Posted under Spinning Rods
The Mike Ladle sure spin was built by Daiwa and is thought to be the perfect spinning rod for artificial lure fishing with both plugs and spinners. Designed by the doctor of bass fishing himself “Mike Ladle” this rod has received top line endorsements from both the angling press and sea fishing websites.
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Posted under Bass Lures & Bass Plugs & Bass Spinners
The Maria Chase BW is a long slim diving lure for plug fishing in shallow water. This best selling bass lure is optimised to dive at depths up to 30cm making it the ideal bass fishing lure for shallow beaches and rock marks. The built in magnetic moving weight system makes the lure ideal for casting and fishing. Having read some of Henry Gilbey’s articles on bass fishing it seems that he likes this lure too, saying
You need to work it really fast to get it moving correctly, but I have yet to see this innocuous looking lure fail, it really seems to be that good. They are not very expensive either and if you go plugging with 30lb braid on your reel then you can wrench the lures out of most snags anyway
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Posted under Penn & fishing reels
The 535 mag from Penn is one of the strongest reels in today’s market. This reel is quite simply indestructible and therefore an ideal choice foe shore anglers who fish the roughest of marks and conditions. The Penn 535has a retrieve ration of 6:1 making it ideal for heavy shore fishing and uptiding from a boat. It is constructed from graphite with an alloy spoll meaning the reel should never suffer from corrosion like many similar reels in its range.
The 535 Mag has 4 ball bearings, centrifugal brakes and capacity of 400yds of 15lb mono filament line.
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Posted under Cod Lures & Fishing Rigs
Boat fishing and rig set up can be confusing to some beginners and understanding why on one day we catch and next day we don’t can be frustrating to anglers, and sometimes me included,
Now I don’t profess to understand all that happens under the boat and while a simple hook and bait can produce fish, if a little effort and thought is put in you can give yourself a much better chance of bigger and better catches,
The tide/wind/ and water clarity all pay a major roll which we cannot alter on a given booked days fishing trip, but what we are in control of is the way we present our bait/lure to the fish,
I spend lots of my time during the school holidays with novice anglers/ day trippers,
(see my 3 hour trips under fishing news and updates from the link)
and I like to keep it simple and get them catching from the off, the system I use is my home made two hook Muppet rig (soft squid like lures) attached to 0/4 or0/5 circle hooks and tied to 30lb or 50lb clear mono line, these can then be fished over a simple lead or attached to a bar pirk, and on really hard days I like to attach long thin strips of frozen squid to add a scent and some realism, the circle hooks while more expensive offer almost self hooking abilities and a great hold, and nearly always in the corner of the mouth which aids unhooking.
These rigs are hand made by yours truly and great care and time is given to the choice of hook and the way I attach the Muppets to the hook is painstaking but ensures the hook doesn’t pull back through the soft lure,
unlike some I have seen in which the hook is simply pushed through the top, eye and all, leaving a split for the hook to re immerge on the first drop and end up in either loosing the lure, or worse leaving Muppet hanging in the bend of the hook and looking totally un natural,
These hand made rigs are now available from me on the boat and now online at the new Whitby sea anglers shop site,
So why not give yourself the edge and take a look via the link.
Article by Sea Urchin Skipper Mick Leonard
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Posted under Hooks
Razor claw hooks are probably the sharpest fishing hook in today’s sea fishing market. There are several types of razer claw hooks on the market including the razer claw worm hook, eel hook, circle hook, and the Big bend hook. These hooks are very similar to those made by Variva’s and Sakuma.
After years of experimenting with various hooks from Kamasan and Mustad I now find only one hook acceptable for cod fishing. That hook is the the Razor claw big bend. It is ultra sharp and extremely strong, with a larger gape than that found on most sea fishing hooks making it ideal for mounting larger cocktails baits of crab, mussel, lug worm etc. I usually opt for the 5o size which allows you to get plenty of bait on the hook which is essential when targeting those bigger cod which swim off our coastline. The razer claw big bend also makes an excellent uptiding hook and is favoured by many of the Whitby charter skippers for use when winter uptiding for cod.
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Posted under fishfinders
Humminbird took fishfinders to a whole new level last year with theintroduction of their exclusive side imaging sonar technology. Now,following the success of the innovative 997c and 797c² side imagingsonar models, comes the latest unit with the largest screen to date. Thenew Humminbird 1197 has a 10.4 inch full colour 600V x 800H pixel display with a sunlight viewable screen and delivers outstanding high
definition images of the bottom over a huge area. As well as viewing beneath the boat, these fishfinders can scan up to 240 feet either side of it and produce detailed images of the underwater topography. Never before has anything so sophisticated been available for boat fishermen, divers and mariners. For example fishermen can not only spot the fish, but can view underwater features and locate where fish are likely to be. Although the side imaging system was conceived for leisure use, professional search and rescue services have shown a keen interest in these highly advanced sonars. Units come complete with GPS and chartplotting capabilities. The new Humminbird 1197 has many benefits for fish finding and navigation and the display size really comes into its own with the split screen facility. This means that users can view navigation charts and sonar side imaging pictures at the same time and with a big screen it’s just so much easier to interpret data. Live images can also be relayed to a flat screen television using the video output link, and navigational data and sonar images can be recorded using the SD memory card and analyzed later on a PC. A Freeze Frame facility and dedicated Mark button means that you can mark an object’s
exact position using GPS and then automatically create a waypoint back to it. The View button allows easy scrolling between screens and the display can be customised to suit
individual preference. Humminbird fishfinders also have the X-press Menu so when you press the Menu button once the options always relate to the screen displayed at the time.
