Groundbaiting

[JonC]

34 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

Agreed, but I also know that many anglers catch them at anchor, including me - a plaice turned up for me on a worm bait on a mark not known for them a few seasons ago.

That was maybe just luck that your bait rolled passed it while fishing. 

[Andy135]

Just now, JonC said:

That was maybe just luck that your bait rolled passed it while fishing. 

I'm not so sure. Others have had good sessions of plaice at anchor, which implies that the fish were drawn in rather than taking a lucky rolling bait.

[Saintly Fish]

7 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

I'm not so sure. Others have had good sessions of plaice at anchor, which implies that the fish were drawn in rather than taking a lucky rolling bait.

I tried drifting for them and caught nothing. Soon as I dropped the pick in the same area I had one first drop! Could be coincidence? 

[GPSguru]

52 minutes ago, JonC said:

 that’s why drifting for plaice works. 

Plaice are quite aggressive sight hunters, which is why drifting ALWAYS out fishes being at anchor by several to one !

I can fish the skerries banks at anchor and catch blondes, small eyed, spotted, bass, dogs, and gurnard, but no plaice. Then I go for a few drifts and take 20 plaice with ease.

[Andy135]

1 minute ago, GPSguru said:

Plaice are quite aggressive sight hunters, which is why drifting ALWAYS out fishes being at anchor by several to one !

I can fish the skerries banks at anchor and catch blondes, small eyed, spotted, bass, dogs, and gurnard, but no plaice. Then I go for a few drifts and take 20 plaice with ease.

Ok Mr Show-off, I was asking about groundbaiting for them, not how many you can catch 😜🤣

[JonC]

50 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

Agreed, but I also know that many anglers catch them at anchor, including me - a plaice turned up for me on a worm bait on a mark not known for them a few seasons ago.

You may have just landed on a patch of them,  we get a lot of dabs through the winter at anchor but I think they are just sitting there waiting for it. 

[JonC]

2 minutes ago, JonC said:

You may have just landed on a patch of them,  we get a lot of dabs through the winter at anchor but I think they are just sitting there waiting for it. 

Also nobody catches soles in the estuary though the commercial boats always net them. This is maybe because we all fish at anchor all the time. 

[Saintly Fish]

1 hour ago, JonC said:

Also nobody catches soles in the estuary though the commercial boats always net them. This is maybe because we all fish at anchor all the time. 

Sole are best caught at anchor. You just have to have the bait 100% nailed to the sea bed. Split shot just above the worm works well. Small worms too, sole only have tiny mouths. 

[GPSguru]

1 hour ago, Andy135 said:

Ok Mr Show-off, I was asking about groundbaiting for them, not how many you can catch 😜🤣

On that mark, 20 is about average, but only if you drift, the best speed seems to be between 0.8 and 1.2knts

[Andy135]

2 minutes ago, GPSguru said:

On that mark, 20 is about average, but only if you drift, the best speed seems to be between 0.8 and 1.2knts

It's posts like that which make me want to craft a "middle finger" reaction option... 😤

[GPSguru]

14 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

It's posts like that which make me want to craft a "middle finger" reaction option... 😤

As you know, it is a prolific Plaice mark, however, these days the average stamp of fish means that 50% have to go back to grow bigger.

Each year I usually get a good number of 3lb+ fish and maybe one or two 4lb'ers, this year I have set my target on getting a 5lb'er.

99.9% of my fishing is on the drift to cover more ground looking for the fish.

To stay on topic, I  rarely  use ground bait, although I have noticed that catches are sometimes better when there are more rods on the boat, indicating that a scent trail probably does have an effect. If I do ground bait, then I use the big lead weight in a large plastic bag method, which is also the method used by many charter boats.

 

 

[Malc]

Interesting difference of thoughts here.

Accepted wisdom for plaice is movement and attractions/bling, turbo and brill similar but difference of opinion on bling all are sight hunters and predators, we could also lump flounder in there too. If you are at anchor with just four or five rods out boat movement will add a bit of an attraction, as will the anchor chain and movement of a dropper/net/bag. Compared with a charter boat and 12-20 sets of gear like for like the charter should get more? 

I also wonder how much disturbance is too much. I noticed that (in regards to kayak fishing) if I caught a few cod, and particularly Pollock over a small reef, it would go quiet and the only way to start catching again was to drift off the mark parallel to it and cast over (30-60ft depth). I have a water wolf camera and have several hours of film drifting over the reefs and it is always amazing to see how fish react to your lures as well as how disinterested they can be. I will have to take it out on my friends boat and see what happens when we are at anchor bait fishing for cod etc and also when we go out west for tope, hounds, Huss and TBR.

