Phil Arnott

Billie, I'm a big fan of these digorgers and have been using them for 24 years. They are so important to me that I don't just have one spare I have two! I stewarded the Junior International in Bridlington in 2002 and unhooked all the fish landed by the competitors using the disgorger, the manager of the french team was so impressed he bought four of them. So there is a great potential for them if they are marketed correctly. Myself and a friend who has a tackle shop have been trying to get a supply of them for some time now. If you contact Keith at East Coast Tackle on 01964 535064 you can mention my name. I also introduced Mike Thrussell to them and he was so impressed he wrote an article about them. His son Mike junior runs the World Sea fishing web site I'm sure they will do a review for you - again mention my name. Also have a friend of mine wrote a piece about the smaller version used in freshwater after I unhooked a chub for him that was deep hooked. He publishes a number of magazines including Carp Talk. Contact me on this site and send me your email and I'll help you out. I've always pushed these digorgers as they are a great conservation aid as they are the only digorgers that can effectively remove hooks from deep hooked fish. Regards, Phil

I've had problems fishing crab for bass in the past with missed bites, particularly from smaller fish. One of the problems when baiting up with crab is that because of it’s a bulky shape you loose some of the gape of the hook with the effect that there is less chance of the hook point taking hold. I decided to remove the bait totally from the hook. I now bait up as follows; peel the crab, and either cut it into two halves or cut it 2/3 of the way through, wrap it in elastic, pass the hook point under some of the strands of the elastic and then add a few wraps of elastic between the hook bend and the bait. This has the effect of fishing the bait on a very short hair. The hook is a short-shanked wide gape. Results so far have been very encouraging but further experimentation is needed.

I met Digger twice when fishing around the Mull of Galloway. A comment I remember him making was that he lost a lot of interest with fishing when his friend Ian Gillespie died. I think we could do with a "Hall of Fame" in this country where well known anglers could recieve some sort of recognition. Digger would be a candidate. Perhaps we could start one on the web?

Steve, they certainly vary in size in different areas even locally on my own coast they vary. As I said you do get them bigger than the ones in the picture but not as big as the largest prawns. There are some very large ones in the Humber Estuary. They may well be some big ones in your area if you find the right spot. On my local coast, the Holderness, they are one of the main items of food for a number of species. Phil

Shrimp vary in size and the larger ones are nearly as big as the larger prawns. They certainly are big enough to use as bait and I have taken good size sole and thornback on single shrimp. They would be fine to use when float fishing for bass. The ones shown below are fairly average. I've caught them quite a bit bigger.

The man you should be talking to is ED Schliffke who is an angling guide and has a tackle shop in Padstow. If you're serious I would have a day out with him; he's the expert in the area and a great bloke as well.

Push nets work fine but they are very hard on the back. I was introduced to the pull net many years ago and found they are much less effort to use as you can tie the tow rope round your waist and use your weight to good effect. They are made like a goal post with a loose length of chain attached to the bottom of each leg. The net is a simple sack shape.

If you're after launce then size 6 will catch them with little problem. I've caught them regularly on size 4 hooks and I have even caught them on a spinner with a treble hook fairly hooked in the mouth.

I read the post by Steve Pitts before looking to see who had written it. I was thinking what an excellent reply and then when I saw who had written it and was not surprised. Steve’s post is as good as you are going to get. I would only add one point regarding lures. Some lures fish deeper than others at normal retrieve speeds. I have had some bass fishing deeper water with thin heavy lures like the Krill. Broader lures like Tobys, Dexter wedges and Kosters (which I quite like) because of their broader shape fish higher up in the water. If these broader lures are fished deeper by slowing the retrieve the action alters with less twisting and flashing. I recently hooked (but unfortunately didn’t land) a bass on a jelly worm/leadhead; so I think you could safely say bass will take just about every type of lure at some time or other.

Totally agree Chris if the crabs are very active there are not a lot of big fish about although sometimes I think shrimp have a go at the bait. Having tried floating the bait off the bottom I found that fish can still find the bait even flatties have no problem with it and this is in cloudy water. I think it's more a case of having confidence in the method. It would certainly have little effect in clear water and might prove a winning method but I would tend to keep the bait within a foot of the bottom in mucky water. If beads are not big enough to do the job then tie some polystyrene to the bait.

While on the subject of small species, does anyone know where you can find bitterling. I think they were supposed to be in some of the canals in the North West.

There used to be a lot of stone loach in a pond at Terrington near Castle Howard in North Yorkshire. It was thought that they got in from a local beck when the pond was filled. Anglers caught them fairly regularly on single maggot I had three there one day. Stone loach are not caught on rod and line very often; it's probably easier to catch a 20lb carp nowadays than a stone loach! Bullheads are caught much more frequently, I've caught them from at least 4 different waters. We've just started to get ruffe again from some local waters after they disappeared for many years which is another nice little fish to catch now and then.

