How to catch what is there

That title above is really all that scratching is. It most certianly is not loosening the flesh around a flea bite! I guess if you are considering going to a sea fishing mark and edging your bets, increasing you chance of going home with a fish rather than blanking, then you are scratching.

If you go to a new mark that you have been told fishes well for plaice on mussel and you set up the ultimate plaice rig, baited with mussle held on with bait elastic and arm your beachcaster to throw your gear 150 yards to catch that plaice, you are narrowing your chances of catching other species. You could be missing out on other prize species.

Everytime you go to a new mark or even an old one, its worth scratching. Fishing for other species will help you learn what might be there and the shap / structure of the seabed. Being open to trying ideas is what will increase your catch rate fatser than anything else.

How do I scratch while sea fishing

This method is not only for beach casting, but includes boat and kayak fishing as well. To be Honest its nothing to complicated, in fact its dead easy.

Fishing in ireland on a few boat comps I learnt that one of the most powerful scratching rigs was as simple as baited mackerel lures. You have the attraction of the lure, baits close to the sea bed and some higher as well as a few different baits on the 3 lure hooks that make up the rig (many comps have a hook limit)

When beach casting from the shore a 2/3 hook paternoster works well. A smaller hook on the bottom paternoster scratches for the flatties and micro species with a size one on the other hook lengths. remember that if you hook a good fish, play it and respect it as your hook size might be small and delicate!

If you are a master scratcher, let us know what system you use, or how your opinion differs from mine by commenting on this post.

Further to my post on Up-tiding, I was really delighted to get some feedback regarding Up-tiding in the UK , as below.

This, in my opinion is the beauty of this kind of site. People can add to posts and improve the quality of the information held here at the fishing blog.

The reply below was posted from A Sea Angler’s Noted Book

I Agree with most of what you say but, as a born and bred uptider from the East Coast, I think you missed one very important point about uptiding – it gives the angler the ability to use lighter, more sporting tackle than could be otherwise used. As long as the water isn’t too deep you can generally use 8 oz of lead where a downtider would need 1 lb or more – the emphasis with this technique is definately on presenting a bait hard on the bottom for species such as Cod and Ray. Once you hit depths of 50 – 60 foot of water though uptiding becomes very difficult.

Improve your up-tiding

I’d have to disagree with two minor points. Firstly, the choice of rig is important, particularly when trying to fish a bait hard on the bottom in a strong tide. In these conditions the running ledger reigns supreme as the bow in the line required to hold bottom generally means a paternoster will be fishing baits off the bottom. Finally, a proper uptiding rod is in no way ’stubby looking’. A proper uptiding rod will have a fine soft-actioned tip (to absorb the wave action and drag from the tide on the line) along with a fairly stiff middle and powerful butt. Bob Cox (one of a number of skippers from this part of the country generally credited with developing the method) helped design a range of Kevlar blanks for North Western which are by far and away the best uptider I have ever used. They are also very versatile and I have used mine for everything from spinning (thanks to the fine tip) to beach and peir fishing. A friend of mine (who is an accomplished caster) has also managed to cast a distance of 150 yards on the field with one – not bad for a 9ft 6in rod!

I enjoyed the article and other than that I’d agree with with everything written – nice one.

EDIT: That is a great and very valuable up-date to the content.. Please everyone join in as this member did, to improve the quality of this site.

A reader recently asked “I have heard the term up-tiding when reading articles in magazines and listening to anglers but what does it really mean”

The world of sea fishing has many facets. The common ones being, beach casting, spinning, wreck fishing and up-tiding. Most of these could be broken down into sub-categories, for example spinning could be dead baiting, plugging or gilling. Sea fishing has formed a huge collection of techniques each with it own name depending on where in the world you are fishing and how you are fishing.

The species being targeted, the skill you are perfecting, the platform you are using (shore/boat) and the environment you are targeting them in, all require you to use differing techniques. The term up-tiding is relevant to shallow water boat fishing (Generally 50 feet deep or less).

So what is up-tiding?

Well, its not rocket science and it’s really doing as it says, fishing up-tide of the anchored boat. But why bother? Well this can be answered in two ways.

1. Firstly if you are fishing from a boat in shallow water the noise from the boat, often referred to as the foot print can effect the way fish feed and behave below it. The slapping of the tide against the hull, the sound of people moving around and mechanical actions will be reflected in the water and magnified. This noise will effect the fish. Have you ever been snorkelling near boats? You can here props and clunks from a long distance. They often only sound like clicks and ticks until the boat is above you, but they are very noticeable and draw your attention. A fish has amazing receptors that can detect the most subtle changes in it’s environment and this will cause them to change there behaviour. Corse and Game anglers stalk their fish and use surprise and stealth as there main techniques, allowing the fish to be un-disturbed.
2. A secondary reason and a valid one is that when you are fishing from a charter boat there are only so many places to fish from with out ending up with a huge nylon birds nest. By using up-tiding and down-tiding you can fish from the front/sides of the vessel as well as the stern, allowing more rods to fish from the boat with success.

