Malc

This is based on length or width as the species are just tope, huss, smoothie, TBR (hence width) and surprisingly, mackerel and the prizes are pretty substantial circa £1000 for tope iirc as well as rods and reels etc so ID could be critical

I have previous with TBR spines and jaws so I won't be doing it that way. It is just because we are in a competition in June and ID is crucial, most online say about the second dorsal and also the lower tail lobe and dentistry will only be looked at from a safety POV.

Nice report and buffing nice smoothie too, I've been buffing up my fish ID and I believe that the second dorsal being bigger than the fin below it is one of the features, is that how you normally ID?

Yeah, no real wave action but the cormorant was bagging up in the same area I was casting, I also tried the slow retrieve but no joy. Might try the LRF sometime soon

Hope so, just had a text asking "What you doing Saturday..." 😃

And the first shore session of the year. Started on an open sand beach to try for flats, which we are going to use for tope in June, I was using shrimp tail tipped with mackerel belly strip on a two hook flapper. I found a nice gully 10 m out that dropped a couple of foot quickly. The sunny weather lasted an hour when the wind turned to blow diagonally inshore making bites hard to detect and even though a cormorant was fishing the same area and doing well I didn't get a touch. Eventually the gully was too far out to reach without destroying my baits on casting, so I tried the river but nothing doing even though the conditions were better. Hopefully the fish will return soon and there will be lots of different species to try for.

Very nice indeed, it's our quiet time now so good to hear everyone's stories

Fair rip out of the tail of that fish! Some nice snakes too, do you return them or freeze?

Not the numbers but try here 👍🏻🎣

Mackerel off Iceland etc is interesting too, along with changing catches up here. Pout are now common place, haddock are getting caught offshore and from the beaches, grey Gurnard, spotted ray and doggies getting more common off the Tyne and Wear coast. A few years ago there was a sudden increase in octopus numbers off the east coast of Scotland and I caught 3 small ones one after another on one drift and on moving offshore a few hundred yards was immediately into another. How does that work for the crab and lobster industry? Perhaps a decline in Mackerel off some southern areas will allow some other species a toe hold? Will our children or grandchildren be fishing for corvina or other exotic species?

Yes. I read an academic paper on the result of the collapse of the NS herring stock in the 60-70's. Shortly after the collapse the gaddid (cod, haddock, whiting, pollock etc.) catches went bonkers and the reason for this was mature herring (and mackerel) eat gaddid fry amongst others. However shortly after gaddid stocks plummeted because there weren't many immature herring to prey on. Yes it's much more complicated than that but thankfully the herring stocks are improving and we are seeing lots of micro codling and whiting so hopefully the balance is being restored.

Temma Harbour too. Lovely looking lady back then.

Mine is the revo 16 so it is longer but not as wide, and less freeboard but is as good as the previous paddle kayak on the sea. A short chop is a nightmare in any kayak especially if you get it from 2 or more directions, but I am happy in 1-2m swells as long as I have a protected landing.

Yeah, my favourite for bronze slabs usually some kind of sandeel or curltail

That's one grumpy spider

Nice, are you using jigs or soft plastics?

America leads the way in kayaks for the larger person and in particular for flat water conditions inland. Putting into perspective I am 95kg and have a hobie which has similar seating but I keep mine on the low setting and my kayak is not as wide or flat bottomed as some can be. With a flat bottom and high seating position I wouldn't be out in a choppy sea but perfect for flat water.

More likely to be my heart that limits my speed 😁 I can do 3-4kn all day long but just upping that to 5-6 is tiring, locally its 6kn until you pass the inner piers and then it's open it up and that's what the willy wavers do

5-6kn too fast? Just asking.

"The new law introduces a definition for watercraft which applies to any craft capable of moving under its own mechanical power." That means me too I suppose.

That was another option along with using a manual kayak bilge pump which are surprisingly efficient. https://www.lomo.co.uk/products/kayak-bilge-pump/

While I was helping with replacing the sea cock and other things the subject of bilge pumps came up and he said that he had switched it on and could faintly hear it whirring but never had any water come out I presume that it is the outlet stbd aft and the whirring seems to come from midships aft (behind the fuel tank?) so we presume that is the lowest point and where it is located. We can't find any online manuals or information, anyone know for sure? Also to test it is working will we have to put a load of water into the main bilge and then see if it empties it, which obviously has its drawbacks. Our other option is to use the selector cock on the bait pump and a flexy hose to pump any excess water away from any compartment.

I'm not sure, and specifically from a UK perspective. I use a maximum length rod of 8' usually 7 and they work well on crash diving pollock but if I used the rods above I would possibly get snapped off as I have the fins underneath and a short rod would not help avoid it. Another thing is feel, I like the weight and balance and all that goes with a longer rod. If I need balance then I'll hook my feet over the side and keep the rod closer to the bows.

Facebook is another place to place links as people share or link people to it.

Someone I know posted a video where he lost a couple of big fish over rough ground and rather than say how I would have tackled it and possible embarrassment I thought I would post it here as it may be helpful to someone. I lost a couple of sizeable pollock over rough ground when fishing from the kayak (lure fishing vertically) my first thought was to up the tackle strength but that removes the fun of catching smaller fish. However one day I noticed that the fish stopped taking my lures after catching a few and releasing most of them, so I set my drifts just off the mark and started casting over it, this got me catching again and I hooked a decent pollock of 8-9lb on a very light spinning rod, it fought hard but because I could turn it left, right and upwards due to the angle of the line I could keep it away from the snags. If you hook a fish above snaggy ground it will just motor straight down and you can only pull in the opposite direction. We have tried this over kelp and rock as well as steep drop offs and haven't lost any fish yet compared with at least 4 decent sized fish in the past 5-6 years. It works best over shallow ground 10-60' or so but hopefully it will help someone. Video below...