rufus

This net is set up in the bass nursery area of the Blackwater Estuary so I suppose illegal. It's not big so I suspect that the person setting it is a caravan owner catching fish on weekend breaks and the mesh size is not going to take bass below keeping size. I have however seen other more determined teams setting nets in the area that are perhaps 500 metres in length. I watched these people at some considerable distance so can't be really sure of their activities. Whatever they are doing I suspect the target species is bass as the estuary is running alive with them.

Can anyone fill me in on the current laws regarding the use of monofilament gill nets? Came across one over the weekend, set up on mudflats with a couple of large mullet of 4-5lb caught up in the mesh, one still flapping around nearly an hour after the water had fallen away .

I see no ships...only hardships... [ 12. August 2003, 06:47 PM: Message edited by: rufus ]

So are jet ski's completely unlicensed? Surely not! There must be some kind of control of craft on the water that covers them..they cant just do what they want can they? They are horribly powerful and the power to weight ratio of these things must put them on a par with modern superbikes...right?

So jet skiers suck and blow ay the same time? Thought as much!

Just had a nice holiday on the sunny East Coast catching bass, everything about it was great... Only trouble was the tides...slap bang in the middle of the afternoon. Heat and daylight brings out the dreaded jet skier...every five minutes the drone of another on the horizon heading straight for my patch of the beach. Most go past and dissapear to bug some other poor sod. Then one comes closer and starts spinning around 250yds in front of me. End of session ! Jet skiers...going nowhere fast

No mention of eels! Jellied eels, not everyones taste but I was taught how to make them by my gran so I love em. Cut a very fresh eel or two into 2 inch chunks, skin on. Just cover with water, a little salt and crushed black pepper, chopped parsley if you want . Simmer till the flesh is tender, pour the lot into a glass bowl then leave in the fridge overnight. In the morning the liquor will have set, then you can eat the eels (with your fingers like a true Cockney) with fresh crusty bread. Take a look at this though.. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,...,977344,00.html Smoked eel is now ranked as the third most sought after dish amongst the London trendies, just trailing after caviar and lobster but beating all other finned fish into a cocked hat with next favourite mega expensive swordfish ranked a low 6th. Salmon is dead in the water and ranks a puny 10th. Farming has killed off its reputation. [ 21. July 2003, 11:50 PM: Message edited by: rufus ]

Great to see that in times of peril, anglers keep their heads. band together and do the right thing..after all, who else is out in all weathers fine and foul studying the sea and has the required respect not mess with it.? I bet they knew just what to do when the time required action and just how far they could push their luck. Good publicity for sea angling and a reminder to brush up on your own safety procedures whilst fishing.

I watched crabs and shrimps in their natural environment last year. They scurry for cover as soon as anything larger than themselves turns up. Noticed also that spells of crab & shrimp activity, bait stripping etc, coincided with the lack of fish presence. As soon as a shoal of fish turned up the crabs buried themselves and the shrimps dissapeared. I suppose that this may mean crab & shrimp activity indicates an absence of fish and maybe a change of mark or at least casting to a fresh area from where you already are. I must add that these were small shore crabs I was watching....maybe does not apply to larger edibles who are big and heavily armoured.

Had three around the 2lb mark, Essex mudflats, Bank Holiday Monday morning...bright hot sunshine at 7:30am (and sunburn by noon!) All caught in a foot or so of dead calm water. Not big fish but glorious fishing all the same. What a relief that the Spring beachcasting doldrums are finally over and there's fish worth fishing for in Essex!

I start lightly thumbing the spool as the lead starts to fall, much earlier in the flight of the lead than in daylight, then stop it as it hits the water...you just get to know when this is about to happen after a while. Distance is reduced somewhat but thats not a real problem when compared to the horror of a fat overun in the dark and having to cope with unpicking it or worse, cutting it all off the spool, rejoining to retrieve the rig and probably by then, hooked up fish.

