SSP 2nd Aug

[magpies]

Fished the 44 mark and had a mixture of coalfish and pollock on float including 3 good size coalies. Also the biggest mackeral I have ever caught on rag fished on the bottom well out which was a suprise to me. Only other fish on bottom baits were a small dab and what I think was a weaver fish.

Also lost a good fish on retrieve on a lobster pot line.

Not 100% sure how to tell Pollock and Coalfish apart. Is the Pollock the one with the kink in the lateral line near the head ?

Float seemed best close to the wall with either mackeral or rag and 12' depth at top of the tide.

Thanks for the help on the shore fishing page thread lads.

[Thunderpants]

Well done mate. Canny session there.

Yeah pollack is the one with a curved lateral line towards the front. Coalies have a straight lateral line.

[phill_itofish]

well done, glad you got some fish.

[magpies]

Cracking session mate, you were spot on about close to the wall with the float. 3 biggest coalies were each about 40cm and put up a bit of a scrap. I was amazed to catch that big mackeral 'though. Chucking around 100yds I would think into what I guess is pretty deep water, had been in about 10 mins and the rod started bouncing big time. Would have been well over a pound the fish.
One problem we had was losing a lot of gear unless we wound in really quick. Is that normal on those marks? There seemed to be really bad snags up to around 50 to 60 yards plus pots. I changed to a pulley rig in the end and felt more comfortable with that.
Still no size plaice 'though. Hopefully next time. Any tips for those?

[g,ordon]

Well done mate. Nice sesh.

[Pete from shields]

Nice session mate well done and some great tips on the float fishing cheers, I've never ever caught nowt on the float. There is a fella who often goes on pier on his bike and float fishes, he catches tons of big coleys and throws em back, the bairns always like "whaaaaat its massive and he's thrown it back" lol.

BTW pollock have nigh on black eyes and the bottom jaw protudes aswell as the curved lateral line at front.

[magpies]

Pleasure mate, but I can't take any credit, it was the lads on here who put me right and believe it or not I got a Pollock about 3/4 lb first chuck. I thought I must have had too much lead on it went under so quick. I used a little size 4 hook and found it best to let the bites go well away pefore striking. Hope that helps. As an aside I am a beginner sea angler and I have some questions about the pier which are bugging me. Would anyone mind a PM with loads of daft questions in it ;-)