Sea Angling for Spearos

[atomichaggis]

Winter means cartilage fish and there was the usual spurdog and blackmouth catshark in abundance but I also managed 2 more chimaeras in 2 trips and 3 new species, Hake whilst conger fishing and thornback and silver smelt from the sea ice



And many more usual suspects inbetween that I can't be bothered posting... was a decent fishing year that

 

[foxfish]

Welcome back mate, there are some mighty strange looking fish amongst that lot LOL
Looks like you had a great year with the fishing, dare I ask about your love life!

 

[devondave]

Welcome back Davie.
Nice seatrout, how big?

 

[atomichaggis]

Hahaha... thanks mate, one's love life really can take it's toll on one's fishing but I fished smarter, not harder through 2010. I went after certain species well prepared in whatever time I had and others were just plain luck whilst out on a jolly I love the weird fishes... uglier and rarer the better!
I'm one species away from 50 in norwegian waters now and have my eye on a couple that should be achievable if the sea ice holds a bit longer and I can take the trip.

 

[atomichaggis]

Welcome back Davie.
Nice seatrout, how big?

Thanks Dave, 1.5kg and delicious, not huge but a lot of fun on ultra lite rod, was a hilarious episode trying to land it on the steep slimy rocks

 

[Mr. X]

Welcome back Davie! Good catches & interesting gear.

I bought some Lunker City Slug-Go softbaits ("albino" white/fast sinking variant) & "Texposer" worm-hooks last week, to try out this season. Inspired by Mike Ladle & ADM's recent exploits and attracted by the weedless nature of them. ML found using the tail-end of a Super Sandra soft-bait increased his catches. I've been looking for them but haven't been able to locate anything close to the right size/colour/price yet. In all probability, it will be other members of the family that use them while I am spearing.

 

[ADM]

Welcome back Davie! Good catches & interesting gear.

I bought some Lunker City Slug-Go softbaits ("albino" white/fast sinking variant) & "Texposer" worm-hooks last week, to try out this season. Inspired by Mike Ladle & ADM's recent exploits and attracted by the weedless nature of them. ML found using the tail-end of a Super Sandra soft-bait increased his catches. I've been looking for them but haven't been able to locate anything close to the right size/colour/price yet. In all probability, it will be other members of the family that use them while I am spearing.

Good luck with the slugs, I find they need to be weightless to work best, a belly or nail weight seems to kill most of the action so the sinking variant is the option you want. Twitch and let them sink, super action very lifelike on the twitch then a slow sink down into weed beds etc.

Been busy making my own designs and playing with colours etc. Cool things you can come up with.

 

[Mr. X]

It's a home designed soft plastic. I mould and pour my own. Rather cheaper than "some" brands!!

ADM, its proving difficult to get hold of the medium sized (16cm) Super Sandra soft plastics in glo/white. I gather even Mike Ladle can no longer get hold of them. The vendor reckons the costs are likely to increase if they do re-order (European imports). Do you think it would be possible to build a mould of Mike's novel improved hybrid Sluggo-Sandra hybrid, the "Slandra"? It would be doubly beneficial, in that it would no longer be necessary to buy and then cut up two lures in order to create one Mike Ladle Slandra.

Dr. Mike Ladle's "Slandra":

Mike Ladle's Fishing Diary​

BTW Catching up on Mike's recent articles, I see that he think the Lunkercity Texposer worm hooks are cleverly designed and work better than might be expected; better than a similar sized normally curved hook.

 

[Team Deniz]

The essentials are the same for any species anywhere in the world; in fresh or salt water. Mimic the target species' common food sources to trigger it's instinctive drive to feed.

The elements to consider are:
1. size
2. shape
3. color
4. scent
5. location
6. movement(or lack thereof)

Tight Lines.

 

[agbiv]

Okay not marine catching but went out with family (5) on Lake Ray Roberts in North Texas. Started slow but wound up taking 65 white bass (25 limit each) and 1 6 lb catfish. Windy and got a littl e cold but fun and when the fish hit it was fast and furious. All fish caught on very light tackle and almost imperceptable bouncing on the bottom with slab spoons and trebbles. Can anyone say fish fry?????

 

[Mr. X]

Hi agbiv, 65 sounds like an awful lot of fish - is the 25 limit a legal limit or self-imposed? Is it a stocked lake? I've never heard of a freshwater white bass before (heard of big mouth and small mouth - but we don't have those...yet!). Aren't the huge saltwater bass that Bill McIntyre & co. catch in California also called white bass?

 

[ADM]

ADM, its proving difficult to get hold of the medium sized (16cm) Super Sandra soft plastics in glo/white. I gather even Mike Ladle can no longer get hold of them. The vendor reckons the costs are likely to increase if they do re-order (European imports). Do you think it would be possible to build a mould of Mike's novel improved hybrid Sluggo-Sandra hybrid, the "Slandra"? It would be doubly beneficial, in that it would no longer be necessary to buy and then cut up two lures in order to create one Mike Ladle Slandra.

