Innehållsförteckning för Issue 615 från Sea Angler

ISSUE 615 NOVEMBER 2022 Well, the story of the month for many has been the run of codling along the beaches of the South-East. It has been some years since any cod were caught at all along the once famous shingle beaches of Kent and Sussex. Yes, perhaps you could winkle out one but from how many hundreds of hours of fishing? Then, in early September, reports of codling began to appear. It’s great news for anglers and cod stocks in the Channel but how long it will last is anyone’s guess. Warming sea temperatures were supposed to mean conditions were no longer favourable for juvenile cod to survive while the adult stock has been fished to oblivion by commercial fleets. Once they were gone, they were gone, or so…

BEGINNERS GUIDE PART THREE I can get quite worked up when talking about rigs, You see, I am not a big fan of all kinds of bells and whistles on my rigs. Don’t get me wrong, I know that competitive anglers find an advantage in using casting lines or lines with certain types of adornments. But personally, I am of the opinion that this has no place in the standard equipment of the average sea angler (especially not the ones that are just starting out) as you are only making things more difficult for yourself. For us, as recreational fishermen, it doesn’t matter whether we catch 10 or 15 fish, it’s all about the experience. I fish all year round with a few different and simple rigs; a flapper rig,…

The separation zone between west Devon and east Cornwall is the Tamar, Lynher and Taw tidal rivers; all for the most part highly picturesque against backdrops of woodland, each with a path allowing easy access. The opportunity to bag a specimen flounder begins in October at the mouth of the Tamar bordered on its north side by the famous naval base of Devonport and Mount Edgecumbe and Cremyl on its southern edge. Although the pass is narrow it is deep enough for the greatest warships Britain has ever had, and as a boy before the Second World War I recall seeing the likes of HMS Hood, King George V, Illustrious and the original Ark Royal. PALM ROCK TO MILLBROOK DAM A mark of note is Palm Rock, a short distance…

As we approach the autumn, we begin to think about traditional winter species starting to populate our shallow sandy and shingle beaches. We may dare to dream of a slack liner which results in a cod, those rare unicorns, as they’ve come to be known on my part of the UK coastline. More likely it will result in a ray, but perhaps not! I would urge you not to forget our summer species too soon. Hold off on those out and out ray sessions for just a bit longer. The tasty sole can be caught in numbers right up until November all along our coastline, and with a bit of insider knowledge you can incorporate both. Now that’s a challenge! The sole tends to be thought of as a summer…

In association with FANCY WINNING A NEW ROD AND REEL COMBO from Okuma by catching a great fish? In our catch competition, your target is to catch one over the weight given on our nominated species list. If you do, enter our contest and you automatically stand a chance of winning either our shore or boat prize. Each issue we award a superb Okuma package to the captor of the best shore fish and best boat-caught fish, both chosen on merit. Prizes are awarded at our discretion and Okuma reserves the right to send alternative prizes. Austin Cox, Somerset FISH: 2lb 14oz Dover sole BAIT: black lug VENUE: Bridgewater Bay DATE: 8th September Stevie (Zippy) Waddell, Gourock FISH: 13lb spurdog BAIT: mackerel VENUE: Isle of Skye DATE: 16th September Daryll…

You have dreamed about owning your own boat for years. No more 9am to 3pm charter trips booked months in advance in potentially unsettled weather and uncertain prospects. Not to mention the fees. Whether you have a 10ft dinghy you row from the shore or an offshore cruiser the world is now your oyster, but be warned, owning your own boat will be expensive. There is a lot to learn and lots of experiences to enjoy or endure. It always surprises me that if you have the cash you can purchase a boat and use it without any knowledge, training, insurance, or indeed, common sense. Your knowledge base can be easily improved by simply reading stuff; whether it’s about safety, the weather, seamanship, boat handling or navigation there is lots…

SMARTWAVE SW4200 First up is the New Zealand manufactured Smartwave 4200. Constructed from double skinned polyethylene Smartwave boats are ‘unsinkable’ and incredibly durable while also being lightweight. The fishing boat of choice for Aussie and Kiwi anglers the 4200 is also extremely stable to fish from and provides a smooth, quiet ride. Rated up to 50HP the 4200 can cruise at 30kt with plenty of clean deck space to fish from as well as storage space. Personal modifications to Smartwaves are virtually limitless and are a big appeal to anglers, each one wishing to customise their own. The 4.2m 4200 comes as an open tiller controlled or centre console version in a range of vivid colours. RRP £12,065 (including VAT) www.thewolfrock.co.uk SMARTWAVE SW 3500 The little sister to the SW4200…

