Sea Angling for Spearos

[Old Man Dave]

Rumour has it that 5's the leader with only one on 3 species for second then a few more on 2 or 1. Apparently a lot of the top boys didn't weigh even one. Makes my 2 on the spear look not so bad. Still disappointed though. Should have had 3 (damn that plaice) and with better weather maybe a few more. It's still game on for me. Already planning a stratergy and praying for decent conditions.

Dave

 

[ADM]

It was a bad weekend for a lot of us, I caught a lot of fish and any pther weekend I would have been very very happy with the results, 4 mullet session, a bream just shy of 2... I would normally be ecstatic but.. it's spec hunt fever!!

I've got my last 2 guided sessions this week and some verm digging in between so I hope to get some practice in with similar tides to the next spec round...

 

[ADM]

It's been a bit quiet on this thread. Where you all gone??

Anyway, thought I should post a trip report for you, not very exciting but I did manage a proper mullet at long last...

He went 4-5-0 on the digi scales and went very very well on the 1lb avon rod. No other fish in our waters fights like a mullet that's for sure.

Been digging a lot this week as i've been off work so I have 4lb of verm (wonder worm) in the fridge, well I froze about 1.5lb of it today as it still works superbly when frozen.

Just need to get rid of the cold I have at the moment and I can go try for something else. Any suggestions???...

 

[Mr. X]

ADM, you are the mullet :king! Super catches. Were they all caught on verm?

The FIL's 11ft /10-60g Shakespeare Potenzia telescopic spinning rod has been trashed, in less than a year. First the tip ring folded. Got a replacement rod. Then the tip ring broke. Then a ring lining came off, glue back on. The penultimate tip ring folded yesterday & I noticed red tape round an intermediate ring (missing lining). It looks well and truly knackered. I think a combination of poor design/implementation (e.g. the supplied rod & reel bag is too small to hold the rod & reel) and, I suspect perhaps, heavy handed use (although the guy was an architect). Pretty disappointing, as I've had many years of use out my Shakepeare (non-telescopic) rods.

I said he could have my Shakespeare Tidewater Bass rod -- although its too big for his car & too heavy for him to spin/plug with, but he's said several times that he'd like to just cast out & sit fishing, which this would be ideal for I reckon (but he never sits down more than 5 minutes!). I suggested that he might want to try something in between next, maybe 1-3oz - but he's a sprightly 70 yrs old today, so perhaps staying with a light spinning rod (9-11ft Shakespeare Royalty? Mike Ladle signature rod) might be the way to go. He's going to look around for another rod.

 

[ADM]

Nope, bread only for mullet and course float fishing tactics, the verm is all sitting in the fridge, waiting for me to stop sneezing...

I had a small bass Friday night on verm, only about 1lb though. Seems to have gone quiet on the rods with the super calm conditions. Just a shame i'm stuck inside now the weather is superb.

On the rods, I never liked tele rods, the newer multi piece ones are much better I feel? Anyone tried one of those 5 or 6 section ones in real fishing situation??

I must try feeder fishing for mullet. Anyone got any tips?? I have the gear, just never got round to trying it proper just yet. Assume I need to shirvy up and put the feeder and hookbait where I think the shirvy is making bottom.

 

[foxfish]

Andy, I watched some chap yesterday though my bincoculars, he was fishing over the low down opposite radio Guernsey. Anyhow he had a big fish might of been a bass but looked like a big gilthead.

 

[ADM]

Interesting, right area for them as well, bit of a long walk at low mind zzz... A few shore nets in that area if you fancy spearing, caught a chap at it in the pools below the longstore in the week, nice bass he had as well :vangry.

 

[Mr. X]

...On the rods, I never liked tele rods, the newer multi piece ones are much better I feel? Anyone tried one of those 5 or 6 section ones in real fishing situation??

I must try feeder fishing for mullet. Anyone got any tips?? I have the gear, just never got round to trying it proper just yet. Assume I need to shirvy up and put the feeder and hookbait where I think the shirvy is making bottom.

Yes the multi-section rods look a better bet, although I have a feeling a simple 2 piece rod, perhaps a bit shorter (9ft) might work best for him - something quick & easy to set-up & carry, and tough! I like the look of the new 3-piece super-light Mike Ladle Surespin 10/10 Pro but a bit too pricey for our occasional use. The regular Surespin is probably the rod to get, or the perhaps new, slightly heavier Mike Ladle SurePopper (I saw a Shakespeare 10ft carbon jerkbait rod for £19 a couple of years ago -- similar idea I believe, a bit stiffer than a regular spinning rod).

