Welcome to the Sea fishing blog

Well it has been an interesting 12 months to say the least. Things have changed massively in my circumstances, which will allow me to devote more time into this blog and bring you some much improved content.

Despite contacting most sea fishing tackle manufactures, very few have added me to new product lists – hence, bringing you the latest fishing tackle will be a challenge, but I have a few ideas.

I intend to increase the “Sea Fishing Marks” section of the site and bringing more “beginners guides” to the site. These are the two most popular areas of the fishing blog.

I am looking into getting a list of UK charter boats. I intend on really increasing the user satisfaction of the site in 09 and taking it to the next level.

I would just like to say happy Christmas and heres to a great new year to all the readers of this fishing blog. I hope you got many of the presents you wanted this year, but most importantly spent some great time with family and friends.

Thank you for taking time in following us here – Roll on 2009

Unhooking the catch

So you are new to sea fishing and you manage to catch your fish sea fish. You land it on the beach, now you must unhook the fish, ready to catch another. I will assume you want to return the fish to the water unharmed.

Handling sea fish

When handling fish, be mindful of the fact they are covered in a slime that protects their skin from harmful bacteria. This protective slime is damaged if fish area allowed to thrash around on pebbles, and worst of all is handling them with dry hands. Always moisten your hands in some sea water, best of all is to cover the fish in a damp cloth, covering the eyes will calm them down.

Try and place them on a something soft. Carp anglers use an unhooking mat to lay the fish on, this keeps them in tip top condition. Carp are caught and returned many times and our sea fish deserve the same consideration – they are a valuable asset and treat them with respect, sea fish numbers are declining!!

Beware of species that have spines on their back, gill coverings etc. They need handling with care and attention. Knowing your species will help avoid stings and painful “pricks”. Dog fish and eels are a pain. Hold the doggies tail in a curve close to the head in one hand. it will relax and allow easier handling. Eels are just awkward, there is no easy way to keep hold of them, a chamois leather or towel may help!

Tools for unhooking fish

There are many tools available to assist you when unhooking fish. The best all round piece of kit is a pair of forceps. They can be purchased from many outlets – google “forceps” to find out! Your forceps will work well for most species caught from the shore and are far better for deeper hooked fish than your fingers. They also offer you protection from teeth and hard mouths.

Bigger shore caught species like Conger, Tope and Huss will require something a bit stronger. This is where a pair of long nose pliers comes into play. They are also very good if you embed a hook into your self (push the hook point through and cut the barb off and thread the hook back out – I have done it and it hurts!!!)

How to unhook fish

Okay, lets get to the bare bones of unhooking fish. This is hard to explain as it depends on how the fish is hooked and where it is hooked. The basic method is to grip the hook by the bend and push it gently in the reverse direction it would require to set the hook. Keep the fish still with firm but proportional pressure using wet hands or a cloth as mentioned above. Generally keep grip on the head area as this is the best area to prevent them from moving too much and allowing you best access to the mouth of the fish.
Once the fish is unhooked, return it to the water asap. I will pass on more tips for returning fish unharmed soon.

fall in fish stocks

We all know and hear about “The good old days” when double figure fish were common place and you would catch 10 Bass from the shore on an average day.

Well to help get your head around it a little here are a few figures on how fish stocks have fallen over the last 150+ years. This needs to slow down in my opinion or there will be nothing left in our seas soon.

Decline in Fish Stocks

• Cod stocks fallen by 98%
• Haddock stocks fallen by 90%
• Plaice stocks fallen by 90%
• Whiting stocks fallen by 70%
• Halibut stocks fallen by 98%
• Turbot stocks fallen by 95 %

Those figures are frightening. Surely we need to take action and preserve best we can with the minimal stocks are left in our seas. I have heard of small no fishing areas. I think there is one around Lundy Isle, which has seen significant increases in Crab and Lobster numbers, as well as smaller fish numbers increasing.

What do you think???

image: ezioman

Black Bream fishing

Light weight and hard fighting. The black Bream has seen a researgence in recent years and is a prize catch and eating fish high on the list of UK sea anglers. Black bream are well worth fishing for, if you haven’t tried it or need some tips for next season then read on.

The Black Bream

The Black bream is a deep bodied fish which can reach 40cm in length. They are marked with striped silver, black flanks (normally 9 dark bars), merging to blue across the back and top of the head. The small mouth of the bream is worth noting as you need to scale your gear down to allow for the size of the mouth. It’s worth remembering that the dorsal fin has a number of spikes in it – beware!!

The other species of Bream common in our fishing waters are the Red Bream (pinkish in colour) and the Gilt head bream which lives in different environments (brackish water in estuaries etc)

Bream locations and marks

The Black Bream is normally here in numbers during late spring, when they push up from there southerly winter grounds to breed. The south of England generally holds the largest stocks of fish. Leaving for the winter grounds October time.

These fish generally hold on very broken ground with weed for cover – reefs and wrecks with plenty of cover and hiding areas are a good start. They will work cleaner ground at times, but start with good broken ground. They also hunt in shoals, with the mature fish keeping to the rear of the shoal as they work into the tide feeding.

Most baits will tempt these guys, its a matter of finding them. Baited lurse also work well to catch Black Bream. Here are a few tips to improve your Bream catches.

