Fishing with Finesse.................

Tidal_wear · Fishing with Finesse.................

Bank-holiday yesterday,so what better way to spend the evening than a spot of fishing?Joe and I have obtained a bit of new permission,so it was the first time on the water,as such we were unsure as to the best methods............................

Tidal_wear

Joe had spent the day tying orange nymphs,or tangerine nymphs,or even satsuma nymphs,I just remember they were a citrus type fly and as such GUARANTEED to catch on ANY water and quite deadly,I took my old trusty string of mackerel feathers,I guess I had a hunch we wouldnt be going home empty handed................................

Tidal_wear

I thought JOE was taking the p**s when he told me to try a Tweed style double-handed casting method he used,but it actually proved highly effective,everyone else around us was blanking,but we were hitting them left,right,and center

fish

i hope you had arod liscence!

Tidal_wear

'Course we did,we were actually waiting for the bailiff to come round and check but he must have been watching Eastenders or something

Tidal_wear

JOE,did you get that new rod today?

JOE_H

Yeah i did that new rod, it's a real beast. Im worried it will be to heavy for trout but we'll give it a go. It looks the biz. Joe

Tidal_wear

Good man,looking forward to "christening" it soon

Do you want to hire the Ummmmmmmm,"Electrical" gear?I can give him the money tommorrow,dont know how noisy the Jennie is though

Tight lines

JOE_H

electro fishing hey? i dont have a boat so i'd have to use a rubber ring, would that work? Could be a bit painful.

Yep go for it i'll bring some paracetamol incase it goes wrong

.

Joe

Tidal_wear

I think your going to need more than paracetamols with a Jennie thudding away at 2am,let me have a think

Benc

You can electro fish in waders or a drysuit as long as they don't have any leaks and don't put your hands in the water. I've done loads of electro fishing looking for big carp and bream on the london reservoirs and had quite a bit of success. I also do a lot of surveying work and re-shuffling of fish from lake to lake. It was good fun but it's awkward knowing where to start on a 1200 acre piece of water in an 8ft boat....

Tidal_wear

Its ok Ben,its JOE who is putting his hands in the water anyway,shocking huh?

We have some "Equipment" and intend to trial it very,very soon

fishy1

Just out of curiousity, do you just pulse the electricity on and then off, or do you leave it on for a while? And is it just 230V supply, or do you need to increase it? And do you just use a bare wire as electrode?

Tidal_wear

I should be able to tell you the answers to your questions by the end of the week Fishy

And show you some results I hope

Benc

Fishy. without going into it too much, you need an anode (+) and a cathode (-) for the current to flow between, the electrofisher had either pulsed or smooth options and you can vary the output up to 800 volts at 30 amps if you're in really acidic water using a high voltage machine. We used to use a 17kva generator but it needs to be a good one as the draw is sudden and massive, a cheap jenny just won't stand it. The anode is mounted on a fibreglass pole and is a stainless ring, the cathode is braided copper wire.

JOE_H

What we intend to do is attach a bank stick to some wire, throw the wire over some 11,000 volt powerlines causing them to short circuit. Theres a recloser on the line which will charge the line say another ten times to find if theres a problem with it. We hold the bank stick wearing a washing up glove as not to get a shock while its recharging. The 11,000 volts should stun the fish enough for us to get them out with a landning net afterwards.

Tidal_wear

Washing up glove?Marigolds?What colour Joe?

JOE_H

Haven't decided yet probably yellow so if it all goes we can see the blood easier or maybe blue because it will blend in with the water. Im undecided so i'll leave it you. Joe

Tidal_wear

Pink

fishy1

Benc

There is no earth, that is cut off the jenny, so if you touch the sides of the boat you will get a belt. The anode and cathode are ok as long as they don't come close enough to complete the circuit themselves so about 1ft away is as close as they ever want to get. Fish will come up on both the anode and the cathode but as the cathode is often 30ft or more behind you you must just concentrate on the anode unless you think a fish on the cathode has been hit hard and will still be there when you turn round and get to it.

They don't work as brilliantly as people seem to think, they are not a magic wands and so many factors affect the way in which they will stun a fish although you do find some operators are better than others when it comes to boat handling, flexibility etc. I have had 84 out of 90 carp from a 4 acre lake in a day but that was exceptional.

I would say 12ft is a reasonable distance although before a fish is stunned it will try to get away so you then find it is how good you are at seeing signs of fish movement before you can see the fish and pinning it against an obstacle but again this is adversely affected by things such as wind and rain on the surface. People seem to think you just "plug the lake in" and everything floats but it is far from that simple especially if you are moving valuable fish like big carp they must survive and so you electrocute them as little as possible, often only knocking them out for 2-3 secs before you have them out of the water and into the boat. You also need to find a good man to go on the anode as you must work as a team and know what the front man is going to do when either of you spots a fish. I had one bloke and you'd almost guarantee if we hit 5-6 big carp in a group we'd get the lot but then again i've had others who would panic and you'd lose 1 in 2 fish as a result or they'll fall in when you turn hard or drop the anode into the water etc, you can guess which one works the anode for me now...

steve

well TW i can see these fish coming out cooked ready to eat.

