Sea Angling for Spearos

[Mr. X]

Heddon Saltwater Super Spook

Mike Ladle's Fishing Diary - Zara Spook
Proponent of the Heddon Zara Spook: Zara Spook - Fishing product reviews & consumer reports in video
Fishing the Zara Spook:
Bergen Bassmasters - Me and My Zara Spook
Lurenet Tips: Late Fall Means Topwater Feeding Frenzy
I've read several articles by US (freshwater) bass fishermen that prefer mono over braid - presumably they grew up with mono and perhaps find they don't need anything else.

UK dealer on Jersey carrying a few of the Saltwater version (& other popular lures at reasonable prices): Heddon Fishing lures and lure fishing tackle - MonsterTackle.co.uk (prices inc. shipping)

[Still no image support on this thread ]
A US dealer with a larger selection: X9256 Saltwater Super Spook

'Was in Dorset yesterday, so popped down to Abbotsbury at dusk for a look around. The sea was churning so not good conditions for my light gear, I did fish for a while & the wind subsided allowing decent casts & the tide was coming in. Was using one of my home-made weighted flounder spoons with a short & long tail, one baited with frozen sandeel the other with frozen squid...it was probably around 40-60g in all, so it cast well. No sign of fish but there were a several fisherman with shelters settling in for a long session.

Ah...the postman just showed up with my Rapala Sliver & Heddon Saltwater Super Spook. They look v. cool, although the finish on the top of the Heddon Super Spook is surprisingly not properly finished (or perhaps abrasion from its various travels - made in Mexico) - nothing to worry about for fishing but no good for a collector (they exist); the finish is otherwise very detailed, 3-D/holographic. This Saltwater Super Spook has 3 trebles - I think the newer ones have only 2 (I prefer 2, less snaggy & easier to handle w/o pain - should be cheaper too). Monster tackle said they were just about to order more & I suggested some additional colours that I am interested in. The box says, "A consistent action of quick snaps will get the Super Spook(R) to its desired 'walking' action."

 

[atomichaggis]

Interesting stuff. I'm not too confident about using a big surface lure over here as most of the bass have been taken on Abu Tobis and similar small spoons. Using X-rap 14s and similarly sized wobblers usually results in Cod... still sorely tempted tho.

Congrats on the new Sliver... I predict that when the sun shines again It will produce a nice bass or ten.

Fishing has been slow here due to the moon and its workings... barely any water in the fjord for a couple of weeks and precious little tidal movement equalled very few worthwhile fishes, and now its massive springs. Not to mention the bloody weather... rainy, windy, bitterly cold, snowed for a while yesterday.
Had a few little trips, last sunday in the hellish weather produced a little cod and a little plaice which was thrilling as it was the first caught at that mark... or indeed the fjord as far as I am aware. There were also numerous dabs, coalies and whiting *sigh*. fishing buddies managed one gurnard and a mountain of small coalies, whiting and dabs.
Little after work trip on monday to a small harbour in a neighbouring fjord that produced plaice and wolffish in the spring only delivered numerous small coalies, poorcod and this flounder. Fishing buddy took a pile of coalies, poorcod and a fat wrasse. Tackle used for all my fish was 3'-5' trace of 0.30 mono on a small twist on french boom with a few attractor pearls and a mustad 2/O demon circle hook... bait was prawn which was fished actively as this tackle gives poor contact in slack conditions. It's not practical, not as much fun but it can give you a tiny advantage with spooky fish.
Lure fishing has been like p/ssin in the wind... it can only get better tho.

 

[Mr. X]

...Tackle used for all my fish was 3'-5' trace of 0.30 mono on a small twist on french boom with a few attractor pearls and a mustad 2/O demon circle hook... bait was prawn which was fished actively as this tackle gives poor contact in slack conditions. It's not practical, not as much fun but it can give you a tiny advantage with spooky fish.
...

Small twist - to take the main-line out on to the boom? Fished Actively ... keeping tension in the line?

