Sea Angling for Spearos

[Mr. X]

Just got back from E. Devon - v. pleasant & great exercise but no fish worth spearing seen. Not a bite from the kayak handlines or rod. BUT did catch a 10cm minnow/sprat with a new 10cm X-Rap lure from the beach!!! Foul hooked. It was the same size as the lure with similar colouring. It swam off when returned -- it later occurred to me that it probably would have made good live bait. An inauspicious start to the season.

[covert]

inauspicious is great ..... cuase it can only get better from here matey

[Mr. X]

I bought some lures from the States recently, mostly used. From discussions, the seller knew what I was interested in and surprised me by including a couple of extra lures for no charge. They were beaten up but exactly what I had been looking for, large (11cm) "Rattlin Chug Bug" poppers in bass-friendly silver-grey. A quick touch up with black artist's acrylic paint & a coat of acrylic varnish and they were "good to go".

Although I have a few other poppers, I think these are better. I thought I had bite first time I used it, because it really does act like a distressed fish at the surface and the silver grey added realism. I didn't get any bites though when I first tried them yesterday (for 45 minutes after spearing, while my churning stomach settled, before the arduous walk back) -- so we'll see. I didn't bother rock hopping to where I know there are fish, I just cast out into the open waters to try things out.

I also tried my homemade hybrid lure, made from the front half of a jointed 13cm storm lure (which broke on pebbles) and the back end of a cheap Eddystone eel copy (which are too soft at the front* and so don't move as convincingly as the real deal). The movement of the hybrid looks good to me, quite convincing, although the joint needs a bit of attention as it occassionally locked. (I just noticed this morning that the blue & white eel tail glows green in the dark).

Just don't seem to get enough time/opportunity to fish with the rod. As I got back to the car I met a couple of young anglers planning to fish a different area nearby. As I left though, I noticed they headed off towards the area I had dived, rather than their original intended destination , I hope they weren't disappointed.

*I see that Mike Ladle glues his eels to the hook - must give that a try.

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by deep thinker

...decided to cast out some red bait...

"Red bait"?

[miles]

Hiya

Redbait (Pyura stolonifera) is a type of sea squirt (Ascidian). It looks sort of like a large potato, brown, with two syphons on the top. They are filter feeders that normally attached themselves either to rocks (rock-redbait) or to sand (sand-redbait) The rock redbait, once cut open, is bright orange where-as the sand red-bait is a pale yellow colour. Rock redbait can normally only be cut on a spring low tide and sand redbait is normally picked up on the beach after a big storm, or you buy it from the boats, who drag treble hooks over the bottom to hook the redbait.

Fresh redbait is a very, very good bait for reef fish. One exception is our national fish, the Galgoen. They prefer MATURE redbait. This is normally sand redbait, which is cut and put into a bucket, then left for at LEAST two weeks, to ferment. Galgoen go CRAZY for this stuff!!!

Word of caution though, the pong emanating from the bucket of fermented redbait will cause the whole neighborhood to complain. Not even mentioning the fact that the smell won't wash off your hands for a good few days!! Washing your hands with vanilla essence does help, but not that much

[deep thinker]

It stinks up everything but it works a charm...

[Mr. X]

Yuk! I read somewhere than you should always use fresh bait but a friend told me his brother caught his best bass (12 or 14lb I think) on some stinky, rank old bait because he didn't have time to get fresh.

Makes sense to me. Animals in the wild (and domestic dogs) love rotten carrion -- it's probably smellier, tastier (like hung pheasant or mature cheese) and easier to digest (as the bacteria are already breaking it down).

By the way, anybody heard of Winner's paste? A friend swears by it for course fishing ("...the fish cannot resist it."). I wondered if it can be used for sea fishing. Apparently it comes as a powder which you mix into a stiff paste. [Probably *not* this stuff: http://store.allvet.org/winnerspaste.html].

