What do YOU think?

[Norman]

hopefully a topical and varied views thread ......
but ....

what do YOU think is the rig or lure to catch what in our waters ?
Is it plain daylites , or maybe baited daylites?
Is it Hokkies? or again maybe baited.....
or is it your own specially made lure ?
or, is it the southeners shads thats the dogs doo dahs......

I know there is various times for each of the above but what tips can we pass on to newcomers.

For me .......... a couple really, lately it`s been simple basic daylites but baited to prevent mackerel, however I think my all round favourite is still orange muppets (baited with rag and squid for hard ground but baited with mackerel for the wrecks)

I`ve tried shads and jellies a number of times but with no luck however my last trip with steve and jeff showed jeff to be successful with shads (no bait) so there you go they do work after all.

Whats your thoughts ?

[KeithB]

As Bert's away I'll give you his answer - PIRKS!

My answer - flowing trace with crab & squid for inshore wrecks, flowing trace with mackeral for further off wrecks.

Though I did get my PB cod on baited orange muppets.

[Norman]

LOL keith thanks for that haha we may end up giving a lot away here if we not careful LOL

Your tactics are fish related if I`m not mistaken (species that is) ....

[KeithB]

one thing I've often wondered is - why does no one uptide in our waters??

There are lots of species out there to target apart from dropping pirks or cod feathers and just doing the traditional 'up-and-down' method...

Some one please tell me differently - I would love to hear of a few tope, smutts, rays etc...

They are there by the way - just change tactics and go and get 'em!

We've spent a few trips this year fishing for flatties (dabs, plaice, brill etc)just off the north pier, makes a nice change but I still prefer the good old wrecks where you are more likely to catch a biggun. Having said that, a 3lb+ plaice would be nice.

[oldessox]

I had no idea whatsoever about sea fishing rigs , I asked in the tackle shop " all you need is these " he says , and put a packet of daylites in my hand.
First trip out that was just about all we used , lump of lead on the bottom , couple of feet of amnesia then the daylites , bottom hook tipped with rag the rest left as they were. We had 3 codling , 3 small pollack one wrasse of about 3lb and a lot of mackerel.
Next trip out we got a bit more adventurous , tried jelly worms and spinners and squid and all manner of different rigs , we had cod on rag tipped daylites , cod on jellyworms, a pollack of about 6lb on one of those cheap mackerel spinners that look a bit like a toby , another couple of 6lb+ pollack on bright green muppet type things and a wrasse of about 1lb on a rag tipped orange muppet , plus of course the inevitable mackerel.
The only thing that stood out to me was , you had to be hard on the bottom to catch anything but mackerel , the rigs and different lures etc. didn't seem to make a huge difference .


Ray.

[ronw]

black hokkais have done the business for me this year, cod out of amble seem to have a thing about black latex ??? or is it me LOL

[The Great Wallsendo]

Having only been out a couple of times myself, I'm not overly qualified to comment....however on the first occasion I used hokkais, daylites, shads and orange squid type thingies (not muppets) all baited with rag or mackerel...I caught a boat load of cod and ling

[Norman]

yes tony ...... nuff said LOL

[braine]

Opened the proverbial can of worms Norman! Different rigs at different times for different species. Orange muppets seem to work best when the codling are feeding on squat lobsters. Daylights and Hokkai's when there is sprat around. The bait tipping of lures gives the extra, a bit of scent in the water. Jellies when the ragworm are free swimming at breeding time or imitating sand eel. Anything when the fish are hungry. Wreck fishing is sometimes far better fishing small pout / whiting or coalies for the ling instead of mackerel.
Uptiding is practised up here but usually during the winter with big mussel/ squid / worm baits. In the summer, uptiding in the right places does get you some of the more unreported fish like thornback, turbot, halibut and the odd tope. The byelaw does not let you land tope if caught inside the six mile limit anyway. You just need the right type of ground. Down the sides of wrecks is a good place especially where a scour is apparent for monkfish but not with jiggers / pirks or muppets, only a nice fish baits near the top or bottom of the tide. That is too much information!