I've owned several swim feeders but never used them. I have one tiny one that I was thinking of using instead of a lead weight with an eel/lure/Toby. My brother told me he had some success coarse fishing with a swim-feeder a few years ago. Never heard of them being used in the sea but I don't see why not. The idea is sort of in-line with ML's approach of adopting lightweight freshwater lure gear for sea fishing. BTW Do sea fishermen use spods? (Carp technique I think, big torpedo-like feeders).

 

[stuckinsurrey]

I've got a shakespeare multi piece travel spinning rod - its about 6/7 sections . Tried it in Ireland for pollock and caught a few on it. Its surprisingly stiff - i guess cause of all the spigots. Quite pleased with it although I found the action a bit lifeless due to the stiffness. It was about £40-50 so perhaps they are better for more money.

Just got back from a few days in Jersey with the girlfriend and managed to catch some pollock, a bass, a scad and a couple of garfish on the rubber sandeel imitations. Good fun on a spinning rod with only one spigot, much more responsive to the lunges. The Jersey bass fishing festival was on this weekend just gone. As we left on the ferry the breakwaters in St helier were bristling with rods - all the talk in the fishing shops and amongst the people fishing all week was of the festival. Fantastically supported event.

Mr X, the carp fishing spod is used like a swim feeder except you just keep filling it up and casting it out, let it fall out the spod and then reel it in and repeat. Once you have got enough bait out there you then cast out with your hook bait to the same area. We used to make spods out of mastic tubes - big spod - 4 1/2 tc rods and shock leaders.

 

[Old Man Dave]

Just got back from a few days in Jersey

Traitor :rcard

 

[stuckinsurrey]

I blame the girlfriend but hold my head in shame......Anyway Guernsey is much nicer! And the people are brilliant!

 

[foxfish]

Traitor :rcard

Just unbelievable!!!

 

[ADM]

Well it was going to be a red mullet session but I just got drawn to a mark which I have done some thinking about and studied the sea bed recently so I went there, and I was not dissapointed...

First cast and I have a fish on, reeling him up he scomes in with me and then goes slack as it runs in. Not much of a fight so I decided it was small, only got a slight glint of silver so figured schoolie, I was high up from the sea and though i'll just hoik it up, big rods and all and as I go to lift, blimey that's heavy, can't pull it up..... Much bigger than I thought as those rods are fine hoiking 5lb of fish up and I could only just lift whatever it was behind that rock (and no it wasn't weed). In the mad scramble to get to the fish he decided against it and got off smashing the trace on the rocks.

Bum. lesson learned.

2nd cast, fish on again... , again not much of a fight but playing it safe I head down as soon as I see silver and keep it away from the rocks. once I get close enough I pull it towards me and gill a nice shiny which later went 3-10-0. Lovelly.

Several more casts and a few bites, a couple of which while sitting in the car out of the rain so I missed them.

another one for the club .

The bites died off almost as expected when the tide reached certain level.

nice for a mark to do what is expected of it and fish were coming through the gullies as thought.

And better still I get to sit in the car zzz

 

[Old Man Dave]

I actually had to resort to angling this morning. Vis has been so bad that diving is a write off - again. Went with my mate (one who's been catching loads of bass lately) to try an early morning session on the west coast.

Arrived in the dark and fumbled about trying to remember how the rod/reel thing worked. In the end managed to lob out a verm baited hook about 20 yards into a weedy looking breaking surf. A half hour and one wind in to check later and just 2 "weed" fish to report. My mate wasn't fishing as he was "instructing" me.

We moved a few yards along the beach for the next chuck as apparently the tide now made this a better spot. Only a minute of so with the bait in the water on this third cast and I felt a tap tap as distinct from the dreaded drag of the floating weed. My mate was on fag break so all on my own I tightened down, felt weight and set the hook. My stealthy attempt to land a fish solo didn't go unseen but by the time my mate was wading in the shallows to net my fish I had played it out and surfed it past him on a convenient wave and beached a nice 3.5lb bass.

Despite being smaller than any of the fish my mate had been catching it was fine as far as I was concerned. Good eating size fish. After dispatching it I rebaited with a large sandeel bait. Ten minutes later I had a good knock and the rod doubled over. I hit it which was either too early or too late (too inexperienced to know). I wound in a chewed bait and nothing else. I'm sure it was a better bass but heck, what do I know?

Another fishless half hour, then we called it a day and I went home for breakfast. I took my fish home (to fillet and freeze up) along with some good memories of an early morning bass trip. Was home by 7am which meant we had only fished an hour (plus travel time) although it seemed much more. Mind you getting up at 5am was a bit of a shock for an old body.