Penn Rampage II rods are a new generation of light but powerful rods. Engineered to be fished with braided fishing line, these rods can take the extra strain created by these hi-tech lines and will punish any fish. The new blank construction provides a thin diameter blank which overall makes for a lighter rod that is more ergonomic. Features include an EVA handle, long tip-short butt construction, carbon composite blank, Fuji O guides, rubber push on butt cap, supplied in Cordura tube and aluminium reel seat. The Shakespeare Omni multiplier is a reliable, great value multiplier reel from. It is lightweight, available in left or right hand wind, and comes pre spooled with 250 metres of 20lb monofilament line. THREE EASY WAYS TO ORDER 1. LOG ON to the link…

Once I had left home and was fishing ‘unsupervised’ from the shoreline, rather than with my father in his boat, I had that typical schoolboy approach in that big fish (the females) were always the furthest away from where I was fishing. Into the back of a drawer went the spinning reel and boat rod and my early wages were spent on multiplier reels and beachcasting rods as now I needed to get out to where those big female bass would be, and at distance, or so I thought. For several years I would walk down to the shoreline with my baited hooks and fling the 4 or 5oz weights as far as I could. I confess I was never a competition caster, but I could get it out a…

Most of us will see fishing as a therapy which promotes good mental health and wellbeing. Like most other people at the moment, my life has been seriously affected by the cost-of-living crisis. Fishing is so important to me, so much so, I cannot even start to imagine a life without it. Perhaps we now need to face the fact that we must function in our daily lives with less of a disposable income, but does that mean we have to sacrifice things we love doing, like fishing? When faced with serious problems in life I try not to panic. Instead, I think and work desperately hard to come up with some sort of solution. Please don’t get me wrong. I completely understand that we all have different priorities in…

While the natural world simply lives by the cycles of night and day, the changing of seasons, temperature and weather, we human beings are severely restricted by the constraints of something we invented ourselves. The real irony, however, is despite all our clocks and calendars, our watches and wall charts, we still have no control whatsoever over time as it moves in its own mysterious ways for, rather than some neat, linear construction, it’s only ever been a ragtag assortment of cobbled-together moments that do their own thing exactly when and how they want to. Sometimes it will speed up suddenly, causing the second week of a long-awaited holiday to fly by; there are times when it inexplicably slows down, like the moment as a kid when you jumped from…

Approximately five miles upriver from the Lancashire town of Fleetwood you will find the fishing venue of Stanah. It is an area of marshland interspersed with gullies leading to mudflats and a river not much wider than a hundred yards at low water. Stanah is part of the Wyre Estuary Country Park, were there are picnic areas, walks, car parks, toilets and a cafe. The fishing areas are a five to fifteen minutes-walk from the car parks. SPECIES The main species are flounder, eel and the occasional bass. Although flounder are present all year round the best time to target them is the end of March until now, in October. Specimen flounder to 40cm are quite possible. Eels and bass tend to show May to October and specimen bass to…

Rocco Genneli from Leven, Fife with a 2lb 7oz mackerel caught on 14th September out of his dad’s boat using a jumbo hokkia rig. Harvey Mitchell from Hull caught himself this 5lb smoothhound from Hilston on the Holderness coast. Jack Herman, 11, with an 8lb pollock caught on a soft plastic from a private boat out of Falmouth. Roscoe Dolbear,14, from the Isles of Scilly caught this bull huss fishing at Deep Point, St Mary’s, on a whole scad. Issac Jones caught his PB dogfish of 2lb 3oz at Amroth, Pembrokeshire using squid tipped with lug on a pulley Pennell. Alfie Collings, from Milton Keynes, caught his first ever ray in Weymouth Bay using mackerel strip. Sienna Jackson, 6, with a new PB wrasse, caught on crab bait caught from…

