Selfsufficientish.com

All over the world self suffient homesteads run their winter on their fish stocks and freezers. I'd love to hear about people's ways of maximising their catch, and how they go on to preserve it for winter storage. Do you love a particular bait for pollock? And great lure for mackerel? ( not that they need gold plating!)

I'm particularly interested in talking to people who sea fish the north west coast of scotland. I've been trying to catch a flounder for about two years and no closer than day one... Lol

The last time I fished the Tay,30 odd years ago,I used pieces of kipper on a single hook with a rolling leger.Took loads of flounder.I love oily fish as bait,or buy the oil and paint your lob.
These days I live many miles from the sea,so I have to know the mackerel will be running before I fish for them(and then they will strike a bare hook!) We also have a couple of boat trips in Oct/Nov off Beachy Head most years (not this one) when we are fairly sure to catch well,cod/whiting/pollack etc.....the bigger the bait.....etc.etc.

Yeah, we live in an estuary, off Mallaig, stunning mackerel runs, we took over 300 fish last summer just for the families freezers (there's about 12 of us to share around/trade with etc).
I also caught about 17 sea trout, and a million baby pollock (I caught a headache round about here)....

I've seen and even stepped on flatties in my life but never caught one. Is there a particular time of year/depth that they prefer? We've got anything in the estuary from 4-30feet of sandy bottom, before it leads out past a big island into cliff edged open water of the Minch.

We used to catch large pollock here along the cliffs but in recent years I'm only getting tiny fish, on lures twice their size.

ojay54 wrote:The last time I fished the Tay,30 odd years ago,I used pieces of kipper on a single hook with a rolling leger.Took loads of flounder.I love oily fish as bait,or buy the oil and paint your lob.
These days I live many miles from the sea,so I have to know the mackerel will be running before I fish for them(and then they will strike a bare hook!) We also have a couple of boat trips in Oct/Nov off Beachy Head most years (not this one) when we are fairly sure to catch well,cod/whiting/pollack etc.....the bigger the bait.....etc.etc.

I have some kippers fillets we got gifted that I didn't like (you should see the colour of them! Scarlet!) they are in a box with some left over scraps of mackerel and sprat so will get them on the go.

Does anyone use a chum bag when sea fishing? I've never bothered, but I'm looking to try and catch some different species than the ever suicidal mackerel this year!

Hi polaris, welcome to Ish. I'm a bit further north than you.

I was in Knoydart a couple of years ago - stunningly beautiful area but too midgy for me.

I can't help with the fishing, I'm afraid - just wanted to say hellp.

Lure fishing from the cliffs must be fun,but for me,if you want to catch reliably you need to find depth.So a pier,or a boat.If I lived near the coast I'd have a boat before I bought a car.S
Sea trout! never caught one legally in my life!!!