[Mr. X]

It has been pointed out to me that chest waders are near-essential kit for bass plugging in the UK. I suppose, to get out past the weed and gunge that often occupy the first few feet of the shore & deal with moderate surf in the colder early hours of the day. I hadn't really noticed a need until this week - perhaps because I often fish immediately after spearing, wearing my wetsuit (when cold) or shorts (when warm), so wading has not been a problem. Soaking the salt out 2 pairs of shoes this morning, I was beginning to see the point.

Anybody care to provide advice/thoughts/recommendations/alternatives? I'm told Dunlop Ocean/Oceanic(?) do the job well for about £70 (the price of a speargun ), probably these ones: https://www.veals.co.uk/acatalog/Waders.html
I also see this prominantly on the web: Chest Waders - Aquarius Waders
Lidls were selling some brown ones a month ago for about £40 with their seasonal fishing stuff.

[Mr. X]

Discussing lures recently made me realise that there characteristics which are particularly useful for sea fishing from the shore but not all lures have them. Lures don't have to be perfect - people catch on all sorts of things - but finding a lure which are good in several regards might mean that it covers more conditions effectively and so you don't need as many lures & you don't need to change it as often (so your lure spends more time in the water attracting fish).

Useful characteristics include:

- "cast-ability", the ability to cast far & with out excessive tumbling & self-hooking (e.g. when the lures hooks catch the line or stick in the lures body, as my YoZuri Crystal minnow has started doing!). This could allow you to cover a significantly larger area with the same number of casts and help you get over weed, gunge, rocks and boulders.

- snag-avoidance (weedy/rocky areas - like where bass are often found). To reduce lure losses and gunged and fouled hooks.

- attraction - appearance & movement. For example, looking like normal prey, something good to eat or being easy to see/feel. Attracting fish from a larger surrounding area by appearance (bright flashing blade, light, illuminous, bright colour) and/or movement (vibrating spinner blade, jointed injured fish action, angler-imparted action - like jerkbaits, oscillating tails like artificial eels).

For ease of casting, having a fair amount of weight, 18g-60g / 0.5-2oz, seems like a good starting point. Some lures, including some large Rapala floating lures are incredibly light, sometimes 10g or less. Rubber eels usually need additional weight (e.g. a bored bullet/barrel 3-5 ft up line or small weight hidden inside). The moving weight systems used in some modern lures are also intended to improve casting by reducing tumbling and therefore tangling. Slimmer shapes and more dense construction could also help reduce wind-resistance.

For snag-avoidance, diving top-water floating lures offer realistic action in the shallow waters often fished from the shore. Stopping such a lure allows it to float back to the surface & potentially over weed. Floating poppers stay on the surface and can often be used when even shallow divers are snagging weed. However, as mentioned above, some floating lures are quite light which can reduce casting distance (although I have some poppers that will cast as far as any lure).

Another approach is to use lures with fewer hooks. Several modern lures & spinners use a single hook, often up-turned, sometimes shielded by a "skirt", to reduce snagging; some vintage Rapala spoons do likewise (...as the old adage says "ain't nothing new under the sun"). These include some novel spinners, artifical eels (e.g. Eddystone & Delta) & new gel fish lures. Some are quite heavy and so can be cast & used to fish deeper, for example Bass bandits and many of the new & weighted gel fish lures.

For attraction, movement seems to be a winning strategy with Eddystone eels tails and Mepps-style bladed spinners being a proven fish attractors, that don't require good visibility (but it might help). Floating divers (like the popular jointed Rapala) seem to have a lower-key natural movement without too much angler induced effort. Watching videos of some US jerkbaits suggests anglers can impart very realistic movement into otherwise uninteresting lures. Poppers create commotion, like an injured or distressed fish gulping at the surface, intended to entice aggressive predators.

