west cork beach 26-10-07

People:

Duration:bandon

Tide:hw 18.00

Weather:good no wind

Bait:salted lug and rag crab razor fish sand ells

Rigs:flapper's

Results:i LSD lots of small codling and whiting mackerel

Catch and Release:: Yes/No yes kept the mackerel



Report:
started about an hour be four high tide' lots of bites some real shakers.
got the mackerel and the LSD on salted rag.
the small cod and whiting were striping the bait' on nearly every cast ; any ideas on how to prevent this .
since i am new to this kind of fishing should i fish with the reel engaged, or should i set the tension; and use the clicker missed some good bites
any advice would be appreciated.
bandon

Hi Bandon,

Fish with the bail arm on and slacken off the drag a little...you should be able to pull line from the top ring of the rod (not from the spool) but not to easily. I normally have the drag tightened 3/4 of the way but I'm sure everyone has their own preference. Remember that you're probably only going to allow big fish take line. The 'shaker' bites you describe could be coalies or giltheads and can be mistaken for bass bites. If you are missing these bites then the hook may be to large and you need to scale down the size and and make sure the hook is sharp.
What type of rig and weight are you using ?