The picture has been appearing and then dissapearing for some reason, so here's the URL just in case it's not there when you view the thread... http://goeasy.members.beeb.net/hooks Rufus [ 23. May 2003, 09:15 AM: Message edited by: rufus ]

Theres a number of places around the Essex coast where carp rods are ideal for bass fishing. Shoebury, you can park up right on the beach and fish for them with very light tackle as there is a very light flow of water. you can also dig blow lug there at low water. Use size 2 carp hooks of a near circle pattern on a short snood, thats what I use there and they work like nothing else I've tried. A 3oz lead is ok and a cast of up to 100yds will find them. Mersea Island is similar with a good head of summer bass . You'll have to return most as undersize but keepers are frequent enough to make it worthwhile.

Thought you all might like to see some fishing tackle of serious antiquity! These hooks date to the Middle Ages and were found by myself on the Thames Foreshore in London. It's another of my pastimes to go there every now and then and look for old stuff like this. Notice the pattern of the hook on the left - it's a circle hook surely! Nothing new is there? How about the middle hook..now that really is a long shank pattern, I reckon it's for flounder fishing. They are all made of iron and all have spade ends.

Thinking of taking a trip down to Somerset this summer sometime, possibly a family holiday for a week or two, staying around Burnham/ Berrow Beach area. Does anyone know anything about the fishing from the shore here? What can I target on the beaches and as for Brean Down...how do you fish the mark? I've been there before, though not for fishing, and had to walk to the old gun emplacements at the end. Do you have to walk all the way with tackle or is it possible to drive down? I keep seeing reports from Brean Down and it looks good for winter cod...anything worth catching in the summer?

Leon I'm not sure either..but they do look rather a lot like the mitten crabs in the pictures..the 'fur' you speak of was not apparent , but these specimens were very small juveniles. One interesting thing to note was that I saw not a single shore crab in this colony that I found....but a little further downstream, just three miles or so, at Grays, a healthy head of our good friend the common shore crab was found in numbers under every rock ( none in moult however, ggrr). The king crab looks amazing ...fancy meeting one of those down a dark alley!!! What do they eat...COD?? The crabs get their revenge after all!! I sent off a report to Roni Robbins @ the NHM so should get some detail here. Unfortunately I did not think to bring home a specimen for comparison so can't be sure as yet, but I'll go back soon as there are loads of maddy's under the same rocks, easy pickings.

Went out to find some new marks for peeler collection today and tried a new spot at Rainham on the Thames Estuary. No peelers at all but plenty of little crabs with long legs that I had never seen before. Got home and did a search for crabs in the Thames and it seems the estuary is running alive with those that I had found...Chinese mitten crabs. Now what I want to know is... can they be used as bait? I mean do they peel like a shore crab? Has anyone ever tried one out? They are becoming an environmental nuisance it seems...what better way to reduce numbers than to put them on a hook and catch bass with them?

What about the shrimps & crabs too? My last session started off with an early knock which resulted in nothing...quite literally nothing for the rest of the session. My lug was coming back looking as fresh (nearly) as when it went in. I left baits out for two hours and on retrieval not even the crabs and shrimps had touched it! Like casting into a barren wilderness..hopeless.

Dave, thanks for the bait/rig info..the very stuff I was looking for! Good that they like king rag as I have a nice king rag dig just up the coast ...which is handy! and especially as I usually fish the summer for bass exclusively, (which is how I came to want to fish for sting ray in the first place) Be nice to fish for both at the same time. Maplin Edge sounds interesting and closer to me...is that off Foulness island? Could do evening sessions on my dirt bike there

Wow! Jim, how did you come across that!