Just got a Storm ThunderStick "Original series" from the USA, as recommended by ADM I think. Although I noticed shortly afterwards that they are now available in the UK too -- when you factor in shipping from the US, the price is almost the same (slightly cheaper from US still tho'!). Looks good, shiney blue chrome. Feels a little light to me & I'm surprised they don't fit more realistic eyes now (although it is "original series" I suppose). Made in China. Darn, already exceed my 3 plug limit for the year (the 3 *lure* limit was broken back in January). Any suggestions on what sort of light conditions a shiney chrome & blue lure will work best in (found some conflicting advice on this on-line)? I'm thinking some bright sunlight to cause a bit of flash would be good -- but perhaps not in super clear water/skies, as more natural/subdued colours/appearance will be needed (mind you blue & shiney silver is a realistic colour for the bait fish I see most).

Anybody having success with black lures? I have probably overdone blue & silver throughout my lure range, esp. top water lures. I have some black rubber eels & thinking a black popper might be useful for evening/dusk fishing to provide a good silouette -- the Heddon will fullfil that role for a while although the bottom is white, the top & side are black/dark grey. I saw an interesting Japanese lure on eBay last year. It had a red head and a body that was half black & half white. Usually such lures have the black on top & white on the bottom (like a crude exaggeration of the classic Rapala black & silver scheme, or most real fish) but this one had the black on the bottom half & white on the top. I wonder if this contrarian approach might be a good design under many conditions - presenting a crisp dark shape from below, a light, & easy to see side and top...the opposite of camoflage & the scheme adopted by most fish? (Its winter!)

[ame=http://www.stripersonline.com/surftalk/showthread.php?t=449189]Wonderbread and redhead colors, why do they work? - SurfTalk[/ame]
Fishing Forum : Freshwater Fishing Forum: Freshwater Fishing General: Smart Fishing Lures On Red Fishing Line!

No more lures for a while...some polaroid sunglasses maybe?

 

[atomichaggis]

Small twist - to take the main-line out on to the boom? Fished Actively ... keeping tension in the line?

Anybody having success with black lures?

No more lures for a while...some polaroid sunglasses maybe?

Rig body or mainline twists around the little loop on the inner part of the boom a few times to attach the boom... no knot required for that bit. snood is knotted to the loop at the end of the arm.

Fished actively = kept moving it. This keeps a bit of tension on the hook length whereas if left it could go slack and be swallowed right down by a flattie befor you feel anything... plus you miss tentative bites that required a strike to set the hook.

Black lures like the firetail worms, shads and stuff are proven pollack takers. I've seen trout taken on black spoons. Black flies are supposed to be good dusk sillouhette lures but I never seem to take anything on them... i do better with white in the dying light. Darkest X-rap (dark brown n white) looks like a small coalie and is a super lure.

In my experience... silver/chrome is the best colour anytime for all the usual species so you can't fail with that lure.
Quite rare to have that option on anything other than spoons, so when thats not possible I just go for natural colours in clearwaterand good light.
Bright and bright contrasting in coloured water... Orange and white, Chartreuse and white or shocking pink.
Markings also help in coloured water, like mackeral or perch stripes... pink mackeral, fluoro yellow perch and similar craziness does the business for me when the fjord is brackish.

Polaroids are highly reccomended... multiple shades of (grey, copper, amber). Get a pair that extend around the sides to stop glare on the inside.

P.S. I found the solution for fishing a trout bomber with a long snood with no tangles

 

[ADM]

Mr X, I have found the blue/chrome seems to work best in clear ish water where it gives the natural glint in the light. Works well in the rough water/surf for me or where there's a fair bit of tide as well.

 

[ADM]

Also, make sure you try retrieving very fast if you aren't getting far. A lot of lure fishing relies on the fish being fooled into thinking its after a real fish and as such if you pull in faster the predator reaction kicks in and the take comes before the predator has time to realise it's chomping plastic. The fast retireive with the glinting chrome/blue seems to provoke that reaction pretty well, especially if you fish like I said in surf/tide where there may be bubbles etc in the water giving that slight, is it a baitfish or not thing to the predator.

 

[Mr. X]

Mr X, I have found the blue/chrome seems to work best in clear ish water where it gives the natural glint in the light. Works well in the rough water/surf for me or where there's a fair bit of tide as well.

