Sea Angling for Spearos

[Magpie]

A fisting chair Ed? You got your forums mixed up?

[Jonny250]

It was a pleasure to go for a very early paddle with Portinfer this morning, trolling and spinning for fishies. we only had a couple of fish, but it was great to try out my new SOT, and what a sunrise!

[portinfer]

Yes it was good fun John ! Not much breeze to start with and as soon as we were on the water a fair deal more, not too much swell but some really confused areas of water at the end of the knife between the island off it - felt a bit sketchy but John just ploughing through in his new yak (they seem stable those ones - same as Tom's - Scupper Pro ?)

Further inshore while I was changing plugs to a deeper diving one John had two rods go at once and was drifting into the rocks - some deft paddling managed to see him with both fish sorted and away from the rocks - think I will stick to one rod and maybe even get a rod holder rather than the under the knee hold that I currently use...

Headed on towards Portinfer and turned back just at the point - I tried a few shallow casts in the bay by the shooting range but no luck - trolled back and got back in time for breakfast. Fun morning, but needed a siesta this afternoon !

[foxfish]

Great but what were the fish?

[Jonny250]

Good point Mart; one Pollack and believe it or not one Wrasse (on a plug!); both went back.

Fun morning, but needed a siesta this afternoon !

Me too!

[Magpie]

Bigger wrasse quite often go for lures. One theory is its a teritorial sort of reaction, lashing out at the thing invading their area more than proper feeding.

[atomichaggis]

Not just big wrasse... I've had a cuckoo on a 250g chrome Norway pirk. Small ballans (all small over here) and Scale eyed always take lures and I've taken Goldsinny's on baited 60g lead stickbaits!
Pretty sure its territorial with the Cuckoos and Ballans... God only knows what those Little Goldsinny's were thinking.
Quite often see wrasse chase great big Cod away from their patch... must have a hell of a bite.
They are taken easilly enough on the fly too, they go gaga for pink shrimp imitations.

[atomichaggis]

Have you guys tried using dropper flies when you are trolling?... common practice over here and very, very effective. It can look like the wobbler or spoon is chasing the fly. If You rig it like a pulley and the fly gets hit it will draw the main lure up to the mainline connection out of the way of snags.

[ADM]

How would you tie that on then Davie? Might be worth a try when i'm plugging if thy will cast OK.

[atomichaggis]

Just tie a swivel on the end of your mainline, thru which you feed your length for the lure(max 1.5m fluoro is the usual). On the loose end of that you tie on another swivel, and onto that swivel a short length to your fly (15cm max fluoro)... it's just a basic pulley with a longer length for your lure. experiment with lengths to suit your equipment.

The genius of this setup is appreciated when you are fishing with sinking lures like spoons and deep runers. the standard tied on dropper can result in the lure dropping and snagging when a fish grabs the fly and you can't retrieve quick enough to keep it safe from snags.
With the pulley lure keeps the fly up front due to the weight and drag but when a fish hits the fly it pulls the lure up to the front, tight to the mainline a metre or more above the fish.

Casting is no probs as long as the lure casts and the fly isn't humungous... little extra drop just needs a little slower cast as per usual.

P.S chartreuse and white clousers are my tip for a fly

[portinfer]

So would the same idea work for trolling a plug behind a kayak but using something like an artificial eel ahead of the plug ?

[atomichaggis]

absolutely. It needs to be a small eel tho, otherwise it will see saw.

[ADM]

Well started the evening off with some gentle shirvying looking for those mullet which are supposed to be about.

Well, within 5 minutes or arriving there was a shoal of about 8 fish, average sort of size cruising about and just hanging in the tide sitting on a rock, oh the life...

We move down the rocks closer to the water to contend with the cross wind with the light floats which means we can't see the fish any longer as we're too low to get that angle.

A few drifts later and there's a couple of bites, striking and missing, then he trys a cast further out and bang, floats gone fish on!!

After a very deep and feisty scrap I see a glint of silver while holding the net ready and thinking to myself that's a funny looking mullet...

And then as it comes up a bit my thoughts are confirmed.

A scrappy little fella just short of the 2lb I reckon, really didn't want to come to the net that's for sure...

So here's the funny looking mullet which was released alive:

20080722_070619_Brim.JPG

Fishing on thinking there might be some more of them I deepen up and hope with a splattering more shirvy into the water and then I get a hook up on my rod, offer the rod across which is refused to play a heavy fish which is holding very deep and head shaking.

Then it's all stop and he comes in all tame. Turns out to be a rockie of 2-8 or so. No pic of that as he's let into the water.

The mullet are all over the place, we can see the swirls on the surface trying to take the bits of floating bread and more bites but can't get that hookup.

Fished into darkness wondering if that will give them the confidence but no, more bites, some good ones which just wouldn't hook up.

So in all a good session and nice to take a bream from a mark i've not had them before, hopefully out again later in the week for a bass while the water is clear.

The bream are in!!

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by Magpie

Bigger wrasse quite often go for lures. One theory is its a teritorial sort of reaction, lashing out at the thing invading their area more than proper feeding.

I suspect Wrasse sometimes eat fish. I read an article somewhere about a lot of big wrasse being caught on plugs & spinners (off Portland I think) after a particularly hard winter. Certainly Mike Ladle often catches wrasse on lures.

When I dived 10 days ago, Mackeral were coralling up hundreds of thousands of silver fry (& a few bigger 11cm-ish "minnow") in two bays. They were so dense in some places I could hardly see through them. Bass & mullet came in a tight pack from the opposite side of one bay. The bass I speared coughed out some fry while I dispatched it. I saw a wrasse come up and take fry from underneath - I guess it might have spat them out afterward but why would it? The small pollock were staying underneath too -- I suspect they were doing the same (or perhaps just keeping out of the way!).

Do you think mullet take the fry? I think they probably do but I know at least one more experienced angler thinks not.

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by atomichaggis

absolutely. It needs to be a small eel tho, otherwise it will see saw.

Not sure if this is "great minds think alike" or "many fools with the same mind": I have been thinking along similar lines. I have a big chug bug popper with a small lumi delta eel hanging off the back ring on thinner mono. Haven't tried it yet though. Think of it like power-balling a small eel but using a popper instead of a power ball - so you have 2 lures in the water at once.

I had been thinking it might be better to put the little eel up-line instead (or as well) so it appeared to be chased (had seen the fly idea you suggest on a website) but didn't want a thick double loop to such a small lure. So I like the pulley suggestion. I've seen diagrams of pulley rigs for beachcasting but had no idea what the purpose/advantage of this configuration was - so thanks for enlightening us .