I seldom angle off the shore and when I do it's more often been plugging/surface popping or float fishing. In truth it has been a few years since I drowned any worms and I don't remember it being so easy or so much fun. Think I'll keep it that way by not going again for several more years. After all I am on a bit of a roll.

Dave

 

[ADM]

Nice one old man!! If only it was always that easy...

I had one of 2-8 last night in poo bay with a friend form the UK who can't catch Guernsey fish to save his life, well other than black bream, he had 3 on the mullet gear going around the 2lb mark. Nice fish and great fun but the ghosts continue to evade us...

Bloney weather...

 

[foxfish]

Good, interesting report Dave & well done for catching what a lot of folk try so very hard to catch.

 

[Mr. X]

Nice report OMD. You guys are fish magnets.

Good, interesting report Dave & well done for catching what a lot of folk try so very hard to catch.

Ain't that the truth!

 

[ADM]

well I decided that I would have a go oop north in the wind and try for a bream or something ele which may lurk in the waters up there. I often find the north fishes better into the teeth of a gale... And it did!!

Well i say it did, if I wasn't after a 2lb bream I would have been chuffed with a 14 fish session, 11 fish between 1-2 and 1-12, 3 micro bream. Every bait was taken, squid, frills and verm and mixes of them. Only bait untouched was sandeel, which I put out in case of a gurnard or something.

A couple of them had me thinking they were over the 2lb with the fight they gave, but alas no.

no other species encountered, lots of missed bites, assumed bream and blimey wasn't it warm in the lower half of the float suit... Needs to be cold to wear that really....

Might go tonight and then tomorrow for bream on the float gear I reckon.

 

[ADM]

Well nearly... After my morning of floating for a proper bream, I had a break over lunch and low water (swept the chimney of all exciting things to do...) and then smelling of soot (that stuff is worse than pilchard oil to get the smell out, I still smell of soot now, even though I tried washing my hands in shirvy to mask the smell on the hookbait...!!!:yack)

Anyway, tide was making nicely, water was getting deeper making me move back across the rocks and I was getting some good shirvy in there, looking lovely but the wind had gone round a bit more west to make it colder and more uncomfy than the morning.

Anyway, started to get bites, those frustrating ones which you can't hook no matter how long you wait or how quick you strike. Eventually got one on and it was zooming about all over the place like some demented something or other, he then came to the surface and it was another prime condition bream, but again about 1-8-0 so he went back like all the others. A few more missed bites later and classic bream take, shiver on the float then shot under and went deep, strike and no mistakes fish on. And then he was off like a train, Whizz zz zz zz zz zz goes the reel which was on a tight drag, he went deep and long, def a bream feeling it through the rod, short fast tail action, bit mackerel like in feel but one hell of a fish, screamed off like I don't know what until 30 yards later he snapped me off (8lb flouro). Tit. Second time that's hapenned to me this year where I couldn't hold a fish. Gonna start using wire on the mullet gear I reckon!!

The question remains with me of what it was, and I am sure it was a buster of a bream of one species or another. Gilthead territory, just, and definitely some big black bream round there as well, or maybe a salmon if my name was Dave, or a twait shad or something weird if I was a sam but i'm not... It didn't feel like a mullet, was too fast and "vibrating" too much.

So, despite being just time to make the marina, I fished on hoping for something else like that but alas no, few more bites but no hook-ups before I had to head home to take on the baby sitting duties as the missus is out tonight.

Roll on tomorrow!!

 

[Mr. X]

New rod: 10ft Shakespeare Xcede spin 10-60g

Visited the "local" (freshwater) angling store today to try to pick up a catalogue for my father-in-law who is in need of a new rod. He'd returned my Veal's catalogue so figured that didn't "float his boat". So I was wondering if something like a Shakespeare Tidewater Estuary or Saltwater Flattie rod, both rated 1oz-3oz, might be worth considering, as the FIM has been talking about bait fishing again recently & the winter flattie season is pretty much here. However, I got chatting to the store owner and he showed me a Shakespeare Xcede 10ft carbon spinning rod, rate 10g-60g. It is a similar spec. to my Royalty & the FIMs old Protenza but the rod is thicker, the tip stiffer and the rings bigger. I think it will be easier for the FIM to use too, being just 2 sections, v.light & a foot shorter than the Protenza (the top section broke so he's been using it as a 10 ft rod for a while anyway ). The store owner recommended the Xcede and commented that the test curve of the more expensive Royalty (I think he said 1.5/1.75lb?) wasn't sufficient for sea fishing, which is a fair comment, the tip always seems too light to me. Anyway, after thinking about it a few minutes - seems almost perfect and at £22.50 great value - I bought it, rather than drag the process out. Just called the FIM & he's chuffed.