Isle Of Man Tips Please

[Simon Everett]

The answer is Sikaflex 221 - you also need a tube gun to dispense it. Once stuck it stays stuck - but you can move it about with a wetted finger. It is flexible, so although it sticks fast it has a vibration resistant aspect to it that hard adhesives don't. You can also cut it off with a sharp blade (like a razorblad or modelling knife) should you need to remove whatever.

[fishfingers]

I spent a year living in Castletown. Anyone who has been to Castletown knows there is not a great deal for a young man to do,…..except fish his socks off.

 

Without a doubt the Isle of man is perhaps one of the best sea fishing venues in the whole UK! (This will obviously be disputed, however armed with a little information you can try it for yourself.)

 

Take one carp rod, 12lb min line (you’ll need it), a strong carp hook, a reel with a bloody good working drag, and a few slices of white bread.

 

Wait until low tide. As tide starts to flood position yourself at the end of the Castletown internal breakwater. Lob a big chunk of bread flake, may need a small bubble float if windy, at a very large shoal of very big mullet, in the six inches of crystal clear water below.

 

Here’s the hard part, don’t get too excited!!!!!

 

Watch in ore as a huge mullet engulfs the bread. Wait a second, this is key, don’t strike too soon.

 

Watch as the water explodes and then hang on for dear life.

 

A rear drag fixed spool reel is very useful, set it lightly at first and increase pressure as the fish slows. You will need a net with a fair handle length, 'cus the steps dont go down that far a low tide, and a camera so your friends will believe you.

 

Now stop trembling……

 

Unhook and hold the fish in the soft mesh net back in the flowing water until fully recovered and release none the worse for wear so someone else can catch it next year.

 

Put the rod in the car and go and have pint in the local with a huge smile on your face. Don’t bother trying to catch a second, as the turmoil of the first fight will have completely spooked all the over mullet in the shallow water. They ain't stupid.

 

Repeat this a week later , any more could shorten your life considerably and is not good for the nerves.

 

Bye the way, local folklore has it that when the Castletown brewery was actually on the side of the harbour and tipped the spent beer mash into the harbour, the mullet were all as long as your leg and impossible to catch.

 

Obviously the above is done without the yak. However, I would imagine the ‘plastic log’ man has a distinct advantage mullet fishing in the south of the island. Make the short trip to Derbyhaven. The inside of the harbour is totally sheltered and shallow, about six to 10 foot or so at high tide. In here swim good mullet, and lots of flatties. My best ever flounder was caught here on a lug.

 

I never did fly fishing back then in my youth, but I’ve been meaning to go back to Derbyhaven as it is effectively the UK equivalent of flats fishing!

 

I would dare imagine that a shiny fly, tipped with a small peice of worm, in a slow retreve alond the bottom, would land countless flatfish and the odd good mullet. It does with a small fly spood and spinning rod.

 

Night fishing the ‘haven’ produces some very good flatfish . The problem at night however are a plague of dogfish the likes of which I have never seen elsewhere. Very surprising as the water is only a few feet deep.

 

A word of warning however, don’t go outside the ‘haven’ on your yak unless you really know what your doing. The tide rip around Langness is awesome, and its hard to make ground even in a power boat at the height of flood. Also its going the wrong way… out to sea!!!!

 

Have to fly, I shall give you some more pointers later, truly there are so many good spots it’s a paradise.

 

By the way, my personal best ever hook up was in the Isle of man. I’ve caught Dolphin, Wahoo, Tuna, etc around the world but this was a fish of about 1000lbs…..!

 

I foul hooked a cursing basking shark from a boat, thought for a moment I had a world record Coalie, only just managed to save my gear by cutting the line with about 10 yards of line left on the reel. I doubt this would have been fun on a kayak.

[fishfingers]

The Islands coalfish / pollock fishing is excellent !!!!.

 

I’m going to break a 15 year old confidence now, as I believe there is a statute of limitations on secret fishing spots, and probably because the old guy who told me this is probably not with us anymore.

 

Look at a map of Castletown bay. Draw a straight line between scarlet point and the tip of Langness straight across the bay. Almost all the way across the bay, roughly along this line is a small reef followed by a big drop-off.

 

What you need to do is anchor your kayak on the shallow bay side of this dropoff, its about 10 to 15 meters deep at about high tide. Watch the bottom here as it is all weed and rocks ( Good for fish, not good for anchors.).

 

Now as the tide turns the shallow, though large, bay empties over this dropoff washing lots of yummy treats for the fish out with it.

 

Take a stout rod a 2 to 4 oz sinker and a flying collar rig. Bait with a live local ‘monster’ lance ( They average about a foot and a half ) through his chin and let him squerm slowly over the drop-off. At a pinch a big imitation eel will work but make sure it is on a long trace so it swims well ( Take plenty your going to loose some).