I too have been using leadheads for many years but always from the shore. This was entirely due to a long-time friend of mine who not only spend some time fishing for pollack (often with me) but also went to live in America. Due to his experience fishing for pollack he soon realised that the jelly worms/leadhead lures used by freshwater bass anglers would be ideal for pollack and sent me some across suggesting I try them specifically for pollack. More recently he sent me some of the first shads on the market. My experience with pollack is that for success you have to fish hard up to snags such as rocks and kelp. If you are too timid to risk your lures you will not catch nearly so many fish. The real advantage of jelly worms/leadhead lures, and there is many variations of these, is that they are not only very effective but they are also cheap. You can fish amongst the real rough ground and not be too concerned about loosing a few. The picture shown below is of a pollack taken from Filey Brigg. I showed it to a friend from Scarborough who commented that whenever he tried jelly worms on the Brigg he caught cod!

I've just looked at the aquarium picture and I think the fish in the picture is slightly flaring it's gills as it has its mouth open. You have to compare them with their gills and mouths closed.

The easiest way to tell a thick-lip from a thin-lip is by what is referred to as the jugular interspace. If you look under the chin of a thick-lip the edges of the gill cover run parallel leaving a narow parallel gap. With the thin-lip this gap is not parallel but oval. The only problem with this method is that the golden grey mullet looks the same as the thin-lip under the chin so you have to do futher checks comparing the eye size to lip thickness. The golden patch on the gill cover is not a distinguishing feature on golden greys as other species of mullet often exhibit one.

I think the 10lb per ounce rule is a good one. The only time it could have let me down was when I landed my first tope from the shore. The 50lb line (Berkley Big Game) shock leader I used had suffered a significant amount of abrasion from the tope's skin. I now use 80lb leader when targetting tope.

Jay, The late Des Brennan described mullet as urban mullet and rural mullet. The urban ones had got use to feeding on things such as discarded crab-pot bait and holiday-makers sandwiches. Rural mullet filter feed on algae and other small items. The urban mullet are relatively easy to catchy and the rural ones extremely difficult. I tend to go along with this description. I also think there is another factor to do with temperature in that mullet in warmer water feed more freely than those in colder water. I started going across to Ireland in the early eighties to fish the pairs match in Dingle. Most years one or two anglers fishing on the bottom with standard baits such as lug managed to catch a mullet. It happened to me in 1985. I caught a mullet of 3-14 on Inch Strand on lug tipped with ragworm. There are thousands of mullet in the Humber which is fished regularly by a good number of anglers but nobody (to my knowledge) has ever caught a mullet on standard baits! Another factor with mullet is that they spend quite a lot of time not feeding. Quite of they will show no interest in baits and then suddenly switch to feeding mode and go straight in and take it. In conclusion the question you should be asking yourself is are the mullet “urban” mullet used to feeding on something you can put on a hook and are they actually feeding in the area you are fishing or just moseying about? Regards, Phil

Well said Leon. I've worn a compass on my watchstrap for 15 years or more. In fact I'm wearing it at the moment. It's also very handy for checking exact wind direction. A reliable waterproof watch such as a divers watch for checking tide state fitted with a compass should be standard for all sea anglers.

What about these whites Glenn?

I've just looked at the map again and can now see where you mean. I didn't know you went down at the highest point. I always thought the access was to the east of Boulby.

It's a common misconception that white rag fishes well in clear water because of its colour. I've used white rag extensively in very turbid water and it is a very effective bait - nothing to do with colour! Some years ago I discussed the use of white rag in turbid water with England international Jim Doby he agreed with my experiences. Small rag can catch fish but as with all baits there has to be enough to produce a good scent trail. To be effective you will need to put plenty on the hook which is difficult with such small worms. I used to use a fine wire hook when using harbour rag for flounders when match fishing. I don't know if you can still get hold of them they where made by mustad and had a plain shank and they had to be whipped on to the hook snood. To bait up you need to thread a small length of the worm at the head end and leave the rest dangling and then thread the next worm on so you have a bunch of them on the hook. The most effective whites for bigger fish are the big snake whites. I once measured one at 15 inches and I have dug larger ones. The problem with large whites is that they are very hard to come by and unless you are competing in match fishing at a high level then they are not worth the effort of collecting.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the highest cliffs in Yorkshire were at Ravenscar. I went down at Blea wyke once and where we parked the car at the top of the cliff is 200 metres although you don't need a rope. Roll Up? at Bempton where you do need a rope is 90 metres. Boulby appears to be around 60 metres.

Just noticed my name on this thread. I think Steve misunderstood something I said about the cod fishing. (post #2) It's been good for 2 years and with a good mixture of sizes this year. In fact I invited Mike Oliver of BASS to come and have a fish with me. What is interesting is the mixture of sizes of fish. This is possibly a result of controlling commercial pressure by limiting days at sea rather than quotas. This tactic should aid a faster recovery of stocks with the more viable larger fish contributing to spawning success. With the increase in summer species such as bass, smoothounds and tope plus the improvement in cod fishing the overall fishing in Yorkshire is probably the best it has ever been. There are still problems however, thornback, flounder and dab numbers are down and sizeable bass are hard to come by.