Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2023 i Sea Angler

FLOAT FISHING I don’t do enough of it and I expect I’m not alone: patiently watching a float in the anticipation of it disappearing under the water with a bite is an addictive way to fish, yet few sea anglers dedicate much time to it. This month we’ve made it our mission to change that with a range of features dedicated to float fishing. First up Dave Lewis explains the trick to getting thick lipped mullet feeding with ground bait while using light float tactics to target them in and around harbours and marinas. Chris Kennedy then provides 10 reasons to do more float fishing with his expert tips thrown in. The idea of targeting the remaining unclaimed British shore-caught shark records with float fishing tactics is an exciting idea…

1 GETTING KIDS HOOKED The youth are the future of this sport; without them, this wonderful sport dies. Many styles of fishing are too complicated or nuanced to pick up in a few moments, but float fishing is perhaps the exception. The wonderful simplicity of casting a float and slither of bait into the sea and simply watching for it being taken under by a predatory fish is very easy for the child or newcomer to angling. If you are an experienced fisherman supervising others, managing and keeping an eye on things is straightforward. Some of my own first fishing experiences were spent sitting on a rock whilst watching an orange bubble float bob around the edge of a reef and suddenly be pulled under by pollock or ballan…

SURF BASS September heralds one of the best periods of the year for shore bassing. The first of the autumn gales and the bigger tides, plus the onset of autumn spur the fish on to feed heavily, and with the chance of a bigger than average fish. TIDE TALK Bass have a powerful body profile ideally suited to feeding in fast water and heavy surf conditions. This rightly tells us that the bigger tides are the ones to fish. These occur from the 29th August and stay with us until the 5th September. The next tides fall between the 13th and the 20th, and again from the 27th to the 30th September. The rising tides prior to the very big springs tend to fish best, with the biggest tides not…

Almost all of us have started out our fishing adventures float fishing. It is, for me, still one of my favourite ways of passing some fishing time. Being able to see the bite on the surface always makes the heart stop. Most sea fish feed on or near the bottom, which makes float fishing impossible on a lot of marks, but there are some scenarios where it will work better than any other method. From the rocks, or the end of a pier, float fishing is a very accepted technique to employ. From a small boat or kayak it is not so widely practised, why is that? The same advantages are available in all situations, with the ability to impart natural movement to the bait and to cover ground at…

SCHÖFFEL SALAR II WADING JACKET The new Salar II wading jacket from Schöffel has won the prestigious European Fishing Tackle Trade Exhibition (EFTTEX) Best New Product award. The machine washable, GORE-TEX waterproof and breathable jacket features a three-point adjustable packaway storm hood with peak, a reinforced net D-ring, a velcro fly patch pad and wading belt loops. Other features include a one-way YYK front zip, hand warming pockets and an internal security pocket. With a waterproofing of 28,000mm and breathability of 9 < 9 PA m²/W the jacket is at the high end of the waterproof and breathability ratings. The jacket comes in two colours: Forest or Graphite. ■ RRP: £599.95■ www.schoffelcountry.com SAKUMA PULLEY BEADS The Pulley Rig has long been recognised as being perhaps the most efficient rig shore…

I have read piles of fishing books, mainly how-to guides: that’s what most fishing books are. But the books I like best are about the subjective and personal side of fishing – at its best, writing so picture perfect that you can imagine being there. There have been very few writers of that calibre, and within sea fishing today there are none. The very best story I know is Ernest Hemingway’s Big Two-hearted River which, while billed as fiction, is too emotive and too finely observed to be anything but autobiographical. The tale clearly impressed Anthony Pearson too, for there is a reference to it in Shore Fishing with Anthony Pearson, a collection of his angling journalism from the 1960s and 1970s. Like his book Successful Shore Fishing it will…

MATCH FISHING LEADER BOARD AS OF AUGUST 4TH 2023 HOW IT WORKS ■ With £10,000 in tackle prizes the points, based on entries, are awarded to the top three plus section winners and captors of the largest fish caught in each designated Penn match. Penn also awards a prize of a Spinfisher fixed-spool reel to the angler scoring the most points in matches shown in each issue. If there is a tie, the winner will be the angler whose total is from the greatest number of results and is then chosen on merit by the editor. An angler can win only one reel during the year. To win a prize you must be registered with the Penn Sea League – supply your name, address, phone and email. Send fixtures, results…

