fishing using a paravane

smeaks

smeaks

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I am planning to attempt to fill buckets with tasty mackrell this year by towing a set of lures behind my boat off a paravane device. From what i see the paravane is attached to the trawled line and the feathers/lures run from it so the tasty fishes trigger the device when they latch on bringing it to the surface. Should there be a weight attached to the end of the trace carrying the feathers to stop it tangling (allowing it to stream behind the paravane) or can you attach the feathers to the trolling line using the paravane as a pretendy weight?
 
We have used what I call a flip board for years to catch mackerel - it's the same thing. Get a piece of wood about 7inches long and 4 inches wide and chamfer off the edge of one of the short sides to create what looks like a wooden copy of the blade of a smoothing plane. Connect your fishing line to the board by drilling 2 holes in the wood just behind the chamfered edge and make a sort of bridle from your line and through the 2 holes. If you tow the board behind the boat, the chamfered edge digs in and takes the board under water. You attach your lure - usually a spinner, to the other short edge of the board. You dont need weights because the board is digging in. When the fish bites, it inverts the board which comes to the surface. Good news - you can tell when you have a bite. Bad news, the board flips if it hits seaweed so you have to keep an eye on it. As soon as the board flips it takes the weight off the hook so the fish arent that secure on the hook. You cant really use it over about 4-5 knots as it digs in too hard and also the fish cant keep up with the spinner

Have fun /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
no need for any weight dependant on where you attach the line on the front of the para will dictate the angle the para dives at. get some strong line there is some big forces exerted at relative low speeds. I always seem to break my line and loose the para
 
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I always seem to break my line and loose the para

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me too /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
 
I bought one of those things and only caught one fish with it. Mind you didn't deploy it very often, my method is to keep a sharp eye on the gulls. If you see say gannets diving then thats where the mackeral are and you fill your bucket then. It works for me anyway. cheers.
 
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How deep should it run?

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Depth doesnt really matter with Mackerel, but I have found the deeper you get the paravane the larger the fish caught, so slow speeds and deep are the answer for success. Anything over 3 knots and you will have problems getting the paravane down to any sort of depth and if you do then the loads on the line are huge and its likely to break,
For towing we use the thickish orange line that they sell for childrens crab lines, its very strong and relatively easy on the hands. Just wind it on a piece of wood when retrieved. After the paravane we use some nylon fishing line and a single mackerel spinner. If you use feathers and sail through a shoal of fish then you will be catching 6 mackerel at a time, getting them back on board is no joke and they make a huge mess in the cockpit.
 
This is the gadget you need, scroll down the page to Diving Trolling Paravane at £3.50
http://www.fly-fishing-tackle.co.uk/acatalog/Trolling.html

I've caught bucket loads of mackerel and a few pollock as well with this gadget. I just attach the feathers to the paravane and tow it 50 metres or so behind the boat. Once you have caught something it pops up to the surface, if you put a weight on the line it has the same effect so dont use one.

Look out for lots of seagulls etc feeding on the smallest of fish and sail through the middle of them, (if possible). The smallest fish usually atract bigger ones. I have nearly always caught fish in this situation. I have occasionally caught mackerel whilst doing 5kts although 2-3 kts is ideal.
 
I have tried a board but reverted to a simple rig that I bought for about £10 from a tackle shop. It is braided line on a winder with a swivel at the end attaching a nylon line with 6 feathered spoons and a bomb shaped weight. Ideal about 50 metres aft at 4-5 knots. When you hit a shoal of fish they don't care what the lure is so long as it is bright and flashy! Easy to know if you have a bite as the fish usually comes to the surface or you feel it on the line. Only drawback is getting all hooks full at one go, but usually only one or two.

Definition of heaven on earth. Leave Studland at 6am on passage to Cherbourg. Motor for the first hour to charge the batteries with the line out. Catch 6 mackeral 3 for breakfast in the cockpit with chilled Muscadet, save the rest for lunch and get on with the sailing!

Definition of Hell. In the shipping lanes running free, need to gybe to go round stern of container ship and line fills with 6 fish! Action Stations!
 
Blimey! You lot! Honestly!

Just for the record, (not the record, actually) two of us in a 28ft boat with handlines started fishing one morning off Helford at about 0800, and at 0945 a call came through to say that there would be a limit of 150 stone per man: we set off for home as we had 340 stone aboard. ( 160 stone to the ton).

In 1974 we used to visit a shoal of mackerel about 12 miles off Falmouth. It was 6miles long, a mile wide and 120 ft deep. We asked the government to curtail the activities of the industrial boats that came down from Scotland, but were told that "They will never catch them all". It only took two years...
 
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Blimey! You lot! Honestly!

Just for the record, (not the record, actually) two of us in a 28ft boat with handlines started fishing one morning off Helford at about 0800, and at 0945 a call came through to say that there would be a limit of 150 stone per man: we set off for home as we had 340 stone aboard. ( 160 stone to the ton).



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When I used to employ 3 deckhands and poling tuna, we would arrive at the local fishing banks just before daybreak. Chum with live bait and the slimies would come up instantly. We would pole 1/4 ton or so in 5 minutes then leave them. This was enough to cover our costs for the day and would then move on to serious fish.

The local area is still thick with them, patches of several tonnes everywhere with various species of marlin chasing them. They are worth good money but if you were to fish for them large scale you would bring down the wrath of the amateurs who think the marlin are more important /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
 
I use a home-made paravane, cut from a piece of chopping board, towing a spinner on a trace. It is on a fixed 30m length of nylon cord which is paid out of a bucket and attached to a stern cleat. The faster you go the deeper it dives, and there should be several attachment points so you can vary the angle of attack and adjust to the depth you want.

If mackerel are about they will take anything at just about any depth! I use a spinner instead of feathers so I don't have to haul in more than one fish at a time - you would have a lot of trouble above a couple of knots with several fish.

I have caught fish up to 6kn. Have a good season /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I use a paravane with 6 feathers trailing behind it. Best speed (for us) is around 3 to 5 knots. Normally catch 1 or 2 mackeral at a time but have had 6. As others comments it does make a mess in the cockpit so a bucket of sea water and cloth always available helps to clear up.
 
Agree, below 3kts and above c5 you are wasting your time. I use the plastic vane with a simple, single plastic plug and, if the fish are there, it is a killer.
To help solve the mess thing I land the fish onto a sheet of newspaper, this helps, to grip the fish, keep your hands clean and subdue the fish (they do not like the dry, same thing with eels). I then dispatch them on a mooring cleat and put the lot into a waiting plastic bag to deal with later
 
do the feathers need a small weight to allow them to stream behind the paravane without tangling? or do they just stream ok.
 
I use barbless hooks. Just file the barbs off normal hooks. I'm not aware of ever losing a fish because of this, and unhooking them is much easier. If you release any fish then they're more likely to survive.

When I was catching Mackerel for an aquarium we had to do this, as they wouldn't survive any handling. With barbless hooks you could just shake them off the hook.
 
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