Sea Angling for Spearos

[Jason IR-2010]

It is a great hobby and it dosen't take that long to master. It's a great way of filling in a spare 10 min (as thats how long it takes to make one).

To see some true works of art look at this forum, litearly days even weeks of work goes into just one fly !

Classic Fly Tying -> Classic and Artistic Salmon Fly Tying

These are the last two I made and posted up, 2 years or so ago.

Board Message
Board Message

 

[Fro-in-shorts]

I'm home for crimbo, just got back into guernsey, Is it worth getting out the spinning rod and wapping a few lures out into the surf? I've never fished my marks at this time of the year and have no idea what to expect? Any differences in the lures I should use? Or do I just stick with my regulars? I've had decent bass in April, but never spun from the shore between november and april.

 

[ADM]

I'm home for crimbo, just got back into guernsey, Is it worth getting out the spinning rod and wapping a few lures out into the surf? I've never fished my marks at this time of the year and have no idea what to expect? Any differences in the lures I should use? Or do I just stick with my regulars? I've had decent bass in April, but never spun from the shore between november and april.

I had one last weekend on a lure, out west, no interest in the hard lures but takes on the softies fished slow and deep.

 

[ADM]

I'm curious, do you use a different approach for night lure fishing? For example black/dark coloured lures (for a crisp silhouette); luminous painted lures - like the Veal's excellent Maria mackerel lure (as used by Mike Ladle for quite some time) - which surprisingly glows in the dark) or the luminous Eddystone/Delta rubber eels; or maybe poppers?

personally I like to keep it as natural as possible. How many black baitfish do you see about at night?

Best lures for me have been big hammers, pafex roselet (smelt) lookalikes and homemade softies, main one being a ribbed thing about 7 inches long. Looks naff but the bass eat them...

Not fished hard lures much this year but it's Maria Chase BW's or very slow worked surface lures. Learn to count to 30 in between pops...

 

[Mr. X]

The local trout lake just canceled their 'Winter Challenge' - I guess the winter won.

Fro, I seem to recall our much missed friend OldManDave posting a picture one winter recently of a bass he'd caught over the winter break. A rather large (grauvell?), metallic blue popper featured in the image.

Jason, I have made a few crude 'flies' or perhaps 'eels'/'white bait'/feathers might be a better description, from fluffed out braid/para-cord tied with red cotton to sea hooks. I was thinking of using them as teasers in front of lures/rubber eels (probably a bad idea - simple is good) or for feathering. Never got around to using them but I enjoyed making them, and the flattie spoons I made a while back (have used them but so far w/o success) - again a simpler rig would probably be better. I've toyed with the idea of carving some plugs recently. My brother-in-law has one of those air spray-guns - which seems to be how the American carvers get a really professional finish.

 

[ADM]

Homemade softies. Great fun playing with molten plastic...!! Giant smelt lookalike, well sort of. Have had a few bass on this one in strong tide flow. Weighted the hook with some solder wire.

 

[Mr. X]

ADM, Are you melting milk bottles/Fairy Liquid bottles, or using some commercial product?

 

[ADM]

either melt other cheap soft plastics or I tend to use plastisol which comes in liquid form but after heating cools to become a soft plastic. Available in the US or France from just a few suppliers. Not found it in the UK yet.

 

[ADM]

just had some fun with polyester resin making a new mould of the lure shown above, it's a home design but I improved the lure before making a new mould using a blowtorch to smooth it up. the ones from the first mould hves my fingerprints all over it from the clay original which means clear lures are not clear so it needed a tidy up.

 

[Mr. X]

either melt other cheap soft plastics or I tend to use plastisol which comes in liquid form but after heating cools to become a soft plastic. Available in the US or France from just a few suppliers. Not found it in the UK yet.

It seems like Britain has become a back-water with regard to obtaining tools & materials since we stopped making things . I always enjoyed going into the hardware stores in the USA, even the small ones seem to stock more things than the new huge stores in the UK - and things were always very reasonably priced. Consequently people are able to do and make a lot more things. Restrictive laws on gun ownership, hunting and fishing have probably lost us a lot of business & opportunity over the years too.

I notice it's sometimes quite hard to obtain interesting fishing products that are available elsewhere (France, Italy, Spain, USA, SA) - usually easiest to buy direct from abroad, if the shipping is not prohibitive, which it often is.

Glad to see ingenuity & creativity are alive and well in the Channel Islands though ADM. Happy New Year to you and your family , and all other forum members and viewers ("lurkers"?).