Tidal_wear

That pike is stun'ning ben,a real beauty

Saves the local restaurant the job of cooking them steve

Tidal_wear

Ben,I understand that some fish types react differently to others when electro-fished,lets pick a random species like trout

for example,how do they react?

fish

an intresting article mate!

Tidal_wear

Like to come with us fish?You can even wear the marigolds if you want

Benc

Badly! They are a nightmare as if you put too much current across them they de-scale and get black rings on them, if you keep the unit on too long the same and if you get too close to them with the unit on, the same again. They are also quick so you have to be as well and they are often in groups where so many come up at once you won't know which one to go for 1st, by the time you've got 1 or 2 the rest will be gone.

Most fish react in different ways due to their body shape as the electricity puts the muscles either side of the spine into tetanus, so preventing ,movement of the fish and allowing you to pick it up, if you overdo it, the spine will break and the fish will either die or swim with a kinked tail. The fish is affected by the voltage passing across it so if you picture the anode as the middle of a droplet falling into a puddle, the voltage lines are the ripples coming out from this central point. The fish will be affected more the more ripples it covers so now you can see why pike and other long fish are affected badly, this does not make them easier to catch though as they are so quick to be out of your way, whereas small fish like 4" roach are covered by fewer (or sometimes even none in the case of fry) "ripples" and so are harder to catch as they are affected less. These "ripples" are divided into 3 main zones of interest for the purposes of someone who is electrofishing:

Zone of indifference (can feel current and swims away)
Zone of inhibited swimming (tries to swim away but is slower or abnormal-may be in circles or forced to swim towards anode)
Zone of tetanus (Knocked out)

Tetanus is the one you are after but not to the extent that it damages the fish by either breaking the back or cooking the internal organs so fishing the fish as light as possible (often cathing them in inhibited swimming stage) but still being able to catch them is the key.

On a health and safety note, they can kill you if you have a heart condition etc, don't use one if there are people or dogs in the water and their use is restricted by the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act which basically says that only named people can use them with consent from the Environment Agency, the consent is date and location specific.

Tidal_wear

VERY informative read Ben,you know your stuff inside-out,thanks for that

fishy1

Just had a puzzling thought. If you tried the same thing with people, would they also swim towards it? I'm not seriously thinking about it btw.

Tidal_wear

I will let you know after tonight Fishy

fishy1

I am awaiting the BBC report anxiously.

"Two men are in a critical condition after being electrocuted after a suspected poaching incident."

Tidal_wear

Its more than likely to be just "One charred corpse" mate,JOE says I am expendable,and the wife wouldnt actually shed a tear after the insurance payout,the only downside for anyone(apart from me) is I might black-out half of Dorset,so anyone watching late night X-rated chanels will be in for a dissapointment

Benc

Fishy1, I don't actually know, I've been belted a few times as I wore through my wellies with a tiny hole which was enough to connect me to the boat, every time I touched the throttle screw that holds the cable in a rubber grip I got a shock, not a bad one mind you but it stopped when I got a new pair of wellies.
I once electrocuted the bloke I used to work for (maybe should have done it harder), we were on a 400 acre reservoir and had just nailed 3 20lb+ carp. The fish were pristine and we wanted to keep them that way so instead of catching them in a dip net, we were carp sacking them in the water and attaching them to marker buoys so we could retrieve them at the end of the day and they would not have any split fins etc. Well 2 were in the sacks and he was about to sack the 3rd when it started to make a bid for freedom, I was on the anode at the time and gave it another belt with the power which knocked it out but also nearly knocked him out of the boat! He reckoned he'd rather have a shock and get the money from the fish than see it swim away, I told him he was getting too old for the job and should have been quicker to get his arms out of the water!

fishy1

Oh, BTW, tidal wear, what knot do you use to tie the net to the leadline and the top rope? I've been trying reef knots which isn't going well, I know I should use something else, but fast and easy is good.

Tidal_wear

Last night was funny JOE,that perch was a cracker,made my day/night catching that

JOE_H

Yeah it was a lovely fish, we should have got a photo of him. I thought you was going to kill it at first, just for nicking your sweetcorn

Tidal_wear

Kill a perch??No way mate,he was welcome to those niblets

I wish I had got a pic now,beautifully marked,he was a jolly little fat chappie

Tidal_wear

Same time,same place,you know when

Tidal_wear

EXCELLENT night mate

Highlight had to be that badger

He wasnt really bothered was he?Just snuffling along rooting out worms,funny little thing

Low point?Losing THAT fish,had to be around the 15lb mark

Two feet from the bank,how unlucky was that?

JOE_H

Yeah i was gutted watching that biggun swim away. Atleast he was polite and gave the old tail a splash on the surface before disappearing for ever B*****D. Badger was funny, i couldnt work out what it was at first.

Tidal_wear

I dont think he was being polite mate,I think that tail-splash was a two-fingered salute,or the trout version of "F**K-YOU"

Next time mate