The Pells lies 10 miles off Newquay and has no equal for a range of exotic species that have wandered to Cornish waters from the Mediterranean, the Bay of Biscay and the Azores. Most are taken from charter boats due to swiftly changing weather in the open Atlantic which keeps smaller and privately owned craft at a disadvantage. Unlike the reefs on the Channel side of the Cornish peninsula, the seabed configuration is mainly rock ridges, rarely more than 20ft in height. This is in direct contrast to the towering pinnacles, such a feature of southern Cornish waters. Many species inhabit a rugged bottom of base rocks and respond to baits from boats at anchor or drifting. Tides run swiftly at the Pells and a considerable area can be covered…

It’s funny how sometimes non-anglers think of us as antisocial people. In fact, in my experience, angling brings people together. How many other pastimes involve spending a whole day, or sometimes several, with friends or family? I take many bookings in which I see family groups or father and son enjoying a day at sea in each other’s company and pursuit of fish. For me, angling has led to many great family holidays, trips away or just days spent together as I grew up. I am fortunate enough to have had another fishing buddy to share those holidays with over the last few years in the shape of my lovely wife Stacey. Unfortunately, I don’t get to spend as much time fishing with my dad as I used to. We…

Rod advice or where to buy, email: seafishing@century.ukWebsite: www.century.uk Good multiplier reel control comprises roughly 75 per cent technique, 20 per cent tackle choice and a tiny five per cent tuning. A nicely balanced outfit – a rod that suits you, appropriate reel, line and sinker – needs hardly any work on the reel itself to guarantee smooth, clean casts. But the beginner’s normal reaction to a string of backlashes is to assume that the reel needs sorting out. Rarely so. The overwhelming culprit is poor technique often made worse by an unsuitable rod action and stiffness. Fixing those will iron out all the big issues to leave only a few tweaks to the reel to perfect the line flow. It’s much more a matter of personalising the reel…

Big game fishing is normally a fairly private exercise with anglers and boats slipping out of harbour shortly after first light, venturing far offshore in search of huge quarry. We quite like setting off in this discrete way with anglers chatting in hushed but expectant voices. What we are not used to is being paraded in front of the whole town, which is exactly what happened to mark the start of the 30th FIPS World Game Fishing Championships in Pescara last month. The anglers from each country were lined up Olympic style, complete with marching band, and were paraded through Pescara to be welcomed for the official commencement of the 30th FIPS World Big Game Fishing Championships. TV camera crews and other press took considerable interest in the England team…

It’s often the case that at certain times of year one or two species dominate anglers’ thoughts. The late autumn and winter period is a prime example with bass and cod the main targets. We sometimes become so preoccupied that we’re fishing conditions and tides that are inappropriate for those species and therefore missing out on other more achievable species that peak at the same time. This quoted period, say late October and early November through until February, sees the very best of the flounder fishing. They’re not too fussy on tide sizes, are tolerant of varied sea and weather conditions, and are available pretty much countrywide. They are also at the very peak of their condition as they feed up heavily ready for the early New Year spawning. This…

In association with Harrison Cameras www.harrisoncameras.co.uk This is a difficult article for me to write because I want to do as much as I can to help anglers catch more fish. Whether that be through my writing, photography or blogging, I strive to help make fishing as approachable and easy to understand as possible. But I am an angler first and foremost, and I absolutely love my fishing. I also really enjoy fishing in quiet locations without loads of other anglers around, but we live on a relatively small island with a high population density. There are, quite understandably, a lot of saltwater anglers wanting to share the same spaces as other anglers. While this can work well in the competitive fishing scene, in the world of lure fishing…

Nash Point, which local anglers often refer to as Marcross, is one of the most productive shore venues in South Wales. Not what you could classify as being an easy mark to fish, this is a venue more suited to experienced shore anglers; that is, anglers capable of casting sizeable baits a decent distance over what is mostly extremely rough, tackle-hungry, ground. Fishing conditions are further challenged with the added component of a hard running lateral pull of tide. Much of the area consists of a vast expanse of slab rock, which has been geologically sculptured to form numerous prominent ledges, many of which are intersected by deep gullies. In addition, there are lots of outcrops of broken rocks and boulders, along with a plethora of deep rock pools. At…

