BOAT FEEDER FISHING
We’ve discussed using swim feeders for  shore fishing here before, but feeders work well when boat fishing too. Catches  of reef conger, huss, rays, cod, bream and bass can all be increased by using feeders  to add more scent to the water and pull fish in towards your main hook bait.

There are a host of freshwater feeders  around that will do the job, but over the past year I’ve been using the Fox Inline  Finned Feeders, mainly the 1oz size. I prefer to rig the feeder in line. The  Fox type has a tube running through the centre meaning it simply slides on the  rig body above the lead link and I use a crimp and bead to limit the distance  the feeder can travel back up the rig, with the hook trace swivel fixed just  above this. For casting and fishing the feeder sits tight behind the lead,  which on the seabed means the feeder is releasing its contents directly down  and past the hook bait.

I’ve also been experimenting with feeder  mixes. For conger you need nothing more than animal feed bran mixed liberally  with sand, pilchard oil and minced up mackerel flesh. The sand helps bind  everything together. When mincing mackerel for this you want a steady flow of fish  and bran particles dripping off downtide, so mix the ingredients up the day  before to let the bran really soak up the oil, and when mincing the mackerel,  take the fillets off the bone, use a sharp knife to remove the skin, then mince  up just the flesh. If you leave the skin on it can slowly block the holes up in  the feeder. This makes a fine/medium particle type bait that clouds across the  seabed, the sand sinking with some of the bran floating away downtide. This  really fetches the eels from their lairs.

For rays you can use the same mix, though  I’ve found I get more huss to the baits if I substitute the mackerel for minced  up squid. Both mixes also draw bass and cod in, though I’ve also done well  mixing the bran with a little stale bread and adding any old black lug,  razorfish and crab that’s been left too long in the freezer.

I figure the next step is to look at some  of the fish based feeder mixes available for coarse fishing and to use these as  the base mix with minced fish and squid etc, to increase the natural scent  content and to help lay a steady scent of particles tight to the seabed. There  is an advantage in using partial cloud type mixes that filter off far downtide  with heavier particles strewn across the seabed leading to the bait. This not  only pulls fish in from far a field, but also offers a natural distribution of  scent and bait with the hook bait the main focus as would be the case with  natural food dead and ripped apart on the seabed.

This system of inline feeder obviously also  works just as well when downtide fishing dropping off the stern of the boat,  the scent mix from the feeder travelling with the tide directly over the hook  bait.

The boundaries for boat feeder fishing are  limitless. It works for flatfish like dabs and plaice, also gurnards and  whiting too. One drawback is that I’ve had quite a few false bites when conger,  huss and especially tope have, not surprisingly, picked up the feeder and run  off with it rather than the bait, but that’s a penalty worth paying for the  increase in overall catches.

TIPS AND TRICKS
In certain slack water tide conditions when  after bream and flatfish using a light hook trace you still need a long hook  length to get positive takes, but these are prone to tangling due to the lack  of tidal current to pull the traces out fully straight.

What you can do, say when wanting a 36 or  48-inch trace, is to use 2 or 3-feet of heavier 30 to 40lb mono, then add  another 12-inches of the required lighter 12 to 15lb hook trace line. The  heavier mono is much stiffer and stays straighter in the water, but the lighter  hook length still retains enough movement to attract the fish, especially if  you lift the rig off the bottom a few inches to induce this extra movement.

Don’t use a swivel between the two  different line strengths as this adds unwanted weight. Tie a single granny knot  in the heavier mono, then pass the light line through the eye of the granny and  tie a 5-turn uni-knot around the heavier mono with the light line and secure.  This knot is ultra strong and very reliable.

SHORE COALFISH TACTICS
Coalfish tend to stay inshore throughout  February and early March off Cornwall  and along the west coast of Wales,  and are pretty much a year round target for anglers in Scotland and  the Northeast of England.

They frequent sandy surf beaches,  especially those flanked by rocky headlands, but can also be found over mixed  rough ground under cliffs. Coalies are best fished for at night during rougher  seas, especially coloured seas just after a storm with the bigger spring tides  giving the best opportunities. On many marks it is the two hours before high  water that gives the best fishing.

A common mistake when after coalies is to  overcast them. They live tight in amongst the breaking surf tables, often  closer than bass, and can often be caught with little more than the shock leader  length, around 20-feet, beyond the tip ring. Generally though, casts from 30 to  50-yards are more successful.

Good baits are frozen or fresh crab, frozen  often out fishing fresh, mussel, lugworm tipped with razorfish or clam, and  queen cockles. Ragworm tends to take the smaller fish and can be area sensitive,  working well in one place and not another. Coalfish take combination baits made  from the above baits especially well.

Coalies are positive feeders, but can often  miss the hook even against a grip lead if you are using short hook lengths.  With this in mind use two-hook flapper rigs with longer 15 to 18-inch hooks  traces from 30lb line, as they are not line shy. Hook type should be a Mustad  Viking crab claw size 1 for crab baits, with Mustad 3262BLN Aberdeen’s or a Kamasan equivalent good for  worm and shellfish baits.

Shore coalies average between 1 and 2lbs,  but can touch 4lbs, and even a 2lber will fight far better than its weight  suggests.