The Perfect Turbot Rig

[Newboy]

Everyone seem to have different turbot rig, which one is your favourite?

 

I use long boom with long trace of about 10' with no beads.

 

Then some swear beads and blades are not only for the plaice.

[Swainiac]

Kam, all flatfish are voracious feeders when hungry, and lie in wait to ambush prey as it drifts over them in tide. Flounders and Plaice seem to be more inquisitive than Turbot and Brill, hence beads and spoons, but my view on this is purely down to size, the larger the predator, the more aggressive it feeds.

 

A typical Turbot rig is a longer flowing trace, as you say, without beads, but a spoon incorporated in the rig may give that flash that induces the target to feed. What you are looking for, is a bait that drifts over the target as naturally as poss, hence mackeral fillet strips, whole Launce, or Launce fillets, depending on tide. Personally, I think a 10' trace is huge, but thats my personal view, and I haven't caught huge amounts of Turbot or Brill to qualify my thoughts. I'd hate to drop a 10' trace to the seabed, for it to tangle to buggery, drift the length of the bank and pass over the target missing the chance of a fish. Its an expensive mistake when you are paying for a three dayer across to the C I in search of that elusive 20lb turby.

 

My choice would be a trace of about six to seven feet, a 5/0 needle sharp hook, with a decent sized bait, of either a fresh macky fillet halved, a launce whole, launce fillet or launce flapper. If you arent catching on this rig, and others on the boat are, look at trace length and be flexible. Spooling is also an important aspect of flattie fishing, so dont forget this. Good luck on your trip.

 

Rich

 

 

[TomBettle]

A top tip from Mark at Alderney Angling was that Garfish strip was working well too.

 

Rich: Do you put a small ball lead on the trace for Turbot?

 

Tom

[duncan]

OK Rich - I'll bite........spooling?

[Swainiac]

Tom, I havent tried the one ounce ball lead out on rigs for the Brill/Turbot, but will try it out over in Alderney. Duncan, spooling, I just let out a few yards of line on that initial bite, to give the fish time to truly engulf the bait. It works well for flounder and Plaice, and worked for me last year when I did connect with turbot and brill, although all my fish were small, the best Brill went 7lbs, best Turbot was just over 9lb.

 

Martin and Adam had good success I recall on the larger flatties, perhaps he is better placed to comment.

 

Tom, are you fishing out of Weymouth this sunday? If you are, I think we are launching around 0730 ish, so see you down there.

 

Rich

[TomBettle]

Hi Rich

 

I am not allowed to play until Alderney so Quest II is likely to be on her moorings this weekend.

If you do see her out, she has either been nicked or is being crewed by one of the other owners.

 

Tom

[Adam F]

Spooling is a practise taught by CC the first trip we made in 2004.

 

Basically the hot zone for the flatties is the downtide side of the bank - they seem to sit here waiting for food to wash over the bank before they rise up ans whack it. When the boat approaches the rip, we spool, or 'fly' the bait back over the ridge to tempt a take.

 

Doesnt always work and thier are the expections to the rule, but the fishing is hard enough - so anything to make life easier is good in my book!

 

Finally, the pratise Rich describes is also essential - just to make sure they get the bait in proper.

 

Adam

[BigMac]

Mr Bayzand always used to swear by a strip of manky mackerel on the hook as the top bait

[duncan]

When the boat approaches the rip, we spool, or 'fly' the bait back over the ridge

 

this bit's got me confused Adam............

 

letting out line on the drift when a take is indicated I do understand though

[Adam F]

OK....

 

So as you drift along you approach a sandbank, lets say coming from 180' to 60' (as they often do in the CI's) this is indicated by the 'rip' - the small (or big, ask Martin about 2004... ) overfalls created by the volume of water being squeezed through the shallowing water column. This indicates the top of the bank - when we see this we know the boat is going over the top of the bank - by 'spooling' the reel, i.e taking your thumb off while in free spool the bait remains in the kill zone for longer, if you spool for long enough and have the righ lead on, the bait 'flies' up slightly in the water column, enticing Mr Tubbs along!

 

Hope this helps??

 

As for bait - killer last year was a fillet of macky, cut lengthways into two, most of the flesh scrapped away and a single nick with a sharp 6/0 fine wire through the little red ligament at the tail end - never comes off, remarkable actually.