Just because you are in the stern down tiding does not mean you have the short straw. You can use the tide to take your rig away from the boat and fishing working up tide, following the scent trails will find your bait first!!!

How do I up-tide?

This is a sort of hybrid between beach casting and boat fishing. You need to cast your gear up-tide at around 45 degrees minimum from the boat. The two factors determining the distance should be the depth of the water and the strength of the tide. Both requiring a longer cast. When you cast think about casting into the wind, the stronger the wind the more wellie you need to project your bait to the required location. The same goes for up-tiding, you need to cast longer than you require, allowing the tide to carry your rig back as it sinks.

Once your rig has hit the water allow line to spill form your reel. You need to achieve a large belly of line. This will let your rig to dig into the substrate allowing you to hold bottom and prevent your gear going down tide making a huge birds nest.

Up-tiding rods and reels

You can up-tide with almost anything as long as you are good at it!! The preferred gear is a stubby looking rod that is a semi casting rod rated to cast 4 – 8 ounces at least. Generally these rods are about 8 – 10 feet in length.

A reel that is matched to this will do. Consider heavy beach casting reels that help you to prevent over run with some sort of breaking system. Newbie’s will have to consider the wind and all the usual pit falls that come with beach casting and one of the larger beach casting reels should help you.

Remember as a point of safety that you need a shock leader and that should be 10lbs per ounce of casting weight. I know that there is not somebody further along the beach you are likely to kill but you could injury your boat mates. You also need to cast from out side the boat. I am not for one minute saying that you get out of the boat, but your gear should be outside of the boat when casting and make sure others are aware when you cast.

Rigs and baits for up-tiding

Grip leads are considered the norm. Ask your skippers advice as he / she will have the best knowledge about the substrate you are fishing over. Fixed wire leads provide more grip than breakaway wires and grip is what is required in this fishing scenario.

Any rig will do. The are no hard and fast rules. Consider your species and the bait presentation when sea fishing. Often rigs with more decoration and wider booms will attract fish but they will be greater effected by the tide and you could require a heavier sinker to hold bottom.

You need to consider that the larger the bait again the more drag it will create, requiring you to select a larger weight to hold bottom.

The bottom line is to create a balanced rig with an attractive well presented d bait for your chosen species, cast outside of the boats foot print. The bite will generally be indicated with the line going slack.

If you are a keen up-tide angler or have any questions regarding up=tiding please comment on this post.

The hardest thing to master, if you are new to sea angling or new to your location is finding good marks that produce and the easiest way to get this information is by joining your local club. There will be a vast wealth of knowledge amongst its members and once you have proven your-self and gained trust they will be willing to take you out on fishing sessions and give you valuable advice.

Not only will the club members share marks, it’s also a good source of cheap tackle and sometimes the chance to get out on a boat and share the cost amongst you all.

If you are a member of a club and you would like it to get some coverage on this site please send in the clubs details using our contact form. We get people every day landing here looking for Sea angling clubs and I would love to provide them with some great information.

Tight lines

www.fishing-blog.co.uk

The boat offers comfort to the higest degree, with a heated cabin to use while you are steaming and toilets! Live bait is available if required as well as some fishing equipment. This boat is able to offer fishing in most conditions as she is based on the Thames Estuary and can fish while others are still stuck in port.

For more information or to book with the skipper have a look here – Charter fishing on Sophie Lea

This simple tip can be used inshore and when deep sea fishing. Its as easy as to start using round torpedo shaped sinkers when using lures.

Leads with flat sides are generally used for bottom fishing. The flat side allows the lead to lie on the bottom and reduces it chance of being moved by tidal currents. The flat sides tend to cause the lead to fly in the water and cause your gear to fish away from you and not directly below you where you want to fish.

The torpedo shaped lead is streamlined and when you release it to the bottom it follows a true course, allowing you to fight the tide and wind drift and get your gear below the boat and not off to one side.

Well, you never say no to the chance of a fishing trip, so we organised to meet at 0730 hrs and get on the water by 8 to catch the tide.

We set off and when we got to the main channel we started to troll. I used an expensive lure, on my luxury rod and multiplier worth a few quid! my friend had bought a budget outfit from ebay which he tied on a trace of small feathers from Trago Mills (local discount store) and we were fishing.

