Fishing mark portfolio's and using float beads

PICK A PORTFOLIO
Too many anglers limit themselves to fishing just two or three beaches or piers all the time. They get good days and bad days, usually determined by the prevailing weather conditions. If this describes you, then you need to diversify.

Ever heard of portfolio fishing? It's a bit like an investment package where you select a wide variety of different investments to spread risk and improve your chances of making money. Applied to fishing, you create a portfolio or selection of varied marks that respond to different weather patterns and carry different species to give yourself an option whatever the weather throws at you.

Pick marks from your portfolio

You want a couple of estuary marks, one each side of the estuary preferably. These could be your boltholes in rough weather giving you the chance of flounders, eels, bass and codling, depending where in the UK you are located.

If you're within travelling distance of rock marks, then choose a couple, preferably on sections of coast that face opposite ways. This covers you whichever way the wind is blowing and should see you hit wrasse, pollack, conger and mackerel, with potentially rays and flatfish over sand.

A pier and breakwater option is also useful. Again it depends on your location, but could produce garfish, mackerel, mullet and flatfish in the west, with mackerel, coalfish, codling and flatfish in the east and northeast of the UK.

Get to know each venue and how they respond to different weather patterns and tide variances. Yes, it takes time, but long term it pays big dividends because you've learnt to read the weather pattern and use logic to decipher which venue is most likely to fish. If your fishing time is limited, then portfolio fishing will maximise your chances.

TIPS AND TRICKS
Here's a simple, cheap and effective way to make a boom for boat fishing. All you need is 10-inches of carp fishers Rigid Rig Tube and size 2 barrel type link swivel.

Use a cigarette lighter to lightly heat the tube about 2-inches from one end. Only heat it enough to soften the plastic tube. While it is still soft, bend the 2-inch length upright at right angles to the main length of tube and re harden the tubing under a cold tap. Slide the eye of the swivel on to the boom as far as the kink. Now squeeze the eye of the swivel slightly shut with pliers until it grips around the kink in the tube.

These booms are excellent for drift fishing rigs, or made out of a full 20-inch length also work well over the wrecks for fishing flying collar rigs for pollack.

FLOAT BEAD TACTICS

Floating beads

They work well for flatfish fished tight above the hook when baiting with small lively worms like rag and maddies. Use enough beads to just have enough buoyancy to slightly lift the bait up in the water occasionally. This added movement can help induce bites. Here's another tip. The float beads work best on the snoods at the bottom and middle of the rig nearest the seabed. It's logical if you think about it.

If you're into seeking out mini species on deep-water rock marks. Add a float bead 3-inches above a small section of rag on a light 8lb hook snood and let the bait bounce on the rock. This is deadly for blennies, gobies and corkwing wrasse.

Boat anglers also need to consider the virtues of float beads. They prove deadly for plaice when drift fishing. It's best to place the beads about 9-inches above the hook and lock the beads in place with a stop knot. This gives the beads movement to allow their colour to attract fish and helps to work the bait as the tackle drifts.

A couple beads placed a few inches away from a sliver of mackerel or squid can really improve your catches of black bream over reefs when the fish are feeding through eelgrass and you need to present the bait just above the weed.

It's also worth using silver sequins below and between the float beads as the buoyancy of the float beads increases the visual effect of the sequins.