Sea Fishing Off Rocks And Old Jetty’s

[Udders]

I’ll be heading back up to places like Skye and Kinlochbervie in a month and fancy doing a bit of sea fishing.

I’ve done plenty of course fishing on rivers and lakes down in England but never sea fished. I have plenty of course fishing kit as in carp rods and reels etc.....

Now I’ve watched a few YouTube vids of people fishing off the rocks etc using big sea floats and spinners so my question is can I use my carp rods or do I need a different set up?

Do I need stainless reels to avoid salt damage? I have no idea if my telespin rod is any use either?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have no desire to do fly fishing methods.

 

[gerarddwatts]

Shame you dismiss fly-fishing.....fishing a flee for sea bass at estuaries etc is terrific fun. Good chance of a sea trout as well!

I have no knowledge of coarse tackle, but if I've been fishing in the estuary I just have a few casts in fresh water to rinse the salt off. Maybe a worry if you were doing it all the time, but for a few days on your hols I don't think you need to worry about sea water

 

[(RIP) spike418]

Shame you dismiss fly-fishing.....fishing a flee for sea bass at estuaries etc is terrific fun. Good chance of a sea trout as well!

I have no knowledge of coarse tackle, but if I've been fishing in the estuary I just have a few casts in fresh water to rinse the salt off. Maybe a worry if you were doing it all the time, but for a few days on your hols I don't think you need to worry about sea water

Agreed if dropping bait or spinning close to the shore. If you're beachcasting then I doubt that the rod would be strong enough to cast say a 4oz lead a decent distance. Beachcasting is 90% of the sea fishing I've done and I can't imagine using a line with a breaking strain of less than 14lb.

 

[LOLGEOFF]

Unless you are unfortunate to catch a conger your carp gear will be more than adequate coping with anything swimming around our coast near the shore. Your reels will be ok if you give them a good rinse in fresh water after each use. You might find a wire trace will come in handy if fishing around rocks to stop abrasion and wrasse have sharp teeth too.

Float fishing gives you something to look at and can be quite a successful method. If fishing on the bottom a simple running ledger is as good as anything. As mentioned lure fishing is good fun on light tackle but your carp rods will probably be too stiff for that.

The main thing is to be safe and know the tides. Find the local tackle shop they will have local knowledge on what baits work best at particular marks and state of tide.

 

[Udders]

Having dug my tackle out of my storage unit yesterday I see that I bought a Shakespeare Telespin telescopic rod ( 10-40g ) that I’d forgotten I had! Never been used. I’ll use one of my carp reels that already has 20lb braid and I’ve just ordered some 15lb fluorocarbon for the hook link. Also ordered some sea float kits (8) and 6 spinning lures. Sorted!

 

[MarkShelley]

When I was a kid my mate had an Uncle with a Guest House in Penryn. We were both used to fishing the Wensum for chub etc. We used to fish off the rocks at Falmouth using our pike rods. The floats were cigar shaped pike bung type things with a central tube. We just used enough weight to ‘cock’ the float and fished with the local ragworm. Caught no end of Wrasse. Weird looking buggers, but very colourful. Great fun.

 

[(RIP) spike418]

fished with the local ragworm. Caught no end of Wrasse. Weird looking buggers, but very colourful. Great fun.

So are the bastard ragworm..............

 

[brut33]

I fished at Arnside (River Kent) and decided to wade out and have a go at 'treading' for dabs before the tide started
coming in.
Must have caught 20 plus with my bare feet. I'd bend down, pick them up and throw them to my mate on the bank.
I always remember a group of old women who presumably were on a coach trip fascinated as I did dog whistles
and shouted "come on" as I picked each one out of the knee deep water and threw it onto the bank.
They were asking my mate "how's he doing that!". Oh how we laughed.

 

[(RIP) spike418]

I fished at Arnside (River Kent) and decided to wade out and have a go at 'treading' for dabs before the tide started
coming in.
Must have caught 20 plus with my bare feet. I'd bend down, pick them up and throw them to my mate on the bank.
I always remember a group of old women who presumably were on a coach trip fascinated as I did dog whistles
and shouted "come on" as I picked each one out of the knee deep water and threw it onto the bank.
They were asking my mate "how's he doing that!". Oh how we laughed.

I now have images

True story, back in the 90s it was predicted to be the highest tide of the century, quite a few mates booked the day off and we all headed off to Arnside to catch and ride the tidal bore. We paddled out in anticipation, saw it round the headland at Grange over Sands, there were two guys riding it and I've never seen kayaks move so fast! We were all getting a bit twitchy as it swept across the bay, it hit a sandbank and by the time it reached us it was just 2 inches high FFS

 

[brut33]

I now have images

True story, back in the 90s it was predicted to be the highest tide of the century, quite a few mates booked the day off and we all headed off to Arnside to catch and ride the tidal bore. We paddled out in anticipation, saw it round the headland at Grange over Sands, there were two guys riding it and I've never seen kayaks move so fast! We were all getting a bit twitchy as it swept across the bay, it hit a sandbank and by the time it reached us it was just 2 inches high FFS

Comedy gold.

 

[bowser]

early 1980's we had a bit of a disagreement with Argentina over the Falklands and I spent some time at Ascension Island, after the fighting was over, the lads would come back up to Ascension by boat and then fly home, for some reason they thought that Argi grenades would be a great souvenir to take home along with rifles. The rifles were great and we used them zip tied to the trigger guard to weight down comms cable under water, grenades we had to dispose in the usual way pull pin and throw followed by big bang. Now if you do that off the back of a big boat moored off shore or from a ridged inflatable its a fantastic way of sea fishing, you catch loads and its almost no effort at all, supplied all the fish we needed for several BBQ that way, and even had enough left to pass on to the cookhouse.