species hunt

[LING_BASHER]

With me being on nightshift this week i bought a total sea fishing mag and a sea angler....send me to kip Anyway there was a write up on Hake, this is a fish i have never seen or ever heard anyone catch from our waters.From what i know there mainly caught up scotland in very very deap water.Has anyone ever caught one out the north east (amble-sunderland)

 

[DaveMason]

I lived in South Africa for a time Rich and Hake was always used as the normal fish in fish and chip shops ( same as our cod here ) , nowt flash to eat like . It likes deep cold waters ( like off Namibia ).

On the subject of species , I\'ve got it in to my head that it is possible big bass may be living on our offshore reefs . It is common further south so why not here ? . I\'m making it my holy grail for this year and see what happens

 

[jeff]

Dave,

That sounds like a challenge to me.....I wouldn\'t mind bagging a Bass of any size!!

Jeff.

 

[michaeldevlin]

the only bass i have caught were in kassiopi harbour in corfu , tremendous fighting fish . the biggest i caught was 3 lb and what a fight on a little telescopic rod and small fixed spool reel .

 

[LING_BASHER]

I have only ever caught 2 bass, 1 from hendon 3lb 8oz and 1 from blyth pier 3lb.There was a whooper on south shields beach so hay there is some out there.Marsden would be my target for bass if you can get close in(safe)
Some of the larger beachs up north might be a better shot as there has been loads of school bass this year from the reports.Lad at work got 11 and 1 codling in a sesh

 

[Topecatcher]

We have now had three recaptures from the bass we\'ve tagged in bridlington bay. One was caught down south one stayed put and the other was caught near the tyne.
Never had bass off any of the wrecks here dave but that doesn\'t mean the\'re not there one things for certain though they are creatures of habbit and once you locate an area with bass they will almost certainly be there at the same state of tide on your return. Its also possible to fish a good bass mark at the wrong state of tide and you\'ll catch nowt and possibly come to the wrong conclusion. Best way to find the fish is with trolled rapalas as we did last year dave and try and find a beach where the sand gives way to rock and troll over these. Good time to mess about when the winds strond offshore preventing wrecking providing of course the waters reasonably clear.

 

[DaveMason]

Dave,

I\'ve got two idea\'s , one is to troll rapala\'s from the stern as we did ( got extra rodholders fitted for that purpose ) that was a great day out and an eyeopener over inshore marks . Got some good shots in mind

The other option was to fish the offshore reefs in deep water . Some of these reefs are really big , like little mountains underwater . If the same methods are adopted as down south the theory is the bass will be waiting in ambush on the downtide side of the hump . Might be a complete load of bo.......ks as well like , giving it a good shot though .

 

[willywetegg]

I think you would be right Dave. I have been talking to me shore mates about the same thing Bass. I have caught quite a few from the shore my best being about three and a quarter pound cracking scrap. My idea is if we did target them specifically we would get more. Our trouble is up here we tend to look for cod as we have more chance of catching one, but I am going to take a leaf out of T.C.s book and get some suitable gear and give it a go this year.

[Edited on 17/1/2004 by willywetegg]

 

[Norman]

Yes Dave, I`m sure there`s quite a few bass here in our waters, however, we`ll never get them with our drop it down and sit it on the bottom tactics, we`ll certainly have to try mid water trolling

 

[jason]

ive seen two guys quite regularly fishing north gare at teesmouth using rapala\'s for bass and seen them land fish of about 4lb each time i have bumped into them.

 

[Topecatcher]

Nobody caught Bass off the boats down here but catches from the shore started to steadily increase much the same as the tyne area. We sussed the Bass out more by accident than design once when it was blowing a hoolie off the land and we tried trolling plugs to try and catch pollock and ended up with a load of bass (all returned)
As you suggest norman you\'ll never catch them fishing pirks etc but you could be supprised whats on your doorstep using the right techniques. There\'s plenty of very experianced boat fisherman off brid who\'ve never seen a Bass let alone caught one from the boat or in fact have any idea that they are there. One word of caution though there has been a huge increase along our coast in gill net fisheries for the bass and these can devistate a hotspot in no time at all.

 

[DaveMason]

Hear what your saying about netters dave .

What methods would you use found for reef bass dave at about 20-30m depth ?

 

[mark]

I know a gut with a boat in hrtlpool and he gets a few, so he tells me, I\'ll have to quiz him!

as for the gill netters, I was in whitby last summer and sat at the abbey there were half a dozen boats gill netting from the pier to sandsend, and some must have been only a hundred yards from the shore. In that one day, they must have covered that whole bay and stripped it of the vast majority of fish

 

[Topecatcher]

Drifting with a long (15ft) trace baited with a live sandeel/launce or joey mackerel if poss dave with just enough lead to reach the bottom.

 

[DaveMason]

Got that Dave ta. Would a leadhead and jelly something work also if live bait is scarce ?

 

[Topecatcher]

Not a patch on the real thing Dave you could catch but you could also be over a bass hotspot and catch nowt! I think the time to try alternative methods is when you know you are on the fish, we all tend to experiment when were not catching when really we should be trying when we know the fish are there and feeding on traditional methods.

 

[DaveMason]

You can give us a demo when you come up dave

Never seen any live sandeels for sale up north like , can you keep mackeral alive for long in a bucket Dave ????

Do you reckon those wild eyed shads might do it dave .

[Edited on 17/1/2004 by DaveMason]

 

[peter.m]

I think this is my first post in the boat section as I usually throw up just thinking about it but it\'s right what people are saying about not knowing what\'s on your doorstep. There was a lad float fished off Browns Bay last month and got a 6lb plus pollack, who would have even given it a go. A lad I know with a boat says there\'s pollack regularly off St Mary\'s in the summer but people don\'t fish for them. I\'m sure others will all know similar tales.

One thing though, good luck with the bass experiments but don\'t post the results just e-mail otherwise those with pound signs will be out!

 

[TC]

Yes Peter, I got a good sized pollack on a trip out with Mr. Mason last Summer, but I\'m saying nowt more about it...lol (other than there was NO pirk involvement) :exclam: ......lol - whole squid on a long flowing pennel. I was chuffed to bits

[Edited on 18/1/2004 by TC]

 

[Topecatcher]

Has dolly got a deck wash? if so these can easily be rigged to a livebait well or in this months bfm take a look at those tuna tubes. An easy way to rig up a livebait system is to simply clip some hose on the transom with one end just under the hull pointing to the bow and the other fed into a large tub on deck containing the livebaits. Any forward motion forces water up the hose and into the tub constantly replacing the water every time you run round for a new drift keeping the baits healthy. Obviously provisions must be made to deal with the excess water which simply spills over the top of the tub and in my case stright out the scuppers. We use 1 inch waste pipe with 3 -90 degree bends and incorperate a valve to control water flow this is then simply bungeed tempererally to the transom.
As for catching the baits simply knock up a small steel frame and rig with net as a shrimp net and trawl this inshore over a beach to catch the sandeel.
Shads and redgills will work the problem is trolling them at 20m you could try a paravane but its difficult to be sure these are working at the correct depth.