Veals mail order are based in Bristol and offer a wide range of tackle for the boat fishing enthusiast. They have a dedicated sea fishing calalogue plus an online store. They ship throughout the UK with reasonable shipping charges. Veals have been trading since 1846.
We added some new rail mounted fully adjustable rod holders to our boat this week. They really do make a difference to the fishing.
Because wether you are uptiding or downtiding, drift fishing etc they can be adjusted to suit. Ours go up and down and from side to side. They are also really useful in strong tides.
Check out the image here, heaven - drifting over a sandbank with light tackle off the gower coast, the movement of the boat just making the bait move slightly!
The best use is drifting for bass with a live sandeel where the come into their own because you can get a really flat angle to the water ! We got these rod holders from west marine in the USA while we were on holiday, however they seem to be made by scotty who have a website at www.scotty.com Incidentally West Marine offer shipping to the Uk and you pay in dollars so you save plenty by shopping with them! Visit them at www.westmarine.com 
We took the optional rail mounts with the rod holders. The range of adjustment is really good allowing you to set your rod at just about any angle. This is far better than our conventional rod fixed holder which offer just one angle.
Bass fishing is a dark art. You can go every week in your boat loaded to the gunnels with livebait, deadbait, and every kind of rubber eel and never catch one! (believe me I have been there)
We set out at the start of September with the intention of catching a few. Before the trip I read just about every bass fishing tip in all the magazines I have.
We set out for a sandbank as apparently bass shoal around them gorging themselves on mackerel at this time of year. This picture shows the conditions, really fine weather. Sandbanks are easy to fish, you never get snagged and the concept is simple, you just motor the boat to one end and then drift across the bank with the tide. As you leave the bank you do it all again!
You can find sandbanks on the marine charts, they are easy to spot. A gps plotter is then essential to find them combined with the use of the fishfinder to spot the banks perimeter before you start fishing. The best fishing lies at the end away from the tide. But we have caught them all over the bank.
So we rigged up some shrimp feathers these are the smallest feathers you will find in the tackle shop, according to the magazines this is how you catch sandeel. We caught plenty of small joey mackerel and chucked them in the livebait well. Then we had a little run of sandeel, this was a first - we have never caught sandeel before! The magazine was right!
We didnt bother to fill the baitwell we just had four sandeels and four small mackerel, and we rigged two rods with 3oz lead a plastic boom and about a 8ft length of leader to a small carp hook. On one rod we fished a mackerel and on another a sandeel. You drop to the bottom and wind up about three turns so I guess you are about a metre off bottom. As you drift you keep checking this.
We fished for approx half an hour when bang the rod went, no fish but the mackerel came back minus its body, thats a hell of a poweful fish! Then a while later the sandeel rod went, the sandeel gets lively when a bass comes around so you see it twitch a bit more than usual, then the rod starts to bend, tis almost like when you snag the bottom when drifting, the line pulls away. You dont strike, you just lift in to the fish to get the hook set and up comes a lovely bass of about 2.5lb!
Enterprise is an Offshore 32 sea fishing charter boat based in Swansea Marina Wales, UK. She is licensed and insured to carry 10 anglers.
Enterprise is fitted with GPS navigation, Radar, chart plotters and colour sound fish finders. Children are welcome but must be accompanied by a responsible adult You will be welcomed aboard by Les Diamond, skipper. Les has a wealth of experience having fished the Bristol Channel for over 30 years. A keen angler himself, Les will be on hand to offer tuition to beginners and novices alike.
Enterprise specialises in Bass and Tope fishing, Bass fishing both offshore sand banks and wrecks, Bass fishing along the Gower coast is among the best in the country. ( MAY- OCTOBER )
Bait in the summer is mainly Mackerel. They can be caught from June to September, but it is always advisable to bring a backup supply Winter fishing is mainly concentrated on locating shoals of Cod, the average size of the fish being 10lb, with fish to 20lb being caught regularly Other species available in winter are CONGER RAYS WHITING and the inevitable DOGFISH that are caught on a regular basis. Bait includes Lugworm (Black). Cocktail baits used in addition to Lug are Clam, Crab, Squid and Razor Fish.
We picked up all the necessary boat safety equipment for our boat from the Marine Warehouse who do next day shipping.
We carry lifejackets for every crew member, our lifejackets are fitted with lifejacket lights, these would come in handy if we ever had to go in to the water in the dark as we often come home at dusk or in the dark. Marine Warehouse also stock a good range of kids sized lifejackets.
We also carry two boat fire extinguishers, a coastal flare pack which contains fours smoke flares and two parachute rockets, and a boat first aid kit. We also carry two gas fog horns which we have used once in thick fog.
We also carry emergency water and emergency food rations, Marine Warehouse sell long life water sachets and high calorie food biscuits that have a 5 year shelf life. They dont take alot of space and we figure that if the engine broke and we got stuck our packed lunches would soon run out!
Marine Warehouse also supplied our icom vhf which has worked faultlessly for over a year now.
I used to do alot of fly fishing, and when you catch your first fish of the day, you open it up and see what its been eating. This helps you match your fly to the real food the trout has eaten.
This week I tried this trick on the first bass of the day, interestingly I caught it on a live sandeel. But when I opened it up all it had in its stomach were tiny crabs. I have placed a sandeel in the picture to help with the scale, its not a big one at all - maybe 4-5 inches tops. Please excuse the guts!
This begs the question that if the fly fishing trick works (and it does) then the the best bait for bass should be small crabs, and has got me thinking about maybe a trace like mackerel feathers each with a tiny crab on it. I'll have to try it!
Dogfish can be caught all year round, some anglers hate them, but I actually thing they bring sport on days when there is little else to catch.
Dogfish are notorious for taking just about any type of bait, but are quite simple to identify when biting. You see a couple of nods at the end of the rod and you are in, they rarely get away with the bait without getting hooked and have a tendency to swallow the lot very quickly.
If you strike fast upon seeing the bite, you will invariably lip hook a dogfish, this avoids the problem of unhooking a fish that has swallowed the bait all the way down.
This picture shows a nice dogfish that was caught on rag and squid in October.
Dogfish are one of those fish that you always think is something else - some fight well others dont even register on the rod!
Unhooking a dogfish is fairly easy, their skin is quite rough and they can be a bit lively - but if you wear a glove on one hand and hold the fish by its head and tail together it makes the job alot less traumatic for both the fish and yourself!
Some people eat dogfish, its also known as 'rock salmon' its meant to be really nice, but i have never tried it!
The Red Gurnard is such a beautiful fish, has legs and bright blue wings.
Alas they dont grow very big in our waters, this small one was caught on rag and squid bait in October, but they do occur all year round and even take our live sandeels sometimes when we are bass fishing.
Check out its bright blue fins, you can imagine it flying with them!
The fins underneath have evolved into legs, they can even walk around on the sea floor.
We would like to point out that we have a policy on board of returning every fish that we catch (that we arent going to eat) back to the sea alive and with as little stress as possible.
We rarely take more than one or two fish home with us.
Good catch and release starts with the bite, leave a seafish bite too long and the fish will swallow the bait, making recovery of the hook very difficult. Lip hooking fish by striking quickly makes unhooking easy.
We also use a wet cloth, wet gloves or wet hands to handle fish to preserve their skin. And dont go to sea without a proper disgorger!
Ragworms are an excellent winter bait for just about any fish. Hours of fun can be had playing the whiting with these juicy babies!
Click the image for a larger view!
