Sea Angling for Spearos

[agbiv]

Hey gents! Check at your local super market (chain is best) if they have a fish counter w/ lobster tank. They may have a warehouse somewhere they have partially broken down or just plain ugly fixtures stored for refurb or parts. You might be able to get some parts from there real cheap. I know my company does and will will sell to the public. Good luck!

 

[ADM]

Cheers for all the info Mart, I'm not ignoring you... Just need the next payday to come along and find me a tank before I can do anything. Been busy lately...

 

[foxfish]

You should be able to pick up a water tank from the scavenger place, how much are they from B&Q?

 

[ADM]

B&Q have 50 gallon (4ft x 2ft x 18inch) header tanks at about £80. Bit small really.

Might go have a nose at the land rec see if there's anything there.

 

[ADM]

PS Mart, not sure if I told you I got a proper float rod... Fox International - Catalogues

Feels nice. Just need a decent mullet on it now. The shirvy in my open bucket in the shed is looking rather mouldy!! :rcard:yack:yack

 

[Mr. X]

roflKeep the bucket there, you might get some good bait maggots (Old paint tins half full of off milk solids works very well for maggots I'm told :yack).

 

[foxfish]

Nice rod Andy but you know I dont rate putrid shervy!
I do come across 100 gal water tanks all the time - just not at the moment :head

 

[ADM]

Had my first GG with some 18 month old stuff that I found at the back of the shed. They were lapping it up!! So pre-occupied on the shirvy they didn't notice the bread or anything.

But I do agree. Fresh is normally best. I was going to go but I decided against it for some reason and waste not want not.

 

[foxfish]

Had my first GG with some 18 month old stuff that I found at the back of the shed. They were lapping it up!! So pre-occupied on the shirvy they didn't notice the bread or anything.
.

Just imagine what you might of caught on that day if you had fresh shervy?

 

[Mr. X]

Just imagine what you might of caught on that day if you had fresh shervy?

Maybe nothing - perhaps they like the pong, less digesting required?! A friend said his brother caught a huge bass night fishing on the oldest rankest bait he'd ever seen. He was disgusted on both counts!

 

[foxfish]

I just cant except that stinky old bait will out fish fresh bait!!
It might be possible to catch fish with decomposing crap but I dont think you will find many experienced or successful anglers using such.
I make my mullet shirvy from bread crumb, bran & fresh fish guts (frozen fresh), it is very important to avoid any large particles that will feed the fish.
I use a food processor to proses the bread & guts & gauge the consistency to match the fishing venue by adding bran.
I add water & bran as soon as I reach my fishing mark & adjust the mix to suit - strong tide, deep water, still water etc
Some people get very excited when a mullet appears in the shirvy & instantly throw more in, very often right over the where they think the fish is!!:head
Mullet fishing is a art, keeping low to the background, using slow deliberate movements & most of all keeping calm when they appear. Feeding small & often with a fine particle mix is the way to go & flicking in a few samples of hook bait every now & then.
Fishing 10' up from a harbour wall is not really my idea of fun but fishing the deep water marks on overcast day with a choppy seas is.....

I was lucky to win quite a few competitions through catching mullet but ever since I was accused of cheating when one day I entered 5 mullet over 5lb I simply gave up any form of competition as I felt that being in competition with jealous mullet club anglers was a no win situation.

 

[Mr. X]

You're probably right. The lobster pots do ok with bait that's been through a few freeze/thaw cycles - I guess they're more scavengers tho' & it's not minging.

 

[foxfish]

Well yes you are right that most potters use fresh frozen fish for bait (my friend who owns the two largest potters in Guernsey uses frozen salmon)
but what is more interesting is that - when you pull the pots after a day or two of being underwater, if there is any bait left the fishermen sell the stale bait on to restaurants because it smells & taste just like red mullet!

 

[ADM]

I have no doubt that fresh shirvy and bait is best for any species. I've just had some success in attracting mullet with the worst stuff you can imagine... The kind where my bucket rocks because the air tight lid is holding the gases inside and the top and bottom are bloated!! Not had one pop on me just yet...

The last lot of shirvy I made was bagged and frozen down. Load of cheap bread and I can't walk past a loaf at 20p!!

 

[foxfish]

I have finished reading "out of the blue" by Chris Yates, it was OK but don't expect this "little"! book to be anything like his other masterpieces.
I cant express just how much I enjoyed reading "casting to the sun", he wrote that book with such confidence, & rightly so of course, but sea fishing is not his speciality.
The book is really about a little holiday cottage by the sea that he visits with his family & discovers the delights of plug fishing, nice enough

 

[Magpie]

I can second that. A pleasant, if a little short read, but certainly don't expect to learn anything about fishing from it.

 

[Mr. X]

Interesting. Somebody gave me a copy of Chris Yates's little book last year but I gave it back unread. I didn't really want to read about fishing, I want to do it! I read instructional material but that's to make the practice possible and to solve specific issues encountered. Kind of regret not reading it now - but still more interested in going fishing than reading about it.

 

[ADM]

Having dug a load of verm I decided last night was the night for a bass out west on the rough ground...

So off I toddle with verm and a few crispies I found while verming and get to it. It was very slow so got a second rod out and wellied it out and fished the bass rod close in with the few crabs. This is a mainly rough ground mark with some of it moving to what I guess would be called mixed ground but it's within a bay area surrounded by big rock reefs other than one 2-3ft wide gully which comes through the rock which is full of rocks and the odd clearer bit. It it the main access/exit point into the end of the bay I was fishing, the only other way in is over the reef at high.

Anyway... Several finicky bites on the close rod and one which I thought was a bass just playing with the crab before it went off so I struck into it and nothing... This went on time and again til I eventually got a teeny shore rockling.

The long rod had had some vicious little rattles on it but no hookup (was using a pair of 8/0 circle hooks so I could leave it alone) so I assumed schoolies or rocklings. Changed the bait a couple of times and replaced hooks and leads lost in the rough stuff.

Shane Branquet stopped for a chat at which time the short range rod went ballistic trying to get over the wall, fighty fish on the end, def not a rockling so we popped over the wall to land it, It's a bass alright but all of 8oz!! Not funny, really pulled hard!!

Laughing over I got back to it and had a better bite on the long range rod, left it for a moment for the circles to do their thing, picked it up and when I felt the fish just lifted calmly into it for the circle hooks to set themselves. Fish on!! Fighty fish as well, stayed deep so I hopped onto the wall gracefully and then I saw it in the shallows in front of me.....
Wasn't expecting that!!

Hoiked it out of the water and up the wall then though maybe I shouldn't have done that... It was a new PB for sure as it lay flapping by my feet. Called Gav to tell him I had a big PB hoping to wind him up (he was on the beach along from me) and I must say when I weighed it it wasn't as heavy as it looked. But still. More than a lb over my PB.

And here he is... 2lb 2oz of red mullet, taken over rough ground, using verm on a 8/0 circle hook!! So that's how you're supposed to fish for them then, and there's me been using small hooks on sandy beaches...

 

[foxfish]

Well Done Andy - they make quite good pot bait!! But I wouldn't eat the the thing!

 

[ADM]

It's going on some sort of fish stew apparently... I sorted it into goujons at lunchtime. Smells OK and much nicer flesh than the regular sized ones. Will let you know if it tastes of old socks or not!! I have no intention of grilling the guts and spreading on toast like Hugh Fearnley-Whatsit did though!!

Stomach contents were 3 teeny crabs and a couple of those little sandy fish you see in pools on the sand (like round the groynes at Vazon).