Intro/Newbie

[redhead]

Hows it going folks,

Ive been a coarse fisherman for more years than I care to remember but have only dabbled in sea fishing op to now, a few boat trips and unsuccesfull attempts to catch of rocks on holidays. For the last few years Ive been keen to do more serious sea fishing though. Ive just recently moved out to Skerries and am looking forward to trying my luck around there. From what can tell mackerel are starting to show up so they will probably be my first target. I am interested in learning about methods for shore fishing, float rigs to use in the harbour and methods for catching pollock wrasse and the like off the rocks. Generally coming from a coarse fishing background Im more interested in getting fish on light gear than beachcasting or boat fishing for the moment. Looking forward to picking your brains and getting yself set up over the summer. Accepting all kinds of advise from here on in. All the best
Brian

[Tanglerat]

I've always considered Mullet fishing to be the perfect blend of Coarse, Sea and Game (swff) fishing.......

[wayne riley]

welcome 2 the dark side

im pritty new 2 sea fishing 2 but im sure a few of the lads here wil be more dan happy 2 help u

[redhead]

Done a bit of mullet fishing alright. I used to live in Islandbridge by the liffey and had breat sport catching them on freelined bread crust. Great fish on match gear

[Mr_Green]

wrasse on light gear is pure class, they pack a mental pucnh, as do pollock...spining with german spratts or small minnows do the trick for pollock, varying your retrieve and letting your lure go as close to the sea bed as possible...best place to target pollock is over mixed/kelpy ground, they hide in the kelp waiting their food... so letting your lure go as close to that as possible then franticlly retrieve and let it drop back down again..
any silver spinner will do... for wrasse ,fish hard on the bottom with rag or crab, or float mid water with rag or crab..they are not fussy and rag is the cheaper option... between 1/0-3/0 will do for wrasse with big baits, but you can go as low as size 2 for smaller wrasse...when using rag let the worm do the work, hook it through the mouth down to mid way down its body and let the tail wriggle and attract the fish...you may even pick up pollock using rag too...ive had better luck fishing a rising tide and going into darkness..but every mark varies..hope this helped mo chara

[redhead]

Great stuff, thanks a million Mr Green. Will have a go spinning around for mackerel and pollock for the moment and see where I go from there. What type of rigs work well for float fishing/ledgering off the rocks. If anyone could recommend a good book about the basics of shore fishing that would be great

Cheers

[kieran]

hi

Wrasse in particular are brilliant bait robbers so speed of reaction is essential. A bit of biat elastic is good too for buying you a vital half second extra! Find yourself a big red and white float - between the sea movement and shine off the water and fishing from overhangs and cliffs you will need the greater visibility offered by them and then purchase some half and one ounce drilled bullets. Buy a spool of power gum too. You will need some decent hooks, Kamasan Aberdeen patterns for ragworm or Mustad Crab patterns for eh crab, or your own choice.

Wrasse are not suspicious so use a strong line for the hook snood, try 1s to start with - it depends on the choice of bait, small hardback crabs are ideal but raggworm is fine on any aberdeen pattern. you might need a bigger hook. Above the hook you will need a bait stop and crimp (lightly so as not to damage the line), small bead drilled bullet lead (enough to "cock" the float, check this in a barrel or when you get to the sea), another bead, and finally a good quality swivel (very important). The beads stop the lead battering your knots. That is the terminal tackle from the bottom up. Keep is all relatively short, no more than 1 metre, ideally less to ensure ease and accuracy in casting, which can be quite important.

On the main line, before you attach it to the swivel, slide on the float. The float will hang just above the swivel and terminal tackle. If you cast it out like that the lead will sink to the bottom, the float will float listlessly on the water and no good will come of it, so tie a piece of the powergum tightly well up on the main line. Cast out. If the float fails to cock upright in the water, you are fishing the lead and bait too deep (allow for kelpy weed) so adjust the powergum "stopknot" to fish it shallower. If you are getting no bites, you may be fishing the bait too shallow in which case, pull the stopknot back up. Adjust to get the right depth and allow for the tide incoming or ebbing. After that it's all about your reaction time!

Hope this helps, off on Sunday for my first wrasse session of the year!



Before attaching the main line

[redhead]

Thanks for that kieran,

Loads more good information. Just a couple of things I'm unsure about. A snood, is that what coarse anglers would refer to as a hooklenght, a length of line going from you mainline to the hook, usually with a slightly lower braking strain in case of snags and the like. The rig sounds quite similar to what I would have called a "slider", stop knot set up the line to stop the float at whatever depth I'm fishing. Looking forward to trying all this stuff out.

Thanks a million for all your replies

[kieran]

yep, right on all counts.

you should also look at legering...

Junk lead--rotten bottom link-- adjustable boom or simple blood loop holding hook and bait clip--good quality swivel.

The rotten bottom link is typically just old mono of a low breaking strain.
Junk leads can be anything, but environmentally a rock superglued to some mono is good as you will not be casting very far.

This produces better fish and more species, for example dogfish, small bull huss, small congers, and potentially flatfish, coalfish and pollack. On some marks you will even pick up mackerel, scad and sea trout on this by varying the bait to something like sandeel. Crab will also locate codling!

Most people overfish rock marks, on a flooding tide wrasse in particular will invade gullies at your feet. No more than a metre or two from you - I have fished for big wrasse in Hook Head at my feet looking into the water and incredibly in crystal clear water no more than 60 cms deep you still do not see the buggers hit the bait! This will often get the better fish...

FWIW

[redhead]

Good stuff, but I reckon I might need to upgrade my gear a bit before I take on serious ledgering. At the minute I have a good spinning/pike rod that I will use to find my way around with. Would be typical of me to go and buy a shed load of gear and then decide next month that what I realy want to try is salt water fly fishing. Will learn the ropes with what I have a move on from there. Thanks for all the tips

[shamoo0804]

Hi there, and welcome to the site, its a credit to Keiron who started the site and a wonderful resource to help all, whether you're just starting out (like me), or a seasoned angler - after all you never stop learning

All of posts offer excellent advice, I have recently started sea fishing myself (feb this year) and like you didnt want to go out spending big money on loads of gear. I simply bought a 12ft beachcaster and an 11ft spinning rod (salmon rod). Both have served me very well thus far, and to be honest the spinning rod is excellent for light fishing off the rocks, pier etc and even for a bit of scratching close in on the beach.

I have just had 2 sessions targetting the wrasse, see this report
http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/bull ... hp?t=16518

I only took my spinning rod, and it was more than capable of doing the job well, in fact its great fun targeting wrasse, pollock etc with this rod, you certainly know your having a bit of fun with 'em anyway.

I have fished a couple of times around Howth Head and Balscadden, both areas offer what looks like great marks for Wrasse and Pollock.

Most of the marks can be a bit of a climb down, so travel with light gear, sensible footwear and be careful, try to fish with a companion and always have a mobile phone with you just in case.

One bit of advice though above any other.....no matter how much you read about where/how to fish, there is nothing better than actually getting out there and doing it, thats the best education you can have in my opinion

Good luck, and I'm looking forward to seeing a few reports from you in the future, especially any sessions you have in the Skerries area as I havent fished up that way yet, also you rarely see a shore report from Skerries.

[captain AHAB]

skerries is crap man,small flounder,mackeral@high water and the odd sea trout all about 2hrs either side of high water.