A big Rockling . . . ?

[Guest CJS2]

The biggest rockling are the three bearded variety. The ones we catch round here (Northumberland ) range between 12oz to 2lb. The five bearded variety is much smaller and can be a real pest when fishing for flatfish or whiting. The one you have caught looks like a 5 bearded and is therefore a good one. Very few anglers round here deliberately set out to catch these fish.

 

As I say, I know nothing about rockling, Robby my mate caught it, I did not think to look at the beards, to busy getting the photo quickly, but Robby said he did and it was 5? It came on the flatie rig, getting some nice dabs in the harbour recently, non Sunday unfortunatly, just the rockling and a small whiting + half a dozen codling. All the codling came on lug worm, we also had rag, black wraps and UW squid.

 

Interestingly, Roddy and I had the same set up, 1 flattie rod and two for cod. We both had three codling, all three came on the same rod cast to the same spot. This was mirored on Roddy's side of the boat, we have noticed this 'hot spot' catching since Christmas. I wonder if this could explain why some boats blank.

 

So often, dinghies fly about from mark to mark, neaver staying long enough to establish a patern. On KT we choose carfully, spend 10-15 mins looking befor droping the anchor. We then set up a fan patern, 3 rods each, one streight down the back, one with a grip lead off the stern quater, the third rod is then cast at varying angles uptide. Consistently, especialy recently with fish being hard to come by, one of those rods/angles produces all or most of the fish. Yesterday, Roddy had all three cod on his downtide rod early in the session, I had all my codling directly a'beam at extreem casting distance, in a distinct hole, the weight took markedly longer to hit bottom. This was later in the session.

 

The point I'm making is that the constant mooving about practiced by some boats is putting them at a rather hit or miss disadvantage, not spending time serching for the holding areas by casting around. No longer do we have the carpet of fish seen 10/15 years ago, they seem to be in small pockets that need a little patience to find, anyone else had similar experiences?

Edited February 6, 2006 by CJS2