Waggler Coaching

My first ever fishing coaching session in the UK. Decided to fish an Essex commercial fishery knowing that it would be a great place to learn as I had caught several carp and a some decent fish on previous session this year. The plan was to teach my trainee how to fish the waggler, the easiest and most enjoyable way to coarse fish. I got to the fishery a little earlier, and had bought a little 4m whip the night before, so I rigged it up and had a few small roach and roach and then a good bream before before my guest arrived and I had to get down to business. The weather was on and off showers and a little windy.

Knowing that my guest had only ever caught tiddlers with his bare hands many years ago, I knew that I had start from basics, this is a rod, a reel, a waggler, a hook... 2 BBs is the same as a AAA ... etc.

With this new found knowlege, we plumbed up and were ready to bait up and cast. The float went down several times, but he couldn't connect to the fish. Finally got it spot on, but the strike was a little too hard and the poor little roach became a flying fish. Finally success, we had a nice little 2oz roach in the net. After a few more roach we decided to use corn and he hooked into a nice roach, which weighed in at 12oz. Next fish was a beauty, hooking into a nice little Crucian carp. Now able to waggler fish, I was determined to catch some fish but only managed to get a nice roach of about 10oz. I missed a take which was almost definely a good bream. The next cast, hooked into a good fish, and a bream of about 5lb breached clear out of the water and the impact of the fish on the water put so much strain on the line that it broke my favourite waggler in half. It was the first waggler I had ever bought in the UK and have caught hundreds of fish on it. I was not able to recover the tip to reglue it. You always feel some sort of attachment to some of your fishing equipment, but I did break it on a good fish, and would probably have been the biggest bream I had ever hooked. The weather got worse and my guest had to leave. I persevered but only managed another good roach.

Overall a good day with my guest out fishing me.


First fish, a bream.


Guest's first decent fish, a Roach


Guest's first Crucian Carp


My first good Roach


Final Roach


A Rudd

Brighton Marina

I'm trying to blog all of my fishing trips from now on.

Got to the marina about 1pm, fished the East Arm bay 28. 2 Rods. Started with one baited with rag/squid cocktail and the other with feathers. Caught loads of mackerel and got tired of it, so decided to go for mini-species down the wall using very small hooks and rag. First foul hooked a Pouting or Poorcod, cant tell at that size. Then got a Ballan, then Bullhead, several shannys and a Corkwing. Decided to try baited size 6 Hokkais to get something different, but got more mackerel. Left at about 6pm. Nothing wanted my rag/squid at range all day.

Species count for the 2010 is now 25.
See them all here


My first mackerel for the year.


First Ballan Wrasse for 2010


First Corkwing Wrasse for 2010


First Shanny for 2010. (Black form)


Another Shanny (Standard form)


First Bullhead for the year.

Grey Viking - Brighton

I booked a chartboat trip to fish off brighton for Smoothounds and after a few cancellations, finally managed to go out.

Got to the Marina a few hours early so I had a stroll around the marina and found a few nice grey mullet feeding as well as a whole lot of Plumose Anemone.



Thicklip Grey Mullet - Chelon labrosus



Plumose Anemone - Metridium senile

Once we sailed out of port and settled down to fish, people started to hook into some fish, a few dabs and mackerel and then a Starry Smooth-hound came aboard. They looked very much like Gummy Sharks back in Austraia. They are actually just a difference species from the same genus.



Starry Smooth-hound - Mustelus asterias



Starry Smooth-hound - Mustelus asterias

A total of 4 Smoothhounds were caught, none to me though. I only managed to hook into 3 Lesser Spotted Dogfish [#90], I even got grazed by their sandpaper-like skin, which stung like a ....



Lesser Spotted Dogfish - Scyliorhinus canicula #90



Lesser Spotted Dogfish - Scyliorhinus canicula

On the way back home, we I photographed this nice Gannet:



Northern Gannet - Morus bassanus