Scotch_Egg2012

Alternatively there is a slip at the GAFIRS car park in Stokes Bay. It's not a bad slip and adjoining car park is pretty good. Only issue is it is directly open to a SW

2 hours ago, Saintly Fish said:

A dead one I take it? 

Not always, quite often in the last throws of life

1 hour ago, Saintly Fish said:

Leo caught one last year in the Solent. Unfortunately he dropped it at the side of the boat. 

If you are motoring around spring time and you see a couple of gulls sat on the surface pecking at something, motor over with the net ready 99% they are pecking a cuttle, I used to get quite a few that way

18 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

Cuttlefish . 
for the cod!

Bang on. 

I buy mine direct from a commercial boat,  see if you can source it. 

No 1 Unicorn bait round here

3 hours ago, GPSguru said:

The stinger was an excellent result.

I have caught plenty in Oz but never in the uk.

Weather is looking good for all week, my boat is in for engine service today.

Really wasn't expecting it from that spot a pleasant suprise and put up a good scrap. 

I feel your pain with the fine weather, they guy who usually comes out on my boat works every other weekend as you can imagine weather is usually pants when he's not working and fine when he is

Ended with 162 mackerel, all nicely vac packed now ready for the Whiting / Conger onslaught this coming winter

1 minute ago, Saintly Fish said:

Lovely Ray Scott. I was wondering why you were not cuddling it for the photo, but then i realised you got your new Outlaws hoodie on and probably didnt want to get it dirty!! 👍🏻

The photo doesn't show it but it looked like I'd murdered someone with the amount of blood splatters from the mackies on it. Cleaned out well though

1 minute ago, Andy135 said:

Wow! Unexpected but very nice. Guessing you were bottom fishing with your lure rod? Did it take a lure??

I was fishing a light fluorocarbon paternoster, trotting round in the tide in the vain hope of a Gilthead,  didn't realise the stinger was on it as it showed no bite, obviously just sat on the bait at the end of the trot.  I picked the rod up to reel in and it just shot off

10 hours ago, Saintly Fish said:

We took the tender down that way this afternoon, going against the ebb. Not big tides, but the river was running hard. Id imagine you dont get much fishing time there. 

Surprisingly you can get a good amount of time in there, it's the currents that hinder you along with the proximity of boats etc just makes it hard to get a bait exactly where you want it and to stay there long enough for a fish to go for it.  Lots of accurate casting required

1 hour ago, Saintly Fish said:

Yeah i did wonder! 

It's a very good spot but not easy to fish

21 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

Thats cabin boat yard is it not?

It is indeed, fished from the public slipway as they don't let you fish in the yard

This fish 5lb 11oz came at the head of the pontoon circled in yellow, I had no idea it was that size. The only way I landed that was to lean on it from the moment I set the hook and get down off the end of the slip where there was more room. Once it got there it proper woke up and did its best to get back under the pontoons

1 hour ago, Saintly Fish said:

Not to start with Scott, until he came to the surface first time. Then he went off like a train!! 

That's pretty common,  they almost don't realise what's going on for a couple of minutes then seem to wake up,  it can work in your favour if fishing a tight swim,  get them out of danger at the very beginning

21 hours ago, Saintly Fish said:

Mission accomplished !! 
 

Well done Neil,  did you get much of a scrap from it

Seriously though Kingsmill 50/50 makes the best mash, easy to get the right consistency. plain white can be a bugger if you under or over water it

Kingsmill white medium 😂😂

51 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

I'd definitely be keen for a mullet masterclass Scott. Sounds like a great way to learn a new sea fishing discipline.

@Andy135 @Saintly Fish let me know when you guys are free and we can organise something, September is a good month round here, if it stays mild October can produce but numbers start tailling off noticably. 

Whatever you feel most comfortable with,  you can leger for them and try to draw them down with groundbait, in that case a simple running leger will work I stick a float stop about 3 inches up so the fish can only run so far before it picks the weight up.  Stick with around a 6 inch snood. I always use fluorocarbon in 4-6lb depending if it's snaggy.  I like to fish a popped up crust on the leger and it often results in a slam over bite.  The crucial part is groundbait, make up a firm bread mash and mould it round the lead,  method feeders work but I have lost a few good fish due to them snagging in weed. Keep the groundbait going in about a satsuma sized ball every 5 mins on top of what you are moulding around the lead. Your aim is to build a visual patch that the mullet will investigate with your crust wafting over the top, they don't usually mess about with a pop up but hit it on the move and wolf it down.  Be near your rod. 