Excellent, just what I was looking for, thanks ADM. :hmm I haven't encountered much rock/surf (nor fish) while angling as I do while spearing...although several spots at one particular location spring to mind, and it's a known bass angling location. Last time there, I mainly used a shiney blue-silver jointed Rebel lure - sounds like I was on the right track.

...
Black lures like the firetail worms, shads and stuff are proven pollack takers. I've seen trout taken on black spoons. Black flies are supposed to be good dusk sillouhette lures but I never seem to take anything on them... i do better with white in the dying light. Darkest X-rap (dark brown n white) looks like a small coalie and is a super lure...

I have a dark brown X-Rap10 (the only size I could find at the time), from the USA, its my "small diver" for steep beaches - foul-hook a 10cm bait fish first session using it! I see they are now more readily available in the UK and also in two larger sizes 12cm & 14cm which look really interesting (I noticed them on MonsterTackle.co.uk). The 14cm mackeral looks really good but I have a large mackeral diver from SeafishIreland, so can't justify getting it. Also saw some neat really big Rapala jointed shad lures at Chesil fishing store recently. I've yet to see anything in the stores as big as the foot-long fluoro stick lure I saw a boat angler using down in Dorset though (he said he caught bass on it).

...
In my experience... silver/chrome is the best colour anytime for all the usual species so you can't fail with that lure.
Quite rare to have that option on anything other than spoons, so when thats not possible I just go for natural colours in clearwaterand good light.
Bright and bright contrasting in coloured water... Orange and white, Chartreuse and white or shocking pink.
Markings also help in coloured water, like mackeral or perch stripes... pink mackeral, fluoro yellow perch and similar craziness does the business for me when the fjord is brackish.

Chrome/nickel, interesting. I had a feeling that would be good - as most the fish you see diving have a lot of silver & many are entirely silver. Certainly works for mackeral. The Storm Thunderstick fits the bill quite well but I also have some other oddball lures that came with small sets from the US that are chrome. I have one about 9cm that is like a realistic minnow but all chrome (moved it into my main lure box a few weeks ago to try out). I have several similar lures which are blue & chrome - some are a bit small for sea fishing unfortunately (although an up-line weight/powerball might might them more useful). I also have a weird, modernist angular black/clear/mirror finish jointed bomber lure with red eyes. Really should try that out some time.

Pink mackeral indeed! I've got a few bright coloured -- mainly yellow lures too. I've only tried one, a fairly conservative yellow, green, black J13-style. I've got a couple of bigger, brighter American stick lures though that I plan to try out (one of the Portland bass pluggers swears by a J13 fire-tiger colour scheme). One is bright yellow with several bright orange rhombus shapes on the side, not at all realistic but very visible. I've added a colour-matching bright, sparkly yellow muppet over the rear tail treble for added movement, visibility and size (the ML article has got me interested in trying larger lures). I don't think I have any chartreuse lures, nor "clown" or "wonderbread" patterns (although I have a weird little popper that has a pattern of red & black dots that make it look if it was bitten or diseased).

One of the links above mentioned that irradescent/fluorescent colours glow when hit by ultra-violet light, which might be worth trying as UV-light has the most energy and should travel relatively well in water.

...
Polaroids are highly recomended... multiple shades of (grey, copper, amber). Get a pair that extend around the sides to stop glare on the inside.

P.S. I found the solution for fishing a trout bomber with a long snood with no tangles

Sides are a good idea, I noticed kayaking that light reflected inside can cause headaches. I've got some proper glacier glasses although I usually carry a cheap pair of plastic framed glasses with added neoprene sides as a backup & end up wearing those instead. I think their solid leather sides are actually quite dangerous, cutting out too much peripheral vision. I was thinking of getting brown/amber as they work well for driving & shooting too, giving good contrast, esp. round dusk. Wrap-around sunglasses make more sense though.

So how did you solve the trout bomber float + long snood problem? Amnesia line & some kind of bait hook? (I was thinking of getting some heavier line for making rigs, was thinking perhaps 30lb Amnesia or similar).

