Boat Fishing advice wanted

[Lid]

I am a fresh water fisherman who occasionally dabbles with sea angling. Some friends have a small boat in Poole and they want me to show them how to catch fish other than mackerel. In fact they are keen to catch bass, but any other species would be fine too.

 

Can anyone please advise us on what sort of rods, reels, line and tackle to get and whether targeting bass is going to be successful, or should we aim for something else. Although we don't know much about boat fishing, they have an echo sounder and my friends are competent in handling the boat as they go wreck diving, etc.

 

Any advice or recommended books will be much appreciated. Cheers.

[H.A.]

Gofer 9' spinning rods which can handle 125 gms.

 

Or just use a short (11') carp rod/medium F/S reels.

 

12lb main lines (clear) ......

 

10lbs fluorocarbon on 6 - 10 ft flowing traces and a strong nickeled 1/0 hook.

 

I don't know Poole Harbour entrance that well, but you'd get good information from local tackle shop/local anglers.

 

Bream might be the other target from April - September.

 

Live sandeels almost essential for the bass, though!

 

Ada

[Alan Taylor]

Lid:

My advice, there are some excellent boats out of Pool, take a charter trip, look at the hire rods, make a point of asking the skipper questions about species/time of year/baits/methods, during an eight hour trip you should (between you) get enough first hand information especially if you don't mention that you have your own boat

 

Hamworthy RBl have a good club, could be worth a call or even joining.

The tackle shop in Swanage is worth a visit for local knowledge.

The wrecks in your area have brilliant cod and Pollock fishing from December onwards if you can find one without a net on it

What size boat is it, can it make the haul well offshore, do you trailer it or is it on a mooring?

 

Don't concentrate your tackle on Bass alone there is loads of Skate,Bream, Cod, Pollock etc in there seasons. If you get bad weather Pool harbour produces some nice Flounder in the Harbour, you can also dig your own Rag worm and cockles.

 

The Studland ferry crossing produces Bass in the Summer months but it is a dodgy place to be fishing due to the traffic.

 

Thanks to another S.W. angler for making me home sick, I used to live in Corfe Castle and Wool

 

Tight lines.

 

Alan(fnl)

[gonefishing]

prob worth a charter trip...you'll pick up more in a day with them than a week wandering around poole harbour learning your rigs and gear and wondering if your on a good mark.

 

I'd echo Alans advice on kit...go light, long traces for bass, grab some ragworm as well, they love it. With strong 1/0's in the harbour you will pick up anything if its around. The bass there like long traces like alan says, and inside the harbour best time is big rising tide early morning ive found. Anywhere inside where the tide moves but may trap food etc and changes from deep to shallow quickly. As far as i've found the bass like plain and simple rigs, rather than tonnes of flashy stuff on them.

Mostly in harbour at this time its bass and flounder and wrasse. During the summer though, ive had bass, bream, common eel, both types of smoothhound, doggie, sole, flounder, mackerel, wrasse.(all in one afternoon...wierd)

 

Oh and get a good tide predictor for around poole harbour as it can get quite out of wack the more you venture away from the quay or entrance prediction points.

[Lid]

Thanks for the replies folks.

 

I haven't yet been on the boat yet, but it's a 20 foot Hardy Pilot and is kept moored in the harbour for 6 fair weather months of the year. It is capable of longer hauls, but probably a bit uncomfortable for conditions over Force 3, so I'm told.

[John E Ashford]

 

Live Sandeels are deadly for Bass fishing.

 

On your mainline( Braid) add a bead then pass the mainline through a tube boom, add a second bead then attach a swivel / link.

 

The weight, attached to the tube boom, will be as heavy as necessary, depending on depth – wind speed – drift and current. 1oz up to 1.5lb

 

The trace, if only two on a boat, should be 6ft up to 12ft of clear mono.(Amnesia 20lb) Starting with a swivel and terminating with a 4/0 hook through the top lip of the live Sandeel.

 

The trace, if more than two on a boat, should be 6ft of clear mono.

The reason for 6ft traces, used when more than two on a boat, so you will experience less tackle tangles when rigs are in action.

 

When fishing, from a boat for Bass, place the rig in the water and let the trace flow away from the boom then slowly lower to the seabed. If you let the rig down to fast the trace will lift and spin around your mainline.

Once on the seabed, keep the end rig there. With the boat drifting you will feel the weight knocking along the seabed. Be prepared to lift your rod, to set the hook, with Braid you will feel everything.

It will be fast and furious. The fun begins, this is bass fishing. At this point your reel lever or star drag should have been set enough to let the fish take line when it turns and tries to dive.

A full retrieve can now begin but allowing the fish to take line when nearing the surface. The more times the fish dives the more likely it will be a bigger fish.

 

Now lets go for that Bass

[gaza]

if you get lucky enough to find the edge of a large bank with the fish finder and if there are any wrecks of any discription then try to have the boat anchored on the deep edge of the bank and with smallweights dependant on the tide big tides 3oz and small tides 1 to 2oz then cast your weights and let them roll along the bank with live sandeel or live crab even small squid is a good method for bass smoohies doggies of course and depending on the height and flow of the tide your chances of plaice are increased with culoured beads just above the hook they will chase the bait in slacker water just coming to the top of the tide well hope this helps ya mate hope its a whacker

[gonefishing]

i'd add 2-3 inches of really light line to that rig holding the weight, if your fishing rough ground it saves a lot of lost rigs. Poole harbour is mostly good ground though, most stuff sinks in the mud.

 

Ive tried shads with that rig as well which worked pretty well. The ones i was using were the Storms...wild eyes i think...the ones that were most successful were the ones that you get like 5 or so in a pack and they have an orange area under the shads chin. The others still performed, even the shrimp, but those worked the best. Either keeping the rig on the bottom or gentle winding worked, but for the most part keeping it hard on the bottom seemed to produce fish when when winding was failing.