Pier fishing

[Fedstar]

Be mindful that if you are fishing an elevated position a paternoster style rig maybe fishing more upright in which case the baits are not on the sea bed. That said its just something to bare in mind dependant on what your fishing for and where it feeds in the water column.

Barnacle i have sat in a small rowing boat 100yards out to sea in gin clear water watching flatties come off the bottom a good 8ft to chase my ragworm bait. The water column the fish feed in, for me, has a wide interpretation. Most days spinning for Pollock it's low an slow, other days though not as common your spinner has barely touch the water and you have a Pollock take it. On other occasions a strong actioned sink and draw is called for mid-water. Yet I would say Pollock are primarily bottom feeders.


I get the impression that the general thinking is your gripper after the cast is pointed directly back at the angler, your line is taunt and arrow straight.
This is not the case, your gripper is pointing down tide your trace shockleader and some main line is bowed out downtide, nailed to the sea floor. This is true for me as with the small rowing boat I did do a lot of little experiments. I used a snorkel to see down and observe what way the terminal tackle lay.

But yes if your fishing vertical your trace may sit more upright but fish have a wider feeding zone vertically than you would be lead to believe.

Imagine a two hook trace bowed out on the seabed, the top hook will catch first and usually most not because it's higher (by all of three feet) but because the bow puts the top hook in the position we're the fish find it first. Does that make sense? Makes sense to me but you are not me lol


The truth is sometimes not what our monkey brains think it is, oh ha haha( monkey noises)



Mark ..

 

[Fedstar]

Yep that’s all very true and I agree, more important.

The point I was trying to make was rigs can make some difference but you’re absolutely right, when and where are far more vital, with the other variables thrown in too, of course.
(Not disagreeing with you Mark, I just wanted to clarify my own post).

Totally agree with you about timing. I’ve seen so many posts from relative newcomers who are struggling to catch or catching limited species, and when you dig a bit deeper you discover they only really fish 10am to 4pm on Saturdays.

That’s fine if they just want a weekend day out but that’s restricting themselves to start with and ignoring as you say, tides, daylight, weather etc.
That particular mark might fish well after a storm at night on a flooding tide, but not in warm sunshine with jet skis and swimmers going past.

So as anglers we have to put ourselves in those windows, bite the bullet and go out at 8pm on a Tuesday night, or whatever.
If we really want a realistic chance at those fish.
As ever, other commitments get in the way but as you say, success is usually directly down to the time and effort that you put into it.

Not a lot to do with rigs I know, but rigs aren’t a magic fix, though can be a helpful tool in the right circumstances.

I can come across as argumentive but that is not my intention I am only interested in the truth. We should all try our utmost to give the younger generation a helpful hand on the old fishing am,, platform lol an not fill them full of piss an vinegar. Us old hands have done our time standing fishless for hours an hour's an hour's,, oh the hours

All we are trying to do is pass on some hard earned knowledge, an I would never fall out with you or anyone, but my honesty sometimes consumes me for better or worse lol.
I know sometimes I should just let sleeping dogs lay, but I have hit the send button before my purist monkey brain knows it


Try and bare with me chaps as I'm not a bad lad at heart.



Mark...

 

[abu-cha garcia]

I won't say I'm an experienced angler, 40 years but I've never been out further than 200 yards or wreck fished. Piers are handy but not something which should be disrespected either, watch the swells assume nothing don't listen to negative comments from others without a rod 'you'll catch fuck all there mate too early for mackerel' having a rod gives you an advantage of 100 percent compared to zero.

This might be considered cheating off a pier but it works for me, vacuum packed raw king prawn pieces fished about 6 foot from the bottom. Again assume nothing, I hit a deep water pier up in west Donegal for a week and had 4lb of mackerel fillets. Lovely pier weather as rough as a badgers arse but felt confident.

Day after day I fished it, swells of 6 foot and higher north winds blowing sleet heavy hail some snow and sea spray cutting the face of me but I didn't give up and caught zero. Just because I caught nothing doesn't mean I shouldn't have another dig at it. Don't quit until quitting time whenever that is and before you pack up have one last cast or drop.

No sooner do you pack up sods law applies, others might start catching.