• Aberdeen hooks in size 10 to 4, strong in the wire
• Strong tides will activate the Bream to feed
• Lower tidal flows will push the shoals nearer the sea bed
• Try Hokkai multi lure rigs baited with fish
• Ground bait – A very successful tip for Bream fishing. Fish down tide from your ground bait and enjoy!
• Fish from a kayak or boat for best results
• Can be caught from the shore, but do your home work on your fishing mark……
• Take a range of baits – worm, fish, squid, mussel and crab, see what works on the day

Image:redcarper

Ogmore beach

Ogmore Deeps shore fishing

A very popular shore fishing mark on the South Wales coast line. The ground is made up of rock ledges leading out to sand and deep water about 50 meters from the shore, although there are rocks and reefs everywhere. The mark can be dangerous in large swells and pay particular attention on high tides.

Ogmore deeps species

Winter brings in whiting, pouting and codling. There are some great Cod caught from this beach each year!!

Spring will start to see catches of thornback, blonde and small eyed rays with summer giving the odd garfish and mackerel, bass, dogfish and the odd smoothound. Conger also get caught here.

Baits and Rigs

Simple rigs like pulley rigs are great for this kind of mark.

Fish baits and rag worm will take most species and try lug for the winter species. Sand eel often helps select the rays.

image from: Zoe

Sea fishing at Mumbles pier, South Wales

Mumbles Pier, in Sawnsea fishes  well for in the Summer months for bass, garfish, mackerel, plaice, mullet and trigger fish. In winter it offers whiting, dabs, flounder, codling, and dogfish.

Close to the pier works best for the trigger fish. Crab of Mackerel fished on a Aberdeen size 1 hook on a long trace to allowing it to move in the tide.

Mullet will be taken on bread flakes or fish and bread mash. A little extra fish oil will get the scent trails stronger and lasting longer to attract the fish.

Bass are regularly taken on float tackle, with a sand eel fished underneath. This will also pick up mackerel and gar.

Winter fishing for cod is best with squid and lug cocktails.

Flounder fishing

Now we are in the popular Flounder fishing season I am seeing a lot of readers hitting the site looking for information on Flounder spoons. So what is a flounder spoon and how do you use it?

Flounder spoons

There is no black magic or hidden spell – Flounder are active hunters, they are in fact very tenacious hunters. They chase and capture live prey all the time and its this instinct in a Flounder that allows us to catch them with ease once we have a system sorted.

The spoon is an attractor. The device can be the dish from a spoon, drilled with a split ring added and a hook length – simple as that. it’s not a requirement for the spoon to spin as it would on a spinner, it just needs to flutter in the tide or on a retrieve.

Spoons can be bought in many colors and sizes. If you are requiring the current to do the work, a lighter and larger plastic spoon will be most effictive. If you are considering moving the rig across the bottom yourself, then a heavier metal spoon might be the best choice.

Flounder are predators

So, it’s this hunting instinct you want to bring out when Flounder  fishing. More and more anglers are keeping rigs light but using spoons, beads and blades so they gently roll and move on the sea bed. This creates mud and sand to be disturbed, building a scent trail (the use of swim feeders is also a possibility) You are fishing the deep gullies and holes as they are flooding, your rig has attractors on it and you are stimulating a take by keeping the bait active and interesting to the flounder.

All in all Flounder fishing is an active, dynamic aspect of sea fishing. Fish hard and wise. Use local knowledge and get your own knowledge by scouting out your fishing marks at low tide. Keep active and enjoy your best Flounder season.

If you are looking to buy a flounder spoon have a look at these fishing tackle offers

Book of Fishing Knots - click to buy

Knowing your knots is a very important part of sea angling and accounts for lots of lost fish, in fact everyone will have lost a fish at some point due to poor knot strength – don’t be one of those anglers

Waterproof book of fishing knots

A must for all sea anglers, in fact all anglers. This book gets rave reviews from buyers on amazon!!!

Its not a cheap book, but very worth while having. The images and diagrams are easy to follow.

The Book of Practical Fishing Knots

A Practical guide to fishing knots - click to buy

Another great book packed full of great fishing knots is the book of practical fishing knots. Its a well written book with great explanations on how to tie some of the more interesting and challenging knots used in angling. From amazon

This book shows how to tie approximately 60 dependable angling knots, as well as a number of variations, from which each angler may develop a useful repertoire to fit his or her personal requirements for rod, line, hook and lure. The knots are logically grouped into five sections, according to form and function. Within each section, they are presented in a sequence that takes into account any helpful similarity of structure and use. Each knot has a double-page spread, comprising of a sequence of illustrated tying stages and a photograph of the completed knot. These are supplemented by a comprehensive introductory section, giving angling history, terminology, definitions, types of fishing line, general tying tips and a knot-finder. .

If you have one of these books please comment on this post to let us all know your opinion of your book, good bad or indifferent. If you are after a different fishing book have a look at our store – fishing store

Hooked on Bass - click image to buy

Uk Bass fishing book

Hooked on Bass written by Mike Ladle & Alan Vaughan is a true classic. It explains all you need to know about fishing for Bass around the British Isles. Topics include, tackle for Bass fishing, venues for Bass angling, case studies in specified areas, Bass habitat and their life cycle.

The book is well written, and you just need to absorb it from cover to cover as these men tell you how to catch bigger Bass. They are also talking from their own experiences and wealth of knowledge.

The book has some great pictures and diagrams to help explain certain aspects of Bass fishing. It is a must have for UK saltwater fishinermen!!