And what about fishing while sailing ?

V

VO5

Well-Known Member
Joined
14 Sep 2009
Messages
3,046
Location
Gibraltar, RGYC.
Visit site
What is the best technique for fishing when underway in open water ?
Lines with spinners ? Rods or no rods ?

My idea is to hook something manageable rather than a Marlin...:eek:..enough for a dinner four four, say.

Does anybody here do this regularly ?
 
I just use mackerel feathers on a heavier weight than if i were casting. It's also the only time I keep the speed under 4 knots. :) It's worth it though for fresh fish.

On our first trip to Fowey from Plymouth this summer, we tied up, I decided to get the rod out and have a go as I saw some others fishing on the opposite set of visitors pontoons. 2nd cast, straight in to the middle of a shoal of mackerel, pulled 4 out on a 5 hook feather line :D The other boat had been there for 4 hours and not got a nibble, me? not even half an hour!
 
It depends where ...

Mackerel are the stalwart of the casual fisher off a boat. They are a summer fish, mostly; they live near the surface in open water; and they'll eat a feather, piece of silver paper or spinner. However sailing along at full chat and trolling a set off feathers off the back is a bit hit and miss, and you really do need to try and get the feathers down in the water. You can buy something called a paravane for about a fiver. This will get the feathers or lure down a bit deeper without resorting to heavy weights. Hand line or rod? It doesn't really matter. A rod is nicer to use but can get in the way on a boat and obviously costs more money. A handline is fine but is a pain when it comes time to reel in.

If you want to catch fish other than mackerel you need to put in a bit more effort and maybe use bait. Pollack and coalfish can be caught by fishing deeper, over reefs, but as they don't taste as good as fresh mackerel there's little point. Bass are something special and can be caught on a spinner but not randomly in open water. I've caught them in the Solent in the right place and time. Other fish like flatfish are best caught when at anchor, using bait.
 
we fished for the first time last summer. used a paravane on rod & line.
caught a single large mackerel off of Cap Gris Nez it made a salad supper for 2 that evening.
later lost the gear as sailing too fast & light line. that fish cost £9 i had only recently bought the vane in Dover :D
 
Speed is your problem. Round the UK you can catch mackerel whilst sailing ( assuming that is you are not doing 15kn) but they arent IMO very good eating. To catch decent fish like bass or cod, you need to anchor.

Whilst cruising and anchoring rather than marinas, I reckon the best investment is a pot. Good returns for little skill. Rod fishing requires some know how and skill - as you learned as a child, simply lobbing in a hook with a bit of bread on it isnt very effective. You do need to know what youre doing.
 
Interesting replies, thank you.
Here in the Straits of Gibraltar we catch mackerel with feathers too.
And we attract them by using a light at night to draw threm nearer.
I am wondering what can be caught on a Tranatlantic trip thats not ambitious like hooking Marlin or Swordfish or any big brute but of manageable size like small tunny or the like. Any ideas ?
 
Caught a nice bass on tuna gear off Cabo Trafalgar last summer. The lure was a rubbery squid like thing, about 5 inches long with a "tuna double" hook and it was fished just under the surface

We towed this gear for almost 2000 miles in the NE Atlantic and that bass was IT. Cost me a lot of money :mad:
 
In the 1970s we used to handline for mackerel. we used a 3lb lead on a 1 fm 100 lb perlon trace, above that 15, 20 or even 25 hooks, at least 9in apart on 80 or 100 lb line, with feathers or plastic tube lures, another 1 fm trace of 100lb perlon on top, then 50 fm of either 150lb perlon or 4mm braided polyprop, depending on what gear was in the boat, shaking the fish off by hand or mechanical strippers. The line was wound up on a gurdy, a big reel with a handle on the side.
We would cruise about looking for oily water or marks on the sounder, or an accumulation of boats, which often stretched over several miles. One shoal of fish in 1974 was six miles long, a mile wide and 90 feet deep, 170 boats on it. The best, biggest fish would be on the edge of the shoal and not mark on the sounder until you dropped a line and they grouped around it.
One morning we arrived off Helford in the dark at 0730 and could smell fish, but there were no marks on the sounder: we dropped a line and there were large fish right under the boat, we were shaking them off by hand. At 09.45 there was a radio call limiting us to 150 stone (just under a ton) a man. Two of us had 330 stone aboard, so home we went.

Rig up with say ten hooks, nice light gear, about 40 or 50 lb breaking strain, and a heavy weight at the bottom. As you cruise along, drop the line free so it gets as deep as possible, then haul up steadily, you need substantial line that you can haul by hand. This way you cover the whole depth each drop.

