This Summer / Autum has seen a bit of different fishing for me, I’ve been concentrating more on my sea fishing during the warmer months this year, simply because the river fishing has been so dire in my area that it’s not been worth going. I did have a couple of trips when the season started, but all I caught was a couple of very small zander which I had to work hard to catch! I’ve caught enough zander not to be too worried about scratching out 2lbers! So, I quickly knocked those trips on the head.

We have, at least, not had too much of heat wave this year, but low flow conditions always make it hard for zander, and your best chance is fishing late or early. However, the word on the street (or maybe that should be river) is that hardly anything has come out, so that reassuring, I think! Well, reassuring that it isn’t just me being pants, probably not that reassuring that not much has been coming out.
We all know the rivers are not as clean as they used to be, but was the Severn ever clean? Certainly, for a good few years now, there has been rafts of foam coming down in the flood water, which killed the fishing, no one seems to know where this comes from. You can imagine that the regular winter floods bring a lot of wash off into the river as well so was it ever really clean – clean? Maybe that why the zander did so well in the first place?

Sea Fishing;
So on to the sea fishing, the day after the start of the river season I was out on the Bristol Channel the water temperature was 19 degrees which I found quite surprising. I’d gone out for some Bass, but the bass fishing had been hit and miss all year. I have found that when the Channel goes clear as it sometimes does around the end of June, that the Bass fishing becomes really hard, which shouldn’t be the case when you think about it, clearer water means they can see your lure better – right? Certainly it must be better that the milky coffee colour it usually is.

What I think happens is, when its clear, the mackerel come further up the channel and the bass go out feeding on them, so they are not in the usual spots where you catch them on lures. Either way it had been hard, so I shifted my attention on catching some rays which are usually quite obliging. After a few of these I stated picking up some early running Smooth Hounds on the squid baits which was a good sign. Usually if you get an early run of hounds, the big Smooth Hounds are not that far behind.

I had been over to the Isle of Wight hunting the Stingrays again a couple of weeks earlier and had managed to get hold of some massive spider peeler crabs, for some reason they get a lot of them over there. These things were huge, the size of the palm of your hand, each one would make about six normal baits. I was excited to use them on the Channel, crabs work well for hounds, but so does prawn where I fish, often, with prawn and squid wrap often out fishing normal peelers.

Anyway, I had found a couple a spots which are usually good for the better stamp of hounds. The first one being a rocky outcrop in about 30 feet of water, this spot was usually good up until high water on medium tides then you can blow it off. I’d had double figure fish from here before and its weird that you nearly always got them just before the tide changed.

You would get a chance of a hound all the way up, but as soon as the anchor went slack and the boat started to move, if you got a bite then, it would most likely be a good one, and it would also be the last one from that spot before it went dead. Knowing this I saved the big spider peelers until 30 mins before high water, then baited up and lobbed them out.

I use simple 4/0 pennel rigs for them, you don’t need anything special just strong line as if you catch a few they can rub the mono I use 60lb Amnesia which stands up to it, but obviously you change it if is damaged. The main rigs are pully rigs with 8oz leads which will hold in most instances.

With both baits in I didn’t have to wait long as one rod was nearly pulled out of the boat as a good fish ploughed off with the bait, this is usual hound tactics they are not subtle when they pick the bait up. After a good hard fight, I got it in, it was a bit bigger than the usual stamp of fish certainly a double. But I didn’t have time to mess about with it as the other rod was quickly disappearing over the side, so I quickly grabbed it and played another respectable hound in.

As Tom Jones would say, “It’s not unusual” to catch two hounds at once, I’ve done it a few times now as they do swim around in packs of similar sizes.
Like most shark species, Smooth Hounds have the ability to invert their stomach. It is thought they do this so they can get rid of inedible items, shells, sharp bones etc. As I was unhooking one it did just that and coughed up its half-digested meal, in the bottom of the boat, all around the boat, and all over me!
What surprised me however was what it had been eating, there were little crabs, hermit crabs and a massive lobster claw! Phew did it stink, the joys of Smooth Hound fishing.

The next time I was out I tried the spider peelers again, and from the off I was catching hounds, so they clearly liked them, in the end I was fishing them with a wrap of squid, as they seem to be more “mushy” (technical term) then usual peelers, and I felt that adding the squid would help keep the scent in for longer, not that it really needed it as the fish hit them quite quickly if they were about. I had twelve that day, but nothing overly big, However, I felt that with the water being clear a big one should be on the cards as that is when I have had the larger ones before.

The following week the tides were right for another spot where I had had some doubles before so I thought I would give that a go, this spot was a bit deeper on the edge of a drop off in 50 feet of water. I like it here on smaller tides as you still have a good force of water going along the drop off. This time I was running short of spider peelers so I fished on rod on the old faithful of prawn and squid wrap. First cast I was into a good fish, on the prawn! After a bit of a tug of war, I managed to net it, it was a better fish, and I went to weigh it, but I had forgotten my scales! I did however find a measuring tape and it was 114cm which is somewhere between 13 and 14lbs. A reasonable fish, and the largest of the day.

The next day I went back to the same spot and made sure I had my scales with me! Again, I was using spider peeler on one rod and prawn on the other. Today the fishing was slower, but I still felt confident in getting something before the tide changed, and as usual just as the tide was slacking off, I was away to a good fish on the prawn again. This fish fought hard, even pulling the boat around as the tide had slackened. They are quite awkward to net when there is no tide. When there is tide you put the net at the back of them and slacken off and they fall into it, when there is no tide, you need to scoop them, which they don’t like! But soon I had it in the boat being weighed 15lb 2oz, the best of the season so far.

So, my conclusion was that the IOW spider peeler crabs worked well in the Bristol Channel, they certainly drew the attention of lots of fish, but the larger Smooth Hounds still preferred the old faithful Prawns!

Apologies for some reason I had written this Blog at the back end of the 2023 season, and not posted it. So here it is a (bit late).