My personal favourite is the float, again keep it very simple.  I like the drennan loaded wagglers or puddle chucker (although the puddle chucker are fragile if you hit a pontoon) mainline down to a tiny swivel I use float stops to set my depth, after the swivel 10-12 inches of 4-6lb flouro again depending on structure. You can tackle them in a variety of ways,  you can set the float very deep but gently pinch the flake on so it floats on the surface away from the float or pinch the air out and set it as a slow sinking bait to whatever depth you want. Groundbait again is crucial, if on the surface just bits of bread thrown out, if fishing down then a loose mash that creates a nice cloud works well,  keep the bait going in with the mash about a walnut size every 20 or so seconds, surface flakes less often depending what else is hammering it (swans, Bass, gulls etc) if any tide and you are fishing around boats quite often drifting the float to a boat and letting the float stay on the Hull whilst the bait wafts underneath quite often results in a take. 

Set your drag before casting out. 

Sorry its a bit of an essay, there is much more to it than I am able to write here but this is a good start. 

Watch how they are hitting your ground bait,  I had a video which I can't upload of a shoal I was feeding in port solent,  I just threw some bits of a bread roll in and watched, first impression looked like they were nailing the surface flakes but the video shows they were not actually eating them,  they were trying to sink them, it wasn't easy to spot but in that situation if I was getting loads of hits on the top with no firm takes I change to a shallow slow sinker, what they do is try and sink the flakes then circle round and mop up the ones sinking down, crafty buggers

Anyone wants to do a trip for them give me a shout more than happy to show a few tips and tricks

2 hours ago, mike farrants said:

what rigs are people using for mullet? - I know they are difficult to catch, but its the perfect pastime while chilling on the boat in the marina on windy days - there's tons of bigguns sat under my boat all day - ive tried free lining bread, and also tried a bubble float - i see others using freshwater stick floats? any tips?

other than a spear?

 

Mike,  do you want to fish on the bottom or up in the water for them? 

Neil, they have a nasty habit of doing that, sometimes helps to scale the flake size down to encourage them to take it in one go. 

I took 3 mullet in the marina last weekend from my boat with them p*ssing around with the bait,  constant fettling with size and presentation got them to take in the end. 

Don't go too light with the hook size, I use 10's.  Lots of people swear by Kamasan B983,  I can't stand them and would advise anyone mulleting to steer clear of them.  I have had fish bend them out, there was a very lengthy discussion about them in the mullet club, with nearly everyone experiencing a bend out with them and very strangely some people continuing to use them. 

Andy,  Bass are a very very common bycatch on bread, my biggest Bass was a 5.7lber caught on a surface flake in the margins.  They are normally a proper pest if you fish with bread down in the water with bread mash going in.  Mullet won't compete with them so you end up with Bass after Bass if they move in. I hate the feckers 😁

Bass and Swans public enemy no 1 for mulletting. 

5 hours ago, Andy135 said:

Fingers crossed Tony. I reckon we're due a decent run after all these years of scratching around for them.

2016 the last decent year round here

18 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

Engine gives a bit of prop torque, meaning that without the port side tab working the boat runs heeled over to port. I've run without it before and found it to be a chore running like that, so instead of persevering on what was only supposed to be a short afternoon session anyway I went back in to practice my berthing while the drystack pontoon was empty.

Moral of the story - buy twin o/b's...

Was wondering if you managed to get out,  I was at the marina for lunch with the family and saw Jersey Girl back in her rack

21 minutes ago, JonC said:

Going back to Andy’s question do you ever take them on lures or are you using baits on the bottom? 

Normally on bottom baits,

I wouldn't write off drifting with shads in the deeper spots. Pete who usually comes out on my boat did quite well a few years ago on the brittle star bank drifting with shads.