Tuesdays Trip.....

[Swainiac]

Went out yesterday, with ex colleagues from Hampshire Police, on board Ted and Mikes Due South. Intention was to try a few Bass wrecks closer in, so we bagged up on Joeys and scad, with a livebait well full, we steamed south of the wight.

 

First wreck was poor...the drift being just under the magical 2 knots, so we tried an un marked wreck nearby, I managed to sqeak out a small Bass on the first drift, which tipped the scales at six and a half lbs. Thinking we were in for some sport, a few more drifts ensued.......no Bass! After trying a few more marks, and fruitless drifts, we decided the bass may feed better at anchore, which sometimes happens on this last specific mark.

 

Assorted fish came to the boat, a solitary Bass of about two pounds, scad, good Bream, a huge Cuckoo, the biggest I've ever seen, just in the change between the pinky hue, and bright blue and orange we love to see. Conger began to come on the slack, bringing me my largest so far this season, with a fish estimated at 30lbs. With plenty of pout in the bait box, I banged on a huge flapper, hoping for that elusive forty pounder to open the door to the Conger Club......when a screeming take hit my rod. Uptide, line pouring from the reel screamed tope to me, and when I hit the fish, yes....it certainly felt Topey! Alas, no biting leader...sorry Charlie!! So down went another livebait joey, with a short biting leader, a few minutes later, a rattle on the rod looked conger like. Leaving the rod a while, then another rattle, and movement uptide, my call was a smallish bass, I hit the fish, and it was certainly there. Up she came, my first Undulate Ray, a beautifully marked fish just shy of ten pounds.....on a livebait! Unhooked weighed and returned, back to smaller baits on scrating rigs to see what I could manage in the last forty minutes. Two more conger, one landed, on 12lb class rod, and twenty five pound leader, nothing huge but it shows me its possible to boat a twenty pounder, hooked on the corner of the mouth, on light gear, great fun.

 

All in all, an excellent day, thouroughly enjoyable in excellent company and great weather, and few species on the boat, a practice before fridays Comp against Surrey Police, out of Littlehampton.

 

See some of you saturday, on the trailaway, tight lines all

 

Rich

[Sam]

just shows that fish arent that picky on baits i had a pollack the other day on a flapper

 

sounds like you had a good day well done

 

sam

[Maverick Martin]

Nice report Rich some good fish there

 

I thought the Weymouth trip was Sunday 21st? hope so as I can't make saturday

 

Martin

[Guest Teh Piemeister]

Thought you'd have had more if you'd used a Pie as bait

[Gnasher]

Nice one rich, nice report and a few different species aswel. I think the ray are taking a liking to livebaits as we had a big thorny aboard Gnasher last week and lost a couple aswel. Maccy flappers/chunks/squid, etc was being getting less bites than a live jumbo!!

 

Dan

 

P.S Dunno about using pie, tell me though is it Teh piemeister, or The piemeister?

[great white]

Nice one rich

 

Lots of species so I expect a bit of scratching was going on, I still think that the bigger fish need the heavier traces so that they give acount of themselves all the way to the boat not just half way

 

we lost a few last friday that bit off traces that should have been man enough.

 

The BCC qualifier is easier around here for a reef caught fish of 30lb than the 40lb wreck fish

even the trip when we had 70 between 2 boats only saw about 4 over 40

 

One night soon mate after the loony sailing season finishes and when dark is a little earlier we will get you one or more

 

Charlie

[Swainiac]

Thanks Charlie, after switching to the short biting trace, when intentionally fishing for tope, I was a little worried that the bait would be inhibitted movement wise, by the wire. It didnt seem to matter, as this set up brought the undulate.