Well, what an end to effectively my pike season, (I don’t fish for them after February), it has been a really hard season for me, well maybe not only for me as most places seem to be fishing very poorly during the “traditional” pike fishing season. I usually start in earnest in September when the reservoirs open for “predator” fishing.

Is September too early? Maybe? Well, “yes” certainly would be a more accurate answer if you look over the last few seasons at least, the water temperatures have been shocking high at this time of year. I have previously written about the effects of high-water temperature on pike link here –> Temperature-sensitivity-in-pike

If you believe in Global Warming or Climate Change as its now rebranded, it is predicted to get worse. So, let’s hope its flawed science and we start to get cooler summers and autumns again.

I fished twice in September, both pre-booked days, on the first day the water temperature was 21 degrees! Now you can catch pike in that temperature, do they survive? Some will, some won’t. I must admit feeling hypocritical here as the water temperature was above by “19-16″ rule, and really I shouldn’t have fished, but you don’t know the temperature until you get out and turn the finder on, and packing up, after taking time off work, traveling all that way and paying to fish is hard to do. I suppose I fall in to the trap of being Human (some say otherwise) and fished my first day without success.

Now not to get “Namby Panmby” as an angler you have to except some mortality of fish. I don’t think we go out with the intention of killing fish, but does every fish that swims off survive? I would like to think so. In reasonable water temperatures they most likely do, if you factor in good handling.
However, when the water temperatures are this high, it makes things more dangerous, pike simply don’t like the stress of being caught in warm water. Compound this by forty anglers so of whom are less then competent and potentially you can have a pike massacre on your hands.

As I have said before, anglers often kill their catch by kindness – but what does that mean? It means too much messing around with the fish! Anglers like to retain pike in the net “to give them a rest”, or hold them by the tail until they recover? Really, do they recover like this? Or, do they loose the ability to right themselves, gass-up, because they are at the water surface and eventually go belly up?
Worse are the anglers who play the fish for protracted periods of time on inadequate tackle, then let them flip around in the bottom of the boat as they don’t posses a mat or a sladle, then measure them holding them down on nice sandpapered anti-slip boat seats.

To be frank, not that anyone listens these days, but both issues can be mitigated by good fisheries management. Here is a simple two step solution to help prevent pike deaths – 1. Don’t open for pike fishing until the water is a sensible temperature, and 2. Regulate your anglers.

Anyway, rant over, the next day after counting five dead 20+ fish floating around I packed up and didn’t go back until it was a lot colder and a lot less people around.

Fishing is harder when the temperature is cold, not only are the fish less active and less likely to feed. The cold really gets to the angler as well, even me! – Sometimes. Its not the cold per-say when you’re in the boat, it’s the lack of movement that gets to me and I cramp up and get fidgety, especially when dead baiting and watching motionless floats for several days on the bounce! Which is my general experience of dead baiting at the back end of the season. The thing is, even though it is boring as hell, every now and then I get one, and often it was a decent fish, so maybe it was worth it.

With several of the bait company going under this summer, getting the best bait became a lot harder then usual. Like most of us I have a freezer full of bait most of the time, but towards the back end I’m using the dregs! Now you don’t want to be using the dregs, ever, let alone while you’re fishing for single runs on hard waters, your confidence needs to be high.

I have also learnt that sometimes a change of bait works, last year I was doing ok on Bluey and Smelts, this year herrings were the go-to bait, but I didn’t have many left over by the new year. A fortunate trip to one of my local shops for sea fishing supplies found a supply of weird half beak fish in their freezer. So, I picked up a couple of packets to try for Blonde Ray fishing in the spring as they were meant to be a killer bait for them.

Out on the boat, I was surprised when I looked into my cool bag, and instead of herring, I’d put packs of half beaks in by accident. This is what happens when you get up at 4am! As nothing else was working I hooked one on and wacked it out, to be honest I wasn’t really expecting that much. As I sat in the bottom of the boat, wrapped up like a giant sasquatch in the -2 degree sunshine – sulking that the smelt I had were not “smelty” enough, the herring were back home, and the blueys were “dry” and every other excuse I could muster for not catching a pike. The float with half beak on bobbed up and down in the water catching me by surprise.

I think the pike I caught was more surprised than I was as I wound down and stuck and simply wound in a heavy lump!

Pike don’t do much when its supper cold, and this one was as good as gold in the sladle and I quickly unhooked it. A nice mid twenty on a new bait, suddenly I wasn’t feeling as cold. I had some renewed enthusiasm to re-bait the rods and re-position them, however it didn’t do any good as that was the only take of the day.

The next day I went to a similar area, this time there were a couple of other boats about, and it was slightly warmer, I felt quite confident after the previous fish, but I also knew that you are fishing for that one run so it can be a long day. Inevitably at this time of year nearly every take happens at last knockings. You have a rush to get out, to get the spot you want, then have a boring wait in the boat, until about 30mins before you have to get in when you have a chance of something. Well that is my experience of fishing at this time of year.

I was had been sat in one spot all day, which is quite unusual for me, I had caught one zander on a lure that I cast around the boat to warm myself up (it didn’t I just got wet hands). After checking my watch, thought I should start packing up, when the ratchet on the multiplier went off and the rod pulled around. I quickly grabbed the rod not needing to strike and was playing a big angry pike! This one was a lot longer than the one from yesterday but not as fat, and was quickly netted and photographed, another twenty so I couldn’t complain. It was then a rush to pack everything up and get back without getting told off.

I couldn’t get back until a few days later and the weather had really changed, everywhere was flooded, and it was hard to even get to the lake with the road closures. I was feeling beaten already, as I know that flood water can kill the fishing, The fact that it had been so cold as well, meant that any land run off would be freezing entering the lake, and to be honest, I was thinking that that was it until the end of season, as it seemed every river was also flooded. Surprisingly there were a few people already out when I got there, looking at where they were I felt a bit despondent. The three spots I fancied were already taken.