SHORE ANGLER Thanks to the efforts of Reg Phillips and a team of volunteers from local clubs in and around Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex, hundreds of young people and their families have been introduced to sea angling over the last decade. Many of them had never tried fishing before and now return year after year waiting eagerly for dates to be announced. One of the key attractions is that the family fishing days are free to attend and include the opportunity to try boat fishing thanks to the help of charter skippers Mark Vale (She Likes It 2) and, since Mark retired, Neville Blake (New Dawn). The chance to get out on the water with the smell of diesel and fresh silvery mackerel coming over the side of the boat…

Now I’m not a match angler, but I was delighted to accept the invitation. After all, it’s not every day you are asked to join a group of elite international sportsmen on a practice session, fine tuning tactics and techniques, ahead of the World Championships. I was at Eastbourne’s Sovereign Harbour on board Deep Blue ready to spend the day with some of England’s finest boat match anglers on the last of their practice sessions before heading south to Albufeira on the south coast of Portugal in September where they would take on all challengers for the title of FIPS – M Boat Angling World Champions. As far as I was concerned, my job was to stay the hell out of the way. If you are an elite sports person…

The white marlin, Kajikia albida, is found in the tropical and subtropical zone of the Atlantic Ocean, generally between the latitudes of 45°N and 45°S and at depths greater than 100m. They prefer warm surface temperatures greater than 22°C. Depending on location the average size of white marlin caught by anglers is between 40-80lb, with the current IGFA All Tackle record held by a fish that weighed 181lb 14oz, caught off the coast of Brazil in 1979. White marlin can be caught on all the usual blue water techniques including trolled lures and baits, especially ballyhoo which are rigged with a chin weight to ensure they swim naturally just below the surface. Baits are either fished bare or in conjunction with skirt, such as a rubber squid. When available live…

MAXEL ARMORY JIGGING REEL The perfect compact jigging reel, Syncronised Level Wind system, “Sound Plus” Lever Drag that creates an exciting sound similar to a spinning reel as line is pulled from the reel. Other colours available. ■ From £329.99 SAKUMA 465 KONG HOOKS New for 2022 are Sakuma 465 Kong hooks. Kong hooks are manufactured from hi-carbon steel and feature a short shank, wide gape, straight eye and a chemically sharpened point. They are described as being a brute of a hook, and the larger sizes are exactly that; seriously strong hooks intended for seriously strong fish. In the UK the large sizes are ideal for targeting species such as conger, tope or skate, while the smaller sizes are perfect for bass, smoothhound, rays and bream. Available for purchase…

It wasn’t that many months ago that I found myself thinking that the days of overseas press trips for the launch of new angling products were a thing of the past, yet another casualty of the pandemic. Over the years I have attended many events all around Europe and Scandinavia, events that have usually been organised by the manufacturers of the boats, engines and marine electronics I review for Sea Angler. Then, one morning, an email pinged into my inbox. I opened it and was delighted to discover it was an invitation to fly to Alicante to ‘assess and try out’ a selection of the latest products from the various brands distributed by Navico UK Ltd, the parent company for several leading manufacturers of electronics that are the product of…

25: PLEASURE ANGLERS AND KAYAKERS ASSOCIATION OPEN Swansea Breakwater, 15 anglers ■ Results: 1st Chris Stephens, Bridgend, two dogfish, 115cms (1); 2nd Phil Protheroe, Swansea, one eel, one dogfish, 114cm; 3rd Martyn Richards, Swansea, smoothhound, 94cm. 25: HASTINGS & ST LEONARDS AA Hollingsworth Trophy, 20 anglers ■ Results: 1st Colin Crosby, Hastings, 7 fish, 4lb 13oz (2); 2nd Martin Grossman, Westcliff-on-Sea, 4 fish, 2lb 10oz (1). 23-24: ANYFISH ANYWHERE Llandudno, 170 anglers ■ Results: 1st Cameron Turner, Felixstowe, 3 points (20), 2nd Sam Collier, Deal, 5 points (19), 3rd Ben Bradstock, Honiton, six points (18), 4th Andrew Dugdale, Peel, 8 points, 279 fish points (17), 5th Dan Mogridge, Portsmouth, 8 points, 141 fish points (16), 6th Peter Lee 14 points (not registered), 7th Gethin Owen 18 points (not registered), 8th…