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Dave B

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Posts posted by Dave B

  1. Definitely Murph. If anglers along the south coast put the hours in then I'm sure one will get caught on rod and line. It's a lot of hard work though, and it could mean days on end of mind-numbing boredom and blanking, but how cool would it be to be the first to catch one on rod and line from the south coast!

  2. Thanks for all that info Dave. It is really helpful. What kind of set up did you use with your spinning rod i.e. float, lead? Was it safe enough to walk down to the harbours etc to see the catches and have a chat with the fishermen? I will definetly be wanting to get out on a boat and do some good fishing. I am told that as part of my honeymoon package I actually get a days fishing so I am guessing the hotel sort that out?

     

    I will be heading to the Kani Lanka Hotel in Kalutara which I believe is on the South Western coast. Is this near to where you went? Would you not consider it safe to walk around on your own? Just that my fiance is a mad keen runner and will be wanting to go off running every morning and I would worry for her safety if there are people like that around.

     

    Sorry for all the questions but I am just trying to get a better idea of what to expect etc.

     

    Thanks Dave

     

    No worries. As far as the spinning goes, i was using plugs and dexter wedges for the spinning, but when I switched onto the prawn baits I was using a simple patternoster rig or running leger with a small lead (take a handful with you). Also take some wire with you for short bite traces in case you start getting bitten off - there's a lot of fish with teeth over there!

    There were no harbours where I went, in fact, there were no fishing boats - other than the locals and their home-made cats!

    I did hear that there was one charter boat further up the coast, but I struggled to find any info on it - hopefully things will be different where you're going. Incidentally, I was staying at Kosgoda, which is about 20 miles south of where you are going.

     

    As far as walking around on your own goes, I'd just say be very careful. Sri Lanka is a beautiful place, but it's also one of the poorest I've been to. As a result there are a lot of desperate people there. You get the usual 'beach boys' trying to sell you stuff everywhere, but the 'beach boys' I encountered after being on the beach for just a couple of minutes were selling drugs!

    I'd gauge the situation yourself when you get to your hotel. Just keep your eyes open. I should think that the hotel complex and grounds would be way large enough for your fiance to run around - they're usually a mile or more fenced off. Just be careful straying from the hotel area along the beach.

     

    You'll have a great time mate, the place is beautiful, the people are very friendly and they all speak very good English.

    One word of warning - be careful of the sun! It's blisteringly hot over there - so much so that the beach I was fishing actually melted one day and the sand was crunchy underfoot! My girlfriend at the time got severe sunstroke without really knowing it after coming out fishing with me for a day. So drink plenty of bottled water and take hats, long sleeved shirts for fishing etc.

  3. Ok, so just moving away from Wingham just for a minute I have remembered about my trip to SriLanka (at the Kani Lanka resort in Kalutara) and the Maldives (on the Meeru island resort) in around 3 weeks time. (honeymoon). I have done a little reading up on SriLanka and a lot of people are talking about spinning for various fish in various locations without going into much detail. What I was wondering is can I just wander off to the beach or the river and do some spinning?

     

    If so what are the best type of lures to use and what can I expect to catch (if anything).

     

    I am aware that being a protected marine environment there is no beach fishing in the Maldives so I am going to look into finding a boat trip fishing expedition instead but any info on SriLanka would be appreciated.

     

     

    I've fished Sri Lanka before, and I caught loads of weird and wonderful species. Just a few notes...

     

     

    Be careful of just 'wandering down to the beach'. I was based at the south of the Island, and within 2 minutes of leaving the hotel and walking along the beach I was approached by a group of lads and asked if I wanted to buy some Heroin! It was then that I realised why there were armed guards all around the beachfront of the hotel!

     

    As far as the fishing goes, I got lucky. There were very few proper fishing boats where I was, in fact none! I just happened to make friends with a local lad, Chamir, and his brothers, and they organised for me and my missus to go out on a 'proper' fishing boat for a day - it was a home-made cat, constructed from a hollowed out log and was held together with string and a few nails. They fished with handlines and I took my spinning rod. Great fun - I caught cudas, various snapper, grouper etc.