So I thought I would go an try somewhere completely different, so I motored over to a spot where I have had fish before this time of year, but its not a “good” spot, sometimes there is a fish there most of the time it’s as barren as everywhere else. Looking around I couldn’t see anything, and for some reason I couldn’t be bothered getting the bait rods out, so I chucked a lure out and turned the boat with the electric engine into the wind to slow the drift down. Looking down on at the sounder, I could see something to the right of the boat, was it a fish? I wasn’t sure, but I moved the boat a bit closer so I could cast near it, and bang I hooked a monster.

The reason is simple, it’s been too hot! I went out on the first night of the season, as I usually do, highly expecting to catch a few zander as normally the first night is pretty good to be honest. However, I launched my boat, got everything ready and tidied up, then went out into the main river and turned the sounder on, the temperature showed 23 degrees! Now I know it had been hot for a few weeks previously, but it was nowhere near as bad as the previous year, yet the water temperature was sky high! I thought that the sounder or transducer was incorrect at first and turned it on and off, but it still read the same. I have never seen the river that temperature before, let alone in June!

On top of this there was very little flow in the river, which always makes it even harder, so I motored to narrower deeper section where there should be more water movement and had a few tentative casts, nothing. I could see some “blobs” on the bottom, but they weren’t moving at all, and to cut a long story short I Blanked. I gave up at 2am and settled in for the night. I think this was the first blank I can remember on the first day of the season, ever!

The next morning, I got up at first light, managed to pick up two little zeds on the way back to the slipway and I was off and away by 7am, and haven’t been back since! I have been waiting for some significant rainfall to up the levels a bit and cool it off, but we haven’t had enough to do that yet and we are officially in a “prolonged dry weather” period – Again!

I think it’s likely to be September before I’m back after them, so I needed something to do in the meantime. Lucky, last year I decided to bite the bullet and join a marina on the Bristol Channel to give me options should the same hot weather wipe out the summer river fishing again, and unfortunately or fortunately (depending on how you look at it), it looks like it was the correct thing to do.

I like a bit of sea fishing, and I have done quite a lot in the past, mostly from the shore, but having a boat makes it a lot easier, if you can get out. The problem is my boat is quite small (for sea fishing), its ok during fine weather but if it kicks up a bit it you have be careful! What this means in practice is that that there are some conditions that I simply would be an idiot to go out in, and some wind directions that are a no go due to the amount of fetch it kicks up.

The Bristol Channel has been on fire for both rays and smooth hounds this year, and I’ve had good days seemingly every time I have been out! What has been noticeable is that the areas you get the most rays, aren’t necessarily the same areas you would get the hounds! And they are prevalent at different states of tide. This isn’t a bad thing really as it means I can anchor up for a couple of hours and fish for rays, while waiting for the tide to pull a bit harder and move to a hound area.

By far the best bait for the hounds is Peeler Crab, but this is expensive and often hard to get hold of. As an alternative I think the Prawn and Squid combo is nearly as good if there are lots of hounds around. Having very little left in the freezer I requested some from Baitbox with my last order, and they sent me some weird red coloured jumbo prawns, which were originally for salmon fishing. In the murky waters of the Bristol Channel, I don’t think that colour is that important anyway, so on my next trip out, I lashed some up and wanged them out. The fish loved them! Well, the rays liked them on their own, the hounds preferred them with a wrap of squid.

Fresh prawns used to be the go-to bait on the River Tamar when I used to fish for thornbacks down there, but in the Bristol Channel if I was fishing solely for them my bait of choice would be Launce, especially for the bigger Blond rays. The fact that I was picking rays up on bright red prawns did take me by surprise! There were even several double hook ups on them when tide was suitable for them to move around a bit.

The Smooth Hound run on the Bristol Channel has been terrific this year, they first started showing up in early June, and by mid-July it seems that they were more or less everywhere from Cardiff down. While out on the boat I saw quite a lot being caught from various beach marks which is a good sign, in fact there was one occasion where I think I was fishing too far out for them after watching a beach angler catch three in quick succession fishing maybe at maybe 80 yards!

The average size was also quite good at around 8 – 9lbs, and if they are in the area the fishing can be hectic. There were occasions where I was only fishing one rod, as having two on at once is a nightmare in a big tide. I like fishing for Smooth Hounds as they do scrap, especially if you get a double figure one on usual up-tide gear. In-fact I went through two rod tips on hounds this season, one wrapped me up in the net and put too much pressure on the tip and the other went ballistic at the side of the boat and I had the drag up too much in hindsight and the rod went with a catastrophic bang! I still landed it though!

I’ve also been and had a go for the Bass, which are usually caught on big smelly baits in the coloured waters of the Bristol Channel. This year, there have been a few times when the water hasn’t been churned up as much as usual and has been relatively clear for the Bristol Channel that is, and when it’s been like this, I’ve picked a few up on lures. Westin Sandy Andy in Robo-Cod colour has been the best catcher so far, I’ve got them in the 42g 15cm and 62g 17cm with the smaller one being the more constant catcher. Bass are strange in-that they seem a bit like perch when you see them on the sounder in the way they behave. All of a sudden, they are there, then the shoal moves quickly, and they are hard to find again. They also go up and down in the water column a lot as well, one shoal will come through right on the bottom, then the next will be 5 feet down.

Most of my Bass have been caught while spot locked over rough ground with a good tide flow at high tide, I like to cast out the side of the boat, let the lure sink and then tighten up and let the tide work the lure around on a tight line. Usually, you get a hit as it lifts off the bottom, or if you let a bit of line out so it sinks, it’s a bit like zander fishing in a strong current and quite a fun way to waste a couple of hours while you wait for the tide to turn.

I’ve also caught a few Jigging, again over rough ground using Sandy Andy. Due to the speed of the tide in the Bristol Channel I nearly always slow the drift down. I do this by putting the electric on heading lock against the flow and set it to counter the drift down to at last 1mph. This means that the lure will flow out the back of the boat as you work it, but it seems to work quite well. I haven’t caught any really large Bass on this method, but it means you can cover a lot of ground.

