THE JOY OF FISHING
WITH MARTIN BOWLER
positioned randomly or equally distributed, preferring areas of dynamic change. That might be a drop-off, a reef, a wreck or a change in the pace of the current, but there will always be places that attract fish.
The ever-changing tides make things a little more complex, but what I’m trying to get across is that a random cast into the sea is doomed to failure, just as it would be in your favourite lake.
So, whichever one of our wonderful seaside towns you choose to visit, do some research first. The local tackle shop wants you to know the best marks and skippers because success means a repeat customer.
Shops are well worth visiting, but with the internet available on everyone’s phone it’s frightening what you can learn from home. If, like me, you think that half the fun of fishing lies in the planning, you can arrive at the coast with knowledge that would have taken years to accrue in the past. Planning prevents a poor performance I always say!
A lack of equipment can seem a barrier to success but most charter boats provide this as part of the package…anyway,
Several shark species live in coastal waters.
this is not the only option.
The lures and lure rod you use for piking will be more than adequate for bass. An early morning spent rockhopping as the tide comes in is the perfect start to a summer’s day. These silver-flanked predators sweep across the freshly flooded pools, and a lure whizzing by their heads is seldom ignored. Think how you’ll feel doing battle with a bass as the sun kisses the never-ending horizon!
Your spod or carp rod can be put to work too, especially as you’re already teaming it up with a reel first designed for sea fishing.
I’ll leave the rigs for you to Google, but the shore crabs you collected from a rock pool can now be used two hours either side of high tide to tempt a wrasse out from its boulderclad lair. This chameleon among fish looks so exotic that it seems to have no place living in the UK, but it does! It’s also relatively simple to catch, and that might make it your target for your first coastal foray. There are, though, a myriad of other shoreline opportunities that include garfish, mackerel, rays and bream. There’s just so much fun to be had!
Boarding a boat widens your horizons still further. Don’t worry if you are prone to seasickness – with all the modern cures available this shouldn’t stop you going afloat. What can make the difference between a good and a bad day, though, is the charter skipper you pick. Do some research, because as with
“Bluefin tuna the size of a truck are closer than you’d imagine!”
everything in life there are good and bad ones. What you want is a fisherman, not a taxi driver for tourists.
Thanks to social media it’s easy to sort the wheat from the chaff, so there’s no reason to make a mistake. Many charters offer individual days or cater for mixed parties, but perhaps the most pleasure comes from getting together a group of mates and heading out to sea for a social. Wreck fishing for pollack is action-packed. Everyone will get their rod bent, and no doubt there’ll be a bet on the biggest fish of the day to add to the banter.
It really doesn’t matter if you’re an expert or not because your skipper will be, and he’s doing most of the work. Just as when fishing from the shore there are so many species you can go for and be confident that they aren’t out of your reach. If you can tie the latest carp rig then you’ll have no problem sea fishing.
To conclude, let’s explode the myth that there are no big fish off our coasts. I’m not seen as a sea angling specialist, but I’ve had five different species over 100lb! Conger eels grow the biggest in the world in the English Channel, while Scottish common skate are the size of a barn door.
Porbeagle sharks will make you think you’ve got Jaws circling the boat, and a mako or a thresher isn’t an impossible dream. Six-gilled sharks grow to 1,000lb or more, and there are tens of thousands of blue sharks sitting off our coast every summer.
And the best is yet to come! The west coast of the British Isles has one of the most prolific stocks of bluefin tuna anywhere on the planet. I don’t need scientific data to prove what I’ve seen with my own eyes from Cornwall to Ireland and everywhere in between – giants the size of a pick-up truck are closer than most of you would ever imagine!
So, whatever you want from sea fishing, it’s out there waiting for you. Isn’t it time to feel like a kid once more and go on another adventure?