I'm following all this very carefully and looking at every aspect of the tackle, because you just dont consider these things when your casting is going smoothly..which it was before I began training myself up! I've been casting leads in all kinds of fishing for years but all of a sudden the power comes out of nowhere when the new technique clicks and you've just got to get refined. I have sorted the knot out by really paying attention to its finish..it's now small and smooth profiled. The reel is going to have to wait till the pay cheque goes in at the end of the month, when I am treating myself to a CT Sports Mag no matter what the wife says to the contrary..she knows I must fish.... safely! Looking forward to having full grip on the spool especially with the reel mounted down the butt, a position I cant control at all with the levelwind cage in the way. I use fixed spools, but only for lobbing big baits 30-100 yds out in the surf for bass..I have had the bail arm flip over too many times to trust them for big casts. Apart from the safety aspect there is another good reason to get this right... cash! As you say the overuns are really massive on these crack-offs and I cant sit on the beach picking out the loops like I used to, I now have to cut off all the loops with scissors till I get to a flush spool...probably 50 yds of line every time it happens + the lost terminal gear of course.

Got a plan coming together...the stiffest rod in my bag coupled with a 7000. 40lb straight through and a short 100lb mono to a forged 6/0. This should be able to cope with middling weights..dont know what you would need for the 70lb + fish that are out there. Thinking also of suspending a chum bag on a stake a couple of feet above the sea bed staked out at low tide...cant do any harm can it? Also going to a mark that produced a 40lb fish some years back according to local legend and where I witnessed the capture of a couple of fish when I was a kid... Should start my campaign around June and report back if it goes according to plan

I'm using twice the rod length of leader, so that would be 26 foot of line with plenty of turns on the spool. 50lb leader to 15lb main line. I think the silent crack-off is due to the break happening at the knot and so close to the spool. Like I said I've never had this happen before no matter how much power I put into the cast but have heard plenty of other anglers crack-offs that have occured in flight and they make a sharp crack that can be heard from the next pitch. I've tested my knot and it's very very strong but if any knot jams in the level wind then what else could occur but knot failure? The leader is not going to break at 50lbs BS so the knot compresses instantly under great load and cuts through itself , hence the silent parting of line. I examined the end of a leader retrieved at low tide Friday last and it was mangled, cut up by the main line. The trouble with improving your cast is that the change is permanent..the training ensures that loads more power is available on every cast. Even my overhead cast has become more fluid and powerful! which is a good thing in the long run...I suppose I have learn to harness this new found power and the tackle will have to be refined to cope. Soon as I can afford one I'll buy a CT mag or similar...even if the knot clears the levelwind (which it does 9 times out of 10) then the gears of the mechanism must cut distance by a substantial amount, I heard 15% or more. With the CT frame two problems are cured in one shot.

Been practising casting out on grass just recently and doing off the ground style managed to easily increase my distance by 50% or more....trouble is that now the problem of crack-offs has reared it's ugly, dangerous head. I never had these happen before with my old overhead thump style but the big power step- up that the off ground style gives is causing headaches. Is this just a phase that is usual when power is increased by a wide margin...something that evens out as you get used to the style or am I doing something very wrong? The line seems to be parting at the leader knot somewhere close to the reel..of course an overun is there when I look at the reel but everything happens so bloody fast I cant tell if the overun is causing the problem or if the overun is caused by the problem! There is no crack! by the way, just a silent parting of the leader knot and an invisible lead and trace sailing away at lethal speed to god knows where!. I'm using a 6500c3 with level wind with at least 6 or 7 turns of leader on the spool....suppose the level wind could be the root of the problem...what do you think?

Thanks for that Kieran... My girlfreind lost a big fish last year at Mersea Island... she got a bruise all along her arm as the fish took off and pulled the rod sharply out of her grasp! Now the normal run of fish here in summer are school bass up to around 4 pounds or so. We think it could only have been a sting ray and a big un' at that. The link says fish for them as you would for tope. makes sense if the fish you may catch run up to 70 pounds or more...info is thin on the ground, but I'm slowly putting together some idea of the methods for catching these gentle giants... and some idea of the problems too.. Like getting stung!! Not sure how I would beach and unhook one...hopefully this year I'll find out the only way possible, by actually catching one.