Goateeblank
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
- Messages
- 1,593
- Reaction score
- 5,414
- Points
- 115
- Location
- South Coast
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
I am a member of a "fishing for fun" group that meet on Swanage Pier. They are a good bunch and a good mix of characters, ages and abilities! Just the 4 of us Friday, including the colossus that is Haddock. The journey there was straight through, which is always good when travelling West. Broad Street car park is now on winter rates so £1 for 24 hours. You can also park on the pier (my favourite due to the views, the volunteers that run it, and the wooden pier itself) for £8 winter rate whilst it is open. It is £4 to fish.
View from the car park.
I had not had a gar fish all year, so the first rod out (10ft flattie rod) was set up with a float and my usual and normal, beach type fishing, 3 hook flapper or as Haddock says a bloody Christmas tree hanging under a float! I suppose its a bit crude, but its quick and easy and this rig and hooks has already caught loads of fish. The little blue size 4 hooks seem to stay sharp for ages. I baited the hooks with strips of gar fish, which I find the best for gar and lots of other fish too. Chucked it out to fish itself, after watching where the tide was pushing it to avoid it going under the pier.
I set up a couple of 9ft spinning rods with my usual small hook species rigs. This was in between greeting and gassing with the other guys as they turned up one by one. Set one up with maggots and one rag. Not much was happening fish wise, but it was a nice day, not cold, hardly any wind and plenty of banter, as it should be.
I broke away from the banter and told the guys it was time to catch a wrasse! I know a particular area where there is a clear sandy spot, so l dropped into it and held the rod. In no time l had a bite and lifted a nice little ballan wrasse onto the pier.
Re-baited and stayed in the same spot and 10 mins or so later had a pretty corkwing wrasse.
Good to have a couple of fish to save the blank and the others were yet to catch so that was good for the banter! Then the excitement started with Colins float disappearing then bobbing up again as the gar was nibbling at his bait. Then he managed to set the hook and the gar started to do what gar do to get away, which is great. I was fishing my float further out so slowly brought it in closer but keeping the baits deep and bang l am in! I just love the feel of these fish on light gear. They really give a good account of themselves and being above them on the pier, you can see them diving and jumping and kiting around at the end of the line. I tend to try and keep good contact with the fish and enjoy what is going on rather than just wind them in. Just sort of slow everything down a bit. Then there is the worrying bit where you lift them up the pier and over the railing hoping they wont shed the hook with all the thrashing about. Absolutely made up, as it was a target, but at not the best time to catch them and one for my hunt which is lagging this year.
The gar disappeared as fast as they came and back to banter. Before they came back again I had a little pollack, so that gave me 4 species for the day.
On the next gar visit, I think we all caught, so that was really exciting with all four of us landing gar at the same time. After unhooking one and changing the bait, the float just blew to one side. Peter said your rigs just broken and it had! The top T swivel parted. How could it pull in an active gar, lift it up the pier and flip the fish over the rail onto the deck without breaking, then just fall apart as it was hanging there? As mentioned the rig has been well used and has caught other fish so it has done well. To prove a point and liking this rig, I cut the eye of the swivel off and tied the rig body onto one of the other eyes and chucked it back out as the gar were still there.
They certainly were still there as the float went again and it felt different and more powerful. I could from the pier vantage point see why, as there are two gar on there! Then it went loose and the float popped up, bugger! I let it settle then it went again and I can see again that there are two gar sometimes trying to swim away from each other sometimes in unison, but both giving it all they can. The lift up with two was probably a bit much for the rod, but I managed to flip them both up onto the pier. Double shot, very exciting especially as the others were also bringing in gar at the same time.
The rest of the session was similar with the gar coming in waves. The only other "incident" for me was one gar was going mad on the deck and had twisted up my rig around my hand and one hook was in my finger. I had to hold the gar to keep it steady and pull the hook out (it was not past the barb thankfully) out with my teeth while the hooked gars toothy beak was waving around in my face! I was glad I wear glasses at that point!
Picture shows a nice line up of my gar. They are now filleted, cut into sections and separately frozen and bagged. They will keep me going for long time.
