I love fishing. As a youth I would fish with friends at the local canal using any method I could to catch perch and roach and gudgeon and more perch, and more perch, and more even tinier perch. etc.
Then I caught the carp fisher bug and would spend weekends bivvied (and bevvied) up trying to catch a 'twenty' (twenty pound fish). Later on I fell in love with the free roaming solitude of river fishing, rambling along the upper reaches of the river Welland catching wise old chub with the hugest lumps of luncheon meat imaginable. But, before all that, I went sea fishing with my Dad.
I now own his legacy of old glass fibre Connoflex rods, Mitchell reels and battered old leather weight bag, but despite most of my sea fishing tackle being nearly forty years old, it still catches fish as well as it ever has. I also own his knowledge of the sea, well the bits I can remember at least and I like to think that every time I go sea fishing, a little bit of him lives on through my actions.
HOW TO CATCH A COD FOR A FISH PIE.
First you need to know where to fish, sea fishing spots are known as 'marks'. Nothing beats local knowledge or first hand experience, but if approaching a new area for the first time it is often good to ask for advice in a local tackle shop. If that is a little tricky due to logistics then try on line resources such as the world sea fishing forum, beware though as most of the contributors to fishing forums are barely literate and tend to avoid any punctuation or correct grammar in favour of vague colloquial slang and obscure geographical references that will only make sense if you grew up in the immediate area. So a good deal of patience is required when researching fishing areas on line.
BAIT
Next you need some bait. Now sea fishing tends to be a much more rudimentary affair than the delicate arts of course and fly fishing so more often than not bait consists of large natural worms, fish or squid, crabs or lures. For this particular trip I chose to dig my own lugworm.
First find a slightly muddy/sandy beach, preferably on an estuary. I went to Limekilns on the firth of Forth. Next check the tide times to find out when the tide is at it's lowest, more of the beach will be exposed greatly increasing your chances of finding some lugworm. Armed with a pair of wellies, a bucket for your finds and a garden fork to dig them up walk the beach carefully scanning the sand for one of these:
This strange sand squiggle is the discharged material for a lugworms home or 'burrow'. Lugworm live in U shaped burrows so look again for a nearby hole between which should reveal the true location of the warren.
Dig like a maniac and hopefully you will turn out the little beasty, and if you're lucky one or two more. I tend to find that the best places to dig are parts of the beach where the sand isn't very deep as more often than not the burrows are shallower resulting in more fruitful digs.
Here are some of the lovely lugworm all ready for a cod. I tend to dig about 50 or more for a few hours fishing with two rods. I usually my bait digging with fishing on the same day, therefore I
just add a little sand to my bait bucket and travel on to the sea fishing spot. Lugworm can be stored for longer if need be, check out Codhead Bob's website for more details.
TIME TO FISH
Tide is crucial to fishing, often places fish best two hours before and after high water. However some spots are low water marks which are best fished, or can only be reached at low water. Tide height, weather conditions and time of year are all other factors which come into the equation. It is true that fishing is an infinitely variable activity. Again research and prior planning are your best friends.
My chosen fishing spot was off the 'white' pier in the lovely little village of Anstruther on the East coast of Scotland. The coastline here is very rocky with skellies of rock fingering out from the shore into the sea. These can be seen on the picture below;
I fished from the spot on the end of the pier marked by the green frog, the fish below was caught roughly around where the fish icon is. The ground here was very rough with lots of rocks and kelp which I constantly snagged up on and lost rigs. It was very frustrating but I did manage a fishy for my fish pie!
There he is, a cod!
NOW LET'S APPLY THE MAGIC FISH PIE FORMULA. (as developed by the energy mogul NPower when formulating bills for their poor exploited customers)
F = 2{232/32}
-
pI X 0.000000000000000012 + AB3/23
1{2}S x pEAS
m4$H p07470 + CH3333D//ER
WH(111)/Te (source)
Boiled eggs
No comments:
Post a Comment