The thick lipped grey mullet is an inshore species, often be found in freshwater. Thick lips are invariably the species you’ll see cruising in tidal estuaries, harbours and marinas around the coast, often swimming in water barely deep enough to cover their dorsal fin. The fact that mullet are so often visible means that anglers frequently spend an inordinate amount of time trying to catch them. However, unless they have the correct technique, rarely do they succeed. The key to catching mullet is firstly to get them feeding confidently. Groundbaiting is the way to achieve this. You can often turn up at your chosen venue and start introducing the groundbait while waiting for the fish arrive and start to feed. A bucket consisting of a couple of loaves of bread…

Over the years we have seen a lot of changes in the sea angling world. It seems nearly everything has been modernised: rods, reels, leads, rigs and entire arsenals of new equipment developed over the years and which now populate our tackle boxes; not to mention boats and the equipment that we find on them! Where one person may think we are going completely mad, the other eagerly makes use of these ingenious developments. Remarkably, one of the most important aspects, the bait we use, has not really developed for the simple reason that it is either not possible, extremely difficult or simply too expensive. Attempts have certainly been made. Think of our always “fresh” and very agile king rags from France and even Korea: A nice attempt, but not…

In association with £25 TACKLE VOUCHER WINNERS Fishingmegastore.com awards a £25 voucher prize to each of two winners - the youngster with the best shore fish and another with the top boat catch. The winners can use the voucher to select tackle from Fishingmegastore.com which is based in Glasgow and Edinburgh. ■ Send your Young Rods entries by email to sa.ed@kelsey.co.uk…

I often say that being a charter skipper isn’t just about fishing; it doesn’t matter how good the weather, the fish or the boat may be, it is the people that make or break the day. As a skipper I have the pleasure of meeting countless new people throughout the year. Some are day trips on a one-off trip while staying nearby and others go on to become regulars with me. It always feels a bit special when another skipper joins me for the day; I get to show off what Mersea can offer and chew the fat about being a charter skipper. One of the many interesting new people I enjoyed meeting aboard the Galloper last year was Shaun Pedley. Shaun is skipper of Our Joe-L based out of…

How to improve your casting skills Finding it hard to cast straight and even harder to throw accurately left or right? Struggling for height but usually ending up with the rig flying low over the sea, often going left as well? While it might be necessary to spruce up the whole casting technique, the cure usually involves just a handful of minor adjustments easily taken care of with a bit of practice. Let’s assume a fairly good casting style but neither as straight nor as consistent as we’d prefer. Ignore direction and distance for the moment and concentrate instead on setting up the cast exactly the same way each time. Cast smoothly and effortlessly. Notice where the sinker lands. It doesn’t matter whether the cast is straight but it is…

As many of you know, Fiiish, the French lure manufacturer, are famous for their innovation. Their flagship lures, the Black Minnow, are arguably the best soft plastic lure out there and many have tried to copy them without the same success. Last month I took an in depth look at the Hypno Cast metal jigs. This month I am going to take a look at their Crazy Sandeel, a strong competitor to the Sidewinder skerries eel. This comment will divide people, but the one thing I think Fiiish do exceptionally well is getting the flexibility of their soft plastic lures just right. The Crazy Sandeel is no exception; both the paddle tail and normal versions of these lures move superbly well when being retrieved. They are the closest things I…

There is no small amount of irony that one of the few remaining fishable marks at the Port of Newhaven in Sussex is nicknamed the Hope. This small section of the port’s channel wall on the River Ouse, named after the Hope Inn which overlooks the harbour entrance, can fish well but isn’t much longer than 100m, leaving little room when the fishing is at its best. With the threat of the owners of the port, the French company Transmanche Ferries, closing the east arm to fishing, locals can only hope that this venue remains accessible. Anglers and members of the public said au revoir to Newhaven Sandy West Beach in 2008 after the French owners deemed it to be part of the working area of the port and didn’t…

WHERE TO FISH GREAT SEA ANGLING VENUES Your insight into the best shore and boat fishing that the UK and Ireland have to offer The River Taf in south west Wales is not an especially large river. It meanders at leisure through the rolling Carmarthenshire countryside, eventually reaching the sea near the village of Laugharne where it joins the rivers Towy and Gwendraeth to enter Carmarthen Bay as one great estuary sandwiched between the spectacular twin surf beaches of Cefn Sidan and Pendine. Laugharne is, of course, the one-time home of Dylan Thomas, whose famous boat house home and writing shed are located at the water’s edge on the banks of the Taf affording truly magnificent views across the estuary. It is widely acknowledged that the heavily wooded hill behind…