Before you accuse us of wiping out the mackerel, we were only pecking at the fringes of a huge biomass, and fishing exclusively for human consumption: what b uggered it was the industrial boats, mostly fishing for meal, and landing to the eastern bloc klondikers. We asked the government to protect the stock at the time and were told that the mackerel could 'never be wiped out'. Five years later they were all gone.
 
Atlantic fish

VO5 said:
I am wondering what can be caught on a Tranatlantic trip thats not ambitious like hooking Marlin or Swordfish or any big brute but of manageable size like small tunny or the like. Any ideas ?
Click to expand...

I ate fresh fish most of the way across, tuna, dorado (tres delicious) and even a flying fish about a foot and a bit long. Heavy line, something shiney on the end. Most resources on the subject suggest having the lure splash the surface every 5 secs of so, about 100´back from the boat. Dawn and dusk seem best times, I´d take the lure in at night usually rather than get in a mess if i caught something. Don´t think it matters if you have a rod or just some line round a winch. Good fishing!
 
Fluorescent, Pink Coloured, Silicon Squid

VO5 I have used fluorescent, pink coloured, silicon squid, about 4" long, weighted to keep the line just below the surface to catch Dorado in the Atlantic.

The trace is made up as follows: squid, 3 point hook inside squid, shot weights inside squid to space out hook such that its just in the tentacles, swivel, wire trace, shiny lead weight, swivel, line. I have no idea if this is a good trace or not but it worked for me.

The pink fluorescent squid worked well and a few other skippers concurred with pink in preference to other colours.

A big Dorado will give 4 a good meal. I would imagine that a Google on fishing tips for Dorado will display a lot of hits.

Good Luck
 
a friend was bought 'RYA Fishing Afloat' for xmas
looks like a very useful general guide
ps loads of makerel in scotland last summer-fresh for breakfast-fantastic!
 
I have a rig I made from a piece of marine ply (about postcard size) with a bevel on one of of the long edges (the leading edge). The line is connected in a Y to either end of the leading edge and about 1cm behind it. I have a long (3-5 metres) line on a swivel from the back of the board with a spinner (small koster).

When the rig is trailed, the leading edge pulls the line down so that the spinner is about 3-5 metres below the surface, but when a fish is caught the whole lot popps to the surface.

Best for mackerel tends to be bays or points around 5-10 metres deep - any shallower and it catches kelp. Crossing rocky outcrops with thick kelp brings out the pollack. Best so far was a 2 pound sea trout at Barnhill (Jura).

Most effective speed is around 2-3 kts.


Alisdair
 
JayBee said:
Caught a nice bass on tuna gear off Cabo Trafalgar last summer. The lure was a rubbery squid like thing, about 5 inches long with a "tuna double" hook and it was fished just under the surface

We towed this gear for almost 2000 miles in the NE Atlantic and that bass was IT. Cost me a lot of money :mad:
Click to expand...

I have a neighbour who catches a lot of Bass at the mouth of the Straits. He says he thinks they are brought down by the Portugal Current, which as you know is a southerly heading current all the year round.
 
Here is another vote for pink squid. Did not do much on the transatlantic trip although we saw a number of Dorado come up and look at it. Possibly not going fast enough for them. The mobo fishing skippers reckon 7-8 knots and we never went that fast [ for long ] .

Up and down the Caribbean Islands though lots of tuna type fish trolling the pink squid along the reef drop offs at 5 knots [ the speed matters ] although you need to get them onboard fairly quickly before you are left with a head only as you have fed some hungry shark.

SO we did not go for any finesse just 100 lbs nylon a wire trace and a big spool to hold the line. Leather gloves and good gaff for the bigger stuff plus some Jack Iron as the 150% proof rum is called to trickle into the gills to kill the fish.
 
fisherman said:
In the 1970s we used to handline for mackerel. we used a 3lb lead on a 1 fm 100 lb perlon trace, above that 15, 20 or even 25 hooks, at least 9in apart on 80 or 100 lb line, with feathers or plastic tube lures, another 1 fm trace of 100lb perlon on top, then 50 fm of either 150lb perlon or 4mm braided polyprop, depending on what gear was in the boat, shaking the fish off by hand or mechanical strippers. The line was wound up on a gurdy, a big reel with a handle on the side.
We would cruise about looking for oily water or marks on the sounder, or an accumulation of boats, which often stretched over several miles. One shoal of fish in 1974 was six miles long, a mile wide and 90 feet deep, 170 boats on it. The best, biggest fish would be on the edge of the shoal and not mark on the sounder until you dropped a line and they grouped around it.
One morning we arrived off Helford in the dark at 0730 and could smell fish, but there were no marks on the sounder: we dropped a line and there were large fish right under the boat, we were shaking them off by hand. At 09.45 there was a radio call limiting us to 150 stone (just under a ton) a man. Two of us had 330 stone aboard, so home we went.

