light gear for good fun

[gone_fishin]

alot of people say thatyou need alot of hevy tacle for sea fishing, to cope with the waves, tide, and even big fish! and although i like all of the heavy boat fishing, i have recently discovered how much fun you can have with light tackle.

 

i have a long, lighyt carp rod, with 4LB BS line, and also a rather light spinning outfit.this really gives you a decent fight with those bass of about 2/3LB. And as more and more fish arrive in the coming summer months, i hope to be catching thosse bigger fish on such tackle. is there anyone else out there who enjoys this mehod of fishing instead of just reeling in small fish with huge multipliers, and 20LB line.

 

i strongly reccomend you to try fishing this way. This works especially well in esturies and small harbours such as pagham harbour. Find a decent spot, where no-one has fished(or very few) and you'll be suprised how many fish are there. I recently was fishing a spot in chichester harbour, where the bass kept on biting, and there wasn't any more than 5 minutes beween catches.

[spasor]

Hello, Gone??

I spent last week boat fishing out of Swansea. If you think small 3/5lb bass give you an insight to the strength of fish versus your tackle? Try pulling a 25lb conger against the tide to the boat on 12lb line? By the time we released that fish at the side of the boat. I knew him better than my brother!!

Yes. I like fishing with light tackle. But we shouldn`t go too light? I`d hate to leave a good fish with 40yds of rot-proof mono left trailing behind the poor sod after I`d been snapped?

Whilst 4-6lb line is enough for small bass and mullet. Sometimes you have to scale up for the fish.

Paul.

[Newt]

GF - I like the light tackle myself - sea and fresh water. Lots of fun with smaller fish and a huge thrill if you tie into a larger one.

 

Good idea to use a lighter hooklength so if there is a breakoff, the fish only has a short piece of line to deal with. Also, barbless will allow the hook to be thrown pretty quickly. Or use a fresh water hook and it will corrode away fairly soon.

[ShoreDemon]

Agree with all of the above. My only concern when sea fishing (shore) is abrasion so I tend to spin with 10-12lb line as i find lighter lines part too easily with even a slight rub off the rocks/barnacles etc. In some ways I think it is the rod that is most important in light tactics (with lighter line of course). A nice whippy rod makes for great sport as opposed to the bog-standard beachcaster. Fine when lead chucking and fishing tough tides but leave it at home for the estuaries, spinning, piers, etc.

 

Neil.

[chesters1]

the yanks love their records ,look at the breaking strain of line for some of their lite tackle records ,very impressive

[Bretty]

I love light line spinning,

 

I manage to have a go at the weekend when my parents droped us on the south coast, didn't catch any thing. but find light line spinning much more fun then static fishing.

 

I use a super-whippy 6 foot rod, soft as anything and 6lb line.

 

Do you find you have to use a particularly heavy lure to cast with the heavieer line? What is your sea fishing set up?

 

I was toying with a 28g toby and a fairly heavy sinking lure which i think was called a terminator. I just picked them up in a shop coz they looked good. Are these suitable sea lures?

 

Bretty

[fishy1]

bretty the wife and I have light line fished for about 20years+.I use a 9ft spinning rod,6lb line and 1oz spinners,toby!s great allrounders.wife uses 9ft drennen 2:25lb test curve,spin rod 6lb line 3/4oz spinners and repala plugs.olso float fish with same gear.the wife landed a 5lb bass with float gear and size 4 flattie hook.great fun with a mackeral they fight like the devil

[Leon Roskilly]

I was fishing a point on the local estuary where the tide run is almost non-existent, just a gentle drift.

 

I was bottem fishing using a match rod and a feeder.

 

On the stiffer match rod, I was getting the beginning of bites, which didn't develop.

 

It was on the feeder, with a much finer tip, that the pluck, pluck would turn into a hittable bite.

 

Schoolie bass, flounder and pout.

 

I reckon that on the stiffer rod, the fish were dropping the bait as soon as they felt the resistance.

 

Those around me, using traditional beach rods weren't registering any bites at all!

 

When the water is fast, the fish just snatch at bait before it/they are whisked away in the tide.

 

Slacker water, they have more time to be finnicky.

 

Tight Lines - leon

[gone_fishin]

bretty, is the terminator made by abu?, if so, i have used one, yhey are intended for the freshwater, but i have caught bass and even large mackeral on it. another good thing to try with the whole light gear thing is flat fish spoons. The attractor spoon i was using the other day(sonar, made by delta tackle) not only caught the flounder, but also a couple of bass. i was just slowy retrieveing it along the bottom. - great fun!

[Dan]

Hey ..... people after my own heart! I fish 90% of the time with a 9 foot spinning rod 6lb line and yes Bretty a 28 gm toby! its the best all round lure I've found for inshore Lyme Bay, It casts beautifully. I catch Bass (best 16lb) pollack, Gar, Mackerel, the occasional suicidal sand eel and last year for the first time a 2.5lb Allis Shad, a beautiful fish.

You'll find that the lighter the line the further the cast providing you dont go too silly and snap off on a cast!

Dan