species hunt

[LING_BASHER]

With me being on nightshift this week i bought a total sea fishing mag and a sea angler....send me to kip Anyway there was a write up on Hake, this is a fish i have never seen or ever heard anyone catch from our waters.From what i know there mainly caught up scotland in very very deap water.Has anyone ever caught one out the north east (amble-sunderland)

[DaveMason]

I lived in South Africa for a time Rich and Hake was always used as the normal fish in fish and chip shops ( same as our cod here ) , nowt flash to eat like . It likes deep cold waters ( like off Namibia ).

On the subject of species , I\'ve got it in to my head that it is possible big bass may be living on our offshore reefs . It is common further south so why not here ? . I\'m making it my holy grail for this year and see what happens :P

[jeff]

Dave,

That sounds like a challenge to me.....I wouldn\'t mind bagging a Bass of any size!!

Jeff.

[michaeldevlin]

the only bass i have caught were in kassiopi harbour in corfu , tremendous fighting fish . the biggest i caught was 3 lb and what a fight on a little telescopic rod and small fixed spool reel .

[LING_BASHER]

I have only ever caught 2 bass, 1 from hendon 3lb 8oz and 1 from blyth pier 3lb.There was a whooper on south shields beach so hay there is some out there.Marsden would be my target for bass if you can get close in(safe)
Some of the larger beachs up north might be a better shot as there has been loads of school bass this year from the reports.Lad at work got 11 and 1 codling in a sesh

[Topecatcher]

We have now had three recaptures from the bass we\'ve tagged in bridlington bay. One was caught down south one stayed put and the other was caught near the tyne.
Never had bass off any of the wrecks here dave but that doesn\'t mean the\'re not there one things for certain though they are creatures of habbit and once you locate an area with bass they will almost certainly be there at the same state of tide on your return. Its also possible to fish a good bass mark at the wrong state of tide and you\'ll catch nowt and possibly come to the wrong conclusion. Best way to find the fish is with trolled rapalas as we did last year dave and try and find a beach where the sand gives way to rock and troll over these. Good time to mess about when the winds strond offshore preventing wrecking providing of course the waters reasonably clear.

[DaveMason]

Dave,

I\'ve got two idea\'s , one is to troll rapala\'s from the stern as we did ( got extra rodholders fitted for that purpose ) that was a great day out and an eyeopener over inshore marks . Got some good shots in mind

The other option was to fish the offshore reefs in deep water . Some of these reefs are really big , like little mountains underwater . If the same methods are adopted as down south the theory is the bass will be waiting in ambush on the downtide side of the hump . Might be a complete load of bo.......ks as well like :P , giving it a good shot though .

[willywetegg]

I think you would be right Dave. I have been talking to me shore mates about the same thing Bass. I have caught quite a few from the shore my best being about three and a quarter pound cracking scrap. My idea is if we did target them specifically we would get more. Our trouble is up here we tend to look for cod as we have more chance of catching one, but I am going to take a leaf out of T.C.s book and get some suitable gear and give it a go this year.

[Edited on 17/1/2004 by willywetegg]

[Norman]

Yes Dave, I`m sure there`s quite a few bass here in our waters, however, we`ll never get them with our drop it down and sit it on the bottom tactics, we`ll certainly have to try mid water trolling

[jason]

ive seen two guys quite regularly fishing north gare at teesmouth using rapala\'s for bass and seen them land fish of about 4lb each time i have bumped into them.

[Topecatcher]

Nobody caught Bass off the boats down here but catches from the shore started to steadily increase much the same as the tyne area. We sussed the Bass out more by accident than design once when it was blowing a hoolie off the land and we tried trolling plugs to try and catch pollock and ended up with a load of bass (all returned)
As you suggest norman you\'ll never catch them fishing pirks etc but you could be supprised whats on your doorstep using the right techniques. There\'s plenty of very experianced boat fisherman off brid who\'ve never seen a Bass let alone caught one from the boat or in fact have any idea that they are there. One word of caution though there has been a huge increase along our coast in gill net fisheries for the bass and these can devistate a hotspot in no time at all.

[DaveMason]

Hear what your saying about netters dave .

What methods would you use found for reef bass dave at about 20-30m depth ?

[mark]

I know a gut with a boat in hrtlpool and he gets a few, so he tells me, I\'ll have to quiz him!

as for the gill netters, I was in whitby last summer and sat at the abbey there were half a dozen boats gill netting from the pier to sandsend, and some must have been only a hundred yards from the shore. In that one day, they must have covered that whole bay and stripped it of the vast majority of fish

[Topecatcher]

Drifting with a long (15ft) trace baited with a live sandeel/launce or joey mackerel if poss dave with just enough lead to reach the bottom.

[DaveMason]

Got that Dave ta. Would a leadhead and jelly something work also if live bait is scarce ?