Socksy Squirrel

Any hints on the best ground to fish for tope if you are starting to fish for them for the first time in an area where they are not usually fished for from the shore. Tope have been taken from the shore where I live but they are not a regular capture.

I have used pouting as bait, but there is no minimum size on this fish. They are a natural food for conger etc and the dogfish tend to leave it alone. I would say that small fish can be used as dead baits as long as there is no minimum size and they are fairly common in your area. The big fish are probably eating them anyway, you are just saving them the hassle of catching them

Has anyone fished off Ascension Island. Someone mentioned it to me as an unusual place to fish. Any info gratefully received

As successful journalists Nick and Hugh will have had a cheque from the Shooting Times for the article so why kill all those bass except to gain an old fashioned great white hunter photo. The photos are like the worst of the old Shooting Times where hundreds of pheasants are laid out in front of the guns, Lord Chimber Trousers and his mates. Fishing will suffer from being associated with this crap

It seems that herring keep in touch with other members of the shoal by leaking gas from their anus, the high pitched squeaks alert the other fish to their postion http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?...p?id=ns99994343 Now all I have to do is find a way of listening to those pesky bass burping

I normally post in the sea angling bit but I got a spam this morning about float tubes so I did a quick Google to find out what they are. Some of you might the following link of interest. www.bfta.co.uk The Americans go sea fishing in them!

I believe that the white latex that oozes from the cut root of the lettuce was used as a sedative by the Victorians. It is extremely bitter and I have no idea what it contains or its effects so this is an interesting note rather than a suggestion that anyone should try some.

It is interesting to speculate on what is contained in WD40. It states that it contains petroleum distillates on the tin and it smells like light oils to me. I would guess that the major component is a petroleum oil somewhere about the diesel/paraffin fraction plus higher boiling oils, waxes and additives. I hope no one is going to try dipping their calamari in diesel

I think there was an article in the UK Guardian or Observer a few years ago on the last of the commercial fishermen in the NY bay. He may have been netting for striped bass and eels around the flats. I wish that I had kept it.

The article on bridge fishing is something else; skunks, racoons and dodging copies of the Boston Herald. http://home.earthlink.net/~fishplumi/surfbridge.html I only have to avoid the JEP in the front garden on a Saturday morning.

I would guess that they are after striped bass aka stripers. They are found up around the North American coast and hang around in estuaries. Check out http://home.earthlink.net/~fishplumi/ I seem to remember a photo in one of the angling mags of a UK fisherman who had a go off one of the US river bridges and picked up a big striper. If I can find the article then I will put in another note. Anyone who has it to hand please help.

Probably it's cousin. Scabbard fish seem to live in most of the deep oceans. Try a search on http://www.fishbase.org. Long, thin, big head, mouth filled with enormous teeth. Luckily there does not seem to be much chance of catching one by accident.

This is definitely the black scabbard fish. One of the Jersey fishmongers imports it for the Madeiran population in the island. Probably the most effective looking set of teeth I have ever seen on a fish. Take a look at http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSum...eciesname=carbo

I tried thin strips of steak a few weeks back. It is supposed to be a good bait for garfish. I caught a couple of pollack on it and some small pieces dropped close to the end of the pier bought a shoal of 6 inch pollack close to the surface to eat it so it does attract fish.

I am not knocking the doggies. It is just that they are rather common around Jersey and with two rods they kept me busy for an hour or so until I ran out of bait. I have tried squid and squid soaked in pilchard oil fished on different rods at the same time and the doggies definitely preferred the oiled one.

I have tried strips of squid and mackerel marinated in pilchard oil. The only thing I caught was lots of dogfish.

Abu 6500 Mag Elite