 

[atomichaggis]

Also, make sure you try retrieving very fast if you aren't getting far. A lot of lure fishing relies on the fish being fooled into thinking its after a real fish and as such if you pull in faster the predator reaction kicks in and the take comes before the predator has time to realise it's chomping plastic. The fast retireive with the glinting chrome/blue seems to provoke that reaction pretty well, especially if you fish like I said in surf/tide where there may be bubbles etc in the water giving that slight, is it a baitfish or not thing to the predator.

This is really evident when flyfishing for seatrout. Often with a steady retrieve you get 'followers' who will tail the lure right back to the tip ring without biting. The real skill is in stimulating a strike response in the follower by putting more movement or sometimes just speed into the lure. The good thing with wobblers (plugs) is that you only have to retrieve faster to do both. I usually fish in quite calm water and the thing that seems to get most interest is when I raise the tip sharply and the lure does an agressive shallow dive then pause as I retrieve the slack... that pause is usually when it gets hit.

 

[atomichaggis]

Mr.X,

The 10cm X-rap is a killer lure... I took that last big cod on the blue n white one. The 14cm is too big for general use around here but I'm gonna take it with me to the arctic in may and see if the halibut like it.
I have been flyfishing the last couple of days in terrible weather, so the fjord is a bit brackish, I caught some cod on chartreuse and white bucktail streamer with perch stripes and red throat markings... never fails Gonna have to start using small trout flies again tho, those cod make me rather concerned for my £600 Loomis... stubborn as a plastic bag full of water they are.
Fire Tiger is a good pattern in spring/summer round here... possibly looks like a fish with full breeding livery.

Wraparounds or with side panels... tight as possible to your face for the polaroids. With regular types in strong sunshine I can only see my own eyes :vangry Grey is my favourite colour but too dark in anything but strong light... my main pair is the browns but amber is also useful.

The trout bomber solution... first, get yourself a trout bomber Intermediate is best. Rig up as normal by sliding onto mainline and tying a swivel onto the bottom of the mainline. Then tie the snood (0.30 fluoro) onto the swivel as per usual. Now is the solution bit...

Find a piece of tube or a straw about the same dimensions as the tube at the other end of the bomber.
With a needle, pierce the tube and feed the snood through the inside of the tube and out through the side about the length of the swivel deep (1-1.5cm?) into the tube.
Pull the snood all the way out until the tube now has contact with the bomber.
then spiral wrap the snood from the hole in the side around the tube about 5 or 6 times towards the other end of the tube.
Then with the needle pierce the tube about a centimetre from the hook end from the outside and feed the snood into the tube and then out the hole at that end and draw it all tight and tie on your lure with a modified rapala knot or a knot that leaves a small loop.
Now your snood should hang from the end of the tube which will act like a tubi boom and keep the snood away from the mainline during casts.
It bends to the side during the cast.

This solution I learned from a CD about Danish seatrout fishermen... tried, tested and trusted

If You want to try it out then I could send you a trout bomber some time after next weekend... if you don't understand the instructions I can post pics at some point too.

 

[ADM]

caught this today:



3lb 4oz on my new 1lb Fox Avon rod Welcome to FOX - Fox International are the largest suppliers of carp, pike, specialist and match angling equipment in the UK.

I'm impressed with the rod though it did spend a fair amount of time locked over with the reel humming nicely.

And happy with the fish, about time I had one, March before I get my first 2008 mullet...

Returned safely into the marina as it's easier to hold the fish in the marina from a pontoon than where I had it from the boulders on the outside of the marina mouth. After a bit of time recovering, he kicked enough for me to let him go. Got to hold them til they go. He was knackered after a very spirited fight and tarpon style head shaking on the surface.

 

[foxfish]

nice to see a fish at last! Well done Andy, I have found this time of year to be very frustrating when it comes to hooking mullet.

 

[ADM]

Hooking was fine, only proer bite I had, hooked in the top lip, just. Mullet aren't supposed to be easier to hook than bass but so far this year 2 trips for mullet v's 12 for bass and only 1 of each species.

 

[atomichaggis]

caught this today:

View attachment 17678

3lb 4oz on my new 1lb Fox Avon rod Welcome to FOX - Fox International are the largest suppliers of carp, pike, specialist and match angling equipment in the UK.

I'm impressed with the rod though it did spend a fair amount of time locked over with the reel humming nicely.