They have lots of teeth!
A great day with plenty of excitement from the gars, without which, it would have been poor fish wise, but still a great social day.
We finished before the pier closed, so able to drive home in the light. Perfect!
Good luck if you are out. Oh yes one more thing. The rig has been retired!
View from the car park.
I had not had a gar fish all year, so the first rod out (10ft flattie rod) was set up with a float and my usual and normal, beach type fishing, 3 hook flapper or as Haddock says a bloody Christmas tree hanging under a float! I suppose its a bit crude, but its quick and easy and this rig and hooks has already caught loads of fish. The little blue size 4 hooks seem to stay sharp for ages. I baited the hooks with strips of gar fish, which I find the best for gar and lots of other fish too. Chucked it out to fish itself, after watching where the tide was pushing it to avoid it going under the pier.
I set up a couple of 9ft spinning rods with my usual small hook species rigs. This was in between greeting and gassing with the other guys as they turned up one by one. Set one up with maggots and one rag. Not much was happening fish wise, but it was a nice day, not cold, hardly any wind and plenty of banter, as it should be.
I broke away from the banter and told the guys it was time to catch a wrasse! I know a particular area where there is a clear sandy spot, so l dropped into it and held the rod. In no time l had a bite and lifted a nice little ballan wrasse onto the pier.
Re-baited and stayed in the same spot and 10 mins or so later had a pretty corkwing wrasse.
Good to have a couple of fish to save the blank and the others were yet to catch so that was good for the banter! Then the excitement started with Colins float disappearing then bobbing up again as the gar was nibbling at his bait. Then he managed to set the hook and the gar started to do what gar do to get away, which is great. I was fishing my float further out so slowly brought it in closer but keeping the baits deep and bang l am in! I just love the feel of these fish on light gear. They really give a good account of themselves and being above them on the pier, you can see them diving and jumping and kiting around at the end of the line. I tend to try and keep good contact with the fish and enjoy what is going on rather than just wind them in. Just sort of slow everything down a bit. Then there is the worrying bit where you lift them up the pier and over the railing hoping they wont shed the hook with all the thrashing about. Absolutely made up, as it was a target, but at not the best time to catch them and one for my hunt which is lagging this year.
The gar disappeared as fast as they came and back to banter. Before they came back again I had a little pollack, so that gave me 4 species for the day.
On the next gar visit, I think we all caught, so that was really exciting with all four of us landing gar at the same time. After unhooking one and changing the bait, the float just blew to one side. Peter said your rigs just broken and it had! The top T swivel parted. How could it pull in an active gar, lift it up the pier and flip the fish over the rail onto the deck without breaking, then just fall apart as it was hanging there? As mentioned the rig has been well used and has caught other fish so it has done well. To prove a point and liking this rig, I cut the eye of the swivel off and tied the rig body onto one of the other eyes and chucked it back out as the gar were still there.
They certainly were still there as the float went again and it felt different and more powerful. I could from the pier vantage point see why, as there are two gar on there! Then it went loose and the float popped up, bugger! I let it settle then it went again and I can see again that there are two gar sometimes trying to swim away from each other sometimes in unison, but both giving it all they can. The lift up with two was probably a bit much for the rod, but I managed to flip them both up onto the pier. Double shot, very exciting especially as the others were also bringing in gar at the same time.
The rest of the session was similar with the gar coming in waves. The only other "incident" for me was one gar was going mad on the deck and had twisted up my rig around my hand and one hook was in my finger. I had to hold the gar to keep it steady and pull the hook out (it was not past the barb thankfully) out with my teeth while the hooked gars toothy beak was waving around in my face! I was glad I wear glasses at that point!
Picture shows a nice line up of my gar. They are now filleted, cut into sections and separately frozen and bagged. They will keep me going for long time.
They have lots of teeth!
A great day with plenty of excitement from the gars, without which, it would have been poor fish wise, but still a great social day.
We finished before the pier closed, so able to drive home in the light. Perfect!
Good luck if you are out. Oh yes one more thing. The rig has been retired!
Nice report mate, great mixed bag, lovely pics too..
... didn't go well on the cod front 