    From the shore I saw some big sharks, and I caught all manner of species - much the same as from the boat really. Best lures to take are dexter wedges etc, anything that's heavy - you'll probably need to cast a fair way to get into the fish.

    I found that the local tiger prawns were the best bait, rarely catching anything on the spinners and plugs. I was buying a carrier bag full of fresh prawns for about a fiver each day - I'd keep about 50 for bait, then we'd fry the rest up with garlic, ginger and lime juice! spot on!

     

    Best advice I can give is try to get friendly with a local or two - they teach English in the schools out there, and all the youngsters speak it perfectly. (You may also find it to your advantage!) We were booked into a hotel, but had to pay for local beer - worked out about £2 per 330ml bottle. When I made friends with Chamir, I'd give him the equivalent of a tenner and he'd come back with four ice-cold litre bottles of said beer, 40 fags and a bottle of local spiced rum - and he still had change in his pocket!!!

     

    Be prepared for a bit of a culture shock - Sri Lanka is by far the poorest place on earth that I've been, apart from when I went into the depths of the Kenyan outback. In the hotels, stuff costs what you'd expect it to. Outside, in the real world, a tenner will buy you what £100 will here!

  4. Nice one, Dave. :thumbs:

     

    Been a while since you submitted an article to the site - any chance you could send something in from your back catalogue, which I'll link back to your work website?

     

     

    Check ya inbox mate....

  5. Morning, I'm in the market for a lightweight boat rod. I've been contemplating the Ugly Stik 6lb 8'2" model but I'm also considering buying a fixed spool reel (because I can). I've been looking at the Penn Live liner 460L. The reel could be used on my uptider as well.

     

    My concern is that the Ugly Stik is built as a multiplier rod so, is it suitable for a fixed spool reel or, are the rings/spine etc. just not suitable. Any other suggestions?

     

     

    Depends what you want it for? My standard summer kit is a 10ft Veals Sure Spin MKII rod matched with a Shimano Ultegra 4500 fixed spool loaded with 30lb PP. I use that for hounds, turbot, bass and even tope (tope to just shy of 50lb last year).

     

    I also take along a lighter, Fox Mullet Master 11ft rod (unfortuantely they don't make these anymore) with a smaller fixed spool reel - again for the hounds, bass, plaice, bream etc.

     

    If you want a seriously good rod, check out the new Yasei range from Shimano - they're ajpanese rods designed for use with fixed spool reels - speed jigging and vertical jigging blanks. Very, very nice!

  6. Cheers Dave,

     

    Yes, old Lefty seems to have his finger on the pulse...one of the reasons I bought one of his rods for the shark, a TFO, Bluewater MD, 13-15wt. Just picked up an old Orvis Vortex 13-14wt reel which, although not the lightest reel in the world has a prety impressive smooth drag......and more than a few quids worth of Power Pro backing capacity :o

     

    Bloody hell! You really are taking this seriously aren't you! I'm sure if you put the hours in you'll get a result. Make sure you take a camera and take a few trophy shots - I'd be interested in a feature on the subject for the mag.

  7. Thanks Dave, the mackerel enticer will be what the Americans call a 'teaser' then!

     

    I'll give that a try in the summer.....must tie some blue and silver flies! So far I've knocked up some 'Lefty's Deceivers' in 'lifejacket orange' which blues love apparently....slightly worrying eh?

     

     

    Yes mate, the ol' Yanks would call it a teaser. Hey, you can't beat anything that Lefty Kreh has had a hand in - the guy's a total legend! And, I should think that orange or yellow would be ideal colours to annoy a blue shark into 'having a go'. Good luck with it, and get in touch with John over in Ireland, he's a really nice bloke and will talk to you about how he's been doing it - no worries.