 

[ADM]

Got to agree mate, it's hard being British sometimes. Luckily we have google translate so if you know what you are looking for language is no barrier (Japanese and french being the two I need to work out the most).

it is a shame that the Uk is so far behind France when it comes to lure fishing (and I do not mean expensive hard plastics), but hopefully we can catch up as the gear particularly makes a huge difference.

My polyester resin mould seems to have worked OK which is good. A lot cheaper than RTV silicone, though the RTV is much better for paddle tailed lures. But it's also a lot messier, but maybe that's because i purchased a 2.5 litre bucket of the stuff with no way to pour it properly and being me I just jumped straight in there and made a mess, it was fun though!!

Oh, and if anyone wants to make their own soft lures, just contact me and I will tell you where to find the necessary stuff. I'm not sure if i am allowed to post links like that here so I will not.

 

[Pav]

As a lure addict have you tried anything based on the Umbrella Rig? Its on my "to try" list. A small umbrella rig set up with 4 small sand eel / shrimp type lures (without hooks) being chased by a Mackeral type imitation lure. Maybe I'm making it to complicated but I imagine a Bass seeing a lure chasing down its own meal may trigger a take. I know the Americans use this technique for large game fish, so why wouldn't it work for Bass?

Obviously only suitable for trolling. I MUST try it along with decorating my rash vest with tinsel to put over my suit when spearfishing.

 

[ADM]

I have used teasers a few times. Just the one though, not a string.

Just tie a small fly (sandeel pattern or even a baby redgill) above the diving lure and it will look like it's being chased. best way is via a long tag end on the leader knot.

I know of several people who have had lots of success with this, often the bass will take the teaser rather than the main lure. I don't use hard lure often now but I think it might be time to try them with a teaser again soon.

 

[robdigital]

Interesting stuff about teasers - im convinced when i have speared fish and they are on the stringer that it seems to attract more interest from other fish in the area that my eyes would not be able to see underwater but maybe they see they "flash" of other fish and come in for a curious look see. Great tip though using the leader tag to put a extra lure on!, must remember to try that for trolling later in the year.

 

[ADM]

I think I am missing the bass or something...

Made some more home design lures today and the last one is well... Erm... NEMO!!



Not quite sure how I am going to cast a mould just yet but I'm sure I'll come up with a method of sticking it down without ruining one side while the resin sets to cast the other side, it will be a 2 part mould when finished.

I imagine I am wasting my time but the S.A.D. and winter blues have hit me hard the last few weeks...

 

[DafyddRees]

Hi guys,

I do alot of flyfishing but have decided to try my hand at lure fishing. One of the aspects I love is the mobility that fly fishing grants and thats why I like the look of HRF and LRF as it seems to be very minimalistic utilising small (8ft) rods and lightweight gear. I guess the same gear can be used for pike and perch aswell though?

What I can't really understand however is what exactly id the difference between Hard Rock Fishing and Light Rock Fishing? I understand the concept of the lure weighting for the two disciplines but surely there must be some other aspects that I am missing?

I was loving the look of Tenryu rods but decided to settle on Teklon Concept spin after these blast exams finish!

(ADM - Are you on Thelureforum.com? Looks a really good resource of information?)

Looking forward to asking many questions in the next few months!

Cheers

Dave

 

[ADM]

Hi guys,

I do alot of flyfishing but have decided to try my hand at lure fishing. One of the aspects I love is the mobility that fly fishing grants and thats why I like the look of HRF and LRF as it seems to be very minimalistic utilising small (8ft) rods and lightweight gear. I guess the same gear can be used for pike and perch aswell though?

What I can't really understand however is what exactly id the difference between Hard Rock Fishing and Light Rock Fishing? I understand the concept of the lure weighting for the two disciplines but surely there must be some other aspects that I am missing?

I was loving the look of Tenryu rods but decided to settle on Teklon Concept spin after these blast exams finish!

(ADM - Are you on Thelureforum.com? Looks a really good resource of information?)

Looking forward to asking many questions in the next few months!

Cheers

Dave

LRF/HRF... It's something Keith White came up with, might be best to look on his Jersey bass website for more info on those but basically it's the technique and weight of the gear used.

I am on the lure forum. Worth a visit, this also has a lot of info about the lighter line methods etc etc

No reason why you can't use the same gear for Pike and perch, several of the guys on TLF do just that fishing Bosherton for Pike.

 

[Mr. X]

Just found this http://www.mrfishjersey.com/lrf.html:

"LRF

LRF stands for Light Rock Fishing, this is a Japanese term that discribes ultra light lure fishing with lures that are usually slim and under 3 inch long. Jig heads tend to be in the 1-5g range."