Would be rather more tricky to make than the ones I have done, well I say tricky, it would likely need a 2 sided mould rather than a straight top pour, but you can get moulds for that type of tail. Might be able to do a top pour mould out of Resin or RTV if you stick it down very well. Wouldn't be as good if I made it!! Delalande just have a basic curltail on the sandra. There's dozens of soft lure moulds on here which could give you a very similar tail to attach to the sluggo front half if the sandra cannot be located: : Molds for plastic lures. <P>WE TRY - LureCraft.

BTW Catching up on Mike's recent articles, I see that he think the Lunkercity Texposer worm hooks are cleverly designed and work better than might be expected; better than a similar sized normally curved hook.

i like "texposer" hooks, I think that's just the name lunker city have given their version of a worm hook. I prefer the wide gape versions personally, much easier on the hookup if there is more gape to push the lure into, especially with really hard lures like sluggos.

 

[Mr. X]

Hi ADM, good info. The Texposer is more angular and less curved that a regular American "worm hook" (in the UK I've heard/read "worm hook" used to refer to any hook with a long, straight shank, e.g. a regular hook that works well with rag/lug worm but not a circle hook, but in the USA "worm hook" seems to mean they have a short double bend near the eye, presumably intended for "Texas-rigging" soft baits, esp. plastic ones).

Regular Worm hook

Texposer Hook

By the way I notice Sovereign Superbaits (who sell the Sandra) also have some cool looking (Belgian) flat fish soft plastic baits, which are supposedly hand-poured and made of a "non-toxic plastic" -- I'd think some pretty powerful solvents are used for many softbaits.

http://www.sovereignsuperbaits.co.uk
Hand-Poured

http://www.sovereignsuperbaits.co.uk​

 

[ADM]

Love those flattie shaped softies!! Ideal in the sandy gullies for bass I would think.

Re Worm hooks, It's the EWG ones I like. Here's an example Gamakatsu EWG Worm Hook - Size 4 (6pcs) deep wide gape for the lure to push into when bitten where the texposer is more square in shape so you don't have as much movement, they also give a circle hook type action with more of my fish being taken in the scissors with that style, though the texposer does the same I prefer it for senko type lures.

 

[agbiv]

White bass in fresh water actually are kin and cross breed to salt water stripers which provide awesome 20 lb fish as hybrids. White bass in fresh water need creeks and rivers to spawn and rarely get above 2.5 lbs. They are extremely prolific and the Tx State rules are a 10" minimum size and 25 count of keepers. I do not think they are related to the WSB Big Bad Bill hunts off of California.

 

[Pav]

Summary?
I'm convinced. I only fish rap type lure, and a little stuck on my 1 trusty J13! I'm going to treat myself to 1 lure and a few plastics to try this year. I'm a little unsure if you have to troll the plastics, or if you can flick them out and drift with them (I would favour a lure I can drift the estuary currents with).

When you rig the plastics do you use a ball lead / trolling lead to get it down, and if thats the way what kind of length line after the weight.

Wont be making my own!, but any suggestion please ADM? Mr X I am starting to think you may may be a lure addict! I'm just overwhelmed by the choice of lures and plastics available now. It was a lot easier when the choice was limited. Also how many of these so called "bass" lures were designed with OUR UK resident Bass in mind?

You may just change my J13 habits yet!

 

[Mr. X]

Yes, addicted to pretty, pretty lures. I've been banned from buying anymore but I usually manage to sneak a few purchases in each year -- as long as I catch or spear a few fish, should be ok.

A few years ago, I tried using a big lead head & plastic hook-tailed worn from Lidl's - felt a bit silly using such things but that appears to be the state-of-the-art configuration this year for perch & sea. I think the idea with the Sluggo is to use them unweighted, although I thought I saw something like a Lunkercity "belly weight" on one of Mike Ladles worm hooks (but that sounds very unlike Mike, so I am probably mistaken). Haven't tried it yet, so not sure how good that is. I suspect they will cast poorly. The idea is that you can fish them even in dense weed close in. I guess you should be able to troll them - and, unlike my unweighted Eddystone eel, they should sink, yet remain weedless.

 

[ADM]

If you just want to drift about I would suggest a paddle tail lure which will get going with slow movement. I'd go for a big hammer in 3 inch. available from Agm tackle online and pretty cheap. If you mean trolling with a moving vessel (yak or boat?) I would go for a diving lure like your J-13 or again a paddle tail like the "new" weighted redgill if you want to keep costs down or any other paddle tail. You can use a ball lead ahead of the lure best further up the line ahead of a mono or fluorocarbon trace. Or use a jighead.
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[atomichaggis]

Hehehe... those slugs looke like rubber jobbies... Ideal for mullet and cod in certain areas!

This flatty jig is coming on the market this year with Halibut in mind, looks awesome!:


They also have this fantastic lifelike redfish lure too:



And when you thought you had seen it all they have even done a wolffish jig:

Not sure what use they would be in the UK but I'll bet more than a few Halibut fall victim this year.

 

[Pav]

thanks ADM. Going to have a go with the big hammer as an introduction to soft lures. Are there any others you would suggest from AGM as will order a few variations to find what works locally (I'm guessing a lot of the lures on there are for course fishing?). What size and weight do you use in the jig head with these? Took the scanoe out in the estuary last night on the push of the big tide, and spent some time motoring up current and then drifting back. No fishing, but checking all was in order ready for some Bass lure fishing this spring.