I have also picked up a few little Tope again, and I have heard of several being caught by shore anglers as well. However, the area I am fishing doesn’t really have a history of Tope being caught. Maybe next year I will put some bigger baits out and see if there are any bigger ones around, it could be interesting.

Hopefully by the time this goes up I will be back on the predators, but I am also looking forward to a bit of Cod fishing this winter if I can get out!

Conger Eels have a tough reputation, there are always stories about the 200lb monster that haunts a local wreck or someone who has had their hand / foot (insert body part here), bitten off by one. In truth, there can be very big eels on some wrecks, and they can be aggressive, but a bit like a pike they aren’t going to bite your hand off unless you are particularly stupid.

I confess that I haven’t done much wreck conger fishing, simply because there isn’t many where I usually fish on the Bristol Channel. I have done quite a bit of shore fishing for them in the past and spent quite a lot of time down on Devil’s Point in Plymouth trying to catch a monster from the shore which never materialised. I’ve caught them to over 20lbs from the shore at various locations, but in most areas a conger over 20lbs is not a common sight and you need to get a bit deeper to pick the bigger ones up.

In the boat on the Channel, in most cases you find the congers over broken ground, which means, areas where there are rocks and debris on the bottom, rather than the usual mud and sand you would fish over for Rays etc. However, as they like this type of ground, it doesn’t mean that you won’t catch them anywhere, as sometimes they just turn up, this is especially true on low water neap tides when I think they go on the hunt more and will follow a scent trail a long way.

This “hunting” behaviour is a key point in catching an outsized one on the channel as from my experience you will nearly always pick a better one up just as the tide changes if you can leave a bait out there long enough.

Getting a bait out in the tide long enough and keeping it “smelly” enough is a trick in its own right. Most of the time you must combat bait robbing dog fish and such like. Even big baits don’t last long in the channel. One bait that I used a lot down on Devils was Cuttlefish for this exact same reason. It’s a bit like Squid, but a lot tougher, we used it to prevent crabs pulling the bait apart, but on the channel it is a good way to keep the “Doggies” off.

Cuttle is good enough on its own, but for maximum attraction you can wrap Mackerel in in to give it a greater “fishy” scent trail. I don’t go overboard with the rigs, you don’t need wire for instance, most of my fishing is done with a simple 100lb nylon trace, down to 4/0 or 5/0 Big Mouth Xtra Hooks.

For Up-Tiding I always fish long pully rig for them, so that the bait is right down on the deck. Down-Tiding is probably easier, but I do like a spread of baits to create a good scent cone for them to home in on, which usually means fishing two Up-Tide and a Down-tide rod lobbed out the back. The Up-Tide rods will have the Cuttle on, and the Down-tide rod I fish with Mackerel, this is the one that the “Doggies” will pull apart and this will actually help by putting fish particulate in the tide. The Down-tide rod is quick and easy to rebait, so in essence its like a big swim-feeder for the Eels, who then move up the scent cone in the tide and will hopefully pick the Cuttlefish up.

Congers do scrap hard when you get them, but they don’t catch the tide as much as Rays do which is a good thing. The only time they can be a pain is when if they wrap up, then you end up pulling a ball of writhing muscle up against the tide! Netting them is fairly simple, you simply pull them alongside the boat where they stretch out in the tide and place the net at the back of their tail and then slacken off and they nearly always drop in.

The tricky part when it comes to Congers, is how to hold them for photos as they are quite simply – as slippery as an Eel! Most anglers will pick them up by the Gill holes and dangle them, I can’t say if this is good for the fish or not, but I assume it is not – so I prefer to pick them up as you would a normal Eel, i.e. length ways and support them. This is possible to do once they have calmed down a bit. If you haven’t caught them before a point to note, is they are really slimy though a lot like catfish are, and the slime will stick to you like bream glue so be aware of that and in most instances wear something old or something waterproof which you can wash it off easily.

After my stingray hunt last year, this year I had set myself a goal to catch a few different species Ray, of which there are several that reside in the Bristol channel, the most common are Thornbacks, Blond Rays are possibly the second most abundant during the right time of year. The other types are Spotted Rays, which are quite a small species, Undulate Rays and Small-Eyed Rays, the latter two are more elusive, certainly to me!

A couple of years ago we put the big boat in earlier than usual, which would have been around the first week in April and I remember catching a couple of big blonde rays on a small sandbank out in the channel. I find it amazing how you remember these things when you get your game face on. So as soon as April came around and the tides and the weather had settled enough to put my “little” boat out, I was off, zooming about trying to locate the GPS point where I had caught them before.

April is a known time on the Bristol channel for shore fishing at certain points for blonde rays, the theory is that they come in closer to the shore at this time for spawning? However, the documentation says they should spawn between February and August, so maybe? Or maybe it’s just a time that they concentrate on certain marks, I really don’t know. Though it does seem that if you want a big one April is the time of year to go.

By far the best bait for Blond Rays are Launce or Greater Sandeel, these however can be tough to get hold of sometimes, luckily, I had a few packs in the back of the freezer thanks to Baitbox. The other bait they really like is squid, unwashed squid is the best as it has a good scent trail which lasts longer in the water. Obviously, you can have the best of both worlds by using a combo of both, but sometimes there is a preference, so I always start with Launce on one and Squid on the other.

Once I found the spot I wanted I motored up-tide and lobbed the anchor out, where I was fishing wasn’t really that deep at round 35ft on a dropping tide, which might seem quite shallow to most ardent boat anglers, but that’s where I thought the fish were, and if not I could always move deeper as the tide ebbed away.
The speed of the tide in the Bristol Chanel can be a shock if you’re not used to it, and it can also be weird with funny tidal streams. Weird in that where you would expect it to be slow it is not and where you would think it would be fast it can be slow depending on the state of tide.

Trial and error have taught me what speed the tide need to be for ray fishing, and I work that out my stopping the boat near where I want to fish and seeing the “speed over ground” as I drift. Anything between 1 and 1.5 mph is about right, anything more than that and for some reason you just don’t catch them, you can catch other fish at this rate however, but not rays. To make matters stranger, the flow rate will change during the tide. What this means is that when you first anchor it can be perfect but within 20 mins it could be too fast – it is all one big learning curve for me.

