TOP TIPS TO HELP YOU CATCH MORE PLAICE

■ Beach fishing for plaice is most productive during spring tides since they tend to feed more eagerly. They particularly like a clear sea with minimum colour and good general water clarity. Estuary plaice feed more frequently during neap tides when the tidal run is less fierce.

■ Most plaice are caught during daylight, although they can occasionally be caught at night.

■ Beach plaice are frequently found on sand mixed with mud. They also like mussel beds at the mouths of estuaries and muddy channels where weed-covered rocks line the sides of the estuary channels. Piers can be quite productive, particularly when casting onto sand or mud.

■ Surf-beach plaice like to move in with the tide; they then “sit” in the deeper gutters and depressions that are features of these beaches. They also favour burying themselves in sand at the base of shallow sandbanks and picking off food as the tide brings it to them.

■ Plaice like a moving bait, so where possible, use a plain bomb and allow the tide pressure on the line to sweep your bait in a wide arc. Try “twitching” the bait towards you a few inches at a time. This is often enough to induce a take.

■ Plaice typically like a combination of baits. A cocktail of peeler crab and wriggling ragworm works well. Other baits to try are mussel, cockles or razorfish tipped with slivers of squid or mackerel thinly cut to give flapping movements to entice the fish.

■ Use two hook or three hook flapper rigs and include a different bait on each hook to try and tempt the plaice.

■ On beaches, long-range fishing will give you your best chance of catching plaice.

■ Plaice bites over sand in shallow water can be quite gentle. You may see the rod tip rattle slightly a few times. Resist the urge to strike! Plaice have small mouths – you may lose your fish by being too vigorous.

■ Always use fine wired, long shanked but strong hooks. These are best suited to the way plaice feed. If you’re missing bites and suspect these are plaice, then keep reducing your hook size.

■ Since plaice are inquisitive fish, use coloured beads just above your hooks. White and green or black and green can be good over sand, as can blue and yellow when fishing close to mussel beds. All my plaice have been caught with alternating white, yellow and green beads used together.

■ If you succeed in catching a plaice, try recasting as close as you can to the same spot. Other inquisitive plaice will often turn up. Small shoals can sometimes be found favouring precise locations.