cap'nhaddock
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2020
- Messages
- 1,012
- Reaction score
- 2,560
- Points
- 113
- Location
- South Coast
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
At the weekend I tried Preston beach again to see if another blank was possible, and it was, nearly.
I started fishing at seven pm to fish over the top of the tide and the ebb, the idea was to fish until eleven.
A chap already fishing there had caught nothing but he reported 'some good bass' had been caught and taken by a relative earlier . Later he caught a small bass and brought it over to see if I wanted to take it to eat. I then realised what the 'good sized bass' were, schoolies. He had all the gear, top of the range stuff, you'd think he'd know about size rules.
A pleasant evening was spend casting, reeling in and re-baiting; at about ten to eleven I started to pack up and noticed a twitch on one rod and reeled in a small Bass, while dealing with that there was a bite on the other; a small Tub Gurnard.
Oh good, the fish are here, no, wrong, another half hour of unmoving rod tips convinced me that it really was time to pack up.
Next trip out was to meet up with Landlocked Northants at Boscombe, he was easy enough to identify, only a couple of locals there and him.
Hours of casting, rod tip watching and chatting resulted in a tiny Turbot and a Sole for me and a small Place for LN.
When he left to try other fishing spots I moved to where he had been fishing and soon caught a Tub Gurnard, a Plaice and another small Turbot, frozen gar strip out-fished fresh rag, it's always been said that Turbot and Gurnards prefer fish baits.
The local chaps had a plaice of 34 cm along with some small ones and a small Gilthead Bream, considering the effort put in there were very few fish caught.
Yesterday was a trip to species hunt with Goateeeblank down at Swanage, always good for the craic and, if lucky, a home baked cake ( he's a masterbaker ).
He'd been there since the crack of dawn but had caught nothing yet as he'd been busy helping a beginner to tackle up and show him the basics. He had brought maddies, they are excellent for this sort of fishing and threaded onto a tiny hook will outfish chunks of bigger ragworm. The water was teeming with Sand Eels and I passed the time catching them to use as a float fished livebait and for taking home to vac pac and freeze, Goateeblank had mentioned larger Sandeels in amongst the shoals so I tried different tactics to see if I could add a Launce to my species list, flicking the rig further out, allowing the sabikis to drop lower to the bottom and slowly retrieving resulted in some takes and success with species No. 30. The Launce were hunting below the Lesser Sand Eel shoals.
Goateeblank had taken pity on a 'terminally bewildered' chap who was float fishing a big bunch of rag on a huge hook, he explained that he needed to fish a smaller hook and bait nearer the bottom than the three or four feet he'd set the float to or fish it near the pier structure. The advice was ignored, I don't know why people can watch you catch fish after fish, ask how it's done and then completely ignore every bit of advice.
Between us we had twelve species during the session, one new one for me and a few for Goateeblank in his several different species competitions.
We had both float fished all day, with strips of gar or live sandeel and had not a single take; it's a strange year for fishing. not a single baitfish other than sandeels either, you'd normally see shoals of them.
I started fishing at seven pm to fish over the top of the tide and the ebb, the idea was to fish until eleven.
A chap already fishing there had caught nothing but he reported 'some good bass' had been caught and taken by a relative earlier . Later he caught a small bass and brought it over to see if I wanted to take it to eat. I then realised what the 'good sized bass' were, schoolies. He had all the gear, top of the range stuff, you'd think he'd know about size rules.
A pleasant evening was spend casting, reeling in and re-baiting; at about ten to eleven I started to pack up and noticed a twitch on one rod and reeled in a small Bass, while dealing with that there was a bite on the other; a small Tub Gurnard.
Oh good, the fish are here, no, wrong, another half hour of unmoving rod tips convinced me that it really was time to pack up.
Next trip out was to meet up with Landlocked Northants at Boscombe, he was easy enough to identify, only a couple of locals there and him.
Hours of casting, rod tip watching and chatting resulted in a tiny Turbot and a Sole for me and a small Place for LN.
When he left to try other fishing spots I moved to where he had been fishing and soon caught a Tub Gurnard, a Plaice and another small Turbot, frozen gar strip out-fished fresh rag, it's always been said that Turbot and Gurnards prefer fish baits.
The local chaps had a plaice of 34 cm along with some small ones and a small Gilthead Bream, considering the effort put in there were very few fish caught.
Yesterday was a trip to species hunt with Goateeeblank down at Swanage, always good for the craic and, if lucky, a home baked cake ( he's a masterbaker ).
He'd been there since the crack of dawn but had caught nothing yet as he'd been busy helping a beginner to tackle up and show him the basics. He had brought maddies, they are excellent for this sort of fishing and threaded onto a tiny hook will outfish chunks of bigger ragworm. The water was teeming with Sand Eels and I passed the time catching them to use as a float fished livebait and for taking home to vac pac and freeze, Goateeblank had mentioned larger Sandeels in amongst the shoals so I tried different tactics to see if I could add a Launce to my species list, flicking the rig further out, allowing the sabikis to drop lower to the bottom and slowly retrieving resulted in some takes and success with species No. 30. The Launce were hunting below the Lesser Sand Eel shoals.
Goateeblank had taken pity on a 'terminally bewildered' chap who was float fishing a big bunch of rag on a huge hook, he explained that he needed to fish a smaller hook and bait nearer the bottom than the three or four feet he'd set the float to or fish it near the pier structure. The advice was ignored, I don't know why people can watch you catch fish after fish, ask how it's done and then completely ignore every bit of advice.
Between us we had twelve species during the session, one new one for me and a few for Goateeblank in his several different species competitions.
We had both float fished all day, with strips of gar or live sandeel and had not a single take; it's a strange year for fishing. not a single baitfish other than sandeels either, you'd normally see shoals of them.