Sometimes, however, I get it right and the first trip out to the old spot I managed a good Blonde on the first cast! Which was a great first trip. I also managed a couple of Thornies and a Spotted Ray. All of which were caught during the first hour and half of getting to the spot before the tide got too much for them, I think.

The second trip was much better, armed with squid and launce, I knew I needed to get to the spot a bit earlier to make the most of the medium tide before it got too fast. I like to Up-tide on the channel its simply the best way to present a bait and keep it tight on the bottom. I nearly always use a long pully rig again to keep the bait tight on the bottom where the rays feed. The rods I have been using might be a bit strange! Currently, I have been using a couple of Westin W3 Powershad in 3XH, the casting weight for these is up to 180g so that more than enough with a big lead and some squid on a gentle lob! They also have quite a sensitive tip, and so far, they have been ideal for what I need on the channel.
I couple these with a couple of ABU 6500s and 50lb braid and let out as much line as I need to hold the bottom in the tide.

I wacked the first one out one side of the boat with squid on a pennel rig, I always put one out with squid as it’s a great bait for Rays, and if there are some Cod about, it’s one of the best baits for them on the channel. The other rod was put the other side with a whole Launce, this one was cast into slightly deeper water just on the back of the sandbank. This is the one I expected to go as the Rays tend to lay at the back of the bank as the tide runs out. Fishing an area like this I like to put the bait in an area of different flow and the change of depth at the back of the bank will cause this.

True to form I was just sorting the mess in the boat out and the rod at the back of the back pulled over and then went slack as a big Ray made off with the bait! Blonde Rays are a funny fish to fight, sometimes they swim against the tide, which is brilliant, and it gets them to the boat quickly. Sometimes they tangle up and it really is like pulling a bin bag in against the tide which is a pain! Most of the time for some reason they come to the surface and flap along! That what this one did, and it was soon in the net, a good fish I think was around 15-16lbs, which was a good start.

I put the rod straight back out and 5 mins later I had another smaller one around 10lbs. Nothing on the squid rod at all so I swapped the bait over and fished both rods on whole Launce. Which turned out to be a stupid move, as almost as soon as I’d re-baited and cast it out, the first rod was off, and it was obviously a very good Ray. This one started by coming up to the surface then started being awkward as the tide caught it and brought it round the back of the boat. It was a good 20lber, and I eventually managed to net it as the tide increased making it a bit difficult, but I got it in the bottom of the boat just intime to catch the second rod before it disappeared into the deep with another big Ray hooked up on it.

Now there was a dilemma, I’d already got a big Blonde in net on the bottom of the boat, and now I had another similar sized one catching the tide at the back of the boat. What to do? You can’t get two in the net at the same time with the tide, and it was awkward getting the first one out of it while trying to hold the hooked one away from the tide at the back of the boat, but eventually I managed it and swiped the second one in as well! Interestingly one was a male and one was a female, both probably around the 20lb mark! Can’t be bad!

After a couple of photos, I flopped them back in and watched them splash off like they always do. I was chuffed. Time for a quite tea then an untangle of everything before re-baiting and casting out. However, I could tell the tide was getting a bit strong, I usually judge it by how fast debris and bubbles on the surface go past the boat. Unfortunately, I was proved right, and I didn’t get anything else. So, it was time for move to get out of the flow. I moved a little closer to the shore, where the headland would slow the tide a bit and as soon as I got settled, I stated getting a few bites again, this time however it was a mixture of Dogfish and small Thornback Rays. I think the Blonde Rays prefer it a bit further out but unfortunately the tide was too strong where they were, and I had to be back at the slipway 3 hrs after low water to get in safely. Alas that is the nature of sea fishing, which means you need to maximise the “feeding window” and next time I’m taking two nets!

When I was a young lad, I had an old Angler’s Mail annual, I can’t remember what the date was, but it was one of those, once a year specials with the hard cover that had loads of impressive fish in and how to catch them. In one of the articles there was a young boy who had caught a massive stingray, from the beach in Barbados, I think. I remember looking at that photo for ages and thinking I would like to catch something like that. I have tried, and tried, I fished for them in Australia nearly getting one called an Eagle Ray. I tried in Sri-Lanka, I tried in Bermuda. Every time I missed out on getting one.

Now you can get them in the UK, albeit they are smaller (the shore record is still over 70lbs though). They tend to run in the summer months on south coast marks- mainly in Kent, and Sussex but you can of course get the odd fish elsewhere. Chesil Beach and some West Wales beaches sometimes throw them up, but these are not places to realistically target them. Nevertheless, I have tried most of the top stingray marks and blanked! It wasn’t until I ventured over to the Isle of Wight that I finally succeeded.

Dogma states that you fish for stingrays on smaller tides, during settled and warm weather when they move into shallower water to feed. The best bait for them is ragworm, and you fish an evening tide into dark.

Now I have followed that dogma, and wasted a lot of time and ragworms over the years, with usually dogfish to show for it. I would say the dogma is possible correct but it didn’t work for me. My first Stinger was caught on Squid, and I prefer a squid ragworm mix to maximise my chances.
Rigs are always Pulley rigs, or Pulley Droppers, depending on how snaggy the water is, and how deep. Fishing shallow water usually requires a long cast, so I don’t use massive baits. Stingrays do have a big mouth, maybe not as big as usual rays, but big enough to engulf most hook baits. The dogma that you only catch them on ragworm because of the size of their mouth is likely to be a fallacy. It is more likely that they get caught on ragworm as that is common animal found in shallower areas they swim about in.

As Stingray can be quite large, you do need decent gear to get them out, not that they fight too much, (though I have had them jump out of the water several times) it’s just that they are a heavy weight in the tide, and that stresses tackle. So, I use a large capacity multiplier (Penn Mags 535s) with 20lb mono, and a longer than usual shock leader, so I can grab it in the surf and pull them in. My hook lengths are usually 40 – 50lb amnesia and I use a sting 3/0 hooks usually Big Mouth Xtras.

