Fishing

Yarp, watched S02E02 yesterday, should be on the iPlayer. Enjoy :)

Advice, good fisherfolk of lfgss. Am off to Wales and the child wants to try fishing off the rocks into the sea. We've been given a rod (a zebco trout express 3000) and some random hooks/weights. I know nothing.

Any advice?

It will catch fish. Unlikely you will beach a Ray or Smooth hound with it they will just snap the line..... maybe the rod too.

Could try some spinners/spoons which are shiny lures that you just cast out then reel back in again. cheap and no mess/smells, might score a mackeral or bass.

Could try a float and some bread squished onto the hook. might score a mullet.

After that your looking at strips of squid and mackeral or lug and rag worm as bait which is messy and smelly and rag worm have teeth and don't like being hooked :) lug worm are like a garden worm on steroids. Any shops near your destination ? That will score anything from Dogfish (look like a baby shark) to Bass

You can have hours of cheap fishing with the very cheap crab hand lines, could wing it with a tin of anchovys for cheap bait.

Search for LRF tackle "Light Rock Fishing" this is sub group of fishing dedicated to light tackle and lures and rods designed to bend over in half and dead lift things up (something my beach-caster dosen't like).

If you have a pier or sea defence wall then just drop a crab line over the side and try and pull up crabs. Mostly tiddlers, depending where you are you might find Spider crabs which look like they escaped from some Alien horror film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYdLTUrik9k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kLf-bW7H64

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X69Gk9wqYvQ

Thanks @853Superfly that's super useful

I'll post up pics of our catch

Good luck :)

Went to check out the closet lake to me.
Shut until 1 September. Balls.
Went to check another place, bit of a drive as roads poor here. No bank fishing, boats only.
So far not going well.

I'm going to my local private syndicate carp lake for an overnighter tomorrow night - have had them up to 15-16lb out of there - think biggest in lake is 26lb - my PB is 27lb from a lake in Milton Keynes years ago

such a lovely tranquil spot - this was February. I never mind blanking here.

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Currently on the second night of my one day session at my syndicate water, thanks Mrs. B, is the postman there? Seven carp to 18 so far, but more importantly, total peace......

Dug around in the long grass for a worm like a mad man as didn't have any bait. Water was flowing too fast really for my skillset, but found a couple of shot above the float helped calm things down a little.

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Your mates SAS ? :) surprised he didn't eat the worm.

From a bike packing perspective you really don't much and a very luxury kit can be fitted into a small Altoids mints tin (google Altoid mint tin survival kit)

From basic line wrapped round a cork which can double as a float and sticking your hooks in the cork to carry.

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The basic hand line.

This type is required carry on light aircraft in many countries. Take Canada, vast wilderness, lots of small STOL type aircraft in private hands.
Also found in boats and life rafts.

This type is basic and cheap. Just dig around near the water for worms and off you go.

The general idea is to set and forget. Bait a run of hooks, leave over night and check in the morning. Re bait and reset for the day, etc etc so you can do other things and hope you catch some fishes for your sushi tea if you haven't made fire.

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Again a BCB kit, they do specialise in supply to MOD / NATO contracts.

again this type can be found in life rafts, and light aircraft. Some would prefer the handle type but if your floating about in a life raft that's the least of your worries.
The basic kits are just that and can benefit from extra hooks being added, there is standard basic requirement to carry and the kits are made to fit the spec required.

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Let us know how you get on. I’m going to Northumberland next month and have bought some spinning/mackerel kit. I might go to Wales next week if it all arrives in time.

I don’t want to be messing about with bait so lures seem the best bet for chucking a rod in here and there.

It seems that not leaving hooks, weights etc at home is key. Plus its pissing down today. Have caught multiple crabs though.

You're hardly the first to catch crabs in Wales....

@853Superfly thanks for all that info, amazing there's a minutiae of infinite rigs and essentially you don't need much! Will definitely be taking inspiration from the above for future bike tours for sure.

After being fishing a few times now over the last few weeks I can admit I'm addicted. Have found it really satisfying learning basic things, which looking back found baffling before. Just this evening I realised the handle(?) of my reel would feel much more natural on the left so swapped it over.

The girlfriend has come with me the last few times and have even bought her a cheap telescopic rod and Shakespeare reel for £25. She enjoys the relaxation, which when you're not catching much is a lot of the time. Will most probably look into joining my local club as really keen to learn from people more experienced.

