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Fishing for the Elusive
Sea Trout
Seatrout are avid
hunters. At the same time they are true soldiers of fortune -
always on the lookout for an easy meal. Thus they can be found
almost everywhere - and caught in many different ways.
Some days seatrout will eagerly strike anything you throw at
them. At other times they may have their stomachs full and thus
show no interest whatsoever in flies or lures. They just follow
the bait to the rod tip no bite!
Still there are methods and baits that produce fish on a more
regular basis than others:
Fly Fishing
More and more fishermen
realize that flies fished traditionally on fly rod and fly line
can be a very efficient way of catching seatrout. Very often you
do not need long casts
to connect with seatrout.
Fly fishing for coastal sea trout is becoming increasingly
popular.
In fact seatrout spend
a substantial part of their lives chasing bait in the shallows
where they are easily reached by fly casting. And very often,
seatrout target small food
items when they really haunt the shallows.
When this is the case, fly fishermen stand a much better chance
of succes than their spinfishing colleagues, simply because they
are able to offer perfect imitations in a
realistic way.
Tackle
A 9-10 foot 7 or
8-weight fly rod is what you need for most conditions. Lines
should be weight forward (WF) to handle the windy conditions
often encountered and the long casts
sometimes needed.
In shallow water bay areas you may use a floating line to
advantage. But if you are fishing open coastlines where wind and
waves are the norm, an intermediate line is to be
preferred. It slices through the wind better than a floating
line and it sinks just below the surface. Thus it is not
affected but wind or waves. Instead it keeps a straight
line all the way out to the fly, making it easier to detect
subtle takes.
A line tray is immensely practical if you fish where rolling
waves, rushing currents and floating seaweed will otherwise grab
your line and interfere with your casting. Once you
get used to it, you will never want to be without it.
Leaders should be around 12 foot if you are fishing with a
floating line - 9 foot if you have an intermediate line on your
reel. Tippets in the 0.20-0.25 mm class are adequate -
with 0.20 being a good choice on calm and sunny days with clear
water. - Don't go any lighter than 6 lbs. test!
Flies
Seatrout flies
for fishing in the salt usually are divided into two categories:
Imitative flies that aim to represent specific food items on the
trout's menu. And provocative flies whose only goal is to excite
the fish into striking.
Big flies produce big sea trout in the salt!
Gaudy fantasy flies -
fluorescent or not - generally work best during wintertime where
water is cold and food scarce. During summer when food is
abundant, flies that imitate of represent specific food items -
bait fish, crustaceans or worms - are needed.
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Guiding /
Instruction Pricing
Guiding / Instruction
for brown trout, sea trout & salmon fishing.
Anglers of all ages
& ability welcome Equipment provided, stunning locations & all
requirements catered for.
Find Out More >
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Bandon River |
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West Cork |
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Irish Atlantic Salmon |
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Caught by Bill Canning on
July 7th 2008 using small meps spinner.
Read More >
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If you plan to go night time fishing, big, black and bushy flies
are preferred. Muddlers and Zonkers can be fished in or just
below the surface where they draw waves and push water, making
it easier for the seatrout to spot and catch them. Often, you
will hear the strike before actually feeling it!
Thus, the well-prepared fly fisherman carries several types of
flies in his box. He will have small, shrimp-like flies size
8-12 ready for those days where only small flies fished deep and
slow will produce. And he will be watching for the sligtest
indication of a subtle take that requires an immediate strike.
He also carries big and gaudy size 2-6 streamers for those
memorable days when trout are feeding like mad, slamming into
longshank flies fished fast just below the surface. This is
often the case on windy and rainy days where small flies will
usually be left untouched.
The right
retrieve
Generally, small flies should be taken home slowly in short
strips. Large flies should be retrieved in long and fast strips.
And as always it is important to vary the speed of
retrieve according to the water temperature. Fish being
cold-blooded respond instantly to changes in their environment.
So be sure to fish your flies slowly when the water is cold and
fish are sluggish. And faster when the water is warm and fish
feed actively.
Spin Fishing
Spinning is the most
commonly practised method of catching seatrout from the
shoreline. It's a method where long casts are possible and much
water can be covered in a day's fishing.
Spinning is an effective way of catching sea trout from the
beach.
Spinning is used by the
majority of fishermen, and spinning therefore produces the
majority of fish caught. Generally, larger fish are caught by
spining than by fly fishing -
simply because most big fish tend to stay in deeper water,
outside the reach of fly casting.
An 8-9 foot long spinning rod capable of casting 10-20 g lures
will handle most conditions. A medium sized fixed spool reel
filled with 200 metres of 0.20-0.25 mm monofilament
line completes the outfit. Add an assortment of pirks, spoons
and wobblers but don't forget a handfull of flies for those days
where seatrout time and again follow your lure to the rod tip
without taking.
Good producers are spoons like Toby, Dextors Wedge, Mepps
Spinner. Shoreline wobblers
should be in every fisherman's tackle box. These
lures can be fished very slowly without hitting the bottom. Thus
they are ideally suited for wintertime fishing in cold water
where fish are sluggish.
During spring and autumn where the water temperature is ideal
and fish fed actively, you normally get the best results using a
fairly fast - and varied - retrieve.
Baitcasting reels and shoreline wobblers
When seatrout have
reached a certain size, food found in shallow water no longer
seems able to fill their stomachs. They need larger prey and the
easiest way of achieving this goal is to seek deep water where
schools of herring, sprat and sand eels abound.
Long casts with heavy tackle and large shoreline wobblers fit
the bill if you want to catch these big fish. And you are
advised to seek open coastlines offering deep water close to
shore. Secluded brackish-water bays only rarely yield large
herring feeders.
