rough ground

when fishing over proper rough ground, do you find it better fishing with a plain lead or a breakaway? neither seem to have any advantage, the breakaway gets hopelessly tangled in the kelp, and the plain lead constantly rolls into the nearest crack in the rock it can find. i fish with a rotten bottom so i get the main rig back most of the time, but constantly loosing leads particularly the more expensive breakaways can get pretty annoying(i went through 5 plain leads in a short two hour session lastnight)

Yeah its an issue alright. Try going the spark plug route or use pyramid leads that have a thick, flat base and that cuts down on losses.

Just lately, I've been fishing with a plain lead shaped a bit like a pear with a swivel at the top. Use a Gemini Genie Rig Clip as the clip down instead of the breakaway clip. It also seems that it's the hook that get's caught more than the lead, so use a weaker hooklength - I've gone down to 20lb hooklength & rotten bottom on a 60lb main rig body and 60lb shockleader. Now I'm also using 65lb braid, I get more rigs back than I used to.

cheers, i had been thinkin about trying different shapes, but they're near impossible to get around my parts, looks like i'll have to source a few new mould kits.....plus i think last night was just one of those nights, i had 3 bad over runs, and what was really scary was my shockleader broke at the knot to the main line TWICE!! that's never ever happened before.it just snapped when i applied the pressure to pull for a break. needless to say i had to strip the bloody reel,and respool it on the rocks, which was a nightmare with the wind. sometimes i question why i fish at all! to top it all off,i blanked!....at least it was a nice sunset i suppose

If you're not casting very far out into the rocks, old sparkplugs offer a cheap alternative to lead. Gives a bit of spark to your fishing too. :wink:

Try using weights made from tablespoon as a mould. These will quickly rise to the surface on retrieval. simular the the weight risers you can buy or make yourself out of plastic bottles. Yes I did watch Blue Peter.

Were you fishing the shannon estuary on the clare side as there are plenty of marks where you can catch plenty of species in clean ground I would tell you where they are only there could be some ray being served up in a chipper in the so called capital with a shannon regional tag on its wing.

A simple but effective weight mould can be made from a short length of 5/8" os square section steel tube. I wanted something that stuck to the bottom instead of rolling so I made the 'Toblerone' mould. A 2" length of square section tube cut diagonally along its length with a hacksaw. The two pieces are then gripped together with one piece reversed so you get a pointy end (bottom for pouring) and and an open wide end (top for pouring into). Swivel goes into the pointy end and lead poured into the wide. Safe enough as long as you warm everything up and place the mould upright in a box of sand in case of a runout. With the sizes given you get approx a 4 oz weight that doesn't go rollabout. The sand box is essential as I'm still getting grief over the stange mark on the kitchen tiles :oops:

I know someone who usees a bit of turf, scoup out the middle, just enough to pour in the lead, then drop it into water, try and shape the top into a cone like shape! He reckons it dosnt get caught as much! I wouldnt be too sure?!!

That's rough ground fishing for you, It's the nature of the beast :evil: . Make your own leads with slightly longer wires which help stop them falling into snaggy areas, but expect to lose a lead a cast on the rough stuff and if you get one back it's a bonus :P .

What rod's do you guy's use on the rough stuff, or on the Shannon cleaner ground.
I am asking because I coming over in October for some ray,Huss fishing, mainly the Clare coast on the Shannon.

I was using an Abu Suveran Sport Beach and my brand new Daiwa TDXS 130M which managed to get scratched when the tripod collapsed trying to untangle crossed lines! I found the gound to be mixed at the venues we tried and the rods handled well.

IDPearl
What venues do you refer to mate?

think IDPearl is gone. look at the 'Bailey + Shannon' in shore reports.

Just seen the reports thanks Mark.
What do you know about fishing Kilrush, Labasheeda area for Ray and Huss?

To be honest the Shannon estuary fishes different depending on the time of year.
October can turn up some suprising catches and you would need to try out different marks.

To be honest to get the best out of the estuary fish from around 2 hours before darkness well into the night as the fishing gets better during darkness most of the best fishing comes from the clean beaches closer to loop head but they are seldom fished as you dont see many reports and it will be easy to get bait as the mackerel can be plentyfull around october.

You should give some of the surf beaches a go too for some good bass fishing also Kilkee beach has produced good flounder up to 3lbs in the past and they are only 20 yds out.

Frodo, I use the mustad blue aberdeens for rotten bottom rigs in sizes 4/0 to 6/0. If it is not the weight but the hook that is caught then this soft pattern will bend out when you put the pressure on. Wrasse /pollock/codling no problem but some might argue that these might not be strong enough for huss/conger.
Also cheap black plastic lead lifts (J Roberts) better than the dearer breakaway ones. Casting short and fishing "at an angle" on a highish position on the rocks is helpful but losing leads has to be accepted.
Having said this, your problems only really begin when you hook something decent.

I use the Mustard Viking hooks, which will bend out also if you use 20lbs main line, and are a much better hook when it comes to decent fish, which, is what you are looking for in the rough stuff.

If you do hook something big and your rotten bottem set-up's work OK then the hooked fish is the only thing to possibly get snagged.
This is where a powerful rod/reel is needed to bully the fish up, away, from the snags.

thanks wayne, will put some vikings on rigs for bigger stuff.