Sea Angling for Spearos

[ADM]

The best local bass club has just released it's provisional prize list for this years open festival.

New prizes for non-motorised dinghy / kayak in the boat section, which also has the dinghy section from last year.

Looking good lads!!

www.gbass.co.uk/2009_Prize_Fund.pdf

 

[Mr. X]

Was just looking at the Veal.co.uk website. Jeez they've whacked up their prices - 25% inflation on some items 15% on others - disgraceful. Fortunately, I don't have to buy anything currently and I certainly don't want to pay those inflated prices. Anyway, I saw this excellent short video on braid by Dr. Mike Ladle on braid, which covers things we've discussed in the past:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHIAq60YR5Y&feature=player_embedded]YouTube - Mike's tips on braid[/ame]

 

[ADM]

After looking at 6 marks and finding people on all of them I went to reserve mark no 5. It looked rough, bit of weed but hopefully fishable and the tide was flooding fast through the gullies. I thought I would have to go or go home after driving who know how far looking for somewhere unoccupied.

Still very daylight but I thought, what the ****, Ill use the crab now and not bother with the lures coz it's rough.

1st cast, that's a tap, yep, hit it, fish on... Rockie, about 2lb. Oh no, please not the rockies...

2nd cast, tap tap, pull, give line, pull, strike. Fish on!! That's not a rockie, feely heavy, good pull on it, wonder what it is... Bass!! Yay!! Put him on the rocks to get the scales out. They're in the car. Bum. "Run" to car across slippy rocks nd along the path, get scales back again, weigh him at 4-5-0 and spend 5 minutes reviving him before he swims off slow. Then I see the surf has him back so I grab his tail and hold again but he's having none of being caught by hand so he flicks away strong into the maelstrom.

3rd cast, tap tap, strike fish on!! Something decent but it won;t move, about 2ft movement in and out when I give slack. Can't break it off thinking it was the lead on the weak link so maybe it's the hook trace, 2nd hook stuck or soemthing. Doesn't matter as I can't get it free and have to break off.

Then it rained. And Rained and Rained some more.

The rocks were deadly and it was getting dark and the headlamp was at home, went to the car for a rummage and found an old headlamp, still enough juice to see how to tie a knot so that will do and then back across the skating rink but the rising tide meant the weed had come in with i and every cast from then I was hammered by weed.

Never mind, there's a weigher tonight.

Left at 10pm, still not dark but the surf was pounding in somethng horrid and I had already had 1 soaking so time to call it. Chalk up another on the board...

 

[Mr. X]

Don't traumatize the poor fish on our behalf ADM, we know we can trust you by now! Nice catch.

 

[ADM]

So I had my live eels so headed for some tide to see if the shiney's were still there. Bit blowy but as the weather dude said it calmed a lot after 9pm and was maybe a F2 from the NE, lurvley.

I had a good whack with the plugs bt not a sniff and moved to the freelining as soon as I could get closer to the water and the tide.

Well it was a bit slow, absolutely no swirls or anything like there was 2 days ago. Typical.

But after a few drifts through I felt a lump of weed, which turned into a pollack about 1lb. Joy. I really didn't know it was a fish til it came in.

Last cast of the night was different though...

Felt the eel panic then a twitch so dropped the rod and flicked the bail arm off for the line to start whizzing off. Oh yeah... Bail arm over, lift into it and fish on!! Not a 1lb pollack this time.

Good fight and couldn't get it close enough to see, it must have run about 5 times in the 4ft of water, this so has to be a decent bass i'm thinking as it runs again.

Then I see a long shape come up and pull it into the gully nearby to lift out.

Pollacks.

It's a bloney Colin!! Nice one though and fought hard all the way, I always dismissed them as a bit of a poor fight other than the first run but this one gave it his all. Only went 3-2 on the scales but was gut hooked (with a circle hook somehow) and bleeding badly so he's dinner tonight.

next time...

Also saw some weird jelly fish dude so took a pic for RL and you lot.