At the bottom of Trebah Gardens we saw a Gannet feeding and at that point my friend had a fish on! He runs a web site about natural and environmental friendly living, this is rubbing off on him as no sooner did he get the fish into the boat he had thrown it back over the side to its freedom using a less than traditional triple salco from a double axel movement, quite poetic against the back drop of the Pines lining the waters edge, 6/6.

We headed to the mouth of the Helford to capture and KEEP some more fish. We carried out a few drifts, but drift rate was rapid in the 20 – 25 knot wind however, Pollock and Mackerel were comming over the side like there was no tomorrow. Sadly not one on my QUALITY fishing tackle.

For comfort we motored close into to the cliff and sat at anchor on the lee side. I put on a dexter wedge and fished really hard along the shore edge and from every angle possible. My friend steadily brought fish in while I caught nothing. He was so confident, he was even drinking coffee and snacking on energy bars to boost his strength.

I finally submitted and changed my gear to cheap feathers (if you can’t beat them, join them) would you belive it I was still empty handed by the end of the day.

I had a good look at the tackle my friend was using and the budget market is now producing really good gear for the money. My friend sails and only fishes on the odd occasion so he wanted a cheap fish and forget set up. He hunted ebay and got a great set up. With a bit of advice from me about what else he needed he was up and running and out fishing me already.

PS Warren if you get chance send over a snap of your rod and reel to share here please!

Hello fellow fishermen. My name is Thomas and I live on a small island in northern Norway. I run a photo blog with high quality photos from my region http://blog.thomaslaupstad.com/ .

I have fished all my life and from the age of 12 I started to go out fishing, on the ocean, on my own.

The people living on the coast have a long tradition of making a living from the sea. In the old times everyone was dependent on what they could harvest from the sea, as a way to earn money, but also as the most important source of food.
Nowadays very few people make a living from fishing because sadly everything is centralized and the big companies, with enormous boats, are buying the quotas from the smaller boats. It is really destroying the typical coastal culture in northern Norway and make the population move to cities and to southern Norway where all the jobs are.

But fishing is still important for most people in northern Norway and almost everyone on the coast owns a boat. Buying fish from stores is uncommon if you live in the countryside.

Seasonal fishing

The seasons decide what kind of fishing that can be done. In the middle of the winter the weather is too rough to go out on the sea with a small boat so then you eat the fish you have caught earlier.

I like to start fishing as early as possible and this year was very early with me getting my boat out on the sea in May. It seems like the fish find the shallow waters too cold so I had to fish a depths bellow 100 meters to catch anything. I caught mainly cod, redfish and a few haddocks at the start of the fishing season.
The cod are of very good quality in the winter and we use to hang it for drying.

In the summer large shoals of coalfish (pollock) come into the fjords. It’s very exciting when there are thousands upon thousands of coalfish in a feeding frenzy around your boat. At the same time thousands of seagulls try to get their share of the small fish that the coalfish is hunting.
Coalfish and cod are the main fish species that I catch in the summer along with the odd wolffish and atlantic halibut.
Late in the summer I use to salt some cod and freeze it for food in the winter. I also make fillets of coalfish, cod and other fish species to fill the freezer.

In the autumn shoals of herring comes into the fjords and I set nets to catch them. Waking up early on an autumn day to drag my nets is very relaxing and exciting at the same time.
I use herring salted fresh or fried. Salted herring can be stored for a long time and can also be used for pickled herring.
Herring is also an excellent bait and I use it to catch Atlantic halibut and red fish.

Methods I use for fishing
I mainly use my good old sea fishing rod with a Penn fishing reel that I have been using for the past 13 years.
For depths below 100 meters I usually use a “juksa”. Juksa is a fishing wheel that has long traditions here. My “juksa wheel” was made by my grandpa 30-40 years ago and it still works like a charm.
As I have mentioned before I use nets to catch herring and on a rare occasion I use nets to catch flatfish.
If I have good amounts of bait I sometimes set bottom-long-lines. I try to target Atlantic halibut, but you can get all sorts of fish.

There are companies offering fishing for tourists around here so you are welcome to try my fishing grounds as long as you leave the biggest fish to me

Dean is a keen angler from Bude in North Cornwall. He started his passion for fishing aged about 7 when he used to fish local rivers for Minnows and the odd Trout. This developed into sea fishing almost 20 years ago, when Dean used to fish from harbour walls and rock marks around the coast. A hunger to improve and increase his catch rate finally saw him get on the water and start boat fishing.

On 23rd July 2007 Deans sea fishing took an interesting course. He was fishing at anchor for Bream on a mark close to Bude, using 10lb mono and a standard 3 hook paternoster bream rig baited with Mackerel. The tide was high, there was a light North wind creating a bit of movement on the water and the sun was showing itself in spells.

