Fishing

In truth you would do well to catch mackerel from the shore this late in the year, July and August are usually the peak period. Don't give up though, conditions are still good, look for deep water at high tide. My hopes are high for cat, but there is a risk of a fishmonger visit. Plenty of small bass around at the moment, so keep practising with the fly gear.

As I mentioned up the thread, I'm new to fishing.
I'd like to catch something other than mackerel (I do like mackerel but some variety would be good). I'm only interested in catching fish I can eat.

An tips for what lures, spinners etc I should try.

My nearest beach is pebble and drops away steeply, gets very deep quickly. But I could go elsewhere for fishing off rocks if different fish will be hanging out there.

Any tips?

@dangeek mostly used to catching dogfish and pollock and whiting, but i used to fish the murky brown soup of the bristol channel.

The concept of clear water sea fishing is new to me so can't really help with tips as only used to lobbing a big smelly squid or mackerel bait out and hope the dogs don't have it, or the crabs if fishing close to bottom.

Ask around when fishing, see what others use as bait. Beaches near me vary from rocky gullys to wide open flat sands covered with lug or rag worm burrows. Dogfish are like baby sharks in looks (don't sing that song) and eat anything easy.
If your on a deep shelf then lobbing a weight out goes straight to bottom, maybe try a float or a long shock leader so the hooks and bait float higher up.
Might even be a facebook group dedicated to your area, found east kent which covers Dungeness Hythe Dover Deal Margate and towards Medway, loads of chatter on where is not doing much and what fish are about and best baits.

Look for "Sea Angler" magazine pretty much available anywhere, big free catalogue this month, an issue of that will impart more info than i can :)

i bought one earlier today myself :)

Random nugget of info.

Go check out beaches at low tide, check for rocks gullys, weed beds, sand or pebble bottom.
What wildlife, shellfish, crabs in rock pools, sandy beaches might be covered in little spoil heaps like mini mole hills, that indicates main food for fish will be rag/lug worm or razor clams.

You may get really lucky. My old home is beachcasting with loads of low mark snags and high mark rocks to trap line.
This equates to treasure.
I always go for a walk on the beach when home and nearly always find lost tackle, i had boxes of weights and recycled terminal parts, clips, sheilds, swivels etc etc.
Clean up the beach and never buy anything other than line and hooks again and sell excess weights on for beers :)

Thanks for all the information. I'll start saving some mackerel for bait.
I'll talk to some of the other gus fishing, but they're mostly using feathers for mackerel, same as me. Maybe if I go to some other beaches there will be people doing different tpes of fishing.

Re-commission all the tings :)

Dug out the reels and checked shock leaders on the big fixed spools.
Maybe after work, throw everything in car, whizz down the beach and have some practice casts across the beach...….. see if anything cracks off...

Maybe speed clip some feathers on and lob out for half an hour into the tide if all is well, maybe get cat some fresh fish for tea.

1 Attachment

Checking beach for fish food.

Mudflat and flat sand, cockels and a few worm mounds indicate that digging them up at low tide would work well. Not much else, no crabs.

That's the sort of thing your looking for @dangeek :) find the main food source and wop that on your hooks.

1 Attachment

Put a lead weight on and had some practice casting to see if anything cracked off. Tried the spare spools.

Tide is well out.
Managed to lob about 70m with the shorter Abu and around 95m with the longer Penn rod.
Just casting onto the sand/mud so if any thing fails I can recover everything.
All held firm :)

1 Attachment

Tide came in very quickly...
Big shingle ridge behind me so can't get cut off and trapped.

1 Attachment

Moved back up on the shingle and added feathers and lobbed into the surf for a while didn't expect to catch anything and I was right :)

1 Attachment

Must do piccys later.

had a flying visit to beach again and lobbed out some feathers. No nibbles and had the fishing boats ram the beach and winch out over the shingle, something to see as several tonnes of boat gently slides uphill on skids.