[Norman]

Ha Ha bill , excellent reply mate LOL but as you say probably too much information I suppose this just goes to show how deep and complicated the whole thing of lure / bait / tactics really is .......

then ........ when you finally get the right combination .......... it all changes the next time you try it

[braine]

Got it in one Norman! That's why fishing is such a good hobby. One day it works, the next day it does'nt! They don't call us the "chuck it and chance it brigade" for nothing. You cannot teach experience, but luck plays a big part in it as well.

[ScottyJim]

Rigs

If bait fishing, I almost always use a "Two-down" rig. It's really versatile. Alter the line breaking strain and hook size to suit what you want to catch. Change the end hook combination as you need. I have shown three variations. The standard for clear shallow water. A variation with a "chemical light" fitted for deep water to give more attraction. Lastly, if someone else takes a pollack on the boat, slip on a rubber worm instead of bait. Try a couple of drops to see if there are any more. The rubber worm will still take cod. You've two hooks on the rig so you can try two different baits. If you go through a shoal you can still take a double. Quite often you will take a fish with both hooks in it's mouth. As for hokkais/daylights, they will take fish, but I have found that I will take two or three fish on the "two-down rig" for every one caught on them. I really only use them if I want to catch a few mackerel for bait. ( See attachment)

[jason]

Shads and jelly worms this year for me and even converted a guy who jigged and fished baited hokais etc. Seem to get loads on them. Fished using a 12lb class rod, 20lb braid loaded on to a thumb released shimano cardiff reel. GREAT FUN.
Jason

[mark]

'tis a funny one. took me a while to learn that whats good here doesn't necessarily work elsewhere. Just got back from up that scotland and spent a bit of time experimenting, basically as I've often gone up with north east pirk mentality - result, catch next to nowt, daylights/hokkais - get innundated with small pollack, coalies and mackeral, occasionals a bigger pollack/coalie

so tried long traces (up to 20foot) with things like red gills, lead heads, shads, jelly worms and all shapes and sizes of things rubbery in between. conclusion - red gills, in red orange or black do the business for the bigger fish far more that anything else, but try them here and I've never caught

best combination I came up with was a string of 2 or 3 white rubber wormy things in a daylight stylee, boom with 12oz weight, 10 foot trace on the boom with a redgill, was often picking up the better fish on the bottom of the trace of 3. try the trace of 3 on their own without the boom and your back to the mackie/coalie innundation. my theory is that the bigger fish think the redgill is chasing a shoal of something interesting so heads off in the same direction

in these parts I'd go with orange pirks, daylights or similar above, am going to try a long trace with a shad or something flowing off a pirk next time
out

[SIXFOOTSTEVE]

Pirking now there's a thing ,I've had a few decent size fish using pirks although not recently ,baited daylights lately have been great I think due to the coloured water we've fished in ,baited flowing traces using cocktails have also worked ,over hard ground ,well it has to be baited RoyD shrimp lures ,although if the fish are on the feed they hardly seem to need attracting . I've not had any luck fishing whole mackarel side on a flowing trace although I've tried plenty however I know a few who have caught some excellent ling on them ,I'd love to catch on my pirk with boom mounted orange twin tail ,looks good to me ,not sure what the fish think though ! and I was suprised watching Jeff with his Shad rig catching cod last weekend ,that will be tried next time as well. I did try a mackarel flapper the other week for big Ling ,mounted on a 10/0 hook ,shame nothing came of it ,seemed a killer bait as I dropped it over the side ( Cheers for the tip Keith ) . Back to RoyD shrimp lures ,I just hit bottom on Saturday when I struck into a nice 9lb Ling taken on the third hook up , anyway one thing I've learned is if you have a theory then it's out the window very soon and another one forms , then it changes again and you start to think I was right last year about that lol ,it's not an easy game but hey ho we love it all the same .