MANNERS MAKETH THE CHARTER BOAT MAN
Good manners are essential when a party of  anglers are boarding and fishing from a charter boat, and even more so if  you’re making up the numbers with anglers you’ve never met before. Here’s a  procedure of protocol that makes the skippers job easier, will get you all  fishing a lot quicker, keeps things polite and friendly, and gives everyone a  chance of a few fish during the day. A good skipper should organise these  things himself, but not all skippers are good.

First off, if there are lads or lasses you  don’t know, introduce yourself and break the ice. That’s the hardest bit of the  day done.

Have a system of the anglers on the quay or  pontoon passing all the tackle boxes and gear down to other anglers already on  the boat. I’ve seen lads on their own making up the numbers as individuals left  high and dry to carry their own stuff down ladders completely ignored by the  others.

There’s usually a rush to secure one of the  so called “best” fishing spots at the stern. This often results in bad feeling  for the rest of the day. Someone in charge, or the skipper, should divide the  number of anglers in to positions on the boat and draw numbers on bits of paper  from a hat to decide who goes where to start. For example Number one will be  the starboard wheelhouse edge, number 2 the middle of the starboard gunnel and  so on. If it’s an 8 hour trip, divide the number of anglers in to the hours to  be fished and move everyone round one position so that each angler gets his  allotted time at the stern. Everyone pays an equal share, so should get equal  time in the best positions.

Don’t litter your gear all over the place.  Try to keep everything you need in your tackle box, bar your bait, and keep the  box lid shut. The same applies to having spare rods set up and leaning against  the gunnels taking up room. If you’re not using it, get the skipper to stow it  somewhere.

Be self reliant and have your own bait  knife, boat board, pliers, scissors etc. There’s nothing worse than somebody  guy begging and borrowing every 5 minutes.

If someone hooks a decent fish next to you,  wind your gear in and give them some space. Its bad manners and pretty selfish if  you don’t. There’s always the chance their fish can tangle your gear and break  free losing him or her a potential fish of a lifetime.

Commonsense really, but simple to do and  it’ll keep the peace and harmony intact for all aboard, plus it helps newcomers  such as holidaymakers find their feet when trying their hand at boat fishing  for the first time .

TIPS AND TRICKS
Soft baits like razorfish and mussel  inevitably slide down the hook shank in to a messy blob around the end, even  when secured with bait elastic. But you can prevent this by tying a bait  holding spur around the middle of the shank.

You need about 9-inches of stiff 20lb mono  for this. Tie a 6 or 7 turn grinner type knot around the shank and draw the  knot tight. Cut the loose ends of line off, but leave about a 1/4 –inch or more  of free end facing towards the hook eye. Bend this back so that it sticks out  from the shank at 45 degrees, then superglue the knot and tag end in place to  further stiffen.

You can slide the bait up and over this  easily enough, but the bait cannot slide downwards easily helping to retains  good presentation. These stop knots actually work better than inverted barbs  naturally built in the hook shank.

TIDAL TACTICS
Picking the fish that suit the tide size  and venue is a major contributor to getting yourself consistent catches and something  experienced anglers have learnt the hard way.

If you tend to fish shallow surf beaches,  then your ideal tides would be the big    spring tides if your main target fish are bass, cod  whiting and rays, typically fish willing to swim a fair distance while feeding.  If you want to fish these beaches on smaller neap tides, then switch to fishing  for flatfish, which are far more likely to feed in numbers on small tides with  little tidal run as they are mainly static feeders moving only short distances  when feeding.

Smaller estuaries on big tides with fast  currents carry fish like bass long distances, several miles in some cases, up  river to rich feeding grounds. It’s the bigger fish that travel the furthest.  This is a good indicator of where to fish and when to fish if you’re looking  for a monster. Smaller neap tides with less tidal flow are more likely to see  bass concentrated within the main estuary channel area and often less than a  mile from the mouth. These tides pull together all the smaller school bass  inside a relatively small area quickly depleting the food supply and makes it  less likely you’ll encounter a big fish.

If your main marks are deep water beaches  or rock ledges with a very fast lateral tide run, then the biggest tides may be  almost impossible to hold bottom in and equally uncomfortable for the fish.  Choosing tides just starting to rise in height after the smallest neap tides  and those falling back towards small neaps when the tide flow is less are more  likely to fish well. Even though the tide size may be small, the tide flow is  still pulling hard enough to expose and carry food, and this will bring active  hunters like cod and bass in to feed.

The same can be said of the tide itself. Generally  speaking static feeders like flatfish tend to feed best immediately either side  of low water. Roving feeders like bass and cod appear when the tide flow starts  to run as this exposes food covered in the sand.
 

Shore tope will work a shallow beach just  as the last of the main tide run is easing an hour or two before high water.  This is when the smaller fish are concentrated in the gullies on the beach and  make for easy pickings.