Colour is much debated but perhaps it is less critical than it might seem at first. It comes down to regional and personal preferences. For example blue-silver & grey-silver are popular UK for the bass but hi-viz yellow & orange is reputed effective in a recent article on Portland fishing. Chartreuse is another classic lure colour, surely anglers and interior designers are the only people to know about such colours. Red-head/white body seems very popular in tropical climates like SA (especially judging by the shark-eaten red-tipped white kayak image posted a while back!). Some people are very keen on the gold/bronze/brown version of the Rapalas. Black is currently enjoying some popularity, the idea being that it helps present a clear fish-shaped silhouette to predators. Some say fish see red as black too (due to filtering of red light by the sea and perhaps the way fish see?). Silver, grey-silver & blue-silver are my personal favourites at the moment, because they look like the baitfish I see swimming around (& because I and others have caught fish on them). Bright silver flashing is a well known attractor of many/most predators, some will reputedly even take a shiny unadorned hook. I've noticed that a couple of lures (a cheap glittery blue & white artificial eel & a premium Marie Angel Kiss top water lure) had, unadvertised, illuminous/phosphorescent/"glow-in-the-dark" colouring on their bellies - which showed up glowing green in dim lighting (surprise!).

A possible downside to using realistic colours & patterns is that real fish have evolved with a fair amount of natural camoflage, so their tops are often dark, their sides reflective silver and their underside light coloured - making them harder to see! No doubt predators have had to evolve to deal with that. (They say human eye-sight has very good colour separation of greens -- one of the reasons for switching from red/orange to yellow-green as safety colours).

Shape is something that bothers me about some lures. Most of the poppers, especially the less expensive ones are short and fat. For large pelagic fish it might not matter. However, the bait fish I see while swimming the UK shore are long and slim; some are very long and slim (e.g. sandeels). However, Veals offer some "pencil" thin Diawa poppers which have a good reputation for catching. Articificial eels and weighted eels, like bass bandits seem targeted to fill this gap. Rapala offer a great looking long thin jointed lure, the Saltwater Sliver, in
- unfortunately it is intended for trolling, it is expensive (I have seen them selling for £9-£17/$18-$34) but perhaps most importantly, it is fitted with a deep diving lip unsuitable for most shore fishing (but... ). (Anybody had success using stubby lures?)

Although, I get the impression that some anglers (Mike Ladle springs to mind) would catch fish on a hook with a blade of thick grass doubled and larks-footed onto it (a simple native lure used by Amazonian tribesmen). Knowing where, how & when to go are probably more important.

[flyflicker]

Crumbs I never knew fishing could be so complicated; I just use a blue 11cm chug bug to catch my fair share of bass, exploring all those wonderful bass'y spots

Which lure do you find is your best bass catcher Mr X?

[miles]

Hiya

You've missed out THE most important part of a fishing lure...... YOUR CONFIDENCE IN IT!!!

You'll always have one particular lure that is your favourite. Chances are that you'll fish more often with it and therefor have more success with it, compared to your other lures. This doesn't prove that it's better than another lure, but simply shows that becuase you're confident with this lure, you'll catch more fish with it!!

Look at what flyflicker said, he uses a chugbug and catches his fair share. Fish are pretty simple animals. If they're there and they're feeding, you'll catch them, pretty much regardless of the tyoe of lure you're using. Sure, some days some lures will outperform others, but on the whole, you'll do just as well with one type as with another.

I have a friend who is clueless when it comes to fresh water black bass fishing. I borrowed him some of my smaller lures with instructions on how to use what. He ended up catching quite a few fish and came over to brag about it. Asking him what worked best, he showed me his tackle. He used a chugbug, with a one ounce sinker attached to it!!! How the devil a surface lure, with a lead in front of it, enticed fish to strike at it is beyond my comprehension............. Oh well, each day you learn something new!!

Regards
miles

[Pav]

I use the baited feathers for Whiting during the winter.

My Practice ...

Lures when fish are feeding, water is clearish. Fish take lure because of its movement / vibration / colour??

I use Scents / baits in murky waters , when fish are grovelling around!

