this one taken on new years day 1996!

[ADM]

Are we into one of those guess the mark again Foxfish??

Anyway, as Foxfish said Mr X and anyone else, if you are over here and want to do some dangling due to weather or something, just ask if you want to borrow a rod or whatever, much easier than trying to get your own here without a car. I have plenty... and Magpie has even more!!

[Magpie]

Sod guess the mark, I'm still trying to guess the bloke! Doesn't look like a foxen?

Yeh, got one or two I suppose

[Pastor]

Originally Posted by Magpie

Sod guess the mark, I'm still trying to guess the bloke! Doesn't look like a foxen?

Yeh, got one or two I suppose

What happened to the hair? Something must have scared him

[octpora]

Man, i keep seeing about those shakespeare selections you have on the other continent and i feel kind of bad. Those are considered low end here in the states. Maybe there is a brand quality difference from here to there.

Hey, i got an idea. Black market exchange: We acquire you some st. criox setups and you switch for mamba setups.We all win

[foxfish]

Still waiting for your guess Andy?

[atomichaggis]

Originally Posted by octpora

Man, i keep seeing about those shakespeare selections you have on the other continent and i feel kind of bad. Those are considered low end here in the states. Maybe there is a brand quality difference from here to there.

They are considered low end here too lol, I've often wondered why we get all the crap, they aren't doing themselves any favours.
The american shakey catalogue is painful to look through... need to get me one of their two handed baitcast sticks.

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by octpora

Man, i keep seeing about those shakespeare selections you have on the other continent and i feel kind of bad. Those are considered low end here in the states. Maybe there is a brand quality difference from here to there.
...

I agree. The reels look cheesey. I never saw Shakespeare stuff in the states but you can pick up decent Shimano/Bassmaster/etc. gear in the USA very easily pretty much anyware (K-mart, Costco, Sportsmart, the big mail order warehouses,...). For the price you guys get premium brands in the USA, we get the dregs over here. Not only that but most angling stores I have visited here don't even carry Shimano gear - which seems crazy to me (and the prices charged on line/mail order are often staggering). [Although forum member Podge can provide gear at reasonable prices BTW].

That said, my Shakespeare Royalty carbon spinning rod has been good value. I find the tip a bit flimsey (but its probably intended to make it better for lighter lures/spinners) & the location of the reel seat seems unbalanced to me but it is super light, strong, has a decent Fuji reel seat & fuji lined rings. If I took the labels off, I doubt if most people could tell the difference between it and a Shimano rod. A good piece of equipment. I have other hobbies & interests (spearing for example), so part of the challenge for me is to do this inexpensively without compromising the experience. It should be possible to fish inexpensively (and simply -- although that comes with experience).

In the US, it seemed to be mostly short spinning rods 5.5ft-7ft, those are cheaper here (although still typically twice the USA price & with far fewer products on offer). There has always been something of an obsession with long rods in the UK, so 7ft-14ft is more normal here. It might be partially because it is far more common to fish from a boat in the US (in the UK we'd rather pay excessively high taxes than buy boats - we have a strong puritanical/self loathing/masocistic streak*). Although I think it is an obsessive thing too, as 11/12/13/14 foot match rods were standard equipment on the local canal (maybe 20 feet wide) growing up -- a 5.5ft spinning rod (or Ronco Pocket Fisherman) would have been sufficient!

Saw a small piece in the Sunday Telegraph this week. The govt. are planning to bring in some kind of sea fishing licence. Just when you thought the govt. couldn't get any worse ... it gets worse. (BTW Anybody else getting the feeling the country was grinding to a halt today, with several train lines & the M3 closed, M4 & other motorways backed up). Still, at least there is something good to watch on TV this Saturday evening:
Television puts Tony Blair on trial - Telegraph
First review: The Trial of Tony Blair | Media | MediaGuardian ... includes video clips
Despite what they say about George W. Bush, he did finally force peace on N. Ireland. I suppose that is what we got out of Iraq. [Asbestos suit on - flame away].

[Magpie]

Sorry mate but a 5ft rod would not be sufficient!

We use longer rods over here because the fishing is different. The short baitcaster rods in the US are used for flipping lures into weed beds after large mouth bass and the like, there is very little fishing like that in the UK, the closest being pike and perch spinning, for which many use similar tackle.

The match rods you have seen on the canals are that long for many reasons, line control, fish control, casting distance and control and many others. I'd love to see you trying to cast a 2bb waggler with a 5ft baitcasting rod...The tackle used is that which is best suited to the fishing being done.

Yes, you can catch fish on one of those short bright pink tourist specials, but you'll catch more and do so more efficiently and comfortably with the proper kit. (Example, you discovered your Leeda reel was too big for comfortable spinning eh)

PS. Bet I could tell the difference with one waggle

[octpora]

St. Croix Fishing Rods - Spinning, Casting, Saltwater, Fly Yes, they are pricey, but they bag the fish and hurl the lead. We tend to keep them for a decade at least before they wear out. Sorry, but the only dealers i see for over there are fly inclined.

Actually, we have got a thing for big rods here on the east coast- Especially around Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. There are a few spearos who know where that is i'd bet. If you ever come over for a competition or just to sit by the ocean where we use mullet for bait (i just heard a groan) there is an excellent selection of rods to be had in every shape and action, and even price range. For around 80 usd you can take back a sweet spinner rod. Shoot, thats about what we pay to have a good euro gun shipped to us if we know someone so kind. One other brand comes to mind- tica-INDEX but it looks like only those in oz and usa have dealers. Good product and just a tad more costly than shakespeare.

Maybe i missed it earlier in the thread, but does anyone over there ever use the soft plastics geared toward the american bass fishing market? (sluggos or bass asassins) If you rig them with an ounce of lead shot about .6 meters up the line and a worm hook they are hard to get snagged and the action is a killer. I have always done best with that setup going after flounder and redfish. Cheap too!

[atomichaggis]

Mr.X,
Let me preach...
The short rods in the US are designed for casting stickbaits, spoons, weighted shads and other medium/heavy lures. They are used in the UK but they are not the sort of thing to float a maggot or spin with (too short and usually too stiff). They are perfect for pike and all saltwater predators tho (worthwhile fishing).
I use baitcasters between 5.5 and 7 ft paired with a daiwa viento for all my lure fishing here, I even do my light baitfishing with one too... The yanks are on to something.
I fish spoons as small as 10 gram for seatrout and lead stickbaits to 60 gram for cod and pollack effectively on one of my rods and with a 20-30 gram spoon, nothing casts further nor more accurately (consistently shames 11ft spinning rod).
Baitcasters are on a par with flyrods for pure enjoyment.