Shambles........

[alun j.]

After last year's maiden trip out to the Shambles, on a glorious early April day, I'm keen to repeat this Easter, hopefully with a bit more success than the three little plaice........ I mean 'tiny' for two of them.... caught more by luck than skill!

 

The whole day was one big learning experience........... the tides, the swells over the banks, the number of other boats to avoid !

 

It didn't take long to get the drift speed sorted to match the other boats ....... a couple of divers' belt weights and a bit of chain did that .......... but getting the bottom tackle right had me guessing ........ so help please , some of you who have this sorted.

 

Weights ??????? ..... too much........ and your tackle goes back to tangle with the dragging anchor; .... too little ........ and your tackle is swept off with the tide !!

 

Rigs ?? ..... I stuck with the ever dependale running ledger with two hook Pennel. Addition of beads and / or spoon made little difference until you got caught up and lost expensive spoon!

 

Bait ??? ......... thought RAG...... and had dug some cracking good worms, but two fish came on manky bit of mackeral.

 

Rods ?? .......... normally fish with two..... but this quickly proved very difficult with all the movement. Was I right in focusing on one, constantly adjusting depth as we slid over those undersea cliffs of sand and gravel ?? Is it better to fish lighter so trace flows away from you ........ or heavier, with a bit of drag.

Here was confusion, lack of experience , tangles with crew [ even less experienced!] and a tide that changed just when you felt you were sorted!

 

I know I lost a lot of time working out what was happening in this novel situation last year and would like to get more fishing out of my day if wind and tides allow me to try it out again.

 

Thanks for any useful suggestions,

 

Alun.

[Maverick Martin]

Tactics for fishing plaice on the shambles are drift fishing with the same kind of gear you would fish with from Poole, perhaps slightly heavier as you will need a little more lead there to combat the larger tides. 12lb class rod or slightly less is ideal, matched that with a 6000 sized multiplier perfek. Beads, rauto or delta type spoons, booby beads all wok on there day. You will also need a nice big bait which can consist of rag, lug, squid and crab in cocktails of your choosing. If your trying for a Turbot or Brill then a nice long slither of mackerel or a fillet of Launce should be on the menu.

As you say get your drift speed right then you have to fish your tackle on the bottom but not with so much weight that it stops and you end up dragging it along. Your gear should ideally be going out the rear of the boat and you should feel it bumping bottom. Dont forget to have a go for launce on the slack water, there should be plenty of them about from now onwards and they make excellent bait.

 

Thats basically the way we fish but Im sure others will ad there fav method

 

Martin

[Paul D]

I used a rig as described on Chris Caines pages.

 

18 beads, pennel rig and around 6ft trace.

 

In addition I threaded a small "coffin" weight between two of the beads to help to hold bottom.

 

Ragworm and squid cocktail as bait.

 

Worked for me, I caught a solitary Plaice !! ( Lost a good bite as well )

 

I had another rod with a strip of mackeral and later in the day ( having feathered/hokeyed up some Launce ) a strip of launce. 5 ft trace with single hook, in hope of a turbot.

 

 

 

[Newboy]

Where do we tie the drag weigh, bow or stern?

 

If it's bow, that means the boat is going backward and wouldn't the line get caught up in the anchor/drag rope?

 

Another question is do you leave your engine running?

[Paul D]

Drag weight is tied to the bow of the boat. The boat will then be facing into the tide and the tide will be flowing past the boat faster than the boat is moving, so the trace will flow out the back of the boat if you get the terminal rig weight correct - as martin decribes ( On Saturday the tide was so small that no weight was needed to drift ).

 

I turn engine off while drifting, however, when the tide is running hard this means you could potentially get into trouble at the edge of the bank if the engine fails to start......

When we fished the Race at Portland I started drifting with the engine off but quickly decided that it would be wise to keep it idling ( you will know what I mean when you see the size of that wave !! )