And, at HRF : Mr Fish Jersey, this:

HRF

HRF stands for Hard Rock Fishing, a Japanese term that has been adopted for European fishing with lures that usually range from 3 inch to 6 inch long. Jig heads tend to be in the 5-20g range.

Presumably for LRF you use lighter rod, reel & line too?

BTW I've been thinking of using my old coarse fishing bait rig for estuary mullet (as Dr. Mike Ladle :King does in Weymouth Harbour on this mullet fishing DVD). Saw loads of big mullet in Devon a couple of years ago - thought they might be tempted by a tiny Eddystone/Delta eels but no dice, they totally ignored the mini rubber eels when I cast over them and retrieved through them; perhaps a worm-baited spinner a la ML in Christchurch harbour would have been better - or maybe even a Flying-C(ondom)? - although I suspect they were bottom-feeding on worms in the estuary mud. I've found mullet to be the hardest fighters when spearing - I can barely imagine what they'd be like on coarse fishing rig (might need to upgrade the old 4lb line).

 

[Mr. X]

... I like the look of HRF and LRF as it seems to be very minimalistic utilising small (8ft) rods and lightweight gear. I guess the same gear can be used for pike and perch aswell though?
...

I haven't the sea angling experience or success of ADM but I have a few observations/insights which might be worth consideration or discussion:

Rod length seem to be a personal preference thing - and another case of "horses for courses". The Americans seem to use mainly very short rods (5.5ft-7ft) for their bass lure fishing but they usually do it from boats in freshwater. Mike Ladle's signature rods are, I think, all/mainly in the 10.5-11.5ft range (inc. his state of the art 3-piece rod - the 1010?) - he seems to like a longer rod, to reach over the weeds & rocks, and play fish I believe (although he wears waders and is usually/often standing in the water). Henry Gilbey seems to be promoting these 8-8.5ft Japanese-style rods currently - and I think that's a valid preference.

I think my lure rod & my father-in-law's are 10/10.5ft and they're plenty light enough, especially with a 2500 reel (although I'd get 4000F-style next time), but I do find mine a wee bit too long sometimes (and I'm used to handling my 13ft old coarse rod & a 12ft bass rod) - certainly not as "carefree" as the light, little Shimano 6'6" carbon rod I used prior to that (or my recently acquired short but sturdy Browning baitcaster). I would be tempted to go for a little shorter lure rod next time (if there is a next time) - probably 9ft or 9.5ft (daring to be different), but perhaps even 8ft but I don't think I'd go any lower than that; I'd be torn between that and getting Mike Ladle rod (but which one?! The 1010, the popper rod, the classic 2-piece or the upgraded travel version).

Oh, one more thing, re. the tip. I find the tip of my lure rod (rated 10-60g) too floppy for the large lures I like to use - it will sometimes oscillate, causing the braid to wrap around it. It's also not great with poppers - which I love to use. I bought a similarly rated rod (10-60g) but with a much stiffer tip for my FIL, more suitable for sea fishing with large/heavy lures (e.g. 15g-40g) - the rod cost less that £20 but is excellent. If you go for a lightweight rod might be worth considering how well it will work (esp. the tip) with heavier and/or more "draggy" lures (like poppers) - if you plan to use them.

I can see the attraction of lightweight gear - but in practice, for the sea I usually find myself going for 14/20g+ (11cm+) lures to get more range and/or cut through the wind - 30g+ when the wind is a problem (and then usually only dense metal lures like tobys/krill/bars/slim-jim). That said, it seems to be a "law of diminishing returns" as going much above 30g (esp. with a longer rod/heavier reel) for an extended period can become tiring/straining (I have/had shoulder tendinitis recently, which I suspect was caused by using my heavier bass rig as a heavy-lure/feathering rod in the summer - casting 2/3/4oz) - remember that you will be repeatedly and constantly casting and re-casting.

Note: 28g ~= 1oz

Have you considered flyfishing for mullet? [Mike Ladle uses homemade fake maggot as the fly, sometimes supplemented with live seaweed maggots.]

 

[Mr. X]

...Have you considered flyfishing for mullet? [Mike Ladle uses homemade fake maggot as the fly, sometimes supplemented with live seaweed maggots.]

Coincidently I just received an ebay alert that included this item (fly poppers for mullet, basse, etc. allegedly):
[ame=http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230559498192&category=1493&ssPageName=ADME:B:SEMK:UK:SHOWI&emailtemplateid=28862667&sellerid=FpRekKD1aqDTONd2IRB07g==&buyerid=FpRekKD1aqB4YnYkovzNdQ==&refid=store]10 POPPER LURES BROWN TROUT MULLET FLIES BASS PIKE on eBay (end time 02-Feb-11 18:14:50 GMT)[/ame]