Westie

Oooh matron.

Looking forward to reading the reports...

That makes pretty depressing reading. If the sandeels can't hack it, there goes a huge slab at the bottom of the foodchain.

Given up smoking. On patches. Edgy... Must have been bad - my wife suggested that I go fishing!! :confused: Reports of sole being caught from Sizewell up the coast. Managed to bag some rag at 4.50pm. So far so good. I ended up at Dunwich - first time I'd fished there, but I had a really good feeling about the place - tide was on the ebb, a bit of a wave, but I felt confident. 3 hook rig - stripped by crabs within 5 minutes every time. Not a knock (as far as I could tell). 2 hours of fishing until near darkness and my poor wife trying to persevere and make out that she was not freezing, knowing that lack of nicotine and fish is worse than just lack of nicotine. I'll have to give up smoking more often if that means I can get out fishing more. My next strategy is to work out how much more money we're saving and to buy another rod & reel... Now for some tips please?! I've seen a ready tied anti-crab rig, which just seemed to have a piece of polystyrene attached to the snood - it looked ridiculous and unless the fish want to be smoking something resembling the size of a cigar, I couldn't see it working. Mmmm - smoking.... 1. On my rig, I was using size 4s and half a rag threaded up line, so that hookpoint wasn't masked. Are floating beads worth a go, or does the bait need to be nailed to the bottom and just re-bait frequently? If they are worth a go, how many and what sort of size. Also, how do you stop them on the snood - small piece of powergum? 2. Any tips on bite detection from flatties, especially when there is a bit of a wave slapping the line every so often. (Sorry - still got my L plates on.) 3. Using patches - still get cravings, which I try to ignore. Worse in the evenings, so I'm thinking of making a rig each time I get a craving. I've worked out that I should have 105 rigs by Sunday. Any orders?!

I've only just got back into sea fishing and I thought I'd give a multiplier a go and (probably foolishly) shelled out on an Abu Sports Mag. A bit pricey and from what I can gather, its exactly the same as the Abu Mag Elite, just with a different mechanism for tuning the magnet setting. But... the reel is really easy to cast (and I'm assuming the Mag Elite is too). Its got centrifugal and mag brakes. I started off with mags on quite high, and now have got the confidence to cast with mags set at lowest setting, with no birdsnests. No doubt better casters than me will tune the reel properly and remove one/all brake blocks and lube correctly! To be honest, even just using it straight from the box with no tuning, I'm getting decent range and I'm catching fish. Next time, I wouldn't bother with the Sports Mag though - just made to look pretty (and as Artful said, it caught the angler...) I've heard that Penn 525 Mags are good too, but they run a bit fast. Don't know if anyone else has any views on that one.

Had a good day's fishing yesterday. Caught a couple of bass and then.... a speedboat. Took a nice load of line and skinned my thumb in the process. :mad: It seems that throughout my fishing life, I've always caught anything other than fish. A few weeks ago, I pinned a tiny shrimp through its head on a 1/0. I've caught a bat on a backcast on an evening fly session. Not caught a 'Thames Trout' yet, but only a matter of time. So what is the most bizarre thing caught by people of AN. (No refs to STIs thanks. Not that I'm suggesting anything. Where is that spade.... this hole could be dug a little deeper...)

Just to cheer you all up. Don't live near the coast when this one goes off..... The Guardian - Mega Tsunami Definitely no yakking on that day. And a pound of lead breakaway is a must.

Thanks all. Sorry to have missed the meeting and the quality booze. We're so strapped for cash now with nipper on the way, it'll be a lush cocktail of meths and red diesel for me. Or is that White Lightening? Anyhew, cheers for the tips and for the welcomes.

Lurking in the shadows but thought it was about time to become a fully fledged member. Been a fishing nut since I was about 10 years old. I've drowned maggots, chucked fluff but I enjoyed sea fishing the most. Which is odd, because when I was a nipper, I used to catch naff all. I moved to the Ipswich area just before Christmas and having not cast 5oz in anger for the best part of 20 years, I've got myself set up and I've been out a few times, caught a few and I've really got the bug again. Only shame is that work gets in the way. Another slight hold-up to my treks to the beach is the fact that my wife is expecting our first in 6 weeks time. I can see the wee girl, all papoosed up, on a nice overnighter on Orford Ness. My wife doesn't quite see it that way though... Enough of my rambling. I know I'll end up asking questions, because I've got a huge amount to learn. Apologies in advance if I ask anything stupid. Looking forward to getting to know you all in the forums too. And so my first dafty. I'm making my own rigs up and wondered if anyone has come to a conclusion about snood material/colour of line etc etc. I've heard that flurocarbon is the mutts nuts. I've tended to catch schoolie bass (every one returned) and I'm trying to improve on the pound mark. Am I kidding myself that flurocarbon would make any difference to the plain old clear mono that I'm using at the moment? Also, I want to do some flattie bashing - can anyone suggest what type of rig to use and give me an idea on snood lengths/hook sizes (most of the websites I've been to don't say about this). Any wisdom greatly received!