Fly Fishing for Pollack

[Gillies]

Went fishing of the shore for small coalies (aka cuddies)last weekend for an hour or two - the old folk I know love them. Just using very small white feathers and slowly working them up and down just below the surface witha a spinning rod is the way I normally would catch them - this time thought I would be adventurous and use a fly rod and slowly retrieve over the surface with a floating line ... it worked a treat and I had around 15 within an hour. I did notice that there was a number of bigger fish attacking the flies, so stuck on a small pink mister twister on a 2/0 hook and started casting that with the fly rod along the edge of the kelp, with a result of 8 Pollack ranging from about 1 pound to 5 pound in weight, and some really terrific sport with these big runs and dives they do. (was using 8 lbs line for my cast, and got snapped 2 times by them - all fish caught were returned alive).

 

Would love to try fly fishing for Mackerel one day if wind and sea conditions dictated. Anyone ever given it a go?

 

Gillies

[Alan Taylor]

Gillies:

 

 

Would love to try fly fishing for Mackerel one day if wind and sea conditions dictated. Anyone ever given it a go?

 

Gillies

I have Gillies, it was Summer in Brixham harbour, it was blowing a gale outside the harbour. I knew nothing about fly fishing (still don't). One of the lads was going fly fishing for trout but cancelled his trip and came down to visit, he had his gear with him so we gave it a go. There were too many birds working the surface for a dry fly so he put on a big sinking one, casting it out, letting it sink and keeping the tip of the rod in the water hauling the line in quite quickly. Fantastic sport. lb for lb the hardest fighting fish in the sea IMO. 1 1/2 to 2 lb were the norm that day.

 

After a couple of hours I noticed we had an audience of mainly fish buyers, I was a commercial fisherman then so borrowed a rod and a set of feathers and got to "work", I made more money that day than on a normal day, the prices went sky high as no boats were landing

 

Give it a go but watch out for the birds

 

Alan(nl)

[Salar]

What about trying a casting float? The Danes (and others) use this tecnique for sea trout. It involves a floating, neutral or sinking casting bullet with a fly on a long leader behind it. They cast out, and check the line just before it hits the water to flick the fly forwards. It gets over the problem if distance which is the biggest bugbear of flyfishing in the sea, and to some extent will be far easier than conventional fly casting into a headwind. I've not seen them for sale in the UK or seen them used here but I would be interested to hear if anyone else has. You can search in the fly forum for casting floats to find a mail order supplier in Europe. Its much lighter, and more fun, than spinning with metal.

[Alan Taylor]

Salar:

What about trying a casting float?

I used to use the same method when surface fishing with bread crust for Carp. The weighted float is called a Controller in the carp world. They are shaped so that they do not make a big splash when entering the water but enter like a good high board diver would/should. On the top of the controller there is a ring, I used to run a short length through this and run the line through the tube with a stopper then 2 foot of leader to the hook. This helped keep the bait away from the main line.

 

As stated, stop the controller just before it hits the water so that the bait sails past it.

 

Alan(nl)

[Dan]

I've tried a casting float, bought them from my local shop, they were just small plasic balls of various sizes which you can fill or part fill with water, had limited sucess for bass but didnt get the hang of casting them the fly kept getting caught round the main line, didnt try a tug before they land though. I am still on the look out for a good alround fly rod capable of landing a decent bass but also for the odd trout/mackeral etc

Dan

[Salar]

Dan:

I am still on the look out for a good alround fly rod capable of landing a decent bass but also for the odd trout/mackeral etc

Dan

UK casting floats are a bit crude, the Askari catalogue has European ones that look a lot more aerodynamic.

For a fly rod suitable for bass have a look in the trout mags, there are offers on rigs for pike fly fishing (i.e. heavier than the usual river rods). You can get a rod, reel and line quite reasonably but they are not designed for salt water so make sure they are well washed out after a trip.

[billy5000]

Hi all

 

can't say id have thought using fly tackle at sea would have been any good but i have been proven wrong but i can't say id be tempted to try it im too stuck in my ways so i like my standard throw one big weight & rig with a nice squid or mackeral is what i like the best.

 

nice picture of your ling gillies in the pictures thread .

im still after a nice cod from hayling island behind the fun park.

 

waiting for the bl###y weather to sort itself out so i can go again,and try and drag chesters down there.

 

billy

[Gillies]

Yeah its that time of year for chucking out a big bit of Squid/Mackerel and see if you are lucky enough to catch a big Cod. (well in my case, chuck out the big bait, and wait - while my friends catch one or two).

 

We have a small sea loch here on the other side of the island that every year churns out Cod from 10 - 35 pounds. Best I've seen form it is a 28 pounder, best I've got is a 9 pound Coalfish. Is a strange place, pretty shallow and lots of small coalies in it - might have a go for them with the fly rod if I get there one Saturday over the coming weeks. Would be a worry though, as the 28 pounder I seen caught, was caught with a bronze Toby on a spinning rod - I shudder to think what a double figure Cod would be like on a Fly Rod. Incidentally this sea loch is also where the European 4lbs line class Cod Record comes from, my mate got it, a 23 pounder on 4 lbs line.

 

I did hear that a visiting Pike angler got a 15 and 10 pounder from the shore here on the Isle of Lewis about a month back, using one of those big Pike spinning plugs.

 

A Cod of any size of the shore and I would be happy :-)

 

Gillies

[billy5000]

Hi all

 

gillies it sounds like a nice place to fish i hope you catch a big cod on me.

once the car is fixed(i hope) ill keep trying at hayling for those cod.

 

quote:

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A Cod of any size of the shore and I would be happy :-)

---

me too

 

 

billy

[Salar]

There's a place in Denmark near Hasmark (top of the middle island) where you can flyfish for sea trout on the gently sloping beaches and fly fish for cod on the steeper banks. I tried and caught neither though