conger from shore...

hey lads just wondering could anyone give me any tips on conger fishing from the shore? i spoke to a local skipper who pointed me the way to a conger hole well inside the harbour,so off i went to see was there any weight in his words,sure enough,he was on the ball...the 1st few bites came quick,only tiddlers the 2 of em,so they went back into the drink and i changed to a 5/0 baitholder hook,with a fair sized mackerel fillet,got 2 more bites after that but lost them both bout 20 mtrs out.after the second loss i looked at my trace a 50lb trunk and snood pulley and saw the hook had been chomped off so i linked about 5 gemini clips together above my hook and re-tied the snood..and not a f*@kn bite for the resta the nite...have looked at wire rigs,and cable car rigs but all seem heavy weight stuff,is there a line tied trace i could make or does it have to be wire? also i was using 19 lb mainline and 50lb leader with a good strong shakespeare 12ft beachcaster..do i need to bump it up a bit?
cheers lads any advice really appreciated....

Everything you were doing was fine. Just up your snood line to 100lb. Check it after catching a fish and change if need be. Have fun.

Everything you were doing was fine. Just up your snood line to 100lb. Check it after catching a fish and change if need be. Have fun.

As you are fishing a harbour wall have enough shockleader on so the hook is in the fishing area and there is still shock leader on the spool. This will eliminate the 15lb main line and give you a bit more pulling power if you're on a good fish or stuck in a snag.

A wire trace is a must for conger. You get them in most tackle shops for 2 euro or so. Best bait is mackerel or squids and pouting but mackerel is easy got this time of year and works brill. Big fillets will work or just a mackerel head or half a mackerel or even a whole mackerel they are not fussy. Most time you see your line tighten up the big conger has taken. He will go into a hole or wrap up into gulleys in the craggy bottom if your not cute enough for him. You will feel the big head nodding and it stuck solid alot ha ha. Conger spin like a crocodile death roll when caught but the swivels on the wire trace will save snapping your line. Great fighters and the biggest fish your likely to catch on the shore they love old harbours and piers and rough ground and move alot more after dark and on low tides. Be sure to have a large landing net or some way to land them and release them back after taking the hook out with a disgorger , watch your fingers..

a wire trace is most certainly not a must for conger. 100lb + mono is more than adequate for any conger from the shore, have had numerous conger to double figures on 110lb mono from the shore without any possability of loosing them due to the hooklength breaking. wire is totally outdated and has a habit of kinking and weakening..

your not cute enough for him. You will feel the big head nodding and it stuck solid alot.

WTF

Ive never used wire traces and ive landed plenty of fish up to 22lbs. 200lb mono is what i usually use but i was caught without one day so i put a load of beads on above the hook and tied a stop knot behind to keep them tight to the hook and landed some big eels without them biting me off. If the eels do go to ground just let out slack and rest the rod for a few moments and they will sometimes come back out of their holes. I usually fish with main line between 13lb - 20lb and have had no problems. Just make sure the shock leader is long enough to reach the water as the fish will often fight hard on the surface when your trying to get them in a landing net. I find a size 8 meat hook with a mackerel head on it will usually pick out the bigger fish and plenty of them if your in the right spot. ive used mack fillets and mackerel and squid cocktails and found no real difference than when using just the head.

thanx rampant wreckfish,cool cool...am off into town to get me a spool of 100lb line,theres no real need to change the trunk line on my trace is there? tis 5olb,just my snood yeah? do i still need to put the 4 or 5 gemini weight clips before my hook? seems a good deterent to stop em chewing through my line,or will the 100lb test alone be ok?
nice one for the heads up on the snood...

paddy...

hey donal..
no harbour wall i`m afraid...
i`m casting off a rough ground beach into a hole,about 200 yards out.alot of leader man!
rumour has it that there is an old oak tree in the hole that can be seen at a 0.0 tide,though i`ve never had the pleasure of seeing it myself,i`m guessing that this is the attraction for them...i was thinking of just changing to me 30lb class reel but i think this will limit my casting distance and if theres any kind of a northerly wind at all i find it hard to get my bait where i want it as it is,am half afraid to use my 15ft because shes so light at the tip,but i could do with decent dragging power i could hear my line whistling the other night winding in!

A wire trace is a must for conger. You get them in most tackle shops for 2 euro or so. Best bait is mackerel or squids and pouting but mackerel is easy got this time of year and works brill. Big fillets will work or just a mackerel head or half a mackerel or even a whole mackerel they are not fussy. Most time you see your line tighten up the big conger has taken. He will go into a hole or wrap up into gulleys in the craggy bottom if your not cute enough for him. You will feel the big head nodding and it stuck solid alot ha ha. Conger spin like a crocodile death roll when caught but the swivels on the wire trace will save snapping your line. Great fighters and the biggest fish your likely to catch on the shore they love old harbours and piers and rough ground and move alot more after dark and on low tides. Be sure to have a large landing net or some way to land them and release them back after taking the hook out with a disgorger , watch your fingers..

ya cheers rushnaldo,i have caught them before in deep water quays/boats and stuff when the barreling is at its weakest (deep water) my line trace swivels have no problem with that.still got my fingers in this spot i have to drag them through the waves,plenty of stuff for them to grab onto,unusually enough an oak tree..but ya the waves give them extra momentum and they`re just taking my hook,thank f@*k i had the brain wave of putting a ball and crimp 6'' above my hook to stop my pulley pulling right thru,otherwise i would be none the wiser...i hav avoided the wire trace in me box considering i have to land it 200 yards out,tis'nt really aero-friendly...the lighter the class gear i use the more chances of me landing my big baits where i want em consistently and the better the buzz fighting and playing them instead of just hauling them in like you would a mackerel...

cheers evan699,
longer leader sounds about right alright,nice to know your bringing em in on roughly the same mainline as me,i really didnt want to use 30lb mainline or wire traces.
i bought suffix 100lb test there a half an hour ago,gonna tie up a few dozen pulleys..check it out,think i'll stick with the gemini's above my hook rather than beads tho...play it safe,bump up my hooks to an 8...check out just heads too...
what leader do you use man? am i alright with just 50lb?
i have caught a couple before but never intentionally while cod fishing in the winter on whole squid and mackerel with a 19lb/50lb line but never set out for them...
cheers for the proof...
paddy

a wire trace is most certainly not a must for conger. 100lb + mono is more than adequate for any conger from the shore, have had numerous conger to double figures on 110lb mono from the shore without any possability of loosing them due to the hooklength breaking. wire is totally outdated and has a habit of kinking and weakening..

thats what i wanted to hear lumpy....keep it light for the fight...
more proof.hated the thought of wire.
thanx lads...

paddy

http://www.britishcongerclub.org.uk/

i`m casting off a rough ground beach into a hole,about 200 yards out.alot of leader man!

some cast with bait and weight, what rod are you using?

i`m casting off a rough ground beach into a hole,about 200 yards out.alot of leader man!

some cast with bait and weight, what rod are you using?

era tis roughly 200 yards,but yeah am using a shakespeare hurricane 361and a shakespeare techno,with a slosh20 on the hurricane and a daiwa jupiter z 6000 (FS) on the techno...