And happy with the fish, about time I had one, March before I get my first 2008 mullet...

Returned safely into the marina as it's easier to hold the fish in the marina from a pontoon than where I had it from the boulders on the outside of the marina mouth. After a bit of time recovering, he kicked enough for me to let him go. Got to hold them til they go. He was knackered after a very spirited fight and tarpon style head shaking on the surface.

Nice to see some Guernsey reportings What end tackle were you using?

 

[foxfish]

Andy I was implying that mullet are traditionally difficult to tempt with a baited hook at this time of year. You can often get large shoals of them in front of you but they wont feed.

 

[ADM]

I see (said the blind man...). To be honest Mart, it was the only proper bite I had, and when it took off under the surface, was only the second fish I saw the whole 3 hours. First fish I saw, I suspect was actually a bass, it followed the bread up on the retreive coming in fast and hard, turing at the last moment. I have heard of a few bass round there and certainly seen baitfish being hit right in the entrance before so maybe, maybe not. I was about to give up, on my last slice of bread and run out of shirvy, been waiting for them to come out of the marina but hadn't seen a thing.

Atomichaggis. Simple course fishing set up, 5AAA avon float, shotted 1AAA under (as the bread sinks and adds to the cocking weight) with 3AAA by the swivel and 2BB half way down the trace line to help it sink. Mainline was 8lb, trace 6lb flourocarbon, size 6 hook, teensy swivel and clear beads, bread flake bait, just enough to cover the hook.

 

[Mr. X]

The Mythical Mullet - DVD Mike Ladle & Steve Pitts

Nice catch ADM. I watched my "Mythical Mullet" DVD by Mike Ladle & Steve Pitts when it showed up yesterday. Pretty good. Interestingly they started off fishing a harbour (Weymouth) with basically coarse fishing gear, Mike with a waggler float & bread, much as you describe & another guy with a 2 snood paternoster (using mackeral as bait?). Mike got his first mullet while the other guy was still describing his rig.

They also used homemade jenn/jann baited spinners from a small row boat in Christchurch harbour - caught loads of fish. They also caught them flyfishing on homemade floating plastic foam maggot "fly" (best tipped with real maggots). Come to think of it, I don't recall seeing them using plugs, although ML does catch them on plugs occassionally - but perhaps when targetting bass. From the dialogue on mullet habits, you probably wouldn't use plugs as the first choice for targetting mullet. I think I recognised the flyfishing locations, same place I mentioned previously as a well known bass angling spot. One interesting technique that I might try, for spearing & angling, was ground baiting with sea weed. Ideally, you'd fish when an incoming tide was washing storm-deposited weed back into the sea, freeing maggots that mullet are used to feeding on. As that isn't always convenient, they showed Mike throwing armfuls of weed into the sea as natural ground bait -- an obvious thing to try, once you've seen it done.

It is a decent DVD, with the just the right level of info, demonstration & novelty to keep you interested. It is detailed enough to get you started on your quest for the elusive mullet, with specific locations, techniques and gear shown. Tasteful location shots & soothing background music. Mike is really laid back about gear - simple rigs, normal inexpensive coarse rod & decent but affordable reel.

 

[ADM]

I haven't seen the DVD but would suspect a mullet on a spinner type lure, they use Mepps ones a lot, would have been a thin lip, a fish which we rarely get over here, it's all thick lips and GG's.

The weed and maggot fishing is practised here a fair bit, works on the big tides this time of year when the spring tide is pushing the vraic piles and washing the maggots etc out. Natural ground bait. I haven't done that this year yet, mainly as I'd have to drive all that way to the west coast and I'd miss out on valuable fishing time!! Next set of springs is massive with a 9.7m high and 0.6m low so might have to give it a go.

 

[atomichaggis]

Intended to fish hard this week and report back as the good times are due, didn't work out that way tho as the North wind had other Ideas.
Started out promising on monday morning with sunny skies and perfectly windstill but a slight northerly had began blowing by the time I got out of work.
Headed down to a small harbour that is a Wolffish hotspot with a toothy critter on my mind, early in the season but worth a punt as a few have been taken.
Result was a small cod and a couple of pollack and the best weather we've had this year

Little cod...

