Welcome to the Sea fishing blog

The season is about here, I have been checking out the other Internet forums to see if anyone is out there attacking the estuaries for Flounder, but it seems a bit quiet still.

Are you Floundering yet

I feel it is not really cold enough for the Flounder to be coming into rivers like the Exe, Teign, Camel, Fal etc but I would love to hear from you if you are already getting good catches.

How to catch Flounder

For those of you who are looking for a bit of Flounder fishing advice, have a look here at some articles from the past regarding catching flounder from the shore.

• Flounder fishing – Hints and tips
• Flounder rigs – The use of beads and sequins
• Fishing the estuary – Tips and ideas for estuary fishing

I would also love to hear from anyone using new and interesting ways to catch flounder. The goal for me this year is flounder on the fly, even if it is a baited fly for that initial catch.

Latest fishing tackle.

New tackle and reviews

Many of you keen anglers and readers of the fishing blog have been asking me for months and months, to bring you the latest fishing tackle. Well today I have started for you. I have spent the last 4 hours emailing many of the biggest names in the sea tackle industry, asking them to add me to their mailing lists, media packs and so on….

I hope soon to be in a position where I can bring you the latest fishing tackle news.

Fishing Tackle replies so far,

• Rapala have replied and offered some interesting information and ideas. Lets hope others will follow suite.

• I have just come of the phone (1410hrs) to a gentleman who is, at this time, in the final stages of developing a new “super lube” for fishing reels. Adding distance to casts and longevity to the internal workings. The best thing about this fishing reel lube is, it is very affordable!!! More information to follow very soon.

• Hardy and Greys have added me as well now!

• Tronix – Lots to talk about in the new year….

If you would like to send me information for publishing on this blog about tackle you have tried and would recommend, then please comment on this post or email the fishing blog or if you produce fishing tackle and would like a bit of free promotion like wise, comment or contact us.

BTW – I had to laugh when I saw found the photograph I used here… hope you are not to upset by it.

Rag worm are a superb sea fishing bait. They stay alive on the hook for ages and can be presented in a few ways from boats and the shore depending if you are after movement or a scent trail for fish to follow.

Using Rag worm as Bait

1. A single or a few small worm can be hooked through the head area leaving the tails to wiggle below. This creates a bait full of movement, ideal for Flounder fishing. Harbour rag or Maddies work well for this.
2. Use a bunch of rag worm laced up over the hook onto the line. This is good for presenting bigger baits and casting longer ranges than from using the method above
3. The use of rag as a cocktail bait can prove very successful indeed. Thread on a bunch of rag and tip it with another bait ie. Crab, Squid or fish bait.

So depending on the target species and combined with the sort of range you are looking to cast, or the tide strength you are fishing in if from a boat, Rag can be used in different was dependant on the circumstance, location, method and prey fish (don’t give fish with small mouths a huge bait!!)

Digging Rag Worm

Find a location where it is legal to dig. Ideal Rag worm beds tend to be more gritty, composed of coarse sand and gravel. Harbour Rag are found in softer conditions, more silt / sand mix. Get some local knowledge and go from there.

I use a wide pronged fork and generally trench (dig in a long line through as many surface holes as I can find). Take out a fork full of substrate, then another one further back, but joining the first hole. I then go back to the first hole area and go one fork deeper, keeping to this pattern. Effectively you are making a trench two forks deep. You need to check each fork full carefully for any rag and place them into a bucket as you find them.

You can dig individual holes. Start infornt and dig quickly taking small fork fulls at a time, back and past the hole. Rag will move quite quickly, so be sure to dig at a reasonable speed.

For storage keep them in some torn up news paper or vermiculite to keep them moist, but not dry. Stored in the fridge they should last a good week as long as you remove the dead and dying on a daily basis.

If you have any tips or questions regarding the digging of Rag worm please comment on this post.

Collecting Lug worm

The above video is a great bit of work showing you how to dig and collect Black Lug worm. I also have written a few ideas here – Collecting lug worm

Live Prawn

Fishing a Prawn

Float fishing with a live Prawn is a very successful and exciting form of fishing. It is not common practice, Sand Eels for example, get used a lot more as a live bait.

The nice thing about the common prawn is its easy to collect. You can either have a prawn trap set up off shore, or collect them by hand. Here are a few notes I have written before about collecting Prawns for bait

If you consider how many Prawns there are and the locations they are found in, they must be a staple food source for most of the UK fish species. They are packed with goodness, found everywhere and loved by all!

How to use Prawns as Bait

This is very easy. Get your Prawn (don’t drop it, they are lively little critters) and put the hook through the tail around the 4 segment up from the the end of the Prawns tail. I would use a 3/0 fine wire. This should allow the prawn to be able to swim and look natural under the float. Try and fish it about 1 – 2 meters from the bottom, or the top of weed etc, depending on where you are fishing.

If you get a lot of missed bites, you are either being plagued with small wrasse or Cuttle fish. I would change my hook to a small treble and hook the prawn using one of the three hooks.

For a float anything will do, a jiff lemon bottle if you need to cast a long way. A bubble float or a normal pier fishing float will also work just as well. Make sure you keep your line tight all the time, as you need good contact with the sharp end!

