Bait and lures.

[mick dunn]

Bit of advice guys.

When fishing off Maggie May whats my best bet for bait.

I,ll have some chrome wieghted pirks. Also a few assorted packs of hockeyes.

I,ve seen on the forum red gills being used. Can anyone advise. Will i need live rag or squid.

Cheers Mick.

PS When we went out on the coble last year baited (rag) hockeyes got small cod. We did not catch anything over a couple of pounds.

[KeithB]

If you are going wrecking, catch yourself some fresh mackeral for bait and try a nice big strip on a flowing trace (8/0 hook). Or if you are really after a biggun a mackeral flapper on a 10/0. If you have enough but fresh mackeral on every drop.

I wouldn't waste money buying any bait at this time of year when there's plenty mackeral, except maybe a box of squid.


Good Luck!!

[mark]

you might struggle to fish red gills properly on a full charter boat - tangle city!

only thing I might add to keith's suggestions are maybe a few sets of daylites

your hokkais might be here this week keith

[KeithB]

Cheers Mark!!

[jason]

steer clear of long trace red gill fishing, stick with unbaited lures if your after cod and the mackeral if your after ling. Another option is fish a shad (hammering the fish down here at the moment) way to do it is clip your lead onto your end swivel then tie a shad on to 2 foot length of line, this is then tied to a swivel that is clipped onto the eye of your lead. This way you do not have too much line flapping about and there are no booms to get tangled. lower the rig to the bottom then one turn and then just move your rod up and down in a slow controled manner this is enough to induce some great takes - when they take wind in slowly to take up the line feel the fish and give it a light jerk to set home the hook then enjoy. this is called the hopper rig as you just hop it along the bottom and it catches on rough ground or wrecks.

[mick dunn]

Cheers guys good advice. I never thought of Shads. Any advice as to what sort. Big and bright ones i presume. Checked on e-bay but will pop in dealers and get some for me and my mate.

Mick.

[jason]

4 inch blue shads with the hooks already in them seem to do the biz. Jason

[SIXFOOTSTEVE]

Been thinking of giving them a try for ages Jason , Sinkermanallen gave me a few ages ago.

[jason]

steve
we went out last week and caught more on shads than anything else - you only have to dig and find that lots of skippers that were stuck in their ways are now promoting shad fishing. i fish with 40lb braid and the above rig with 30lb trace and works a treat - can not stand to see these people with broom sticks as rods and wind in saying i think i have some thing maybe a whiting and bring in a 4lb cod without knowing it was there.

steve speak to norman to see if i can come out with you and show you the do das.

regards jason

[SIXFOOTSTEVE]

OK mate

[davem2005]

I would second Kieths advice about a big lump of mackrel. The bigger the better. We used that method a lot last year and it is well worth a go.

As the summer progresses you would be advised to include a 12" length of 100lb wire in the rig as last year we had many tope takes unfortunately all of which were missed due to striking to early.

If you try the flapper and get a lot of missed knocks it is probably whiteys chewing on the end of your bait. The answer is to cut straight through the mackrel just behind the dorsal fin but not leave any ragged ends for the little uns to grab. It works great for ling and the wire does not put them off but gives you a chance of a bonus tope. Also check your clutch is set right or you will end up regretting it.

Cheers
Dave

[willywetegg]

Just picked some Ragworm up at Frazers today Mick, while I was there they got another delivery in of those orange ROYD lures if you need any mate.

Jim.

[mick dunn]

100 pound trace wire. Whats all that about. Is there some sharks down there. I thought we might just hit a nice cod or two.
There and again the lad i work with was telling me last night that he used to be in the navy and when he dived he always saw eels around wrecks. but nothing else due to the poor visibility of the water.He was on the nucleor subs.

Mick.

[mick dunn]

Popped in the tackle shop today for me ragworm. I was eying up the pirks. Guy says you,ll need at least a dozen. three squids each thats 36 squids before i set foot on Maggie May.

Guy in the shop says you lose loads.

Theres old nets an all sorts on those wrecks.

Hold i thought i might as well go to morrisons and buy 15lb cod,it,ll be cheaper.

Seriously though guys whats the crack with these pirks. Do you lose loads. I,m annoyed if i lose a sinker off the heugh.

The good news is i got a load of sinkers for nowt the other day off a farmer who used to go to car boot sales and did,nt want nowt for them.

Mick

[Oblickta]

You can lose lots of gear on a wrecking trip, some say if you're not losing gear your not wrecking. I reduce loses by cutting down on the number of lures I have on a trace (when was the last time anyone saw 4 on the lures and 1 one the pirk come up?). I also use two hooks on a few inches of line below the pirk instead of a treble.

I'm thinking of including a few inches of wire on my ling rigs this season just in case because tope do hang around wrecks lying on sandy sea beds and they will follow a moving bait up off the bottem before attacking it and an adult tope will bite through 100lb mono with ease. I read a post by Alan who saying a small tope had been caught in a net off Whitly Bay recentlly so there will be more as they move in packs. If anyone does happen to land one please return it asap as their flesh is said to be too acidic to be any good for the pot and it's pointless killing them