  8. Has anybody on the forum done any?

     

    I've been doing a lot of reading up on the subject and I've had e-mail conversations with a couple of guys who've done it (but only one in UK waters).

     

    Got the rod, got the reel and have advice on lines and flies I was just wondering if anyone here has given it a bash?

     

     

     

    Quite a few years ago I was lucky enough to fish with John Brittain, skipper of Blue Water out of Clifden on the west coast of Ireland. At that time he was the first skipper in Europe to have caught blue shark on the fly, and he told me exactly how they did it!

    He had a couple of Dutch guys on board that had booked the boat to specifically target sharks on the fly, and I think they got two to the boat one day.

     

    Basically, you set yourself up a decent rubby dubby slick as you would normally, then you have a powerful spinning rod and fixed spool set up with a mackerel tied to the end of the line - no hooks!

    You bring the sharks up in the slick, then cast out the mackerel towards the shark. meanwhile, the fly angler has the fly up in the air on a medium-length line, just false casting without dropping the fly into the water.

    The other guy with the spinning rod coaxes the shark towards the boat so that it's within range of the fly. Then, once the shark is close enough, the guy on the spinning rod winds like hell and takes the mackerel out of the equation. At the same time the fly angler drops the fly in front of the shark and begins to strip. Then it's all down to the shark, and whether it's angry enough to take a bite or not!

     

    It's quite simple when you think about it, but it does require two people.

  9. I've always said that if i wanted to 'get rid' of someone, the Bahamas is the place! A quick jab with a knife then a push overboard and hey ho - sharkfood. I've never seen so many sharks anywhere else in the world. There are some truly massive Bull sharks there too, I had one circle the boat that was estimated well over 500lb - it was pretty peed off cos I 'swung' a 70lb yellowfin into the boat because he was chasing it for his tea!

  10. Hi all, I've used them over here a few times and I plan on using them a lot next season. The great thing about the Dipsy Divers is that they allow you to fish a huge spread of lures, or they let you troll a lure close to a shallow water reef without fear of getting your boat anywhere near it!

    Basically you can set the Dipsys to fish left or right up to 70 yards away from the boat, and something like from 4ft to 100ft deep!

    They use them a lot in the Baltic when trolling for salmon, so they're perfect over here for bass. I'll be using 2 Dipsys and 2 normal deep diving plugs for my trolling next season - that means I can fish 4 rods without fear of them tangling up.

    I did do a piece on them in the magazine a while back - I'll try and dig it out for you.

  11. "Mary catches ray on holiday from Africa in the River Fal"

     

    Well I didn't know you caught thornback rays in Africa, and I certainly didn't know that they went on holiday either - sheesh, you learn something new every day!

  12. Just had my latest 'Update' e-mail from the AT. As usual there's nothing at all about sea angling on it among the 10 headlines. But there was this!

     

    "Angling Trust to Call for Ban of Eel Fishing

    Now that all anglers must release any freshwater eels they catch, the Angling Trust intends to respond to the current consultation on eel bye laws by demanding that all commercial eel fishing should cease. Given how little we know about the lifecycle of the eel, its dramatic decline in numbers and its importance to the aquatic ecosystem, we can’t see how commercial exploitation can be justified any longer."

  13. Thanks guys, Well we didn't catch loads of fish, but all the instruction is there and of course all the banter! The whole point of this new series is to show it how it really is out there - the good days and the bad! it's all about getting a feel for a day afloat and everything that it entails. There are some right old capers down the line in future shows, including some mega wind ups, and some on-board cuisine that's out of this world. I hope you all like it!

  14. Just come back from Vilamoura. Took my rods and caught a few bream and a small bass. However, a local fishing next to me had a lovely bass - must of been 8lb or so - on a whole live mackeral. He cast out a huge lead on its own. He then clipped on (with a snap swivel) a 3 ft hooklink with 2 big hooks and the mackeral. His rod was pointed skywards and the mackeral then 'zip lined' to the surf and was essentially tethered in the surf. It could swim up or down. Has anyone seen this method before? I was staggered when he nailed the big one, but he'd clearly used the method a few times...