 

[Mr Fish]

I can come across as argumentive but that is not my intention I am only interested in the truth. We should all try our utmost to give the younger generation a helpful hand on the old fishing am,, platform lol an not fill them full of piss an vinegar. Us old hands have done our time standing fishless for hours an hour's an hour's,, oh the hours

All we are trying to do is pass on some hard earned knowledge, an I would never fall out with you or anyone, but my honesty sometimes consumes me for better or worse lol.
I know sometimes I should just let sleeping dogs lay, but I have hit the send button before my purist monkey brain knows it


Try and bare with me chaps as I'm not a bad lad at heart.



Mark...

Lol! No, I didn’t take exception at anything you said.

Tbh I just quoted your post as it gave me an opportunity to expand a bit more on my previous one

 

[barnacle]

At the risk of sounding like a total pleb, I have a question for the more experienced anglers. Do you have a favorite rig for pier fishing ? I have more or less being using the same standard two hook rig since I was a kid. I didn't really have anyone to teach me when I started and sort of muddled through without ever really thinking too much about it . I have noticed that on most forums all kinds of rig sand tactics are covered but I don't think I have ever come across a good article about pier rigs. I have read the article on here about pier fishing and found it very interesting

What species are you mainly after?

 

[Kevin O Connor]

To be honest I am not fussy. Whatever decides to take my bait is ok by me !

 

[barnacle]

To be honest I am not fussy. Whatever decides to take my bait is ok by me !

Try a running ledger

 

[Trampster]

Some of our newer/younger members might not have seen this. Planet Sea fishing rigs booklet.

https://www.planetseafishing.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/psf-book-of-rigs.pdf

 

[abu-cha garcia]

To be honest I am not fussy. Whatever decides to take my bait is ok by me !

Raw King prawn pieces fished close to the bottom around the break water rocks or defences behind the pier, late summer is a good a time as any and if it's warmish high noon co-incides with high tide on that particular day watch the nibbles. You might get coalfish then maybe even a thud/hard bite a wrasse perhaps.

An old timer showed me a method I didn't believe was possible, clean hook (no bait) bale arm open and just whip out the line so the line and hook form a semi circle on top of the water, watch the hook and line tighten and once the hook pulls the line tightish close the bale arm and strike. It's called static dead lining, I think it's called that but the water has to be still and the sun overhead. Coalfish mistake the clean hook as floating edibles.

 

[Beach]

What species are you mainly after?

Something that has fins and swims would be good.

 

[Mr Fish]

To be honest I am not fussy. Whatever decides to take my bait is ok by me !

Do be aware that not every species takes every bait and for that matter, it can be quite area specific or seasonal, depending on what the fish are looking for.

Mackerel strip, for example, is a good bait for a range of species, but in my experience wrasse are unlikely to take it, though they can be predatory and attack a moving bait, but ledgered mackerel is unlikely to get you many wrasse.
Lugworm is again another good staple, as is rag worm, but you (usually) wouldn’t pick ray up on it.

There are exceptions and I’ve seen many of them, but they’re not consistent exceptions imo!

It’s another one of those variables that needs figuring out and has little to do with rigs.
If you only ever fish one or two baits, you might be missing out on other fish that are there but aren’t particularly interested in what you’re offering.

Trial and error and building up your local mark knowledge is the only way to figure that one out.

As I said, it can vary greatly between different areas too. Just as a quick example, we catch lots of flounder in my local estuary, but only on harbour rag.
If you fished it with lug or king rag you’d be wasting your time. I wouldn’t even go if that was the bait I had.
If you used mackerel or squid there, the crabs would thank you but nothing else would!

 

[barnacle]

Do be aware that not every species takes every bait and for that matter, it can be quite area specific or seasonal, depending on what the fish are looking for.

Mackerel strip, for example, is a good bait for a range of species, but in my experience wrasse are unlikely to take it, though they can be predatory and attack a moving bait, but ledgered mackerel is unlikely to get you many wrasse.
Lugworm is again another good staple, as is rag worm, but you (usually) wouldn’t pick ray up on it.

There are exceptions and I’ve seen many of them, but they’re not consistent exceptions imo!

It’s another one of those variables that needs figuring out and has little to do with rigs.
If you only ever fish one or two baits, you might be missing out on other fish that are there but aren’t particularly interested in what you’re offering.

Trial and error and building up your local mark knowledge is the only way to figure that one out.

As I said, it can vary greatly between different areas too. Just as a quick example, we catch lots of flounder in my local estuary, but only on harbour rag.
If you fished it with lug or king rag you’d be wasting your time. I wouldn’t even go if that was the bait I had.
If you used mackerel or squid there, the crabs would thank you but nothing else would!

Good post