Fishing, Scratching and Wishing

I always class the third week of January as the start of the scratching season. It so often seems to be the week when you really start to notice a drop in the overall numbers of fish close in off the shore. They’re all heading out to deeper water to make little fishes and we won’t see an upturn in results until about the end of March generally speaking.

Ok, we might not have the numbers of fish in front of us, but I really enjoy this period when bites are few and far between and you need to work hard just to catch a few small fish. The ones I target on my beaches here in Cardigan Bay are flounders, as a few always seem to be late leavers, dabs, rockling, school bass, turbot, codling, coalfish and maybe the odd whiting. I get dogfish as well, but not thankfully that many. Not a bad mix when you think about it and picking up a few of these is way better than just wishing you were fishing.

My rigs change dramatically too. Even at night I’ll be fishing 10lb hook lengths of Fluorocarbon and using size 6, sometimes even size 8 hooks and small baits just to pick up bites if the sea is calm. I also condense the length of my rigs and use very short hook snoods to concentrate the bait scent trail more, but when presentation is important I’ll also lengthen my rigs to as much as 8ft long for close range fishing to cover more ground.

One of my banker rigs is a three-boom rig and this does seem to be the most consistent rig for when times are tough, but I fish to a slack line and watch the bow or drop in the line for bite detection, not the rod tip. Fishing this way means even at close range all the baits will be hard on the seabed where the fish are feeding.

Like so many of you, good bait is a real problem for me at this time. Fresh bait like lug and white rag are just not local to me anymore in enough numbers to warrant digging due to the silting of many of our estuaries, plus work means I’m away a lot with no chance to dig anyway. Being resident in a tourist dependent area our local tackle shops can’t afford to stock live bait because they work limited winter hours and don’t have the custom to warrant stocking it, so that’s not an option either, and personally trying to get fresh bait sent by post seems damn nigh impossible these days. It means the bulk of my fishing at this time is done with frozen bait. Not ideal, but it does produce pretty well if kept correctly and was in good nick when initially frozen.

My three stalwart baits are frozen black lug for the dabs, rockling, schoolies and codling, with the flounders etc, usually keener on frozen mackerel, squid and razorfish. Coalies you can pick up on lug or mussel, even frozen crab.

Another good tip for the scratching season when fishing shallow venues is that low water tends to produce more fish than the rest of the flood tide and high water. The reason is that with water temperatures being about as low as they are going to get, the fish are semi comatose and will not expend energy without good reason. They tend to live out beyond the low water line where the temperature is more consistent and may not follow the tide in at all across the flat sands, especially if the air temperature is cold and the exposed sand the same as the water temperature will actually drop as it floods over the chilled sand. The fish feed little and will tend to do this in the hour either side of low water.

Those of you in areas with deep water venues such as Dungeness, Chesil etc, can enjoy more consistent fishing across the full tide as the water temperature is more even, but dropping down to lighter rigs will still increase your catch rate on these venues too in calmer spells.

Even the deep water rock ledges can be inconsistent now, though mates down in Cornwall and Devon seem to find a few good huss in February and March. Southwest and North Wales rock venues may also see a few huss and strap conger, but are much less consistent than the southern marks. One fish that can show early are thornback ray with the Plymouth area a good early venue, also the rock ledges on the south side of Anglesey. If you can get fresh or frozen prawn for bait, do so, as the early season rays go mad for it.

Yes it’s a tough time, but it’s not all doom and gloom and those willing to give it a go with sensible achievable targets can still enjoy some good fishing. Good luck!

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