Sea Angling for Spearos

Hey all you wicked anglers take a look at this: http://forums.deeperblue.com/spearo...cks-recreational-fishing-peta.html#post774500
...the (uninformed) Observer names & shames (Jeez!).

Barmouth, N. Wales

Visited Barmouth in North Wales last week for several days before moving up to the Lake District for a few days (if you are thinking this is a strange holiday for me, rest assured I did not plan this one - I had 2 great spearing summer holidays in recent years and the family demand a change this year).

Didn't catch anything and I think it might have taken me a few more days to figure out what rigs to use at the 3 main marks. But I've described roughly what I did below, in the hope that I might pick up some suggestions from the more experienced anglers on the thread, and perhaps others might save some time.

Barmouth has 3 main areas/marks: the sheltered harbour (beware of the boats & cables and DO NOT DIVE there), the exposed sandy beach (you can dive here - when conditions permot) and the tidal estuary (do not dive here). The bridge over the tidal estuary is a popular place to fish the estuary and has a 75p toll but access is free in the evening/night. Don't fish the metal part of the bridge near the toll booth (forbidden) but it is allowed from the surprisingly long main wooden structure.

Weather was windy, until the day we left, typical. First night it was blowing a gale but I plugged around the sheltered harbour (watch out for cable warning signs & boats) and then took my plugging rod up on the estuary bridge - so that the wind blew in my favour as I cast up-river in the unbelievably powerful high tide (I think it was 1 night before peak Spring tide) roaring into the estuary. I was able to cast huge distances but even my large plug starting flying like a kite when only half way in! My gear was too light for the conditions. A couple of young anglers were using simple, heavier gear (probably 4oz yellow "teardrop" ledger weights and worms).

Despite the rip roaring tide, the estuary is mainly fairly shallow and when the tide goes out you can see the shellfish beds and mussels, which no doubt bring the fish in.

BTW there are 3 angling shops on the main street in Barmouth. Some have charter boats. The one nearest the harbour has live bait (the others frozen only) - rag worms - and opens Sunday mornings.

I spoke to an older local fisherman who also spearfishes Barmouth with his son and with an angling store owner and her son. Seems like bass are normally targeted - recommended baits were live sandeel (saw some pics of 6lb+ bass caught off the point - between the harbour & beach on this), soft-back crabs and "Mevagissey's" (rubber eels like Eddystones/Delta eels/etc.) as treble hooks tend to catch weed. Flatties off the beach are possible. A store owner suggested using some other worms, thinner black ones (I forget the name) for flatties - but as they were already dead I was not keen to buy them and bought live rag worn instead. Catches of bass, flatties, plaice, etc. have diminished over the years though (same story as the everywhere I guess ).

From the beach, I used my 2-4oz rated bass rod with a modified "AtomicHaggis flattie rig" (I added a silver Mustad spoon on a collet(?) above the junction of weight & hook lengths). I mainly used rag worm but tried a couple of prawns too (a boat fisherman in Devon told me this was a killer bait for them in Devon last year, for plaice). The 4oz leads work well even in quite high winds. When the wind was low and the flattie rig was cast out, I used a big luminous Eddystone eel inside which I had previously inserted a lead torpedo weight of 20-30g with my other rod. The flattie spoon worked quite well when reeling in but caused extra drag and would sometimes snag weed. I was using 4oz "watch" leads which did a nice job of stirring up the sand to create interest but smoother leads would have been better once the weed showed up. The conditions seemed a little rough for flatties most days though. I used quite heavy lines for the flattie rigs, 20lb & 17lb - perhaps too much? On the eel, I think I had 20lb line but it was probably hard-to-see fluorocarbon.

I also fished the harbour from near the point one very wind morning but it was not ideal, with a fast falling tide. I cast my flattie rig towards the sand/mud flats area of shallow water and cast a mackeral head on a big ol' circle hook (maybe 7/0?) with the other rod - something suggested for harbour bass in a fishing book I bought for my FIL. I borrowed the small Shimano spinning rod for some plugging in between (Maria Angel Kiss mackerel subsurface from Veals - Dr. Mike Ladles chosen lure for a couple of years a year or so back).

Nice pair of mullet ADM. Yes mullet put up quite a fight when speared too, the tench of the sea? I should give mullet angling a try sometime. Do you think bread would be any good. I know a couple of good spots for mullet but I reckon Mike Ladle-style fly fishing with maggots might be the way to go -- there is usually a lot of weed to deal with.

Looking through my now fairly excessive looking jumble of tackle, I see rather a lot of Kamasan hooks, Aberdeens in various sizes but mainly 2's intended for flatties. 6, that is pretty small (although I used to use 18 & 20s on the canals).

Weymouth harbour features in Mike Ladle's mullet video but I don't think I'd fancy eating those -- lots of boats and I suspect sewage. Poole harbour/estuary/ria would probably be worth a try. Must try there again for flatties.:hmm

I saw mullet feeding on green algae on the rocks in very shallow water ( maybe 2 ft deep), near the shore at the weekend.

Picked up a copy of Sea Angler today, lots of bass stuff, so "watch this space"! (I usually buy the copy with the free Memorex snood line too - good value!).

I've been thinking that new but pricey (£125?) 3-piece Dr. Mike Ladle plugging rod from Veals might be the shape of things to come -- looks v. lightweight, probably a key attribute for any rod that you will be continually casting. They're also selling a Mike Ladle specialist popper rod -- a bit stiffer (like a jerkbait rod?). The Shakespeare Royalty that I use could certainly do with being a bit stiffer for sea plugging (act. the local fishing store found a cheaper, stiffer Shakespeare rod for my FOM - the owner had remembered my feedback on the Royalty from a year earlier, so knew exactly what to recommend!).