baits

cananyone tell me or advise me on the best baits for catching dabs and coalfish? thankyou in advance.

that's a big question! where do you fish? all manner of baits will catch both species in different conditions on different venues!!


generally speaking though here's a rough guide-

dabs:

plain lugworm works well. tipping with fishbaits like mackeral/ herring or sandeel or squid can enhance baits. also worth a try are small king rag/ whites and maddies in calm/ clear seas. frozen black lug can be lethal. other baits that can work well are mussel/ crab and shelfish of various kinds. they will often take refrozen baits well so u don't always need good quality bait. as a general rule small tidy baits will be the winner of the day.

coalies:

shellfish such as mussel rates highly when fishing for coalies, usually around rough/ mixed ground or close in on beaches. frozen mussel will work well. crab can be lethal and is worth mixing with mussel. adding lugworm to the mix can be good, especially if water is heavily coloured.
sandeel or even thin mackeral strips can work well in clearer water when i pressume the coalies are hoarding shoals of bait fish, either over sand banks or around structures such as piers or rock ledges. tinsel feathers can work from some piers or rock marks even into winter.


but sure what do i know??!!! experiment and try doing your own thing- just pm me if it works :wink:

cheers mark,
i should of stated where i wanted to fish for them as different venues they feed on different baits. the venue hopefully will be around the wexford area in the winter shore festival.
normally the dabs around my way, south wales that is are taken on frozen blacks or lug worm and i was wondering if it was any different over there.
as for coalfish i have never caught one so would not know what bait to use. i have been told to use frozen crab on the venues mentioned and if it has been defrosted and refrozen then this will not matter maybe even enhance the bait.
cheers again shaun.
p.s. if you have any info on the venues being fished maybe you could pm me.

frozen black lug can fish really well from wexford beaches for dab. the flounder like it too. bring fresh stuff aswell anyway, it won't hurt. try whipping it alongside the frozen stuff- keep it neat thopugh. i don't know the venues being fished as i haven't checked. i think morriscastle is one and i would not be surprised if tinnabearna and ballynamona are on the list aswell. best of luck. they are lovely beaches to fish.

cheers again,
yes the beaches mentioned are being fished along with rostoonstown and furlongs road. it will be my first time fishing in ireland so hopefully the fishing will live upto what i have been told.
cheers

shaun

shaun i fished rostoonstown a few years ago in the wexford bass festival if i remember correctly its a steep shelving beach so you are fishing into deep water on the occasion i fished it it was covered in kelp which was very very hard to fish as you couldn,t get anything back thru the kelp stalks but saying that it was blowing a right howler but there were some good bass caught plenty of dogs and some flatties caught the following day ,do you know where we can get some fresh peelers to take out to the shannon with us we need bout 120 and are you fishing the mini open on friday nite mysel,darren and possibly jerome are look out the rockhoppers are back in business :lol:

alright will,
yes i am fishing on the friday night, myself tony, dai davies and dai bevan in fact we are out there on the thursday to fish the three comps and back on the monday afternoon. give me a few days to contact some people i know out in ireland and i will se if they can sort you out when you are out there. if not i will try someone local. give me a pm through the rockhoppers site in a couple of days. still plenty of time i understand that you are going on the 6 th.
cheers
shaun


ps i thought rostoonstown was a clean to mixed ground venue.

shaun thinking about it i think we actually fished a beach called the coombe on that comp not rosstoonstown sorry to mislead you but i,m 40 now and i think my memory must be going what was i saying yes we are going out on the 6th and i.ll see you friday where am i going friday :roll: