Bait Boats

[peter mccue]

Not my cup of tea either.

 

leaving aside the reduction in skills argument, I once fished a reasonably sized water with a decent head of Carp in it. Trouble was, there was quite a few trees overhanging the lake where the Carp liked to rest under. With careful baiting & a fair degree of stealth & patience, you could usually get them to come out 3-4 feet from the branch edges, brilliant fishing.

 

Then the 'real deal' Carp boys turned up with the bait boats from then on the boats were manoeuvered deep into the snags dumping boilies & rigs combined. To start with they had runs galore, followed by snagged fish galore! Eventually though the takes dried up & we all struggled. I am convinced the thoughtless & unnecessary use of bait boats, robbed the fish of their safe havens, & left us with ultra cautious fish that simply couldn't relax anywhere.

 

Incidentally, one of the their defences for the use of B/B's was they could fish snags safely, not leaving line in the trees. Trouble was they conveniently forgot about the huge increase in snagged fish through fishing so deep in the snags

[Dick Dastardly]

There's a certain degree of irony in that statement, comming as it does from a guy who set out to create an instant big fish lake.

 

 

I actually "cut and pasted" that bit after I read it Ken but you beat me to it!

 

So bait boats eh? Well first of all I will say that despite not owning one now I used to have one.Also in fairness pikers should hold our hands up as in my circle of fishing friends we used them for piking long before we did carping!

 

Are they needed/justified/unecessary/"cheating"? Well my veiw is they are just another piece of tackle just another tool same as 3lb TC Ultrafast taper rods or size 26 hooks........Ok if used in the correct siyuation and used correctly. Sadly though it seems for many they are just another "look at how serious a carper I am" tool.Often missused to the extent that they are dangerous and spoil others fishing.

 

But in the right situation fine.Ive not had my own bait boat for over 12 years now and only come across the need to borrow one once for a particular water/situation in that time.BUT when needed I wouldnt have been able to do without one.

[Guest stubbo]

There are several radio control model submarine kits on the market that can or can be adapted to fire torpedoes. The Americans of course have taken it one stage further and fitted their torpedoes with a variety of lethal devices including .22 bullets. How they keep track of these or aim them I have no idea. Mind they also have live firing competitions between model warships fitted with guns that fire real bullets. Somehow I just cannot see that being allowed on Tynemouth boating lake of a Sunday morning.

what about a sub destroyer a fast boat that detects subs like afish finder then off loads depth charge and blows the blighters clean out of the water...... it would be good fun baton the hatches and all that

[Peter Waller]

We have beach and trout anglers who now spend more time involved with casting competitions than actually fishing. Infact some of 'em probably haven't caught a fish in years! Reckon we'll soon have bait boat regattas for ex carpies! Still, that would be better than them taking up piking

[Neil G]

I'm afraid they're a completely alien proposition to me. I can't think of any occasion where I'd want to use a bait boat. If you're using a bait boat to put your bait out great distances it must be hell trying to set the hooks, hi-tec braid or not. I'd much rather stick to proper boats for anything outside casting range.

 

Having said that, once when I was around 12 or 13 I was fishing on a flat calm day on a local beach in Norfolk when the boys on an inshore Herring boat offered to take my baited hooks out, they did so and dropped them at about 250 yards ish. I was duly rewarded with a Dab about the size of a dolls house saucer.

 

Good point about setting the hooks....definately becomes more of an issue when pike fishing

[BoldBear]

what about a sub destroyer a fast boat that detects subs like afish finder then off loads depth charge and blows the blighters clean out of the water...... it would be good fun baton the hatches and all that

 

Yes but what about any fish in the area that would be killed or at the very least stunned by the explosion?? plus spooking every fish in the lake.? the explosion would have to be more subtle. (a small localised explosion??).

 

I agree that Bait boats can be useful toys on certain really big lakes if you use self hooking rigs** and if there were no bad snags, or rocky gulleys or you werent fishing into distant bankside vegetation that the fish bolted further into or there were no Islands or buoys for the fish to kite round or etc. etc. etc.

 

** It would need to be self hooking; have you ever tried to move a 3oz lead at 300 yards?? its quite hard to move it more than a few inches even if you use braid and a long sweeping strike so what about a 4oz lead??? (Try it yourself in a field, you'll be surprised).

 

Except in extremely exceptional conditions I wouldnt use one, I might borrow someone elses bait boat to relieve my boredom if I was fishing a very difficult water; but at the price that they cost It would be cheaper and more fun to pay for a ticket on a more fish-accessable water.

 

But each to his own, I dont mind other people using them as long as it doesn't interfere with other peoples fishing or the wildlife.

Edited December 4, 2007 by BoldBear

[Anderoo]

The point about reduction of safe areas is a good one - the fish need to have places that anglers cannot reach, whether that's extreme distance or deep in snags.

 

It's also true that boats can spoil others' fishing. They were very popular on lake I used to fish, for catfish. There was a rope going across the lake that hay bails were attached to for algae control (I think?). It was about 100yds from any bank, but it became a hot area because the catfishermen with boats would drive them out and dump a couple of pounds of squid and a load of pellets and boilies right next to it. It got to the stage where only those with boats caught regularly, those casting would really struggle to compete with the accuracy of feeding and casting. It was a completely false situation of course, the cats were only there because of the huge piles of food that were dropped there all the time - left to their own devices, they'd have spend most of their time well within reach of everyone.

[Dick Dastardly]

I can't think of any occasion where I'd want to use a bait boat.

 

As said Im not a great lover of them Dant (more so because the way their use is often abused maybe?) but here is one example that you might be able to relate to of a situation where using one caught me several good fish.

 

The vennue was a Kent gravel pit more known/used for its carp fishing.The swim in question was on one of the few open banks.The feature which seemed to hold the preyfish (and therefore attract the pike) was a drop off in depth of a few feet some 35-40m from the bank.The going bait rig combo was a sunk float paternostered live bait fished just over the drop off.Easy fishing on a calm day or with the wind behind you.A simple gentle lob would put your gear among fish.Now the rub! When the swim was really going it was enevitabley because the wind was banging into that bank! huge shoals of fish held up against the drop off.But putting a live bait (thats still alive and on all the hooks! at splash down) 35-40m into a gale aint so easy no matter how good a caster you are!!

 

The borrowed bait boat caught me and my friends some big fish from that swim in conditions where we would have either struggled or wasted a lot of baits.Hardly long range stuff there eh?

[Peter Waller]

If fishing was just about catching then maybe, and I stress 'maybe', I would build myself a bait boat. But its not just about catching, so I won't! It might be carping, but it isn't angling!!

[dant]

As said Im not a great lover of them Dant (more so because the way their use is often abused maybe?) but here is one example that you might be able to relate to of a situation where using one caught me several good fish.

 

The vennue was a Kent gravel pit more known/used for its carp fishing.The swim in question was on one of the few open banks.The feature which seemed to hold the preyfish (and therefore attract the pike) was a drop off in depth of a few feet some 35-40m from the bank.The going bait rig combo was a sunk float paternostered live bait fished just over the drop off.Easy fishing on a calm day or with the wind behind you.A simple gentle lob would put your gear among fish.Now the rub! When the swim was really going it was enevitabley because the wind was banging into that bank! huge shoals of fish held up against the drop off.But putting a live bait (thats still alive and on all the hooks! at splash down) 35-40m into a gale aint so easy no matter how good a caster you are!!

 

The borrowed bait boat caught me and my friends some big fish from that swim in conditions where we would have either struggled or wasted a lot of baits.Hardly long range stuff there eh?

 

Hello Budgie...

Thats seems to be a perfectly reasonable occasion on which to use one. I have nothing really against them as such, if used sensibly and they don't interupt my days fishing. I've only ever seen one in use once and that looked like it was going to sink any minute.

I still wouldn't want to fish to anything I couldn't cast too. In your situation Budgie I would of maybe tried to ledger the live bait and wait for the wind to drop enough for me to get my favoured rig out there.

80% of my fishing is on little rivers so I'm a little behind on things such as bait boats.

Mind you if were sending my bait boat into a galeforce head wind I would be a little concerned, how stable are these things?