 

Scratching was left for the last 45mins on the mark, tide started moving, so I thought the congers would go home......this wasnt the score though! One of the first fish boated was caught on a 100lb trace, and spun like crazy on the surface, so the trace needed shortening/replacing to get rid of the burrs on it. However, the conger caught in more tide on light gear, size 4/0 to 25lb leader, didnt spin at all. Is the spinning phenomena regular with conger, or is it based on size, tide, or just aggression? I'm actually begining to like these fish now, they certainly give u a good scrap.

 

As far as The Piemeister goes......I was talking to him re pike fishing the other day, so he visited the site again.....hence his input!! Nice one Mark.

 

Tight lines lads.....Rich

[duncan]

Rich,

I have been using a 6 inch hook length of 30lb pike wire on all my tope, ray, conger, cod etc traces for 2 years now and whilst I can't definitively say it hasn't put off any fish anecdotally it wouldn't appear to have done so.

 

re spinning - some seem to; some don't!

 

sounds as though you had a good trip out - I am looking forward to an opportunity for a proper day's fishing again sometime; looks like we are off to Alderney adn Guernsey again next week if the weather permits but I'm going to hide some proper tackle on board somewhere this time round!

[Gnasher]

I am thinking of using a wire trace for most of my fishing as you never know what you will hook. From reading the posts it seems change the catch rate for most species, but will it affect the bass as they can be wary? If i fish at anchore with a maccy head and guts i am generally fishing for anything but would a bass still take it? Also if a conger spins, how would it damage the leader? Thats under assumption there is a swivel by the lead slider.

[Paul J]

Rich,

 

Nice report

 

I caught a ray of about 6lb last night on a live joey and was suprised!

 

The cuttle were ripping up most of the baits before a fish could have them and landed two. I was going to save them for you but MR Dore wasn't keen on inking up the boat

 

Paul J

[alun j.]

Paul,

 

Cuttles well worth keeping........... just drop them in a bucket of water and they stay alive for ages. I find they eventually get 'knocked-out' without inking; but even if they do , it's only in one bucket [ easy to flush out!].

 

With a little experience , they are easy to prepare and brilliant on the bbq [30 sec flash/ sear on each side].........YUM YUM !!!

 

Alun.

[Paul D]

Alun,

 

Paul appears to have forgotten that one of them was still lurking in the back of the boat - no sitting in the freezer

 

 

[great white]

Hi all

 

conger spinning is a regular way of them trying to get rid of the hook

 

In my experiance usually done when they are laying alongside on the surface awaiting netting or the T Bar.

 

If held on the rod with the trace stretched a good swivel will cope easily. but if you are holding the trace the spinning can make T baring the fish a bit tricky.

 

If they start to spin, let them sink a couple of inches below the surface and nearly all will stop spinning immediatly and allow the T Bar to be used.

 

If you are using light weight hooks[uptide patterns], and it spins while the hook is on the T Bar, I bet you need another hook before re-baiting

 

Tight lines

Charlie

[Swainiac]

Charlie, cheers for that info, I'll try that next time I'm congering.

 

As far as the trace burring went, my larger fish was deeper hooked in the roof of the mouth close to the back, so the teeth certainly made me thankfull of the heavier 100lb trace.

 

PJ, this is the time of year fish are making the most of the cuttles in the water. In the solent, the water is getting to its warmest for the year, the cuttles have bred, and netting is well under way. You can motor through the Solent with a net on board, scooping up cuttles that have slipped the nets, a friend took 36 in one hour last week. This is also around the time of year, the larger Bass in the Solent waters readilly take cuttle, so please don't waste them, or pass them by! They are a trully superb bait.

 

Duncan, is the 30lb pike wire heavy enough for Tope? Are the small crimps needed for closure on these traces strong enough in singles to hold a fish, or do you double up on them? I'll make a few up, as they are very neat,small, and easy to stow in the box, after all, I can always use them for Pike on the river in winter. Tight lines acroos the Channel........I'm not too jealous....I have my new Salt Water Fly kit to try out in Florida, so will be flicking fluff into the surf, a week tomorrow!!

 

Rich