Dougie

i have got and 8 weight set up that will be perfect for the job...when i think about it, granton is the ideal sport to try it too..plenty of space to cast without getting caught up in rocks and stuff! They will go like the clappers on my 8 weight, if im feeling brave i may even try for them on my 5 weight!!

and from burntisland all the way up to anstruther!

we fish the float a lot, and your right, you will catch mackerel, maybe not in the same numbers as "the mackerel king(s)" but you will catch more species..we had mackerel, pollack, cod, coalies, ling and others last year..lot more fun watching a float, bit more challenging to...must admit though i do have feathers to, just incase i need to get some quick bait for the session...i remember once i was using feathers for them , and i noticed that a lot of the hits were coming on the drop when you were casting in, so i was trying to figure out away of presenting them higherup in the water to get them quicker, so i came up with this crazy float fished feather rig with a fairly heavy bomb on the bottom with a paternoster rig...you should have seen the heads getting scratched whilst i was setting it up and getting it to sit right in the water. one of the "mackerel king(s)" looked at me and said "what the f*ck are you trying to do, you cannot do that, you wont catch anything like that". So anyway, they are catching bugger all because they had not figured out that the fish were sitting higher up chasing the saithe in the top layers because they were using massive leas weights, and going through the fish like an anchor. So i get my rig set up and working properly, and first put in fish, second put in fish, third put in fish...should have seen the scambling around trying to find something that they could have used as a float...hilairious!!!!

thats exactly the way it is...they just appear from nowhere, and they are all experts...they are comical!! the guy at burntisland was going by the same name " mackerel king" must be a generic name for these so called pros..maybe they are that good and they only need a beackcaster, a set of feathers and two months a year???it would be funny if you took them feathers away from them, and then wee if they can catch them!!! Im defo going to try and get them on the fly rod this year...enough around to have a shot at them, so just pick the right day when the wind is not to bad and i can get on a flattish surface near the waters edge!

hi 101, yeah sport was tremedous at the weekend. if i had sat in one of the well know spots for more than an hour, i could have caught shedloads, but i was happier moving about marks and trying bits i have never caught in before, to see how many fish are really in. was going to go to dunbar, but after the reports i heard, thought i would try my side before i venured across. We had polloach and cod to amoungst our catches, so its just fantastic to have sport like this at the moment, fingers crossed this is a turn around for east scotland shore angling...mackerel may not be the most exciting peice of action (once you have had 5 ever cast) but they keep you busy, and make you day worthwile, so i hope its like this for a while longer...its a nice problem to have, trying to get throught the mackerel!! lol

well yeah, if the locals have anything to do with it! they seem to kill for the sake of it...surely taking 3 or fish home is more sensible that a guy i seen taking 34 home!!! I personaly practise catch and release, and i have only ever taken 3 or 4 mackerel in the last few years. But believe me when i say there is a sh*t load of mackerel in the forth estuary..i kid you not, works cannot describe how may mackerel must be in at the moment..people are saying they have not seen this may fish for over 20 years inshore,so i dont think it will make much impact on the size of shoals that must be in the now. the boats are getting loads and the shore guys are getting loads, the full length of the forth, so if you look at a map, you will see that it is one hell of a massive area filled full of them, but nether the less there is still no excuse for killing fish without good cause!

Hi, Went out for my first trip of the summer yesterday, and what a massive surprise i got. The forth is absoloutley jam packed full of fish!!!! Well mackerel, but im not bothered, its sport! I have not seen so many mackerel get caught from the shores of the forth since i have been fishing! Started at methil docks at 7 for high tide, and had 7 cast and 10 mackies, then the seals arrived!, so i decided to bin it, as im not a big fan of loosing tackle to lazy seals, who cannot be arsed catching their own breakfast! The moved down to KDY and had a few more there, then on to Burntisland, and had 10 of the breakwater (never had more that 1 of the breakwater before). The were pulling them in by the dozen on the noddie peir. I swear there was more people on the end of the peir than there are mackerel in the forth! you even go near the end of the peir and they all go into superstar mode and start bragging about sacking up, and then they make sure you cannot get on!! Not to worry, i enjoyed the breakwater more as it was not as easy as flipping it over the edge and reeling in three at a time. I would like to have seen them trying to cast to the range that i was catching at on the breakwater. I had my reel loaded with 30lb braid, couple with a 3oz bomb, and i was ripping it out 20-30 yards past the backing. I know for a fact that there is about 150 yards of braid, so you do the maths! wish i could cast that far on my tip rod when im down at loch ken, the bream wouldnt stand a chance! Everytime you could do the cast you would get fish, as the were sitting about 130 - 170 yards out, and the further you could get it out, the more hits you could get. Im sure if i had been there for the tide turning, i owuld have got them closer, but half an hour of trying it for nothing, was not good fun. Oh there was also a 4-5lb cod came of the wall at methil when we were there. The locals reckon that there was 800 mackerel came of the docks one day last week ( i believe them). makes you wonder why there are so many mackerel around the forth estuary....maybe the ban on ishore trawling is finally starting to have some possitive effects???

awrite 101... its about time eh? been watching out for things to happen for the last months. Going to head down that way, so looks good for a days sport. Going to take the fly rod with me and try and catch some on that for a bit of fun..so will report back howit goes