When you get a stingray the obvious thing to worry about is the “sting”. I was quite amazed when I caught my first one on how quickly they can lash their tail around. There is usually a brief mad moment why they are first beached where they go bonkers whipping it around, but they soon calm down. Now is the time to secure the stinger. I just wrap a bait towel around it and as long as you hold it firmly there isn’t really an issue. The only problem is you can’t pick them up for photos like you would with the usual ray species like this. Some people wrap tape around the stinger, but you still have to be careful in case this splits or gets flicked of-, hence why I like the towel, and holding the tail at all times technique.
If you do get stung, seek medical advice. The stinger has a poison in it which can be intensified by hot water (as the poison is cold water-based per se). But the real issue is the barbs along the stinger can break off and stay under the skin causing infection. The skin around the stinger also tears off and can get in there as well, which can cause complications.

I found the only real problem with them is getting them back in the water, especially if you get a really big one, as holding the tail and trying to lift with your hand underneath them is near on impossible. I find the best way to do it is to slide them onto a small tarpaulin, and then slide that back into the sea. I had to do this with my t-shirt in an emergency!

I like to fish at low water for them, certainly on shallow beaches. I usually fish the last two hours of the outgoing tide- the tide at this time is slowing down and the rays tend to like this period before it speeds up as it comes in again. I haven’t found the flood as productive, which is strange, but they are a strange fish. I have also found it better to fish when the water is churned up a bit, not stormy, but when there is colour in the area you are fishing. However on the whole I think you are very lucky to catch one and most shore anglers, even if they are fishing the right areas very rarely come into contact with one, they just aren’t as common as the other species of rays in the UK at the moment.

This year has been strange one on the pike front. Two of my banker waters have simply stopped responding to anything, which is not quite true. It’s more like the fish have moved to somewhere else, or are holding up in spots I don’t usually visit. Why do I think this? Well, I have been out with the sounder and simply not seen any pike anywhere, and if they are not there you won’t catch them.
I know some people will say they still might be there but tight to the bottom, or up in the upper layers or something, but on these waters, you see the fish before you catch them, it’s that cut and dried. Do I think that the pike have all died? No, as I have seen times like this before, when the water is seemingly devoid of pike one year and you’re pulling out 30’s the next. It’s just a bit of the puzzle that I’m not sure I fully understand at the moment.

On another water there were pike seemingly everywhere, scattered around various features. Big pike too. Again, on this water, if you can see them, you will usually catch them at some point, but this year it was different. Every fish seemingly ignored anything that was cast at it. Now fish can wise up to lures, but usually there are ways of fishing lures, or size of lures, that can get you a take when they are like this. This year however it was different, and it was very difficult to move any fish.
When they are like this is usually because of two reasons a) they are absolutely full, b) they are about to move to a different area.

Fishing for full fish is nothing new – it’s what most of us have to do on trout water fisheries. Yes, you can try and target feeding fish around bait shoals etc. But in my experience the bigger fish (the ones you want to catch) don’t feed like this, and spend most of their time laying up away from these areas.
You also get fish movement on these waters, and it can be quite noticeable, especially if there are a lot of boats fishing. You can observe one boat catch a fish, then the next further down, then the one after that, and so forth. I have observed it on multiple fisheries, but it’s quite obvious at Chew that has a lot of fishing pressure.
If you don’t have a lot of fishing pressure, how do you know the fish are moving or about to move? Well, the first sign is that that they are sitting on the bottom not doing anything. It is as if they are sitting there waiting for some environmental trigger, water temperature, pressure drop, moon phase? You could add any of these factors, then all of a sudden, they have gone en masse to a different area, where they will usually feed again, and on the way to this area.

Before they move you may see some pike rolling, or bubbles coming up, this is usually caused by fish coming to the surface to gulp air to fill their gas bladders. It is a noticeably different type of rolling to feeding pike smashing on the surface.
Now the problem with fish about to move, is, in my experience, that they are almost impossible to catch. It’s as if they just turn off and sit there and it’s very difficult to get them do anything else. But if you are on fish like this as they move, then you can have a real bumper day.

I had a few good twenties early on, but what was interesting is that they were all absolutely full, so much so they were pooing in the sladle, and, unfortunately, when holding them for photographs! Nearly all my fish came by grinding lures along the bottom really slowly, which again is an indication of the fish being really full. Fishing like this is horrible and time consuming, but it does work. I also had a couple on near static lures fished on the drift. This again indicated that they didn’t want to move very much, certainly they were fished much slower than any cast lure can be.
Other anglers were reporting numerous follows, which is again an indication of the fish being full, they have the instinct to follow, but not the need to instigate the take.
Alas, I think this year so far has fallen into the “Ugly” category. Not that I haven’t caught any pike, it has just been really tough going so far. When it’s like this early season I find it usually picks up after Christmas anyway, so there is still plenty of time.

Sea Fishing;
Back in June I had the opportunity to dig the beach-casters out for a bit of smoothhound fishing. I do like a bit of sea fishing, but usually the effort- to- catch ratio is rubbish, however on this occasion I did catch a few.
Squid was the bait, for some reason they seemed to like this better than crab. As the area was quite snaggy I was using a pulley-rig on both rods with a good lump of squid whipped on, and I was getting bites from the first cast – which was at mid tide.

However they weren’t smoothhounds, but black bream. These little fish love squid as well, but you don’t get many on big hooks and big baits, so it was a simple task to scale one rod down and fish little squid strips for the bream, and a keep one big bait for the hounds. I added a little bit of rag worm to the bream bait as I find this helps them stick on a bit.

Bites from the bream were quick and fast, and infuriatingly difficult to keep on the hook. The hounds however smash the bait and run off with it, giving great rod- bending bites. For some reason they seemed to feed best at mid-tide? Which is very different to the Bristol Channel marks that I am used to which fish best on low tide.