BUT in my expereince from the Yak try anything!! Its great when fishing with a buddy using different techniques. Who ever is catching is then a wealth of information!! ...what lure? how deep? where??? I remember catching about 15 fish during which my mate blanked! I was in fits of laughter. I was explaining to him in detail my "technique!" as he was getting angry , and as my lure dropped I felt a fish take it. I didn't let on and just said... "you give it 1,2, 3 bounces and pull up your fish... as I did .

I put it down to the state of his tackle. Rusty hooks! , but didn't say anything at the time, prefering to be the master of the sea for that day!

[Pav]

Found you a new lure for your collection Mr X ;>)

eBay.co.uk: Electronic "Mako Magnet" Shark and Tuna Lure (item 330125116491 end time 05-Jun-07 02:36:45 BST)

[Mr. X]

Great stories. I'm sure you're right Miles about the confidence thing, I've heard similar comments from others. It's an interesting idea. I think I have a fairly good idea of what I want in a lure now -- just need to find one & hope the fish agree!

Flyflicker, I don't yet have a "best bass catcher" but will let you know if & when I do. I like my old 11cm Eddystone eel...it works, it looks quite similar to the bait fish I see about (& I recently read somewhere that several world/national records were caught on them!). I'm enjoying the chug bug at the moment, although no bites yet; it casts really far, looks like a distressed fish (to me), doesn't get tangled in the weed much (which is handy), it seems about the right size & colour. It was used, free and I repaired it, so I don't have to worry about scratching it or loosing it (I have another the same but needing a little more work). My only concern was that it is much broader than the bait fish I see about -- but as you are catching bass on one, obviously it's not a problem.

I recently got an old American Rebel "jointed minnow" that I plan to try when I get some less weedy conditions. It's similar to a Rapala J-13 but it is shiney silver (like many fish) with a blue top and the joint is further back. I believe it swims shallower too (6"-10" according to this page I just found) - which suits me as the chug bug covers the surface and my Rapala lures dive a little deeper. I've got a Yozuri Crystal Minnow which covers similar territory, has a great reputation & looks great BUT - as you may have discerned - I don't have much confidence in it; the hooks seem way too big (& have started sticking into the lure) & its shape, colour, etc. don't look realistic to me. (Alternatively, maybe I should learn from Miles' post & try sticking a 1oz weight on the chug bug -- it might be the Universal lure I have been looking for!).

Pav, I completely forgot about scent. Although, the thought of using sardine or mackeral oil on the lure has occurred to me, it never really seemed practical. Living away from the sea, getting & keeping bait is problematic. When I catch mackeral I keep them for eating! I do keep a few mackeral heads & guts in the freezer from time to time thinking I will use it but never have so far. Maybe I should try digging up or buying a few worms/crabs. Unfortunately I don't really have the time/opportunity to do a lot of fishing - there are so many different techniques, types, etc. Lure fishing appeals to me on a lot of levels and seemed like it would be the most likely to fit in with my other activities & responsibilities. I particularly like Mike Ladle's approach, it's like he's got so much experience now that he has distilled it down to its essence. I notice in recent pictures that he used the same gear for bass in the UK as he uses in Tobago for bone fish and Tarpon - same reel, same rod, same line - & often the same lure.

Re. Shark/Tuna magnet, low fequency...maybe they'd like Nu-Metal or funk?!

[Mr. X]

Was hoping to hit the coast again today - the forecast is great, sunny (actually I prefer it a little cooler) with just 2 mph winds but will instead be looking after a sick family member. Fishing/spearing-wise, things just haven't come together for me this year - yet!

I was just re-reading some of the earlier posts on the thread. It was probably too much information to take in & filter, first time round. For example, I should have paid more attention to Magpie's first post on line -- it makes perfect sense to me now.

Monofilament
I started off using 10lb monofilament line (perhaps inspired by an old ML article or my old coarse fishing experiences). A succession of rapidly lost lures & spinners (fortunately cheap Lidl's items) had me thinking fast about avoiding weed snags & stronger line. I had some 12+lb line that came with me 10lb, I was surprised to find that helped improve recovery from weed snags considerably. I believe ML uses 16lb mono for leaders now & this is what Foxfish recommended earlier on, so I bought a spool of 15lb mono yesterday (the closest available nearby) - but just for leaders (read on).