 

[foxfish]

Nice one Andy, I like pollock to eat, small ones are very tasty & delicate use plenty of salt though as this seems to bring out the flavor.

 

[theykilledkenny]

im back
hope im posting this in the right place though and not interrupting anything...
ive been trying to troll for grouper here in the med in depths of around 40m but somehow i cant get it right. at around 6 knots (a very successful local fisherman told me that speed) i just cant get the lure that deep. i let the lure(deep diving rapala) down with a homemade cannonball sinker (900 grams) but no matter how much line i let out it wont touch down. sometimes i think i may have been dragging lure and sinker over the bottom, since when i tried the same at 20 meters, it suddenly got caught on the bottom and the lure came up extremely scratched, but before the snag i never noticed any bouncing of the weight on the bottom.
any ideas anyone:head

 

[Magpie]

How about trying a paravane? It works like an upside down kite, pulling the lure down as you troll.

All sorts of deisgns out there like:

PARAVANES
Decathlon - fishing sea fishing trolling line - NO BRAND - - Paravane 150g - NO BRAND - - trolling anglers.

6 knots is very quick for trolling though and you may struggle to get it that far down at that speed.

 

[Mr. X]

...
6 knots is very quick for trolling though and you may struggle to get it that far down at that speed.

Yes, I was going to suggest going slower -- if your local contact is so keen on this speed, it might be worth asking him which lure/what rig he uses. Fishing from shore, I've noticed some diving lure don't ground out (regular Rapala X-rap) but others do: I have a couple of big, big-lipped diving lures from SeafishIreland on eBay that I can feel run along the bottom a Chesil Beach (a popular steep, deep beach). Which Rapala lure are you using? The Rapala Sliver is supposed to be good for trolling, although I've only used mine from shore so far (for which it is too light to be really good IMHO) -- I wouldn't use one from trolling the sea floor though, I reckon it would soon snag and you would loose it (at least that's my fear). There are deeper-diving version of the X-Rap available now too:

Deep Diving Lures:
MonsterTackle: Deep Diving Lures - MonsterTackle.co.uk 1.3
Veals: https://www.veals.co.uk/acatalog/Sinking_and__or_deep_diving.html

Eddystone Eels/Delta Eels
I am a big fan of Eddystone eels, cheap but very effective:

They also offer some interesting accessories like booms & paravane. I just checked their website to see what rig they suggest for trolling. Here it is: Eddystone Lures - TACKLING UP. Interestingly, their US website suggests 2 knots as the speed for trolling: Eddystone Eel Lures USA ONLINE SHOP

This website: Boat Bass Fishing | Sea Fishing and Sea Angling Online says (for bass admittedly) "Your trolling speed needs to be no more than 3 miles per hour. The speed is critical."

You might find this piece interesting: HOW TO USE EDDYSTONE EEL LURES (the images can be opened up as large PDFs if you have Adobe Reader or FoxIt installed).

Eddystone eels are available from jims.org.uk, esp. this page: Eels - Eddystone Eels, Muppets, Jims, Cornwall, UK, Online

 

[theykilledkenny]

ive tried something similar to the paravane, but lure and the diving board thing came up very scratched. for all i know it could have been at the bottom the entire time. how can i tell when the lure is down, since apparently it can drag along without me noticing anything on my rod or line being taken from the reel??
also how big a difference does mono thickness make? mine takes 70 lb, so that probably affects the depth too
ive never heard of eddystone eels but also use something very similar called raglou, which looks pretty much the same
thanks:friday

 

[foxfish]

I think that blue water trolling can be as fast as 10 mph +, I think you just need a specialise deep diving lure?

 

[theykilledkenny]

mine dives 20 ft by itself, but thats not enough since the reasonably sized grouper stay much deeper.

 

[ADM]

That is one hell of a session. Good work that man!! Send some down this way pretty please...

 

[agbiv]

Fished in the ship channel past the ferry landing at Port Aransas, Texas on Monday. Started slaying Gafftopsl's! I brought in 5 frinds 4 ea. My large was 10 lbs!!!! Lots of fillet and nuggets. Also brought in the requesite 10 million hardheads too!

