WHEN TO UPTIDE OR DOWNTIDE?
I’ve had a few e-mails lately from anglers  fairly new to boat fishing asking how to make the decision to uptide fish or  downtide fish. It’s a very good question and there are a host of factors that  come in to play in making your mind up.

The first thing is to consider your  position on the boat. If you’re on the stern or stern corners, then downtide  fishing just letting the lead and bait trot slowly away from the boat with the  tide is the right thing to do. In this case you’ll have good presentation by  trotting the bait away downtide, plus it lets you put a bait out further than  the other anglers on the boat but doing away with the need to cast.

If you’re positioned alongside the gunnels  or tight up to the cabin, then it makes sense to try and cast away from the  boat. Providing you choose a grip lead heavy enough to hold in the seabed after  releasing enough line after the cast, then it puts your bait out in its own and  away from the other anglers baits. One bait out on its own stands a good chance  of being eaten, but several baits all together means the chance of yours being  picked is limited. This works well for rays, flatfish, bass and cod.

Getting more technical, if you are in one  of the side gunnel positions, and everybody else on your side of the boat is  fishing straight down with heavy leads, then it gives you the chance to use a  heavyish lead that will slowly swing down tide with the current after casting  exploring more ground. You need vigilance with this tactic though, as let the  tackle trot too far, and on the retrieve you’ll tangle other angler’s lines,  though the extra length of the uptide rod over conventional rods can help by  keeping your line further out from the boat on the retrieve.

Another factor is the seabed. If it’s very  rough ground long range uptide casting is likely to mean a heavy loss of tackle  and hooked fish. However most anglers will choose to downtide fish in this  circumstance to avoid tackle loss, but by choosing the uptider and lobbing a  biggish bait just 10 to 15-yards away from the boat you will again put your  bait a little further out from the others, but you still have a near vertical  lift on the retrieve to minimise tackle loss. I’ve seen this simple tactic used  by some excellent anglers to keep catching fish when others were waiting  patiently for bites, their baits being literally all in a straight line down on  the seabed and the guy at the stern catching all the fish as his bait is the  first the fish find.

Just to put the cat amongst the pigeons, it  can also pay to cast from the boat when you’re positioned on the stern. If  you’re fishing alongside two anglers downtiding on the stern, then lobbing a  bait off directly behind the boat gives you the advantage that any fish coming  uptide towards what is now a confusing wide scent trail emanating from all the  baits stands a good chance of finding your bait first.

The simple answer to the original question  is read the situation as it occurs and be prepared to both uptide and downtide  on the day.

TIPS AND TRICKS
There is a right and wrong way to mount a  thin belly strip of mackerel when drift fishing from a boat. Your instinct is  to mount the hook in the wide end of the bait thinking the strip will behave more  naturally when pulled along by the boats drift.

In reality, the best place to mount the  hook in a belly strip, be it a small section to target dabs and plaice, or a  large strip cut from the fully belly length of a mackerel for turbot and brill,  is in the sharp or tapered end.

The weight at the wide end of the strip  flowing well behind the hook helps to keep the bait on the seabed, plus has  more drag in the water making the strip wriggle more to give the appearance of  having life. It also keeps the hook point well free of the bait for better hook  ups.

WINER BEACH BASS TACTICS
The last few winters the bass on the south  and west coasts, even on the East Anglian beaches, have been reluctant to leave  the shore until early January. The bass arrived late last spring and seem to be  staying late again, so its odds on there will be bass caught again either side  of Christmas this time around. These late leavers can run to 5lbs or more, so  are worth targeting.

Like the cod, these bass like a roughish  sea, but on the shallow beaches prefer a steady even pattern of waves rolling  ashore rather a few massive breakers. In very rough seas expect the bass to be  at very long range where the sea is less confused. In coloured seas you can  catch these bass by daylight, though night time gives the best returns.

The bass will range the full length of the  beach while feeding working the breakers, but will also linger around patches  of rock, sand gullies and especially the ends of the beaches where rocks and  cliffs join the sand. On steep to deep water beaches bass will hunt the divide  line between shingle and sand.

Use a big smelly combination bait. A good  one is ungutted black lug tipped with mussel, squid or crab. Bass also take  ragworm baits more readily than cod will, but again pile plenty on. Tipping lug  or rag with razorfish is also a good winter bass bait.

On the shallow beaches expect the bass to  be localised around the low water mark with the first two hours of the new  flood to hot time. Winter bass are likely over high water, especially if a calm  night follows the storm and frosty weather has cooled the sand before the tide  floods. Just like cod fishing, the spring tides produce the best results.