If you want to make the most of this specialized kind of
seatrout fishing, you need a powerful 9-10 foot spinning rod
plus a medium-to-large sized spinning reel or better yet, a
multiplying reel capable of handling 200 metres of 0.25-0.30 mm
monofilament line. Or equivalent unelastic PE-line of even
smaller diameter.
Add to this an assortment of 20-30g shoreline wobblers in
natural colour combinations - silver with black, blue or green
backs. In the wintertime provocative colours like hot
fluorescent pink and orange are often a better choice.
Ultralight spinning
At the opposite end of
the spectrum we find the light line enthusiasts - the UL or
ultralight fanatics. They swear by long and limber 9-10 foot
spinning rods capable of casting tiny spoons and spinners
weighing no more than 2-12g. Reels are small fixed spool
spinning reels filled with 0.15-0.20 mm monofilament line.
This method which has proved very productive when seatrout are
in the shallows searching for sticklebacks and other small
baitfish. Add to this the excitement of fighting even a two
pounder on tackle this light!
Mepps and Vibrax spinners size 1-3 are good producers when long
casts are not required. If more distance or a faster retrieve is
needed, focus on small spoons like the classic Toby.
When it comes to local favourites amongst flies and lures, do
pay the local tackle shop a visit. They know what works in their
waters and they also know where the best fishing
can be found at any particular time.
The right
retrieve
When casting lures from the coastline, you should always opt for
a varied retrieve. A lure speeding up and slowing down has much
more appeal to hunting fish than a monotonous retrieve of the
same lure.
Very often the fish will strike when you speed up the retrieve.
Fish often follow the lure for long distances without striking.
But when they sense that their potential food is
trying to get away, the strike comes almost automatically.
Still you will often encounter the so-called "followers" - fish
that have a hard time deciding whether to strike or not. Fish
that not even a varied retrieve can lure into
striking.
If this happens to you, try letting your spoon or plug drop
towards the botton - with no retrieve at all. Often seatrout
will pick up the lure immediately - as if afraid it
would escape. As if it was some sand eel trying to bury itself
in the bottom. At other times the fish will not strike until you
start the retrieve again.
Bubble floats and flies
If necessary, the spin
fisherman has yet another ace up his sleeve. By using a
so-called "bubble float" which can be filled more or less with
water, he may in fact fish very
small flies on very long casts.
The water inside the float gives you the weight necessary for
long casts. And the small flies makes it possible to imitate
even the tiniest creature that seatrout may have spotted!
The classic Bubble is round and transparent. It is filed via two
holes that can be closed. It has two line eyes - one for the
main line and one for the leader.
Modern Bubbles look different. They are elongated and often made
of hot coloured plastic that can be seen from a long distance.
Just like its classic predecessor it is filled
with water to add weight. Filled completely it sinks slowly.
Otherwise it floats. In this way you may adjust both the weight
and density of the float.
In modern Bubbles the line is threaded through the float and
fastened to a splitring or swivel. To this the 2-4 m long leader
is then attached - and at the end of that the
chosen fly of the day.
The idea behind this construction is that you are always
directly in touch with the fly through the float. This makes it
easier to detect subtle takes that would go unnoticed
with the classic Bubble. At the same time wary fish will feel no
or very little resistance from the float when they take the fly.
The retrieve when fishing flies on Bubble floats should be very,
very slow. In fact so slow that many spin fishermen do not have
the patience needed for this most effective way of fishing. You
cast out the whole thing and then brake the float with your
finger just before it touches water. This is to stretch the long
leader so that you will be fishing
from the time of impact!
Leave the fly some seconds to sink before you start the
retrieve. Think of it as "crawling" the fly back to you. Take
half a turn of the handle and then pause before the next half
turn. If you want to make the most of it, it takes several
minutes to fish out each cast.
The flies needed for this particular kind of fishing are the
same as mentioned above under fly fishing.
Fishing the Water
Naturally, it pays to
be able to make long casts if you are to encounter seatrout on a
regular basis. Long casts let you reach distant fish and cover
more water.
Still a surprisingly large percentage of all fish are caught
with 10-20 metres from the shoreline - a fact which proves the
productivity of the shallows when it comes to fish
food. It is also a reminder that you should never wade into the
water without having fished the shallows first.
Often you will find what we call a "bath tub" - a deepening
between the shoreline itself and the first sand bank - very
close to shore. If this is the case then fish it
thoroughly before wading out. Water in such a bath tub is
relatively stagnant and therefore warms quickly in early spring.
Seatrout know just that!
More often than in the bath tub itself seatrout are to be found
on the outside of the first sand bank. Here they have easy and
direct access to the protection of deeper water.
This makes them feel safer and, consequently, easier to catch.
Fish carefully
Except for early in the
year where warmth from the sun is important for both fish and
fish food, the shallow water is always most productive during
dark. Thus you will find fish
in close early in the morning and late in the evening - plus all
night long during the heat of summer.
When you are fishing a piece of coastline, you cover the water
by spreading your casts in a fan in front of you as you walk or
wade along. If you are fishing from a protruding
point or are standing on a large rock, you also cover the water
in front of you by casting in a fan. This way you search every
inch of water thoroughly so that any seatrout - if present -
will see your offering.
If wading is necessary, do so carefully. Partly not to frighten
any fish in shallow water - partly to protect yourself agains
unwanted dunkings... Where the bottom is covered by
round and slippery rocks, you have to move slowly and feel your
way forward. A wading staff will prove a great help in such
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