What Am I Doing Wrong??

[Pross]

I fished the Severn Estuary from Goldcliffe sea wall near Newport on Saturday night two hours either side of high tide. I got loads of bites but didn't convert any to a catch. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I let them play with the bait a bit and strike hard, the one I thought I'd missed as there was no response but as I reeled in just at the base of the wall I felt the fish struggle and saw the splash as it jumped off. Not sure what I was getting biting, the tackle shop reckoned there are Sole and small Conger about and they were taking both the mackerel and rag I was using (size 2 hooks). At first I thought that using booms on a flapper rig might be affecting the strike so changed to a double paternoster but with the same results. I was only using a strip of mackerel about 2 inches long so don't think the bait size was too big. The hooks on the rigs were new and sharp (holes in my fingers to prove it!). Also, missed a lot of bites early on as the tide was flooding in very quickly and the wind was blowing hard making it hard to notice them. Still, had a good evening and look forward to feeding the fish there again!

[DownSouth]

If they were Conger, then a size 2 hook isn't going to hold them Pross, and if they were Sole you might have been striking too fast. Flatties tend to swim onto the bait, settle and then eat. Give them a bit more time to get the food in their mouth before striking. I tend to find most fish will hook themselves unless you have a large amount of bait on the hook.

Also, try bending the point of the hook at a slight angle to the shank. I find that if I hold the shank in one hand and with a pair of pliers bend the hook curve about 45 degrees to the left or right then when you release the pliers you have about a 20 degree offset. This generally helps with better/more frequent hook ups.

[Pross]

Thanks, I'll give that a go. Don't think they were conger as the one I reeled in didn't struggle. Probably bloody dogfish (or more likely crabs!!!) ;-)

[DownSouth]

Could be crabs actually. We had a real problem with Spider Crabs on Saturday at Chesil. Every bait I cast out, bar two, came back empty. I may have well just cast out bare hooks!

[Pross]

Whatever it was seemed to prefer the Rag to mackerel although both got chewed. I suspect crabs would go for the mackerel first but who knows. They did seem to be proper bites though.

if they prefered rag to mackeral its a fair guess that it was sole size. one o hooks max and let them chew on it mate.

[upnorth1]

Good advice Gus matey,

definately let them chew on it!!

Being a matchman, i've learned over the years, to sit on my hands!!!

I fish totally by the clock, start off just leaving a bait out for around 15 mins, and whichever way, adjust your times, if fish are in the 'mood', and feeding quite well, shorten your cast times, if they're fussy or just picking at the bait, leave it! walk away, pour a coffee, eat a sarnie, anything, just leave the bites to develope, and sure enough, you will earn more successful hook ups, and, if your multihooking, you generally find that you usually fill all the hooks with fish too!

Works great for flounders, dabs, LSD's, whiting etc...

[steve devon]

go for a walk i say

[Ben]

i have the prob that whenever i see even a small bite i wanna strike and catch a fish:P even though i know there prob wouldnt be a fish, and then i think afterwards when i dont have a fish that i should have struk and caught the fish

[Olde Danny]

If you want to get plenty of bites and an exelent chance of hooking up " Get the flask out!!" Its as sure as hell that when your in the middle of pouring a drink out bang goes one of your rods.