Coalfish avoidance

while they may save us from many a blank and in the eyes of a seal make a fine meal is there any methods of avoiding their attention besides using coalfish as bait or not fishing. Any one with a worthy answer is to be considered a genius

try fishing with no hooks

Bet they would hang themselves on hookless line

CAST over them they hug the shore line and any bait 5 - 40 yards out will get hit by them so try putting your bait out further.

It must be great to want to avoid fish, on the east coast we have to take what we get

sounds good samo, al i dont mind the odd few but where i fish at the moment they seem to be in plague proportions, did you ever hear the story of the fisherman entering what he thought was heaven, catching the exact same size fish the exact same way repeatadly.................

sounds good samo, al i dont mind the odd few but where i fish at the moment they seem to be in plague proportions, did you ever hear the story of the fisherman entering what he thought was heaven, catching the exact same size fish the exact same way repeatadly.................

No...do tell!

Only messing! it's like going out to catch Cod when you know in your heart your only going to get pin whiting
I love winter fishing

al whats a pin whiting

while they may save us from many a blank and in the eyes of a seal make a fine meal is there any methods of avoiding their attention besides using coalfish as bait or not fishing. Any one with a worthy answer is to be considered a genius

Cast a mackerel flapper out past them, especially if there is no evidence of seals around - often you find very big pollack or similar predators pushing them inshore and for whatever reason although they are targeting the coalies, they can not resist the flapper. Been bitten through a few times over the years which suggests something with real teeth - tope? - anyhow, one rod far out with the flapper and the hook barely revealing well worth the wait.

FWIW

krafty kieran that's a great idea

krafty kieran that's a great idea

thanks must try that too

How about riggin' up a 'live' joey coalie on a pennel rig as bait?
(At least you won't catch any more of them, and you'd be in with a good chance of connecting with something decent... )

Tried that mackeral trick on a pennell last night caught a 36cm coalie