Anyways...
Went to an Orvis shop today, i really am not target customer as too poor..... but the sweetshop selection of Flies is something else and they aren't mega silly pricing.
So picked up 3 large shiny flies/lures at £2.45 each for next trip out to try out.
Wandered into the antique/junk shops up the road and scored an unused random carry box with about 50 flies in'it for £12 just have to identify them now, but good broad, colourful selection. They did have a larger case but the selection was very very focused, also £12 was tempted to have both cases but don't want stacks of stuff i won't use.
:)

Actually got out fishing.
Got a licence early December.

A visit to the local shop a while back for "local specials" and been all set for a while.
Went for a short lob about.
Winter sun, icebergs floating on 3 lakes, Herons and birds of prey flapping about screeching. Hordes of bunnies although given the size at distance.... maybe Hares.

Hooked a tree first.
While rescuing my Fly I spotted others dangling in the tree :) rescued someone else's so treasure.
Fell on arse got muddy.
No sign of life fish wise. The odd splash and ripple.
One solid nibble but no fish, did catch some dead leaves from lake bottom.

Sun dropped so did temps, ventured back down to local shop for some bits to change things around, joked that the only way I would catch anything was drop in on the fishes head, fella in shop said it's cold so the fish are down deep and not moving much so that's exactly what I have to do.

This fly fishing is hard work :)

1 Attachment

had another wild stab at a fishery.

cold, fishes are deep down and not up to much.
Actually snapped the rod before doing anything so stayed on this lake as close to the car.... the car has duct tape inside.... I had rammed the broken bits together and over taped. Lasted 3 1/2 hours before failing again.

1 Attachment

also joined a "forum"
kind of feel like Del Boy turning up to the shooting party.

forum is not as forward thinking or creative as here, so things started to get negative when I suggested fixing my broken rod.

The second fail removed about 1 inch of material just below the ring/eye.

1 Attachment

Being a creative type and of course ignoring the advice of the forum to strip it of parts (which would never be used) and bin the rod and just buy another.

Top of picture is a now more shaped Easton acc shaft cut down as an over sleeve.
Next we have a bamboo skewer I was going to use as a spigot, after more research I went with a cut down nail gun nail.
The broken section of rod was cut down to remove splintered ends and squared off, lost over 1"
The bottom right is the next joining rod section.

So I glued the nail into the bit with the ring/eye and let it set.
Then put the sleeve over the next part but left unglued.
With the loose sleeve I glued the broken taper to the nail and aligned as best as possible.
When nearly cured I glued the sleeve over the join and checked alignment.
Left overnight then whipped over the sleeve end and around the eye and expoxyed over that.
Went for a play the other day, just casting in a field fully expecting the rod to snap.
After an hour I went home with rod intact and no noticeable change in performance.
Repair is ugly but up to forum standards of bodging :)

1 Attachment

Heh, do you ever watch the Totally Awesome Fishing youtube vids? He's always using DIY/bodged together bits. Always a pretty basic set up to show you don't need all the top of the range kit.

Will look them up on you tube :)

I got a £50 (rrp £80) basic beginners kit to play with before dropping any serious money.
There is a show next month at the london design center for fly fishing so hoping to get to that and wiggle loads of flash things about. They have a casting pond and test range inside to try before you buy.

Alternatively, you could buy a Maxcatch rod from China, I use one almost exclusively on my bit of river, for about £60, the quality is superb. I would also recommend Flextec which are a UK based importer of far eastern rods which would only set you back about £40, I have even used them for bonefish in the tropics. Both are on Ebay.

1 Attachment

In other (not) news, I need to build a bigger rod rack, there's still another 8 rods in the garage.....

1 Attachment

n r+1 ?

r+40ish+1.

I will fish for anything, anywhere so can justify this to my bank, wife and counsellor. I even catch stuff (sometimes).

I really want to give fishing a shot. Its quite exciting to approach a hobby with zero knowledge.

My Mum & Dad live on the Suffolk coast in an area that is very popular for sea anglers. I literally have no idea where to start though!

Go for it!

Talk to the locals fishing the Suffolk coast. Ask about start-up tackle in the local tackle shops. Read everything. After a lifetime of fishing you will find that you know very little, that is the challenge and fascination.

Good shout on the tackle shop, I think I'll pop into a local one at the weekend. Cheers!