Quick question... For bottom bait carp rigs do you fish with a float, or just watch the rod twitch? This weekend we'll be trying these things called 'boilies' which will be interesting compared to the usual sweetcorn I've been using. If I catch anything I'll update here.

There has been almost infinite bullshit written about how to fish with boilies. It would be easy to believe that thousands must be spent on electronic bite alarms and centuries of study on complex rigs. Thankfully, none of this is true, neither do you need a degree in piscine nutrition nor a particularly large intellect to make them work. The basics can be explained in about 5 minutes by word of mouth, pm me your number and I would be happy to do so. No floats necessary, total outlay for efficient rigs probably about £15, bacofoil needed.

Really kind thank you. Think I've got the basics now after watching quite a few YouTube videos, although half the day yesterday I was ledgering with boilies and didn't catch anything. Talking to a few people nearby on the new lake I was on, seemed others didn't have much either luck so don't feel too bad.

Next weekend I'm going to try method feeding. What I found with ledgering yesterday was because I had a decent weight it was a revelation seeing how far I could cast. Although probably not the best tactic as without a catapult I wasn't able to feed in any bait. Hopefully the method feeder might help here.

Girlfriend came with again and used her rod for the first time, seemed to find casting pretty easy and think she enjoyed it despite not actually landing anything.

Ahh... if the remnants of hurricane fuck knows what combining with storm wossit doesn't totally scupper my holiday plans I'm digging out the thermos and deckchair to sit in tepid northern scotland trying to whip a few mackerel to within an inch of their lives this week whilst trying to prevent myself from getting eaten by small biting insects.

I like to imagine that using the large lead weights makes it more likely to give your intended prey a concussion, such is the fury I launch them at the water with, but in truth it's all very hit and hope as far as what weights and hook/line gauges I use. Re-stocked on a variety of feather lures if that doesn't work out however and bought a cheap spare rod/reel for the female companion to try out, although I'm already sweating with fear at the thought of having six barbed missiles getting planted in the side of my face because her depth perception is outrageously off. The joys.

Last time I fished was on Skye about 7 years ago so been a while, with everything in the news I half expect to my catch to come pre-packed in plastic which is slightly depressing, although every time I go to the beach I make a point of picking up discarded fishing line before anything else, hope everyone else here does too...

beachcombing tresure hunt :)
All my sea leads are pick up's. And most of my terminal tackle is too. Just buy new hooks and trace line and after dismantling the old used traces rebuild.

Sold a beachcaster before moving with 20 used once weights and sold a bucket of 100+ weights and extra lead. Still got loads left and will add to the collection again over time.

Best find was a 40x8" float net. Took a few days to untangle but totally serviceable. Now sometimes used as decoration.

yeah scary how much stuff is just lost or dumped. i get paranoid about curious seals stealing my catch too with the line still on it or something as fuck knows what you'd be able to do...

I walk along the waterfront near me a lot where loads of folk fish and it's annoying how much fankled line is just left around but do also pick up random bits of tackle that's just been left forgotten. A weird mix of folk-last time I was there a couple of drunk polish guys seemed to be throwing their catch at each other for a laugh. No abandoned float nets though!

a pal is a creel fisherman up north and he tells stories about trawlermen scooping up all their pots deliberately, so by way of retaliation the creel boys take old fridges out in their boats and spank them right in the middle of the channels the trawlers fish. Kind of lols for the childishness of it but also pretty depressing when you think of the impact of all this on the ecosystem. ah well.

Fishing wars. happen everywhere. The mess left behind gets venues closed down.

When i was kid the beaches where littered with what looked like large lumps of dead wood, this was packed turdbergs. The sewage network and beaches are cleaner and safer but that's been replaced by plastics :(

My current lakeside vista.

Matching rods: check
Matching reels: check
Advanced electronics: check
Super mega boilies: check
50 years experience: check

Fish caught since 6am: sod all. Fishing is perfect for deflating bloated egos.

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^ I've blanked last 4 or 5 outings for Carp. Session before that I caught 8 Carp to low doubles including a 12lb Sturgeon plus Tench and Ide/Orfe (never sure which) on wafters in PVA bags

same rigs, same setup, same baits fished in same areas - whats the common denominator? Carp feeding spells/behaviour are a mystery!