YOUR FISHING CATCHES HOW TO ENTER Email only to sa.ed@kelsey.co.uk Please supply these details: angler’s name, age, address, telephone number, email, type of FISH, weight of FISH, where caught, DATE caught, BAIT/rig, whether caught from shore or boat, if from charter boat, give name of boat, port and skipper. Please state if the FISH was retained or returned. Send us your entries and win some great prizes ■ SHORE LURE OPTION: Solaris 4000 or 5000 reel, RRP: £60, Epixor 15-50g rod RRP: £80■ SHORE LURE OPTION: Solaris 4000 or 5000 reel, RRP: £60, Epixor 15-50g rod RRP: £80■ BOAT: Classic CLX, RRP: £60 Cortez Boat Rod, RRP: £90■ SHORE BAIT OPTION: DSA reel RRP: £60, Wave Power surf rod, RRP: £80 YOUR TARGETS... Catch a FISH on this list at…

The Fat mono knot forms an extremely strong connection on heavy duty line. Not only is it easy to tie but it can be tied quickly while you are fishing. It is used for attaching hooks, lures and swivels to thick mono, hard mono or fluorocarbon line with a diameter of 1.2mm or more where the thickness and stiffness of the line makes it impossible to tie other knots. The fat mono reaches its limit at around 2mm diameter at which point even it reaches its capacity to be tied and crimping the line becomes required. Step-by-step 1. Pass the mono or fluoro line through the eye of the hook or swivel twice forming a double loop. 2. Next, the tag end of the line is passed through the double…

With strong south-westerly winds, a chop on the water and the threat of yet more rain, conditions were less than ideal. Chichester Harbour in West Sussex is over 9000 acres of creeks and mudflats. It’s a huge expanse to explore by boat and the ideal location to test the capability of a boat to fish in ultra shallow water, which at only a few feet deep in places is accessible only to boats with very shallow drafts – those that that can creep up on bass and mullet, with barely enough water to cover their dorsal fins. I was here with Ben Stevens to test out the Tracker Targa V-19 WT, a new boat being imported from the USA into the UK by RBS Marine. Trackers are deep-V aluminium hulled…

Three lucky Sea Angler readers can win themselves a super Sonik SKS Black Bass rod from Sonik Sports, complete with a SKS Black Surf Reel and a spool of 18lb Ultrasonik saltwater monofilament The SKS Black Bass has recently been released and is a new addition to the SKS sea range, much improved on the previous SKS Black models. Featuring K-style guides, a more powerful blank and yet incredibly light. This little rod is set to buck the trend in bass and estuary fishing. It’s a powerhouse of a rod, yet exceptionally sensitive on bite registration. At 11ft 8in (two-piece) it casts like a dream and is suited to either fixed spool or multiplier reels. Dressed in K-style, braid friendly guides and a custom Sonik ‘Slide-Lock’ reel seat, the SKS…

Initially launched in 1999, the PENN Sea League quickly went from strength to strength and has become the main target event in the UK calendar for serious match anglers. What makes it unique is that being a league format it demands a consistent level of fishing. One or two good results, especially on your own patch help, but it’s the points you pick up away from home that count and that proves an individual angler’s overall ability to take on a wide range of sea and ground conditions, as well as having that all important multiple species knowledge. Adaptability is the name of the game! This year’s final fell on the 8th July with the venue the notorious outer wall on the Stena Line ferries-owned Holyhead Breakwater. The ground here…

Q How did you first get into shore match fishing? Many years ago, when I was a junior, my dad worked for British Gas. I joined the south-eastern gas board fishing club that ran out of their social club, based in Brighton. There were monthly beach matches and boat competitions; I was lucky that my dad would take me to fish most of them. The club also held an annual open. I won the junior section when I was about 14-years-old, promptly using the £25 prize to buy my first multiplier, a Shakespeare Sigma! Q What advice would you give to any young females getting into the sport? Don’t be put off by the sheer number of men who fish and the lack of women! Yes, it is male dominated…