Tips for float fished Prawn

• Catch and store your prawn
• Use 3/0 fine wire hook for a 1.5 to 2 inch Prawn
• Hook it in the 4th segment from the tail
• Allow the Prawn to swim but not get to cover
• Keep in contact with the hook
• Enjoy the exciting results

Let us know by commenting on this post how you get along with float fished Prawn.

Fish finders and GPS systems

Fish finders and GPS systems

Over at the fishing blog amazon store I have reasurched and found about another 30 different fish finders and GPS systems for improving your sea fishing.

Some of the systems are waterproof and ideal for use when kayak fishing, others are designed for dry boat use and there is a range of hand held fish finders and gps devices.

The choice is vast and you need to look carefully to find the ideal product for the application you are considering. With the likes of google maps, you can get a good idea of the location of inshore sea bed features. You can get the lat and longs and pre programme them into your GPS. The other good way to use a GPS is when fishing a drift over ground you don’t know record locations where you catch fish, you would be amazed at how many small features you discover and how your catch rate will improve.

Here are a few useful posts regarding the use of fish finders and GPS systems

• Video instruction on how to fit a fish finder to your kayak
• How to attach a GPS to a fishing kayak
• Garmin 60 GPS
• Using google with your GPS to improve your sea fishing

There are about 30 marks mentioned here at the fishing blog and its an area that I want to really improve on. I have loads of people every day hit the site looking for sea fishing locations all around the uk, so I am going to build a new page and index the page by UK county, linking to a page with all the marks in that county in alphabetical order.

If you are interested in telling us about one of your marks or an area you would like to know more about, then please email the fishing blog here

The other thing I am working on is a message updater from text messages. I would like for people to be able to text fishing news into the site that goes live straight away. You could be fishing and catch a PB, or hear something in your tackle shop and want to spread the news. Anyway the initial test is on the right side of this page under the title quick info. Have a look, could be very cool!!!!

Kayak scupper bungs

Ocean Kayak Bungs

Always worth having a spare set of bungs! I have lost so many and regret not having a spare set to hand, or in the car. Have a look here at our online amazon store for more details – Ocean Kayak bungs

From amazon

“Ocean Kayak Scupper Stoppers can be used to plug the scupper holes in your Ocean Kayak. This will help you stay dry while you are paddling. Fit fit Kea, Prowler 13 and SideKick.”

Mussels for fishing bait

The problem with soft baits like mussel is keeping it on the hook when you are going to cast. i will look here at a few solutions to this problem.

Mussel as a hook bait

Mussel in my opinion is a very underrated bait. It occurs naturally on almost every beach along the UK coast line and is a huge natural food source to many species, including birds, fish and humans!

Some creatures have developed special adaptations to catch shelf fish such as mussel. Rasping teeth like our well known wrasse, knorr through the shell to get to the meaty interior. Birds have developed strong probing beaks and other shelf fish have developed ways to bore into mussel shells for a tasty snack.

Fish are very oppertunistic, and a nutritious morsel, such as a mussel out of its shelf wafting in the current will be quickly devoured by a whole range of species including: Cod, Pollock, Coal fish, silver eel, Wrasse, Plaice and Bass.

Being so popular and enjoyed by fish why do we not use it more often for sea angling? I feel it is because of the soft nature of the mussel it is very hard to keep on the shank of the hook. Casting it is almost impossible, but there are some simple ideas and solutions.

Hooking Mussel

1. Bait elastic – Wrapping bait elastic around the mussel when it is on the hook is a quick and simple method to securing it on your hook. First place a few mussels on the hook, then wrap the bait elastic around the meat until it is well wrapped and secure on the hook.
2. PVA Bags – Placing the hooked mussel into a dissolvable PVA bag (carp fishing tackle) will assist you in getting your mussel bait out there and fishing for you. The bags take a short time to dissolve when they hit the water and I have used PVA tape to attach the bag to the sinker to create a stream lined “pod” to cast at long range. The bag can also be filled with some ground bait soaked in mussel oil!
3. Bait Bombs – An aerodynamic weight / pod that holds the hook length and bait securely inside until impact with the water, when the lid parts and allows your snood to start fishing. The problem with these devices is they are very expensive if you start loosing them!
4. Frozen Mussel – This method to get mussel out there requires a little planning and forethought. It is very effective and simple though. Pre hook aload of baits and freeze them down for a few days. They can be stored in a thermos when you are fishing and just tied on each time. OK its a pain to tie them on, but you have a solid lump of fresh bait, which will thaw out in no time at all once in contact with the sea, even in winter.

To finish off

Get out there and try putting a little Mussel into your sea fishing. I have given you a few ideas on how to get the bait out there, but if you know other ideas or improvements on what I have said then comment on this post please.

If you do not belive me, have a look over here – Mike “the mussel” Ladle and some very interesting findings he had!

UK sea species

Guess the Species

OK, your turn now to guess the species. I will tell you that it is UK species found in our sea. From there you will have to hazard a guess!!

I look forward to reading your comments. To put your idea forward just comment on this post, or email me here

So far

Guess the species:Cuttlefish – from Ken Pearce