I started SWFF (salt water fly fishing)  with a Normark Silver medallion ATMF # 8 -9. This rod is about 15 years old, using old fashioned technology, but a worthy rod! I teamed this with a cheap plastic reel, as it wouldn’t matter if it became salt encrusted. the reel was a small arbour reel and caused terrible line memory.

I have since upgraded to the Cortland CX490, a 4 piece 9′ #9 rod (this fella gives this salt water fly rod a nice write up – salt water fly), combined with a large arbour reel, the Vision Koma.

For mackerel from the Kayak it is a little heavy, I would rather a 7 ft rod with a # 6-8 line. I have since borrowed one like this from my brother, for the oncoming season. Its a boron brook trout rod and will provide great sport for Mackerel, small Pollock, flounder and Garr.

Let us know what gear you use and why. There is lots to learn about Saltwater fly fishing!! and it’s a great aspect of modern sea fishing

Tight lines

www.fishing-blog.co.uk

This post show what can be achived with skill and determanition – Pollock on fly

Let me know your thoughts on that catch – Impressive??

Using a kayak as a platform to cast a fly from is nothing new, the Americans and a few Brits have been doing it for ages. This is because they have seen the advantages and they are getting the results.

Why use your Kayak

The kayak, as I have mentioned before in an article about the huge growth in kayak fishing creates a small foot print in the water and with a bit of thought its a great tool to stalk fish from. This allows the limited range when casting a fly to be over come and you can cover an immense area of water as well as fishing off shore reefs and sand banks in search of fish.

Casting a fly from a kayak

The cast you use has to be sound. Tight loops full of energy to keep the line high above the water is a must. You can practice casting standing in a field, then start sitting on the floor. You will find it hard work at first, but it will allow you to get a feel for how much line you can keep in the air.

From here move into your kayak. Depending on your kayak you will feel the balance point changing at different stages of the cast. You will get better with practice! I found on my RTM Disco which feels tippie, that hanging my legs over the side so they stabilized the kayak helped a lot in the initial stages.

Fly fishing Rod holders

You can buy rod holders designed to take a fly rod, or adapters for holding your rod. This is quite important as a delicate fly rod will not stand up to many knocks.

Holding the rod in a safe position while you are maneuvering is a must. I have tried laying it on the deck and holding it between my knees. It makes you very unstable and paddling becomes a real effort.

The gear in the photo is a floating line with a 9 ft fluro carbon leader tied onto a seatrout shrimp fly. The hook is a double so its a very agressive pattern. I have caught small Bass with this set up, but I hope to connect with a Bream one day soon (fingers crossed).

The location is Harewood House, Nr. Leeds, Yorkshire. – CLA GAme Fair

I find these lures very good for Pollock and decided to try them out on the fly rod. The results were good. I went down to Porthleven and dusk on a rising tide and fished the lures with my fly rod along the rocks and Pier. I was only there for about 2 hours and managed 3 Pollock up to ¾ of a pound.

I know that’s its not cutting edge angling, but it was good sport on the fly rod and it proved to me that I could cast this type of lure on the rod. The only little trick to mention is once the lure has been tied on to the line, pull it over the hook eye, this prevents it slipping down the hook due to the power of the cast.

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

A Beach full of food

Recently I was writing about reconnaissance, ie checking marks out and looking for tell tale signs of where fish might be from reading the shoreline. Today I went to a local surf beach for a session on my surf board only to discover exactly what I had been talking about. I decided not to go surfing (it was messy anyway) but to capture some images to show you some good Indicators for good Beach casting, Spinning and Kayak fishing, with regard to targeting primarily the Bass.

On arriving at the beach I could see loads of decaying weed piled up, in fact to be truthful I could smell the weed before I could see it!! I had my trusty camera phone and I started rummaging through the bio mass. The weed had started to rot and was a sticky, smelly mess. I had lots of onlookers as I did a David Bellamy searching for critters.

Fish food everywhere

The first thing of note I found was a starfish. Now I do not know if many UK fish eat star fish or even scavenge on starfish but it was proof that this mass of weed held secrets and things of interest. Any dead beasts were being held in the weed, this could just of easily been a small pouting or sand eel. The fact here is not that starfish were in the weed but carrion was certainly on the menu.

