Nipped down to Hythe for a few Whiting. Found a few other guys where I would have liked to fish, so I went a bit close to the fishing boats. Mistake. Cast both rods out, snagged both, lost two lots of tackle. Not a good start.
The wind was nasty, fresh Easterly, but not cold, from the left.
Walked a few hundred yards along the prom, and re-kitted. I carry spare spools for this eventuality.
Whiting first cast.
Now the interesting bit.
After a fair session, run out of bait, but it was only one hour after high, so I put on some fish-n-strips, crab flavour.
To my utter surprise, I caught a whiting straight away on the fish-n-strip!
It had ignored the remaining mackerel.
Next cast, another Whiting, on fish-n-strip, once again selecting it and not the mackerel. Would you belive I caught 4 Whiting on the strips! 12 Whiting in all. Not good, but better than nothing. We may have to eat our words on artificial baits! I could have caught more I suppose but I was tired, it was gone 2pm.
Another chap up the beach said last time he caught some tiny Codling. Three of them. I said I was surprised as the sea temp is 17C at the moment.
A couple of hours later he came running up to me with a small fish cupped in his hands. LOOK! he exclaimed, 'a small Codling, I told you!'
As a matter of fact, I said, it's a small Pouting! He retreated somewhat deflated.
Well, we all have to learn.

[ 18. October 2005, 11:54 AM: Message edited by: maidstonemike ]

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Hiya,

I had another go with fish-n-strips on Saturday up at Lochaline, float fishing from the pier I had 32 Coalies up to 1.5lb and one codling. All were caught on the strips and the same sized bits of fresh mackerel I tried were ignored. The pack I was using had been on the boat for over 2 years and were slightly off colour.. it certainly didn’t put the fish off

Who knows. Of 2 recent trips, once the whiting favoured fish over worm, and the other vice versa, each time by a ratio of at least 4:1.

What of the starlights Mike ?

Yes Richard, I use them all the time now. They stay on through 6 hours of fishing no problem. A guy fishing 100yds from me caught a tiny Pouting, which he thought was a Codling!
I caught a dozen Whiting.
One very big plus is you can see your weight coming in yards out, much safer at night.
You can also see how far out it goes, and where, also handy.
I now cut the tube you get with good starlights into three, and use just one small segment and thread it over my weight clip, then push the starlight firmly in the tube until it's halfway with the tube in the middle. The light is then next to the weight, and is rugged and reliable. Brilliant, I will allways use them now, as I have proved that they don't put fish off, and may attract.
My next trip will probably be Sunday night. I am going to use two rods, identical rigs, with fish-n-strips on one, and mackerel soaked in raw fish oil on the other. It will be interesting!

[ 19. October 2005, 08:08 AM: Message edited by: maidstonemike ]

Try spraying the mackerell with WD40 as another experiment on another rod!

I have caught fish with Fish'n'Strips sprayed with WD40!

Jim, I have heard of this before, but never tried it. I suppose motor mechanics catch more fish!