ON THE RUN
You don’t see many sea anglers using Baitrunner reels. We tend to rely on putting multipliers in free spool with the line release ratchet engaged. I’ve noticed though, that in certain conditions, bass especially, but also tope can sense and feel the pressure of the ratchet as they initially take the bait away and consequently drop the bait.

I’ve been targeting some big bass to freeline tactics recently fishing crab mainly, but also with whole small joey mackerel, eel section and squid. These fish move in to a tiny estuary creek and work the margins in very shallow water at night. The bass are ultra spooky in these conditions and will drop baits in an instant if they feel any resistance. My tactic was to sit there with the reel in free spool and my thumb lightly resting on the spool. It takes massive concentration though, which is hard to maintain when fishing for a few hours.

I got to thinking about the carp boys fishing their Baitrunner reels and electronics for the ultimate bite detection. I obviously couldn’t use any electronics as there is always movement when sea fishing due to tidal currents etc, but the Baitrunner reels are a different matter.

The beauty of the Baitrunner reel for this tight-in-the-margins fishing is that you can set the Baitrunner dial to a minimum setting with the Baitrunner leaver engaged, but have the by-passed rear drag setting dis-engaged. This minimal setting allows the fish to take line easily feeling no real pressure helping to induce a full and confident take from the fish. When you get a bite and the fish takes line you just turn the handle to dis-engage the Baitrunner drag and re-engage the main rear drag as normal.

This style of fishing has proved an instant improvement when working in to the creeks just dropping the crab 5-yards or so and holding the rod but sitting well back from the edge. The takes are far more confident and easier to hit.

I’ve adopted a more traditional style of static fishing in some deeper water areas with little tide flow that the fish pass through. I set up the rod and Baitrunner as you would for carp having the rod in two bank sticks. I wait for the line to start zipping off the reel, give it a few seconds for the fish to fully take the bait, then lift the rod, turn the reel handle and set the hook against the reels main drag.

I use this more static pose for fishing the joey mackerel and eel section deadbaits and making careful notes I’m getting an improved hook up ratio on these difficult bass.
 If it fits your own fishing, give it a try, you’ll see an instant improvement over using conventional reels for this type of tight in fishing.

TIPS AND TRICKS
If you’re on a boat and the fishing is slow, you can increase your chances of bites by adding small chunks of mackerel and other fish in to the tide. Do this four or five chunks at a time every 30 seconds to a minute apart dropping them at each side of the boat and from the middle of the stern. These will sink slowly in the tide run travelling some distance from the boat, but their smell will pick up fish working well downtide and bring them back towards your baits.

Equally so when shark fishing, adding these small chunks at the back of the stern sees these sink deeper than the chum line does in a fast tide run and will bring sharks working below the chum line up in the water towards your suspended baits.

You can also fill a perforated plastic bag with bits, tie it to a line and drop it down on a weight behind the boat, pull the line to break the bag and deposit the bags contents on the seabed to increase the scent around your baits.

NIGHT TIME BOAT TACTICS
Night fishing from boats is little practiced, but can provide good fishing for certain summer species and it’s well worth asking your favourite skipper if he’ll do a dark hours trip.

There’s a definite period either side of dusk and dawn that produces predatory fish like tope and sharks, which somehow seem reluctant to feed in numbers during full dark. However rays, huss and conger all feed well right through night and actually give better prospects than daylight fishing, even in deep water.

For the rays you need to be over the sandbanks fishing big smelly baits like mackerel flappers and whole squid. Blonde ray in particular feed best at night, as will spotted ray, thornbacks and small-eyed ray. Try adding a rattling Booby Bead and even a small section of luminous tubing with a small light stick attached about 12-inches above the hook. This dodge can improve bites dramatically if you keep inching the bait forward a few inches at a time. This technique also accounts for turbot at night.

Conger do move around sometimes on darker overcast days, but at night they will travel a fair way from their rock or wreck home and are much easier to fight when initially hooked as they are often far away from potential snags and searching over cleaner ground. When fishing a wreck at night it pays to anchor off a little further than you would do by day and use those big smelly baits again to lure the fish out away from the wreck towards your bait. It’s the dark hours that will produce the very biggest conger generally speaking.

Another night certainty, especially when fishing near to reefs and rocky ground are huss. These bullish predators will take dead baits carrying lots of scent, but prefer whole dead fish like whiting, which are more active at night.

Carry a good headlight as the skipper can’t leave his deck lights on all night without firing up the engines occasionally to recharge the batteries. Keep your rigs simple flowing traces attached to booms to minimise any tangles, and hold the rod to feel for bites. Night fishing is fun and productive, so don’t miss out.