     

    I have used that rig a few times, it's good when the bass are herding mackerel shoals or when fishing in shallow water. It allows you to present a live mackerel near the surface, which appears to be swimming freely - cos it can move up and down in the water column. Definitely worth a go from the shore over here as soon as the mackerel show in numbers.

  15. You will probally find, that most of the comments attributed to Martin Salter have ben invented.

    I know little about the man, but more about how they write this sort of sensationalist nonsence.

     

    Bring on the day, when the U.K press is forced to abide by the laws on truthful reporting, that are found in continenrtal Europe.

     

    I think it's illegal to 'make up' quotes and comments from anybody and then print them - especially an MP. I would have thought Mr Salter did actually say those things.

    What gets me is how anybody can lose £80,000 worth of carp from a muddy puddle to a few otters. I know they often take fish and just rip out the gills and throat, but surely they'd have to nail a shed load of carp to amass that amount of financial damage. I've got visions of a 1-acre lake with 200 otters sitting around the edge, planning mass attacks of the carp shoaled together in the middle!

     

    Loved this bit though...

     

    'I want to avoid the situation where people are calling for a cull on otters.'

     

    Then on the next line....

     

    Mr Salter is also calling for cormorants to be shot.

  16. LOL. I had to laugh at this report - what a great piece of journalism! See how many different stories you can fit under one heading. Ha ha. All of a sudden we go from Whitsand Bay being destroyed to someone catching a big cod, then carp - nice one!

    The main story itself is a bit worrying though. This is the sort of thing that MCZs are meant for - to help prevent mass ecological damage.

  17. Don’t be such a defeatist Dave and never say never, as it may come round to haunt you.

    My idea behind the question ‘Would anglers benefit from a free license’ I will admit was a crazy idea to test the water so to speak and see if any one took the bait. But I never explained why I posed the question and strangely no one has asked. You have in fact been the closest to what my thoughts were at the time.

    I was thinking that the amount of money we RSAs spend per year has never been recognized and often disputed, because there are no specific figures on which to do the mathematics. Secondly the way the decision about the introduction of a government license stands at present is that the matter has simply been shelved. Now where the industry side of RSA to introduce a license given free with the purchase of say, sponsored goods and that said license was to have printed on it a declaration of the right to fish and carry a rod in line with our constitutional rights which are ‘DESCRIPTION OF THE PUBLIC RIGHT TO FISH. The public right to fish was described by Moore and Moore as follows:- In tidal waters, estuaries and arms of the sea below the high water mark of ordinary tides situate within the limit of the kingdom . . . the public as subjects of the realm, have the right to fish to the exclusion of the subjects of all foreign powers, except in such parts of those tidal waters as have been legally appropriated as private fisheries’.

    Then here might be the ultimate two finger salute to any further thought of a an official license further more the data base from the issue of said license might be a god send to those companies taking up the idea with regard targeting there customers and the customers might well get offered better deals.

    Now do you still think it’s daft?

     

    I'm not being defeatist Deano, I've worked closely with all the major manufacturers in the UK for over 16 years. In all that time there have only been a select few that have put money back into sea fishing by means of sponsorship of a few competitions.

    As far as the amount of money we spend on tackle etc, you're right that the starting point should be the manufacturers themselves - but I wonder just how many would release sales figures relating to how many/ how much sea fishing product they sell every year?

    The concept of a free license is an interesting one too, but what's to stop the Government waiting a few years when most sea anglers have bought new kit and got their free license, then bringing in a 'pay for' license? A few words described as the 'Right to fish' don't really mean jack to the Government - otherwise they would never have contemplated bringing in a license in the first place.

    I don't think it's a daft idea at all, I just think there would need to be commitment from everyone involved, including the Government!

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