 

Now grip the rod very firmly, and I mean very firmly. With the live bait you can feel him wriggle as he is so large a bait. When he sees the coalfish stacked up in the drop-off he will really start to wriggle. I kid you not, you can actually feel his panic. Two to Five seconds later his little life will be ended in what can be considered the mother of all bites.

 

I have fished a lot of places on this planet and people bang on about blue water and what not, but there are few fish that attack as savagely as coalfish and pollock. Anglers usually don’t get much ‘sport’ as these fish have a habit of showing up in deep water and fast tides, requiring silly amounts of lead and thunder stick tackle to reach them. This is not the case here. So hold that rod tight, tie it to your kayak and whatever you do don’t use a rod rest!

 

Now pump like crazy…. No! you girls blouse HARDER!!!….. The objective now is to raise that fish 3 or 4 meters quickly before he realises what’s going on. Once he does he will sound like a mad thing, and its snaggy as all hell down there. Expect to loose every other fish, nothing you can do about it, the shallow reef edge and drop-off depth will mean getting him back to the boat is just dumb luck.

 

On a kayak I would imagine you should use lighter tackle ( 12lb stuff) as you will need to break off the snags without going in. It should be noted that in order to fish this mark you need to anchor up. Not yet being a kayak man, though if I can swing it with the ball and chain I soon will be, the anchoring game does seem a little tricky.

Now the flow from the bay emptying is ‘manageable’ and the relatively shallow water should make it possible to fish from a ‘very’ small boat.

 

The best mark is probably about 60 to 200 yards out from scarlet point along the line mentioned earlier. If the wind is blowing from the west this can be quite sheltered. It is essential however to find the drop-off. An echo sounder is going to be a big help, but switch the fish alarm off unless you want a constant ringing in your ears. At a pinch you can probably locate it by trial and error, start well in of the line and drift out of the bay. If you catching small coalies about 2 lb and under (Know as sh*ties locally due to there annoying habit of defecating on you as you try to unhook them) your not there yet. When you are, you’ll know it.

 

Don’t be to eager to go to the Langness end of this line in your kayak, it has one hell of a tide rip. In fact the Langness end of the line can only be fished effectively from the shore as the main tide flows parallel to line of the drop-off. Expect to loose a lot of tackled though if you try this. By the way, this same flow it why it is impossible to fish this reef from the rocks at scarlet point, I have tried and failed.

 

Now on this mark you can expect to see a lot of fish 10lb plus so steel yourself for some aching arms. Don’t put too much kit on your Kayak as you will need the space for your catch.

 

Enjoy, you lucky so and so.

[fishfingers]

For my sins I work with military sonar’s amongst other things. I have read the transceiver mount discussion with some interest and would like to suggest a very simple way to semi-permanent mount the transducer in your hull.

 

------ Buy a hot glue gun !-------

 

Use the general hot melt adhesive, that inevitably came with it, and stick the transducer to the hull. Sounds too simple to be true? Well I use this method to temporally mount sensors under test and its more than good enough for the sort of frequencies used in commercial fishfinders.

 

I would suggest that you first clean the hull with a drop of meths after roughing it with a little glass paper. Don’t rough the sensor just wipe with meths to remove any grease, or from the sounds of most installations, half a pint of Vaseline !!.

 

Work quickly, melt a large blob on the hull and mount the transducer on top. Just make sure that the whole bottom face is covered so you get a nice clean sound path. Hold for a minute or two to cool. I would suggest that you play with the glue gun first to get a feel for the setting time before you go for your first mount.

 

While your at it you can also tack the wires out of the way with the glue if you so fancy.

 

The slight elasticity of the glue will work a lot better than any epoxy with the inevitable flexing and thermal movement of the plastic hull, also the joint will not melt in the sun like Vaseline leaving you covered and the 'butt' of the inevitable crude jokes (see what I mean).

 

To remove, just heat a knife and slide it between the hull and the transceiver, though with a screwdriver, and a little care, you should be able to pry it off.

 

Just make sure the adhesive is not the wood type as this stuff soaks up water, it won’t damage anything but your sensor coming loose while on the water would be a pain.

 

I would imagine that you could then find a plastic container of some sort and hot glue this over the transceiver if you want more mechanical protection, but the hold should be pretty strong. Not pooh to a baby’s blanket, but strong none the less.

 

As an aside, hot melt glue is fabulous stuff for boating/fishing in general. It will seal small deck fittings with a lot less hassle, mess, expense and time over RTV silicone.

You can carry a stick in your kit and with the aid of a lighter, solve all kinds of problems, not least sticking rod tips back on. The later has happened to me twice while fishing, once in the middle of Africa on the only rod I had with me, and having a glue stick in my kit made me a ‘smug git’ ,as my companion pointed out.

 

Hope this is of use.

[fishfingers]

Map for the above fishing spot