The large screen Humminbird 1197 can be gimbal or flush mounted and the unit comes with a transom mounted transducer which rotates out of the way for launch and recovery For larger craft a through-hull transducer fitting is available. For more on side imaging sonar go to www.sideimaging.com The Humminbird 1197 and other
marine electronics from Johnson Outdoors UK will be on stand S61 at BBEx, 13-14 February.
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Posted under Cod Lures & Shads
Calcutta swim shads have taken the boat fishing scene by storm. In recent years the boat anglers out of the nations charter ports have been experimenting with these new lures from calcutta, and these anglers have certainly enjoyed what they have seen. Cod and Pollock seem to fall for shads with ease, and other species like cat fish, bass and coalies also seem to have a liking of these soft rubber lures. What’s more, fishing with them couldn’t be simpler. Simply attach them to your trace with an 8 ounce lead weight. Drop the lot to the bottom and retrieve slowly. Fishing in such a way also allows you to use a lighter class rod and lower diameter lines meaning its now possible to catch fish in stronger tides, something which was impossible with the older boat fishing methods like pirking.
Calcutta Flashfoil Swim Shads Weighted Latex shads have proven themselves to be both the saltwater and freshwater angler’s favorite lure. Calcutta flashfoil Shads are the latest and by far the most realistic innovative super shads. Available in 5 sizes (3″, 4″, 5″, 6″, 9″) and 28 colours. Good for all predatory fish.
VMC needle point hooks. True swim balanced weight system. Frequency attracting, vibra-action tail. Holographic ‘live eyes’ and flashfoil reflective bodies. Raised gill plates that give off bubbles on retrieve. Produced in the most vibrant and realistic colours available.
Packs contain 4 to 6 lures depending on shad size.
In an article about cod fishing with shads Paul Kilpatrick skipper of sea otter 2 at Whitby says
The old ways of fishing just wasn’t producing the goods as well as it once did. The 20 and 30 pound monster cod were no longer around in the numbers they used to be on the multitude of wrecks miles offshore. In fact it was due to bad weather and being forced to fish closer to home that the many Whitby charter boats discovered good stocks of cod in the 3 to 15 pound bracket just a few miles from the harbour. After many months of experimentation, we found that these cod could be targeted very successfully on artificial lures, namely shads. So out of the gloom and doom of years of poor wreck fishing came a wonderfully new method of inshore sports fishing, and one that has proven to be extremely effective to boot!!. Cod fishing at Whitby was back and this time it was better than ever. I admit I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Masses of decent sized cod some well into double figures were being caught on light tackle most times the boats put to sea.
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Posted under Cod Lures & Shads & Storm
Storm shads are the latest revolution to hit the boat fishing scene in the UK. Sea anglers from the length and breadth of the country are now raving about these new lures which catch fish like nothing seen before, and what’s more fishing with shads is so easy - simply attach a weight and your shad and drop it into the water.
At Whitby, the cod capital of the United Kingdom experimentation with shads has been underway for several years and it has been proven that these lures are an extremely effective method for catching all north sea species including : Cod, Pollock, Ling, Coalfish and even Bass.
When asked about swim shads, local charter skipper and boat fishing expert Paul Kilpatrick said
The first time I ever saw shads used to catch cod was a few years ago now. One guy chartered my boat for himself and we started on a wreck 23 miles north of Whitby. It is one of those wrecks which is always plastered in feed with good cod and pollock in abundance and the ocasional catfish. I had never used a shad before although I had found out that firetails were a useful lure for pollock from the wrecks. As we approached the wreck I noticed this guy had a 4″ blue storm shad on his rig, I thought to myself I will just stick to what i know best. On the first 3 drifts over the wreck i had 3 cracking pollock 2 into double figures, But the other guy had 3 cod up to 10lb. I couldnt get a cod on my firetails but this guy was hammering them on the swim shads, it was only a couple of turns of the reel handle and the cod were at it. So after those first 3 drifts enough was enough, I borrowed a couple of storm shads of the customer and it was a quick changeover, on with a blue shad. I was amazed just how fast the cod were hitting this lure, sometimes I think they had already took the shad on the way down before it had hit the bottom, they were mad for it. That trip was the start of a new era for me and I have been using shads ever since and I now tell all my customers that amongst essential items for a days boat fishing are the wild eye blue swim shad’s.
To read more about Paul’s discovery of swim shads please click here to go to his web site.
Please click here to learn how to use swim shads.
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EMAIL : whitbyseaanglers@gmail.com
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