FIND YOUR DEPTH
Float fishing is very effective at this time of year for mullet, garfish, pollack and mackerel. All these are fish that will rise up to take a suspended bait as it passes by overhead. Few anglers realise though, that with a subtle change of tactic to give a different type of bait presentation that bass, flounder, plaice, bream and even dogfish will take a float fished bait adding variety.

The change of tactic is to obviously get the bait working either just above the seabed in the case of the bream and bass, or dragging bottom to target the flatties and dogfish. This requires we plumb the depth using a coarse anglers plumb weight before fishing to establish the depth, something sea anglers rarely do, they just experiment, but that costs time for little result.

If you want to target the bream or the bass, you need to weight the trace below the float to within a foot of the hook. Choose a float like a cigar shaped float and in the average tidal current of an estuary the bait will be working in the 6 to 12-inch band above the seabed. Bream and bass by their shape scan forward and upward with their eyes and will locate a bait presented at this depth very easily. Try strips of squid or mackerel for the bream, or sandeel and rag for the bass. A soft crab with the hook just passed from the belly through the back once so that the legs dangle down is also deadly when worked over rougher ground.

For the flatfish and doggies, we need to fish the bait over depth so that it drags on the seabed putting it exactly where the flatties are. We need a very small bullet weight actually touching the seabed, but with a good foot or more of hook trace to the hook flowing freely behind. We also want maximum movement of the bait in the current, so choose a drift float with wind catching vanes to maximise the tide and wind push effect to make the bait behave as though it is being pulled along in the current.

Use moving baits with scent like ragworm and lugworm, or use peeler crab as the main bait but tip with a long sliver of squid, which works well for the plaice. Pull the float towards you occasionally to lift the bait and let it flutter back towards the seabed. This will induce a take from a curious flattie if it’s just been following the bait out of curiosity.

Plumbing the depth works best off breakwaters, piers and jetties, and especially inside shallow harbours and estuaries where you have a defined direction of current allowing you to fully work the ground. In periods of hot calm weather, with the fishing in the doldrums, this style of moving bait fishing will also score heavily over more normal static ledger fishing. It’s also something you can do with your coarse gear if you’re a freshwater angler but want to dabble at sea fishing when on your holidays.

TIPS AND TRICKS
With more and more sea anglers interested in specimen and personal bests it pays to be able to weigh fish safely and accurately.

One of the best items to carry then in conjunction with your weigh scales is a weigh net of the type used by freshwater specimen hunters to weigh pike, zander or carp. These fine mesh bags can hold big fish like double figure bass and smoothound, or wrasse without incurring any damage to them, and they weigh nothing for adding to your box or rucksack. I’ve even stuck conger in mine occasionally, so just as well they wash easily enough in mild soapy water.

The same weigh sling can also be used for a safe controlled release. They can be easily opened out in the water and you just wait for the fish to get its bearing before gently swimming out to freedom. A weigh sling is a good investment at around £15 for a decent one!

AUGUST BASS TACTICS
The numbers of bass inshore can drop during August when the bulk of the fish move offshore to feed on sandeel and smaller mackerel, but if you keep your finger on the weather pulse you can hit some quality fish that are often far bigger than the majority of fish being taken offshore. What’s happening here is that the bigger bass seem to know that they have less competition from the smaller school bass at this time and take advantage of an untapped food supply.

Look for a weather front with fairly strong winds and rain. This does not need to last too long. Often just a couple of days is long enough to bring the fish in. If you fish the surf beaches, fish the low water period in full dark and try dropping whole squid or small joey mackerel flapper baits right in to the breakers.

On rough ground beaches the bass tend to work in the deeper gutters and holes where food broken free by the tide gets deposited. Top bait here will be peeler or soft crab. These tend to drop in numbers during late July and early August, which is one reason why the bass move out on the sandeel, but the bass don’t lose their liking for crab baits, but make them big and mashed up oozing out scent to the maximum. Mount these on two-pennel tackle to maximise the hook up ratio.

Big bass also come back to cruise inside our harbours and along the edges of breakwaters. They are suckers for a whole ledgered squid or a mackerel flapper again, though this high summer period is also a good time to fish small pouting for them.

Estuaries are less reliable, but the odd big bass can travel at this time way up almost to the junction of freshwater taking small fish like sea trout and salmon parr. Fishing a surface plug can be deadly in these conditions.