[Andy135]

12 minutes ago, Malc said:

Interesting difference of thoughts here.

Accepted wisdom for plaice is movement and attractions/bling, turbo and brill similar but difference of opinion on bling all are sight hunters and predators, we could also lump flounder in there too. If you are at anchor with just four or five rods out boat movement will add a bit of an attraction, as will the anchor chain and movement of a dropper/net/bag. Compared with a charter boat and 12-20 sets of gear like for like the charter should get more? 

I also wonder how much disturbance is too much. I noticed that (in regards to kayak fishing) if I caught a few cod, and particularly Pollock over a small reef, it would go quiet and the only way to start catching again was to drift off the mark parallel to it and cast over (30-60ft depth). I have a water wolf camera and have several hours of film drifting over the reefs and it is always amazing to see how fish react to your lures as well as how disinterested they can be. I will have to take it out on my friends boat and see what happens when we are at anchor bait fishing for cod etc and also when we go out west for tope, hounds, Huss and TBR.

Agreed. Movement is the received wisdom, but I wonder if there may be other ways too.

Would love to see some of your water wolf footage. I've been trying to get some underwater shots with a GoPro, but my mounting rig needs more work. Don't think you can buy water wolf cameras any longer?

[Malc]

8 hours ago, Andy135 said:

Would love to see some of your water wolf footage...

Here you go, apologies for the camera movement and lack of slick editing 😁

https://youtu.be/qcx8J4ZgKug

https://youtu.be/P4fZzIVogRw

Second one I should have put the lures down first! I am hoping to make a rig to stop the camera swinging around to lessen the seasickness 🤣 the camera is 8' or so above the lead weight and generally I kept the lead about a foot above the reef.

Last time I used it I found that I had a dead pixel(s) which is annoying but I will keep it going for the foreseeable as I get a lot of information from them like wrasse and ling just watching it go by and little bits like how many urchins are in some areas and I often wonder how on earth I don't get snagged up more.

[Andy135]

Nice footage. Some inquisitive cod there. 👍

Took me a while to realise that you didn't have a baited dropper below the camera? One of those fish seemed to be mouthing the lead or some sort of bead on the line?

[Malc]

2 hours ago, Andy135 said:

Nice footage. Some inquisitive cod there. 👍

Took me a while to realise that you didn't have a baited dropper below the camera? One of those fish seemed to be mouthing the lead or some sort of bead on the line?

Yes, should have said! I use it separately from the fishing rod due to lack of hands etc when on the yak. The cod enjoyed mouthing the lead weight I think and a couple of times the camera was nibbled by fish, you should be able to see my lure(s) in a few of the shots including a missed take from a small codling.

[JDP]

I use a cannon stx downrigger to drop old fish frames either to the bottom or what ever depth I want my burley to be. I made up these baskets from chicken pen wire and used concrete in the bottoms. The small basket on the left has an open front so I can run a bolt up through the concrete to hold a GoPro to film what ever checks the bait out. Had to make the small one shorter so it would stay the right way once it hit bottom. I loose the odd basket to sharks, especially wobbegong (big dogfish). 

What I like is the fact these may drift back in the tide on the way down but once they hit bottom I pull them in a touch which puts them directly under the boat. Once under the boat I can see them extremely well on the sounder, as well as fish that come to check it out, if sharks turn up I can pull it from the water.

The cannon stx down rigger has a breaking mechanism which works like a fishing reel drag, so I can normally get the basket back even when they get munched. The baskets can be made to suit what every type of bait you want to put in them, if you have cod and pollack frames, simply make them to suit bigger frames. 

Im sure this would attract fish in the UK as much as they do here. If you have a rough old bait freeze you can simply leave the baskets in the freezer and keep adding fish offal to them when ever you have some.

 

 

Edited February 23, 2022 by JDP

[suzook12]

On 2/23/2022 at 3:38 AM, JDP said:

 if you have cod and pollack frames

 

That would indicate we've had cod and pollack!!! You've been gone a while now haven't you Jon 🤣🤣

More chance of a BFT than a cod these days!!!

[JDP]

On 2/24/2022 at 9:01 PM, suzook12 said:

That would indicate we've had cod and pollack!!! You've been gone a while now haven't you Jon 🤣🤣

More chance of a BFT than a cod these days!!!

Mates are still getting cod and pollack fishing out of Bembridge IOW.