Seatrout - I have no confidence.

Ok, so apparantly the Seatrout season starts tomorrow here, and since my hop onto the lure fishing bandwagon I've been itching to target something silver (that isn't a herring, or a sandsmelt) on a lure. I've spent ridiculous amounts of money on lure fishing gear over the past few months, and now, finally, when I'm on the edge of actually being able to target what can actually be described as a mainstream sport fishing species I find myself wondering if I have the know-how or indeed the luck to be able to to connect with my quarry.

So far, the idea is to use my Savage gear 3-18g rod a 2000 sized reel loagrded with 6lb braid with a 6lb Fluro leader. I plan to chuck some Hansen Pilgrims and maybe try a wedge.

Can anyone, anywhere offer me some tips, any tips? Info, words of wisdom? Encouragement? I will literally be wading into a couple of venues over the next while and chucking metal blindly and I'm not so sure if thats the best way of going about it...

All information gratefully received.

heres a little confidence booster for you drew

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VZ2HcRl4wSk
repeat after every cast till you land one

So far so good Drew. Few pointers only;

Your flouro knot will be quite weak. 10lb braid with 15lb flouro or 6/8lb mono min. Lures, any lures, 5-16gr are grand. Colours? anything goes. Stick it on his nose and he'll bite it.

Not sure about locations. Esturaies with shallow areas with green slimy seaweed & pebbled seabed. Area of surf beaches that contain rocks.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7o1DCJwG2qI

Free lined sand eels (or on a bubble float) works well, black and silver flying c's. or a big black and silver fly with a treble at the business end. Long silvery or coloured lures like Abu Toby, Abu Krill, DAM Effzett, German Sprat and Hansen Flash in blue/silver are the classics. A golden Mepps (or an ABU Droppen) with red spots (reeled in really fast with the flow of the current) is very good too. The Rolling Bait from Tacklehouse got good reviews last year. It never ends...
Anyway, try to fish early mornings and then evenings well into the dark hours, most bigger trout run from midnight on. Best would be a warm evening (I know... ), no moonlight and a gentle ripple in the water from a light breeze. Sea trout will take all night under these conditions. As they never move far from the shore, estuaries and rocky outcrops would make up the bulk of their feeding areas. During daylight hours keep looking out for any spots where the tide is causing eddies, behind and to the sides of rocks, fallen trees, on the sides of banks. Spin round here, casting your spinner past it and reeling it past. Try to fish across or downtide but keep contact to your lures. Tight lines and bendy rods!

Thanks for the info and encouragement lads.

Top tip is don't wade unless you really really have to, numpties on a local mark near me wade and spook all the fish of the beach. They will happily come into inches of water after a lure

Try a local estuary if you can Drew, and fish it at low water. You'll find the sea trout are more concentrated and therefore easier to locate. Pay particular attention to any deeper pools.

Agree with Rory, your leader is very light, 15lb is fine and will help to cope with any snags.

If the current is moving left to right, cast straight out and retrieve slowly as the tide sweeps your lure to the right. Don't strike, sea trout will pluck at your lure again and again-I've had fish start biting 40 yards out only to finally grab the lure at the waters edge. Just keep a steady retrieve until the fish hooks itself. If you do hook one, keep your drag loose and rod tip low as the fish nears the bank, little buggers go nuts at the waters edge!

Would suggest adding a second small split ring between hook and lure if your lure only has one.

Which brings me finally to Ronald's point...don't wade unless you really have to, particularly in an estuary. On a beach, fine, but estuary channels are generally very close to shore at low water. I can never figure out why people stand up to their arses in water when dry land is less than 5 yards away.

Sorry, one more thing, make sure your trebles are EXCEPTIONALLY sharp. Worth buying a whetstone and giving your lures a rub before each session, can increase hook up's dramatically.

Thats good advice Steve.
I have always found that casting upstream and brining the lure down with the flow has worked well too. The thinking being that trout are facing upstream and have binocular vision facing forward. My bro in law fishes for brown trout a bit and he explained it that the trout can see the lure coming from a distance this way. Always worth a few upstream casts.
I have also found that smaller lures do better than bigger lures. On our last trip I was fishing a few different lures, kilty etc for bass and nothing was happening. I changed to a lure half the size and start hitting trout almost immediately and hooked the dude below.
I have very limited experience fishing for trout. Most of the above has been a side result when targeting bass.

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I know that sand! Beautifully coloured fish dude.

[quote="Steve"]I know that sand! quote]



Ha ha ...... love it.

very good explanation Eoghan and, in addition, always let the lure run cross the current, at the end of the journey so to speak in a bow towards you, this almost always triggers an instinctive last second reaction from an indecisive follower - and these are always shy, experienced and big trout!

Just as a by the by drew, don't worry about blanking just yet, it's too early to see them running in any big numbers, at least where I live it is (which is the only reason I blanked last week....!!! Or at least that's what im telling everyone...!!!)

Just as a by the by drew, don't worry about blanking just yet, it's too early to see them running in any big numbers, at least where I live it is (which is the only reason I blanked last week....!!! Or at least that's what im telling everyone...!!!)

shouldn't have told him that now Steve

Thanks lads, great advice, I'll be out this evening for a couple of hours for my first go...

Yeah keep us posted. Im going to be heading out in the next few weeks myself. Need to cough up the €100 for the license first.

Yeah keep us posted. Im going to be heading out in the next few weeks myself. Need to cough up the €100 for the license first.

Hey is it 100 for the license???? Wat else duz it cover

Yeah keep us posted. Im going to be heading out in the next few weeks myself. Need to cough up the €100 for the license first.

Hey is it 100 for the license???? Wat else duz it cover

Thats for a country wide salmon and trout license from my understanding. Covers you to fish for sea trout for the year all over Ireland. The samlon part is more complex with daily charges on top of this but I have no interest in this, just in sea trout so you may need to read up on that part.

Ya all i would be looking into is the sea trout and in cork only.......thanks

Ya all i would be looking into is the sea trout and in cork only.......thanks

Think you can just get a regional one then and it would be cheaper.




http://www.fishinginireland.info/salmon ... icence.htm

http://www.fishinginireland.info/salmon/seatrout.htm