I also did a bit of stingray fishing on the calmer nights with ragworm as I have still not managed to catch one of these from UK shores, but alas it didn’t happen, but it is nice to be out on a nice night and have the beach to yourself.

Back to the river;
The river has fished well throughout the warmer months, despite being low and clear in most instances. Usually when the water is like this most of the action comes at night, however for some reasons unknown to me the nights were fairly rubbish. In fact most of the time the productive period (on lures) was early morning 0500 – 0900hrs and early evening around to around 2100hrs. For early morning fishing I like to have fished the night first as I’m not the best “morning person”, but if I wake up on the river there really is no excuse not to fish hard.

The big zander were noticeably absent this year, which could be coincidental with the methods used. Usually, in the summer the larger zander are caught on baits at night. With the fishing being so good in the daylight hours most of my time was spent casting lures, the largest I had was around the 9lb mark but it was not uncommon to get up to 30 fish a day on this method.

Most of the time they wanted smaller lures and I was using the Westin 12cm Shadteeze with 10 – 12g jig heads for casting. The light jig head shows the state of flow in the river. Most of the time the zander were up in the water, but would only take the lure on the fall, which is something that a lot of anglers don’t employ.
Twin tails did a good job as well on the days the zander were tight on the bottom, these are best fished vertical, or on a “dead rod” while casting. This dead rod fishing is difficult if you don’t know the river well as the bottom contours can change dramatically. However, sometimes this method can pick up bigger fish.

Engine Issues:
Halfway through the summer season my engine started playing up, probably dodgy fuel again, so I cleaned my tank out again, and flushed the carb out, to get it kind of sort of working again, albeit in a lumpy way! What looks like had happened is the carb needed cleaning and was blocked up, so off it went for a sonic clean and a full service, and it’s still being done! Like everything there is a shortage of supply of parts, but hopefully I will be up and running again soon.

As a last resort, I was forced to go out on Paul Garner’s boat for an evening. This was an interesting session – as when we found the fish it was obvious that they were feeding quite hard, and we had an excuse to keep swapping lure colours to see what was the most effective.

We kept the same lure which was the 12cm Shadteez, but tried every colour in the box and it was noticeable that some colours were better than others. What was also interesting was that I ran out of 10g jig heads after snagging a few, and had to change to a 15g – with a 15g jig head the fall and drop on the pause was far quicker and I stopped catching! Completely! When I nicked one of Paul’s 10g jigs I started catching again. Small things like this are so easily overlooked, and can be the difference between a good day and a blank.

It can be argued that Jerkbaits work at any time, which is true if you are prepared to fish them really slowly, though I find them the far more effective early season up until the end of November and then post spawn in May. Both these times of year have one thing in common and that’s water temperature, when the water temperature is fairly high (for pike) they are usually very active in the water column, and are aggressive – chasing bait fish and doing a lot of feeding.

Jerkbaiting is one of my favourite ways of catching pike, it’s massively effective on the right waters, and has fallen out of favour somewhat in the last few years, with most predator anglers preferring to cast shads or swimbaits. This means that on some waters they are effectively new lures – as the pike haven’t seen them before.

The main benefit of jerkbaits is that they work completely differently to any other lure on the market. Most lures will, on the retrieve, come back on a straight line of attack. Shads, Swimbaits, Crankbaits, Spoons – all of them fall into this singular retrieve style. Yes, you can add pauses and speed-up’s, but it is still a linear retrieve. Jerkbaits, on the other hand, twist and jump from side to side in the water, on the pause they can glide for several feet to one side, something all other lures can’t do. This retrieve is something the pike find irresistible, it mimics how an injured fish swims in the water, in stops and spurts first one way and then the other.

There are few misnomers with jerkbait fishing – firstly that it is a shallow water method. This is mainly due to the fact that most commercial jerkbaits generally come in slow-sinking or suspending versions. Very few are made to fish more the 6ft deep. This isn’t really a problem as most waters are fairly shallow anyway. I am happy to fish in the top layers on most waters, and will use jerkbaits in waters up to 20ft deep. However, if the fish are tight to the bottom, or you need to fish deeper than this, then you either need to make your own or add some weight to them. Adding weight isn’t always as easy as you think, as put it in the wrong place and it will dramatically alter how the jerkbait works in the water. In an emergency you can jerry rig a jerkbait to make it faster sinking, I find the best way is to clip a tungsten weight to the middle hook of the bait – this way most of the action is kept, but I find you never get the same movement on a heavily- weighted bait as you do with a neutrally buoyant one and the “hang time” is certainly affected. For a more permanent fix, you can either drill them and weight them or if your lazy like me add a strip of lead to the bottom and araldite it on.

The other misnomer with jerkbaiting is that you have to have strong stiff rods to use them. This may have been the case ten years ago – when we were using broomsticks to impart action into heavy wooden lures, but now most lures are quite light and often made out of high impact plastic. The design of modern jerkbaits is so good that often you don’t even need to twitch the rod at all to get them swinging from side to side. In fact, some baits are so lively that you have to have a static rod to prevent them tangling up on the retrieve. Hooks too have improved, and out have gone the big heavy-duty thick wire trebles that were hard to set, and now ultra-sharp medium-thickness hooks are the norm, and you can set these easily with most lure rods.

Each jerkbait will work in its own unique way, and it is important to know how they work before casting them out, I always try them in the margins to see what works best. Some need a long pull of the rod, and then a big pause, as they glide or hang in the water. Others need quick taps of the rod to get them swinging from side to side.
One thing to keep in mind when jerkbaiting is that the hits more than often come on the pause in-between retrieves, so it is vital that you keep in touch with the jerkbait at all times, which is easier said than done – especially with aggressive gliding ones. Due to this most anglers that do a lot of jerkbaiting have fast reels – to make sure they take the slack up quickly to prevent missed takes. This is especially important when fishing forward from a drifting boat, as this can put a lot of slack in the line and effectively reduce the impact of jerkbait fishing. It is far better fishing from a static boat as you can keep in contact with the lure easier. If you have to fish from a moving boat, cast out of the side of the boat, as the drift will then help keep the main line tight and the lure working as you drift.