My son still uses the 10lb line on his Shimano rod and it has been trouble free. I still occasionally use the 12+lb line, it has worked well, although mainly for leaders now and, as I said, I'm changing to 15lb mono for that.

Braid
Next I moved to Dynabraid, a little lighter than I wanted (it was cheap old stock from eBay) but at 20lb it seemed more than adequate for my needs. To be honest, it has been a bit of a nightmare (as Miles predicted). It was quite a bit thicker than the claimed nominal diameter would have you think; having a relatively low capacity reel, I had unnecessarily backed it up with electricians tape. It is very soft, more like cotton than mono, and I got a few major twists and tangles. A combination of tangles & badly snagged Toby lures led to me loosing half a spool on my first day fishing with it (an expensive lesson). Also, the lure sometimes caught in the braid - not often but this could be a major pain. Last week, I lost most of the other half in two nasty tangles.

I might have spooled the braid onto the reel wrong incorrectly - I see the Shimano video stresses that reels should be loaded only from the bottom of a tensioned spool. I know from rope-handling days, that some ropes have a very distinct direction of coil and will figure-8 and twist horribly if coiled the wrong way.

I got a couple of hot tips from Mike Ladle to help me with the braid though. The first was to use a mono leader of about 3 feet (Foxfish also recommended this). While you loose the benefit of the fine diameter at the hook end, the stiffness & transparency of the mono more than compensate. That fixed the lure snagging problem. I used much more than 3ft at first, to compensate for all that lost braid, but the carefully tied & trimmed Allbright knot occassionally snagged while casting (as ML predicted). So I am back to the 3ft mono leader now.

Whiplash
Having lost so much Dynabraid from my main spool (I still have it on my second spool), I re-spooled last night. I backed up the bare spool with a fairly short amount (maybe 30-60 feet?) of the new 15lb mono, to help get a grip of the spool and act as an end marker. My new main-line is Whiplash braid of a similar rating (16+lb, again cheap old stock of ebay). Whiplash is the green braid you can see on ML reel on his website, although he uses 30lb (& Magpie 40lb). It is much finer (lower diameter) than Dynabraid. I have finished it up with a 3ft 15lb leader and an "American" swivel clip that is small enough to pass through the rings of my rod. I keep the line thread in the rod now, to speed set up. I had originally used a clip - very convenient - but recently got into the habit of tying a loop with a Rapala or Trilene knot. However, I came a cropper recently, when I found myself trying to tie a Rapala knot in the dark at 4am (the full moon obscured by cloud & drizzle) with my Omer dive torch's switch spring loaded to off! As I am still learning about my lures, the convenience of a clip, for now, is compelling.

Tying the Whiplash to the 15lb mono backing & leader, the Whiplash is finer than the mono. I formed the main U of the Allbright with the mono - that works great (I tried the reverse for one of the knots and the braid was immediately damaged and frayed). Apparently Whiplash isn't the easiest braid too handle (now I find out!) but it seems better to me than Dynabraid so far (tighter, stiffer). Firewire might have been a better choice (per earlier threads).

The other braid tip from ML, which I haven't had opportunity to try in earnest yet, is to close the bail arm manually (which I often do anyway) and then grab the first handful of line and pull it out side ways to make sure it isn't tangled. This, I suspect will be the key to sorting out the tangles.

Future?
I still feel more comfortable with mono (after reading an interview with one of the top US bass pros. where he said he never used braid, I don't feel too bad about that). However, I'm percevering with the braid though, I can see the potential.

If the Whiplash works out, I will probably be ready for some fresh (non-eBay) Whiplash braid next, 30-40lb, to make the most of its benefits and increase abrasion resistance. If it doesn't work out, then I might try 20lb Firewire (most braids are not as thin as Whiplash) or go to 16lb mono. The products (both mono & braid) are improving all the time, diameters are getting smaller/ strengths higher.