Rig up with say ten hooks, nice light gear, about 40 or 50 lb breaking strain, and a heavy weight at the bottom. As you cruise along, drop the line free so it gets as deep as possible, then haul up steadily, you need substantial line that you can haul by hand. This way you cover the whole depth each drop.

Before you accuse us of wiping out the mackerel, we were only pecking at the fringes of a huge biomass, and fishing exclusively for human consumption: what b uggered it was the industrial boats, mostly fishing for meal, and landing to the eastern bloc klondikers. We asked the government to protect the stock at the time and were told that the mackerel could 'never be wiped out'. Five years later they were all gone.
Click to expand...


That is a very interesting and professional explanation for which I thank you.

I know that the Government never listens to the views of professional fishermen who after all are out there and have a hands on view of how things are developing in contrast to the Dept of Fisheries who I suppose also have a view but I should imagine is statistical. The big nuisance must be the fishermen who either through pressure to perform or just through lack of awareness just land everything they can.

A few miles from here on the Costa Del Sol in neighbouring Spain there is a short stretch of beach frontage populated with fish restaurants. I refuse to patronise any of them on the basis that inevitably they serve undersize catch. I think this kind of commercial greed is stupid, not just from a consumerist point of view but also from a view of collective enviromnmental awareness. The Spanish Govt pays lip service to these abuses and promotes television and press advice, but sadly it all goes unheeded. The demand for fish in Spain is ferocious, enough said, lest I get accused of "being political".
The truth is that areas around here that only a few years ago were plentiful in a variety of catches from bottom fish to open water fish have declined drastically to the detriment of everyone.

This methodology you describe has been used in the Med for many years, but scaled down to a single line with a 4 lbweight at the end and barbed with 100 hooks. The guys who used this went out in rowing boats, out to perhaps only 3 to 4 miles off our coast.

As stocks of fish on the Eastern side of the rock have significantly been depleted the boats that do venture out have correspondingly also been drastically reduced.

For many years along the Spanish coast less than ten miles away from our shore here in Gibraltar there was a thriving Tunny business. It has now ceased. Not enough to justify the effort. Sad.

Now to catch Tunny (Tuna) you have to go a long way and be very patient. What really annoys me is the sport fishermen landing the tiddlers and not throwing them back to give a chance to stocks to replenish themselves.
Of course landing the really big ones of 200 kilos plus is an achievement with rod and line, a fight that can go on for up to 4 hours.
 
Conachair said:
I ate fresh fish most of the way across, tuna, dorado (tres delicious) and even a flying fish about a foot and a bit long. Heavy line, something shiney on the end. Most resources on the subject suggest having the lure splash the surface every 5 secs of so, about 100´back from the boat. Dawn and dusk seem best times, I´d take the lure in at night usually rather than get in a mess if i caught something. Don´t think it matters if you have a rod or just some line round a winch. Good fishing!
Click to expand...

What did you trail ? Was it a Spoon with three hooks ?
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
VO5 I have used fluorescent, pink coloured, silicon squid, about 4" long, weighted to keep the line just below the surface to catch Dorado in the Atlantic.

The trace is made up as follows: squid, 3 point hook inside squid, shot weights inside squid to space out hook such that its just in the tentacles, swivel, wire trace, shiny lead weight, swivel, line. I have no idea if this is a good trace or not but it worked for me.

The pink fluorescent squid worked well and a few other skippers concurred with pink in preference to other colours.

A big Dorado will give 4 a good meal. I would imagine that a Google on fishing tips for Dorado will display a lot of hits.

Good Luck
Click to expand...

Yes, thanks, very informative too.

That is precisely what is used round here for Dorade too. The local name is Dorada.
 
agurney said:
I have a rig I made from a piece of marine ply (about postcard size) with a bevel on one of of the long edges (the leading edge). The line is connected in a Y to either end of the leading edge and about 1cm behind it. I have a long (3-5 metres) line on a swivel from the back of the board with a spinner (small koster).

When the rig is trailed, the leading edge pulls the line down so that the spinner is about 3-5 metres below the surface, but when a fish is caught the whole lot popps to the surface.

Best for mackerel tends to be bays or points around 5-10 metres deep - any shallower and it catches kelp. Crossing rocky outcrops with thick kelp brings out the pollack. Best so far was a 2 pound sea trout at Barnhill (Jura).

Most effective speed is around 2-3 kts.


Alisdair
Click to expand...

Now that's interesting, because that is not unlike the boards used in trawling is it ? The question is, does the board remain submerged of its own accord when being towed or does it require tweaking of some sort using a weight to overcome its bouyancy ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top