I was hunting for the seaweed fly larva that I had mentioned before, but alas there were none. There were plenty of adult flies but for some reason no larva. I will have to research this and see if there was a logical reason why.

Food on the shore

Turning over large clumps of the seaweed produced a little beast that I know as “Sand Hoppers” (Talitrus saltator). These wee beasts live on rotting vegetation and they use powerful muscles in their abdomen to hop. These creatures spend much of their lives buried in the sand and are generally nocturnal, but the can be found under the weed in the moist, dark environment this creates. They can grow to about 2.5 cm in length.

As the surging tide engulfed the rotting weed you could see these beasts trying to escape, but many were being washed in. I could imagine the fish loving these protein packed snacks. They look like freshwater shrimp (Gammarus pulex) and there are a few fly patterns here that would suite the salt water fly fisherman.

Read the shore line

I carried on checking the beach for signs of life and ideas to prove to me that there were more tasty morsels here. I could see a lot of holes on the high tide mark, but digging them out by hand proved fruitless. I really tried hard to find you some seaweed flies, but still nothing, however another sign that the beach contained a sound food source was that of sea birds foot imprints. Now I know that we don’t go to the beach to catch Gulls and waders ( I have caught a few in my time by accident ), but its another part of the picture. The beach was littered with imprints of bird feet, meaning that either they roosted there over night or they were feeding heavily on a rich food source. By the way that I could follow imprints from one bunch of weed to another was a sure indicator that these birds were feeding, not resting. This was yet another sign that what was on the beach was well worth hanging around for and feeding on. Now I am sure that what the birds found tasty and worth hunting out; the local fish population would also agree. Just to confirm, this beach is not a dumping ground for “fish and Chips” or half eaten sandwiches so I am sure they were browsing on quality, organic, local marine produce.

Check the shoreline

I am sure you do this already, but when you go to the beach, look, smell and investigate to find out what it has to offer and what fish might be “looking for” to eat that evening. If there were Bass there you could be landing your rapala on there nose cast after cast, but if they are anything like trout, because they are feeding on thousands of sand hoppers they could not care less about your lure. Just a thought anyway!!!

Never give up. Just keep trying different different ideas, variations and baits. You never know your next idea could turn the tables.

Check the sea for food

You can clearly see here how the seaweed is being taken out washing the creatures and carrion from it. Beach casting in these conditions can be hard as you catch alot of weed, so you need to fish the edge. Fishing from your Kayak off the back, in the clear water just might produce fish. Cunning eh!

I would be delighted to hear you opinion on this post.

This is an often overlooked part of sea fishing. Whether fishing from a Kayak or Beach casting, you can save yourself a lot of time and effort by spending a few hours walking your local beach or kayaking its length to select a few prime areas that you can revisit at a later date.

E.G. This time of year after a good onshore blow you can see decomposing seaweed along the high tide line and this contains a myriad of small beasts including seaweed fly larva. This compost heap containing “food stuffs” will mature and stay on the beach until the next high tide when it all gets washed into the sea, carrying this goodness out, away from the shore into the open mouths of Bass and Mullet as well as anything else that may be there and hungry. An ideal opportunity to catch some fish!! I have written this post about Indicators for good beach casting

In the Helford I was going to the head of the creeks on the down wind side of the river valley, this is where any floating or just subsurface matter gets blown, and there should be, in theory a greater concentration of “fish food” therefore fish in these areas. If you look at the image above you can see the surface is littered with flora and fauna.

As always I had a rod with me just in case, and decided to wet a fly. I tied on a Mysis shrimp pattern and had a few casts, more as a casting exercise than anything else as I thought nobody could see me. I ended up in an almost trance state with the heady sent of tree sap, wild flower perfume, and the splash and silver flashes of playing mullet until it I was brought down to earth with a crash…. A group of HOLIDAY makers on their kayaks ambushed me; splashing and laughing, scaring my fish and bursting my bubble. I was a bit pissed off for about 30 seconds, but then on reflection I was pleased to see others learning water sense and enjoying themselves without polluting the environment on jet skis!!

