Sea Fishing Reviews

Reviews of fishing tackle, charter fishing boats, fishing marks, tackle shops, taste of fish by species, the dvice and bait elastic.

Charter Boats

Charter fishing is a great way to go sea fishing, depending on the skipper and location 99.9% of the time you are almost garunteed to catch something. Most charter boat skippers have extensive local knowledge of the area they fish in and can help you catch some fine fish.

The price varies according to the boat and skipper and are usually charged by booking the full boat for the day, but expect to pay on average £35 - £50 per person for the day out. Again depending on the boat, you will usually find they have rods and reels you can use, fishing tackle and bait.

More often than not they will tell you what sort of rigs and bait will work where your going. Its all ways worth shopping around and asking other people about what charter boat and skipper to use. Sometimes it pays to travel to go charter fishing for example you have alot more chance catching cod at the right time of the year out of dover as apposed to portsmouth, again ask around to find the best boat and area.

Tackle Shops

Your local tackle shop should become like your local pub, a place for banter, advice and escape the missus. You will find however it's not cheap for tackle or bait unless your really lucky. A single packet of hooks can cost you as much as a fiver! Ragworm costs around £10 a pound and its just over £3 for 1lb box of squid.

Yet despite all this I still get my bait and sometimes a bit of tackle from my local shop, Most of the time he knocks a bit of money off I guess because I always go back to him. His shop provides me with info on how the local area is fishing and somewhere to go and have a chin wag.

If I am honest I get the majority of my tackle from the internet, places like ebay, tacklebargains and spottydogtackle. I spent £11 for example on a box of 400 mixed size hooks, £3 for 60 snap swivels etc. In the past I have even bought live bait online although with the postage it costs more than it would to buy them in the shops.

Marks

Ok I can not give an independent review of each fishing mark but I can tell you what makes a good fishing mark.

• Rocky ground that holds lots of nooks and crannies for bait fish and sizable fish.
• A stable platform on which to fish off
• Ideally sheltered from the wind and elements.
• Hot water outflow pipe, bass go crazy for warmer water see dungeness
• A deep hole or gulley, if shore fishing in casting distance
• A local pub and burger van :) To keep you happy!

Taste of fish

• Cod from a chippy shop does not compare to the taste of freshly caught cod.
• Bass is a sweet tender tasting fish, another white fish, I would rate it in top five best tasting fish.
• Plaice
• Gurnard is similar in taste to cod but has a slightly stronger taste.
• Conger Eel I think tastes like chicken.
• Smoothound
• Pollock
• Whiting
• Skate is a very nice fish to eat similar to chicken in texture.
• Dogfish - A popular dogfish dish is dogfish curry, I have never personally tryed the dish but been told using fillets with a sharwoods curry sauce is delicious.
• Trigger Fish

Tackle Reviews

Gripper weights - Are an essential item for your fishing tackle box, they do what they are called, grip the seabed to stop your bait drifting. In areas such as harbour entrances, rivers and beach's where there is a strong tidal current or heavy wind and surf.
This will hold your rig on the bottom no matter what. They vary in weight you can get a 2oz gripper weight all the way up to a 7oz lead gripper weight.
I know you might be thinking how stupid it must be to grip the bottom, I mean how are you meant to reel it in? Well the legs / grippers when put under pressure will lift out of the gripped position to allow you to retrieve your rig.
In an area with alot of seaweed they are best avoided if at all possible as you will end up catching a 10lb weed fish each cast and you may get greenpeace on your back. Anyway have a go and see what you think, Peace out dude :)

Bait holder hooks - Are the best hooks I have ever used and that is the truth, they should make forks using the same style...... on second thoughts maybe not!
Bait holder hooks are designed to keep your bait in place on the hook, they work by having two extra barbs on the hook just below the eye, say for instance you thread a ragworm on a normal hook and cast it out 100yds, Do you think that ragworm is likely to stay in position? Probably not now try again with a bait holder hook and I would bet nine times out of ten the bait stays in position and intact.
Ok so what other bait can you benefit from using a bait holder hook with, Live sandeel when threaded through the gills and then hooked in the belly. This will keep your sandeel presented naturally and he will not come off that hook!

Beads and Attractors - Some people would not fish without them, others would not touch them. I personally swear by beads especially for flatfish and bass. Who knows if they increase catch rate.

Braid - Braid fishing line can be very usefull but only if its used right, the problem is unlike monafilament fishing line it does not have any flex / elasticity to it, so when a fish is hooked it can be very suseptable to loosing fish due too the line being so taught and having no flexibility. This can be helped with shockleader but it will still have the same effect but slightly less. It can also be a pain in the a** if you end up with a tangle as its near on impossible to remove knots in the line.

Shockleader - Don't leave home without it, enough said!!

Floats - If you have been freshwater fishing you will know all about these, they are highly underused and underestimated for sea fishing, alot of sea fish are mid water fish and I fished next to a mad float fisher and been humiliated many times.

Swimfeeders??! - No I am not going all freshwater fishing soft on you!! Seriously though if the fish are not feeding these things can be a life saver!!

Bait elastic - If you are fishing from the shore with any bait apart from ragworm, don't leave it at home! It helps keeps your bait intact and present after casting and it does not deter fish!

D-vice and D-gripper

How much? - They can cost from £3 - £5 depending on where you get them from and what model you get.

What are they for? - They are for casting bait long distances and keeping the bait intact.

Are they any good? - I have only used the dvice and apart from being a pain to put together they work quite well, I am not sure they work well enough to lose at £3 a snag!