Had a little bit of info regarding the fishing in the forth estuary. Boots starting to catch lots of mackeral out from anstruther and pitenweem, and i have seem mackeral getting caught from the shore closer into the estuary to..so should not be to long before we start getting plenty of action from the shore. Heard about quite a few cod still getting caught in the estuary from the shore, plus odd pollack, wrasse and ling getting caught. Think its time to get out there and enjoy the few months we get at some decent shore fishing. Hopefully we will get as long as we did last year. Was still catching lots of mackeral and other species inshore in late september last year, so fingers crossed for a good summer!

a couple of my friends who work for daiwa in high positions, and i can say7 i have never used there influence to get things done quick, or cheap, and i have always had a first class service from daiwa. as for dealers complaining, my mates tell me that its the punters they are more interested in keeping happy as they are the guys who spend the the real money( we all know you have to pay top end prices for daiwa branded products)and there will always be plenty of dealers lining up to stock their products as the markups are high on them!

do you not think it is a bit daft to talk about killing fish on a public forum? just wondering, cause any of the anti angling nutters brigade could read this, and it would just give them more amo! just a suggestion.... things like "smack on the head" is not the best way to describe killing fish i would say! [ 07. October 2004, 09:03 AM: Message edited by: Dougie ]

[ 06. October 2004, 08:59 AM: Message edited by: Dougie ]

try you best to cats over head in one continous motion, and when you bait rig gets near hitting the water, feather the rig down into the water (putting you finger over the line on the spool gently) which will propel you bait infront of you float. its the way you fish wagglers when coarse fishing and it works exactly the same in the sea with bigger floats!

good answer peter, thats exactley what i do and you catch just as many fish as the guys on the peir and you dont have to worry about getting you head ripped of by the over eager casters (those who cannot cast)

lol...told you!!! i was at burntisland last nite to, seen three people on the peir, but was not going to fish it, as there is better bits(there is a big clue!) fished down on the rocks, and only got one bite in an hour, good fish but never got it in, maybe a big coalie or a small cod! at least there is still some mackeral coming of there despite how cold it is in the evenings!! that seal is a real card though! he loves to show you your catch before he flips it up and downs it in one!! some sight though, just as you are about to lift one out of the water,and you just see this huge black shape appear and grab you fish, if you could get it on camcorder, you could make a few bob of it!

mike, you should try any of the deep water marks from burntisland upwards. mainly catching them on mackeral/squid combo on float gear. its getting a bit late now in the year but there is always next year for them...i wouldnt suggest going any further up than kirkcaldy unless you can get access to a boat, but it was a bit pants last night. only got 3 between the two of us, which was a bit weird as it was a cracking day, but freezing wind blowing in, so maybe thats enough to start them on there journey out to sea again? if you want to try you beach casting out to you can go for flatties from the esplanade! you dont need to be to far out though, just behind the surf with a bit of mackeral/squid, or ragworm, will get you into the flatties. try the car park right at the begining of the esplanade next to the bus station, and walk down the side of the burn to the shore, usually a good spot( better on a falling tide!)expect fish up to and over a pound. you could always try the slip way at kincarding bridge to, get codling and bass of there plus flatties. 101 north, fish mainly over your side of the forth if i have a whole day to myself, usually from dunbar down to eyemouth...woudl tell you more but it has taken us countless miles and hours to find good spots, belive me thought, they are there to find and the best ones are the most obvious.just look for some deep water and you usually find the mackeral..but again it is getting a bit late now!

it been a bit of a bumper year for me from the shore in the forth. lots of makeral caught at at different marks, and on different methods! never caught as many from the shore since i started sea fishing! and they are all good makeral, none under a pound so far, we dont get those small one like norrie gets of the boat! ps/ mike, your to far down the river for makeral, tyr moving about 5 miles up the river, and you will get into some, well that if they dont do their annual runner, sould hopefully get a few more weeks at them if the weather doesnt change to drasticaly!

its all crazy guys... the scottish executive (scottish parmliment) is trying to get some form of licence brung in up here to, but they have put it our to the different governing bodies to come up with ideas for taking fishing in scotland forward. some people are banding around figures of up to £80 a year for a rod licence.its all just a big joke, how on earth are they going to enforce it..erm no chance! you all know how tight us scots are!!

norrie, what sort of fish can you expect to pick up from the shore at this wall section?

whats this world coming to eh.... cant even go for a bit of fishing, its always the same no matter what type of fishing you do, the best bits are always of limits! just have to do what the locals have done at burnisland! when they gated of the pier there, they just cut throught the bars and noone has ever fixed it cause they know it will just get done again!

cheers keeny, funny you should mention granton, was going to go last night but something came up, so may try today as its a nice day! and i got loads of bait left from the weekend, so may as well use it up while its fresh!

does anyone know for sure that you are allowed to fish in methil docks, dont want to go there and find its restricted like grangemouth (wasted journey!) ta

erm...think i will give that one a miss!

what about the jetty below the marina, are you allowed to fish of this at all saint?

your fish should grow no problems. i put some new stockies in my pond last year and they have grown massivley this year ( from 3inches to about 8-10 inches over this summer) i have a friend who had a small stocking in his pond and they acctually spawned one year. only one fish managed to survive, and he is now weighing over 3lbs. he has a small pond, so it just shows you.!