Top Jerkbaits:

Westin SWIM
This glide bait is so easy to use you don’t even have to impart rod action, and can work it on turns of the reel. My favourite colours are “Natural Pike” for peat-coloured waters and “Toxi Mahi” for clear waters. They come in loads of sizes, but 12cm sinking is the one I use the most. They cast like a bomb as well, so you can really chuck them when you need to! I like to replace the rear treble with a bigger 2/0 hook as this calms them down a bit in the water as they can over-glide if you put too much action in them.

Homemade baits
The beauty of Jerkbaits is that often the best ones are ones you have made yourself, simply by shaping and weighting a bit of hard wood, then you paint them any colour you like and give them a quick coat of “Evotex” and you’re done. Each bait like this is individual and will have its own nuances, some are good catchers some less so, but one thing is for certain, they are unique and the fish won’t have seen them before. I have several I have made myself, and it’s a great feeling to catch a big twenty on something hand-crafted.

Tip – Cutting Hooks:

If you are thinking about getting into jerkbait fishing, then you really do need the right tools to unhook your fish afterwards. The usual long handled forceps simply won’t cut it here. Unfortunately, due of the way jerkbaits work some hook ups can be a bit of nightmare especially if two big hooks have become twisted on the take, to add to that they are a “hard” bodied bait which can also act as a lever to the hooks sometimes twisting them at awkward angles. This all sounds terrible for the pike but with the right tools removing the hooks is a pinch of salt. One thing you must have is side cutters or bolt croppers, then all you do is cut the bends of the hooks off, pull the lure out and then remove the points! There is no pulling or twisting on the fish and then all you need to do is put on replacement hooks and away you go.

I think it’s fair to say that the vast majority of lures that are cast today are soft plastics in various guises. There is a very simple reason for this – they are extremely effective – not only for pike, but in smaller versions for zander and perch as well.

A lot of soft plastic lures these days come ready rigged, most of the time with internal weighing rather than a jig head, and most come with a single belly-rigged treble hook. For the majority of anglers these will suffice, however, for some, there is a need to change the weight / sink rate of the lure, or the position of the hooks. These anglers find un-rigged shads a far better option.

Though un-rigged shads are probably the best choice for flexibility in fishing techniques, there are some common mistakes in rigging them;

Wrong hook size:
The main jig hook needs to be the correct size for the lure you are using, the most common mistake I see is anglers using too big, or rather, too long a jig hook. The common misconception is that using a bigger hook will increase hook-ups. However using a hook too big puts too much of a “backbone” in the lure, which in turn reduces the lure’s action – which will reduce takes in the first place. It is far better to use a smaller hook and fish it in conjunction with a secondary stinger.

A good rule of thumb is for a 4 inch shad use a 3/0 – 4/0 jig hook, a 6 inch shad requires a 5/0 – 6/0 hook. Bigger shads than this are better fished with a screw-in jig head and double treble stingers.

Wonky:
It is critical to put your jig hook in the lure correctly, and it’s a skill that comes with time, and more experienced anglers can possibly do it blindfolded. However, it can be tricky, I lay my hook along the bait and pinch it where the hook should come out, so I have a guide of where to thread the hook. It should go in straight with no kinks in the lure at all. If there is a kink or the hook isn’t straight the lure won’t fish effectively, and it is something I am obsessive with – if it doesn’t look right I will re-rig. If you are struggling getting a jig hook in the right location, swap to screw-in jig heads.

Jig head weight;
Choosing the right weight for the jig head is also critical as this will affect lots of things – such as depth the lure will fish, fall rate, even body roll and action.
The most common mistake I see here is using too light a jig head, often it’s better to use a heavier one to keep the lure down where you need it to be, certainly for straight retrieve styles. A heavier jig head will also put more action in the lure on the fall. Sometimes if the weight is too light the lure will simply sink on tight line and not “swim” at all, which is contrary to what most people believe when using light weights.

The weight of the jig hook also affects the action and the roll of the lure. Some lures can be fished un-weighted for very shallow water, but most work better with some weight at the front. By manipulating the jig hook weight you can change the swimming action of the lure. Generally, the more weight the less roll and more stable the lure will be in the water, and it can be fished faster. There is a very subtle difference in how a lure behaves with a 15g jig head and one with a 30g jig head. However this subtle difference can make a massive difference to the fish.

Rigging for depth of water: as a rough guide for casting with 6 inch shads – use 10g per 10 feet of water – so if you are fishing at 20ft depth then 20g jig head is about right – 30ft – 30g and so on.

Stinger placement;
Stingers are so important on soft plastic baits, often they are the hook that catches the fish, with the main hook mainly acting as the weight for the lure. However, where and how you place them on the lure is critical to them working correctly.
The absolute best place to put the stinger is where the vent would be if the lure were a real fish. This tends to be a strike point, certainly for zander. For pike not so much, but it is an area where the hook can hang and easily catch hold in the fish’s mouth. Rigging a stinger hook here can also help balance the lure out in the water, and makes it more stable.
Using a stinger spike to push into the bait is the best way to mount the stinger in this area, as it allows the hook to hang naturally, and all three points to be proud of the bait.

If you are fishing your lure close to the bottom you may want to move the stinger hook and place it on top of the lure. This will prevent, or help reduce it snagging and picking up debris. The downside is that it can change the action of the lure and make it top heavy, unless you use a big jig head.

Don’t be tempted to put a stinger on the tail of the lure, this wrecks the action of the lure and prevents the fish hitting them in the first place. If you are not connecting with hits it’s possible that the fish aren’t really in a feeding mood, or your stinger is too small. I generally use size 2 stinger hooks on 6 inch shads, which may seem large, but I don’t miss many fish.

Hook placement:
1. Lay the hook along the lure for a guide to where it should come out.

2. Put the hook in the lure and keep it straight, threading it down the lure.

3. Make sure the point comes out on the centre line of the bait and the bait isn’t wonky.