Whilst enjoying a successful Bream session, Dean landed a fish he had never seen before. It was a powerful looking fish with a bright green strip from its eye to its dorsal fin, it required playing as it fought hard for its size. Perplexed with his Catch he asked around to try and identify this 700g fish. Eventually Dean spoke with Doug Herdson from the Plymouth Marine Aquarium and arranged to take the fish there for a formal identification.

The result of this meeting identified the fish as a Greater Amberjack which likely followed the gulf stream over to the UK. The last one caught in British waters on rod and line was in 1951. 8 more have been caught since ’51 in nets, Deans being the 10th and the second ever on rod and line. Because of this I understand that Dean is submitting his fish as a possible British record!!

There seems to be a bit of speculation about the species and to claim the record Dean is having to send his fish away for a formal ID which could take up to a year, but to make sure it’s not a pure fluke Dean has pulled a blinder and caught two more to add to his list.

I would like to thank Dean for his time and I wish him the very best in his record claim.

We arrived at 1330 hrs ready to meet the boat at 1400hrs, lagged in sun tan lotion, jumpers packed in bags and loads of water to drink. I was a bit concerned as to how the next few hour woould pann out. There were 5 other people on the boat, not serious sea anglers though (this was good in my opinion)

We loaded and started to steam to the ground which about 3 miles out. The boys were great staying seated all the way and enjoying the whole experience. I rigged my SHIMANO solara 6 ft baitcasting rod with 16lb braid and a set of hockeye lures weighted with a 4oz dexter wedge.

On arriving at the mark we were issued with rods all tackled up. There was a brief instruction and off we went lowering the sinkers to the sea bed, it was about 100 foot deep here. There was a shrot sea running but nothing to make it uncomfortable. 5 Mackerel were caught almost straight away, my lads thought this was amazing and wanted to throw them all back in, the other anglers were obliging and allowed the boys to return the Mackerel to the sea.

We fished by lowering the gear and allowing the boys to reel in while I held the fishing rod. This worked really well and they enjoyed every second. There were lots of species caught including Cod, Whiting, Red Gurnard (by my wife who was also on her fist fishing trip) and pouting as well as loads of Mackerel.

There was a sighting of a Dolphin which increased the interest level. We only saw it 3 times but the atmosphere became eletric with everyone trying to get another sighting. Any breaking wave from then on became a Dolphin sighting!! and of course we saw loads of Great White Sharks with the SUN newspaper endorsed on thier flanks.

We returned home with huge smiles on our faces and a bag full of Mackerel. I prepared the fish by taking off the head and tail and gutting them. I placed the mackerel in a bowl, drizzled olive oil and salt and pepper over them with a load of fresh herbs and then threw them on the BBQ until the skin was black. Enjoyed with fresh crusty bread and washed down with red wine it was a meal fit for a King. The most surprising thing was the lads ate every mouth full and asked “Can we have more please!”

In conclusion this was a great first fishing trip helped by a good skipper who was great to be around. I was delighted with the enjoyment my children got out of the day. We are looking forward to next time.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this, have there been more Bream caught and if so why? Is it because people are moving towards sports fishing and want to catch fighting fish on balanced tackle.

Let us know about your recent Bream success or other success stories.

July sea angling shore species include,

Bass
Ray
Bream
Tope
Smoothounds
Dogfish
Bull Huss
Pouting
Flounder
Mackerel
Eels
Garfish
Mullet
Gurnard
Wrasse
Pollock
Turbot
Dab
Conger

Boat species, includes most of the above.

Ling
Coal Fish
Cod
Blue Shark
Turbot
Brill
John Dory
Gurnard
Haddock
Angler Fish

Jelly worms and other lures in pink, or with pink on them seem to be out fishing other lures this year 2007. I do not know why this happens but colors seem to change and what fished well 2 years ago will not always fish well today and this is a prime eaxmple.

Have a look here for more wreck fishing tips

UK species are

Red Gurnard – Mottled pink to Orange in colour
Tub Gurnard – Reddish brown in colour with blue edge to fins
Grey Gurnard – Mottled grey in colour

Most Gurnard like clean sand amongst an area of reef or rocks, you can find them also on steep sand and shingle banks. Basically they like clean ground near a feature. They hunt live prey and therefore like a moving bait to stimulate their quarry.

A slow drift is ideal for these fish. Fish tight to the bottom with a size 2 hook using fish bait or small live bait (shrimp etc), they can be caught with baited feathers as well.

I would use spinning gear or very light boat rods. They can perform very well on light gear, but hauling a gurnard up on 20lb class boat tackle will be no sport.

If you have any photos of these fish please send them in as I would love a few pictures to show on the sight.