 

[Mr. X]

Great post Shiney. Nice bass & super session. Sounds like quite a trip. I would have been barfing all the way by the sound of it!:yack Surprised to hear you were using a 10ft rod for boat fishing, thought shorter rods were the norm. Was your Jap lure a Maria by any chance?

...10 mins before the dorset boys arrived the fish stopped feeding and all went quiet...

I know the feeling.

 

[agbiv]

A couple of folks have asked what in the ...h*** I was talking about.

Gafftopsails are a saltwater catfish with long whispy dorsal and pectoral fins (w/ toxic slime that's very painful if finned). Also callled Schooner Catfish. Good eating but a bit of a pain to clean. State record is 11.4 lbs...so my 10 lber is large indeed.

Hardheads are another saltwater catfish with the same venomous spines but shorter and considered trash fish. Can fight well but bait stealers and risky to unhook. If they swallow hooks we usually cut them off. Circle hooks work well to keep the buggers from swallowing the bait & hook deep.

Both eat a variety of stuff from live to cut/dead bait. Gafftops will even hit lures sometimes.

Both are very common in the Gulf of Mexico and range even up in the Atlantic on East Coast of USA. :friday

 

[foxfish]

Great names "Gafftopsails" "Hardheads" - I can remember being plagued by salt water catfish when fishing from the beach in Florida.

 

[Mr. X]

On TV, Robson Green visited a place in France that had huge catfish - 4 or 5ft long. It's a fish I tend to associate with America though.

...Yes thats the name i couldnt remember.I had the big 1 on the new plug,well old one they just reintroduced Segunda is it?.I used a J13 black silver out there aswell.

Maria La Sagunda - that's a new one to me:

I just know the sub-surface ones(Angel Kiss, Chase BW & SW) I bought one of these, Maria Bull Chops:

...at the start of the year but have yet to try it - big, heavy thing & seems like a cool idea, whether it will catch remains to be seen, TBD.

Glad to hear the black-silver Rapala J13 is still rated. I had two but sold my spare as I have rarely use it (I have a slightly heavier/cheaper Shakespeare "J11"-type lure with holographic finish that I tend to use instead if it looks like I might snag weed - which is often).

 

[ADM]

Bass dangling comp weekend so it's bass fishing all the way.

My first session went like this...

Got to mark, fished for 4 hours with £100 worth of plastic, tried some home made specials, live eel. nowt. moved elsewhere towards Ladies Bay way, chucked a crab out and texted a few peeps to see what was going down and felt a tap. Gave it some line and could feel something was playing with the bait, not really biting just playing with it so gave plenty of time and when it moved off hit it hard. The fish came to the surface and started to thrash about in 3ft of water. It fought on the surface all the way, odd run and heavy head shaking. This has to be a qualifier I say to myself then it comes in...

It's another bloney ********* ******* Gilthead.

Gutted. Went 3-5-0 on the digi's. Any other weekend I would be happy with that, but not this weekend. (Sorry phone cam, didn't have the proper camera on me)

After this bass weekend I am switching to the mullet gear and fishing more sociable hours before the missus kills me. I have blanked for 10 trips in a row before this fish and why?? Because I can't catch fish with bait in daylight ('orrid little things like rockies excluded).

BUT, as I said to her this morning, when I got in during the early hours (I told her it was 1am when she stirred ) if she let me fish in the dark more, I would bring her more fish and not blank, simple as!! And, she goes back to sleep better if I wake her at that time coming in as she's in deep sleep so we all win, except me when the nipper is up at 6am and I have to do the weekly shop with him. Knackered.

Got some live greens today so will go with the nipper for high water this evening for a play on the floats with smaller live eel I have and then save the best greens for tomorrow evening high water when I will do the bass thing with live greens at a top secret daytime freelining location!!

 

[Old Man Dave]

Went in the boat for the first time this year. Got about 30 mackerel between 2 of us and I had nice pollack and a nice john dory.

Dave.