Polaroids make you cool or a complete pillock... depending on whether you are the one wearing them or not...

Woke up the next morning buzzing about the good weather. opened the door to leave for work and was greeted by a winter wonderland... full carpet of snow and a stiff northerly :-( I tried fishing after work and I won't be so stupid as to try next time it's like that.
yesterday there was 6 inches of snow and a lot of snow and sleet falling all through the day, didn't bother.
Today the wind was still coming from the north wich kills the trout fishing a bit but it was not as bad as midweek and the sun was shining so I grabbed a couple of sticks and some old bait that was going off and set out to the local fjord.
Low water when I got there :-( Lobbed a 2 hook paternoster out with the nasty old bait but all I got was Dabs.
chucked a fly or two around as well, result was a cod around 5 inches long rofl and this little Seatrout...

Not the worst weeks fishing but not as good as I'd hoped... Still friday to go tho, if only the weather holds.

 

[miles]

Hiya

Mr.X, since you've started collecting lures, here's one of the newer one's i've been having lots of success with. Its an Australian lure made by HALCO called "MAX". It can be trolled from a boat, you can cast it from shore and even vertical jig with it!! Weighs close to 3ounce, so it casts very well. AWESOME lure!!

Another lure manufacturer worth investigating is YOZURI. EVERY single lure i've used from this Japanese company worked well. Argubly one of the best lure manufacturers out there!!
Yo-Zuri Fishing Lures - Fishing Line - Saltwater Fishing - Freshwater Fishing

Regards
miles

ps. happy shopping!!

 

[Mr. X]

Good to see you on thread again Miles. I suppose you're right, I've accidently become something of a lure collector/hoarder/nerd. I really should sell some, but just as I become convinced I'll never use, say, the huge silver foil Cotton Cordell popper - it suddenly becomes the in fashion lure (again) & I want to try it. rofl


Halco, I've heard that name before. I recently saw this posted by the fishing journalist/photographer Henry Gilbey (his pictures are in all the mags & catalogues): [ame=http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52928]Grauvell super popper. - World Sea Fishing Forums[/ame] I got a couple of nice, inexpensive poppers (M&M or D&D, something like that) for £3.50 each from the Swanage angling store that look very similar to these Halco Roosta poppers. I think mine are probably around 11cm/28-30g-ish - coloured similarly to the white red-head & the pilchard shown.

Cool shades atomic - very Henry Gilbey-ish in fact. I like the fly reel.

I had a skim through the sea angling mags today. Sea Angler has an article on spinning for mullet with a big close up picture of one of the Mike Ladle jenn spinners described above. I forgot to mention that Mike (& this article) use a double hook (pennel?) set up, with a small hook nearer the spinner to hold the top end of the bait worm and the larger main hook further down. ADM, I think you're right about the spinner being used for thin lip mullet.

I've heard of the opposite Pennel set up (small bait hook, with larger hook up-line) being used, I think at Chesil. The idea is that if you hook a small fish on the small hook, you just leave it on & let that act as live bait for a bigger fishrofl. Excellent!

I've been toying with the idea of making a few lures. It seems like some folk can catch on anything & everything (including bare hooks, reed knotted onto hooks, even orange peel). I was thinking of carving some wooden plugs & weighting them but a few household items have caught my eye too: a sandeel-like fat translucent blue pen with a silver tip (could thread thick mono through, add a terminating treble hook & fill with lead shot or sand); a thick, heavy but streamlined Colgate tooth brush with a neat fish-like moulded-in 2-colour scheme - was thinking of just cutting the head off & drilling holes to attach hooks & swivel. It is sometimes hard (or expensive) to find a lure with a colour combination I want to try, so I've got an old Lidl's lure that I experiment with. Although it was cheap, I think it's actually quite a good lure, it has the same bi-stable moving weight system as the highly rate Maria lures. Originally it was orange, then I painted it white with a metallic blue back & added mirror-silver sides & replaced the broken dive lip. Recently, I replaced the split rings and gave it a black bottom & "fire tiger" top half, in an attempt to make it highly visible. I'd like to add some feathers or a muppet to the tail hook too (quite common in American - you can buy ready-dressed treble hooks). Sad really isn't it.