Anyway, I now have yet another mini fishing session where I blanked, but I have got some great marks and ideas for future fishing sessions. All this planning and preparation will pay off soon, watch this space.

I had a bit of a session in a field today to improve my Saltwater Flyfishing technique. I found that after a bit of practice I was able to get 42 paces every cast into a light breeze. I am 6’ tall so I would say that was a good 40yds which I am very happy about, I was using the shooting head I made recently.

This has boosted my confidence and I am really looking forward to getting on the kayak and catching some fish on Fly.

I went to Dennis head to try salt water fly fishing as this location was out of the wind and the sea state was calm and after a short paddle I started fishing. The area off the head is very rocky with loads of broken ground which runs into clean sand towards the mouth of St Antony. There was a small swell running, but I rigged up and started to practice my casting. I can cast a fly fairly well, but saltwater fly fishing from a kayak while seated was altogether a new experience with a shooting head. The whole process was simple to start with and getting the head out of the rod was easy but every time I would put extra energy into the last cast, sending the loop of line into a tumbling mess. Having said that a small Pollock of about 3 inches, thought that the presentation was perfect and snapped the fly up and drove towards the sea bed. A very short session of playing the fish resulted in me landing this small monster (Bless it)

Towards the end of the session I started to click with fly fishing from the kayak and got into the swing of thing hitting the marker on my line telling me I was at about 30 meters which is ideal for the moment. I am hoping that I will be able to fish again tomorrow if the weather holds. I am hoping for some hot sun to drive the fish near the surface for some action on the fly rod but we will see.

Sadly and to be honest there are only two sites that cover this of value in my opinion. One is a dedicated SWFF site the other is a forum and I guess most of you know the sites before I mention them here.

http://www.ukswff.co.uk/ – is a great site that has saltwater fly patterns, Casting techniques, tides and advice to mention but a small amount of this site. The information here is of sound quality and proven; however, I wish it was kept more up to date as this is a great facet of modern sea angling.

http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/ – is a very, very good overall sea fishing forum that covers most aspects of modern sea fishing including salt water fly fishing. Its not a purest saltwater fly fishing site but if you ask the questions some body will answer you and help you in your quest.

The fishing-blog is hoping to step into the breach and as I am a fly fisherman and keen sea angler I hope to include more information about saltwater fly fishing in these pages as time goes on. It will be more of a this is what I tried and it worked like so perspective but it will be honest and hopefully of value.

If you are dedicated to the sport and would like to use these pages to promote your skills and abilities then please contact us and get writing.

This is a hard one to answer as it depends on many things which include the following,

• The length of your Fishing rod

• Your saltwater fly fishing casting ability

• The conditions on the day

• Clarity of water

Ok so how do these factors effect the leader length when Bass fishing

The length of your Fishing rod is a simple one, but over looked. If your leader length is longer than your fly rod you have two simple problems, the last one being the biggest problem. When you want to inspect your fly or change it you need to pull the leader into the rod rings. This can make it hard work to get the line back out again. When you hook your prize Bass, you play it for 20 mins. In a small swell, you win the fight and bring the fish towards you on its side. To get the fish close you have the rod high and you pull the line in, the Bass sees the shore and has one last bid for freedom. SNAP! The leader caught in the rod tip because once again you had to draw it into the eyes. With modern leader joints these should not cause you too much grief, but I do not like doing it.

Your saltwater fly fishing casting ability- Put very simply the better you are at casting a salt water fly, the longer the leader you can manage without air knots.

The conditions on the day – Very similar to the above point. When you are salt water fly fishing for Bass the slightest breeze will effect your cast and your ability to manage a longer leader, combine that with your profeciency and use manageable leader lengths.

Clarity of the Water – The clearer the water the longer the leader and the better presentation required. The more cloudy the water the more you can get away with shorter leaders for Bass fishing.

So in conclusion I would never go longer than the rod you are using, I would use as light a leader as you can 6 – 12 lbs max and I would use a product such as floro carbon which is ment to be invisible to Bass in the sea!!

Whenever salt water fly fishing wear protective shades!! You don’t want to be casting your eyeball to the schools of Bass, do you !