General boat rig advice

Hi guys,

I have just spent a weekend fishing in Donegal and taken mackerel, pollack, gurnard and dab all on a variety of baits from the boat. However I spent more time untangling my rigs than having my bait in the water, so I think I need some advice on effective boat rigs

So can you suggest me some rigs I should pick up and what species they would target. I can fish over clean or rough ground and there are quite a number of different fish around Dunfanaghy, Port Na Blah, Downings etc.

Cheers

Rob

When fishing over rough ground and reefs, where the depth fluctuates and the bottom is a mess of kelp etc, what do you guys normally do? Do you just take the tackle losses on the chin or do you try to fish a bit off the bottom with a safety margin to avoid snagging? I was quite reluctant to drop bait over rough ground as with the drift on the boat it wasn't long in snagging up

You've got be init to win it or so they say! you've just got put up with tackle losses when fishing the rough. Try shorter snoods(and all snoods above your weight) and maybe rotten bottoms. But the main thing that would help you would be using braid on your reels because your in more contact with whats happening down below, you'll be able to feel the weight bouncing along and 9 times out of 10 you can pull your weight out of a snag before you loose any gear.

higgys bang on the button just as he said braid and rotton bottoms

Thats my solution too. Braid will cut through weed quite handy, and I use fairly long rotten bottoms - 3 to 6ft depending on the ground - to keeps the hooks clear and the bait visible. Use junk leads and a big paperclip as the lead link.

Cheers for the tips lads, will give them a go.

Next question is whether anyone can recommend some sea trout tactics from the boat? The Ards estuary seems to get a great run of them. It sits in about 10-20ft of water with a lot of weed and crap on the bottom of the channel and then much shallower sandy flats which dry out at low tide. I took the boat up the other day but didn't know where to start.

Free lined sandeel/mack is what the shore angler favours but I'm not sure it would work behind a boat on the drift (would it even sink?). Any ideas?

Try and fish it the way they fish the Moy estuary. Anchor up, and cast a very lightly weighted (if any required) mack strip bait up tide, leave it swing around and if you get a rattle pay out line for a few seconds before lifting into the fish. If no rattle on the way around, retrieve slowly to the boat, they often hit this way too. Use as little weight as possible on a light FS set up, 6lb line or so.

That'll work all right.

And when they're not cooperating and you want to get right down among them in the undergrowth, try fishing small soft plastic eels rigged "weedless" on a worm hook with a bullet weight.

Nice one lads, that sounds like the ticket. Just need to get the old licence sorted now to keep things legal and we're in business!

The Ards estuary seems to get a great run of them. It sits in about 10-20ft of water with a lot of weed and crap on the bottom of the channel and then much shallower sandy flats which dry out at low tide. I took the boat up the other day but didn't know where to start.

First thing you missed was getting in touch with me! I had a beautiful Sea Trout of 1.75 lbs from further up there last night. The tides weren't the best last weekend mind you, they're better this weekend.

Get your licence sorted and drop me a line.

I'm out of action the next 3 weekends mate but I will give you a buzz at beginning of August!

The old trade of boat for local knowledge is still on