Fish finders, part 2.

Hi all,
This is part 2 to getting that fish finder up and running on your kayak.
Since that last post we will assume you have bought your fish finder.
I chose the Raymarine Dragonfly 4, which is a combined unit with a plotter and fishfinder in it.
As said in the previous post it has a bonded screen so it will never fog fog up even in direct sun light.
I have heard some concerns about these units having high power consumption rate , but mine runs for 2 long days fishing on a 12v 7ah battery. Which is what most of us use. It is basically a battery from a house alarm. Can be got from most electrical retailers. Should cost less than E20.00

The actual fitting of the fish finder. 
So fitting a fish finder couldn't be easier. No drill bits need or cutting holes in your pride and joy.
At the moment I am paddling a trident 13, which has a sonar shield in front of the tackle pod.
A very handy piece of kit. Here is mine on the Ocean kayak 13.

So for this kayak all you need is 3 stainless steel screws and screw it to the front of the sonar shield.
You do this so you and mold the head unit down as much as possible for a surf landing.
Once I had done that I plugged the unit in and brought the wires and transducer out and under the hatch lid. No holes needed as the Ocean kayak hatch lid has an over lap meaning you bring wires under without much fear of water getting.
To secure the wire I unscrewed one of the hatch strap fixings and secured the wire under it.

So how easy is that, ANSWER, VERY.
Please use a a screw driver and not a cordless drill or you could over tighten the screw and ruin the fixing.
So that's done, what about the transducer.
Well on the Raymarine dragonfly it has a very long transducer.

In fact it is so long that I find it hard to get it to stay on the hull. I have fixed it on with good puraflex with the hull flexing when tying to the roof rack etc. It knocks it if again. But with this unit I found out by mistake that if you just sit it upright in the hull it works fine. Excluding the chirp the transducer really needs to be outside the hull to work at it's best.

Siting your transducer .
Ideally your transducer should be fitted to the hull with a generous blob of good adhesive/silicone.
I use puraflex as it is reasonably priced at about E8.00 and has great holding power.
So adhesive at the ready you want to place the transducer as close to the seating position as possible. Reason being it will be under the water all the time and less likely for air bubbles to interfere with the image on the screen.
Saying this it is easy done on a trident as the center hatch makes access to the hull very easy.
In a standard kayak I would just place the transducer as far back as you can reach from the forward hatch.
There is no magic in fixing the transducer. Just cut the nozzle well back on the tube of adhesive and put nozzle to spot you want your transducer to be and squeeze at least half the tube out in one big blob. Making sure there is no air bubbles int it.
Once you have you big blob done just press the transducer into the adhesive and rock it back and forward until it is pushed well into it. It normally  doesn't make any odds if the sides are covered. So don't worry to much about that.

Power supply.
This is the one that causes the most problems in the long term. If you can get a hold of stainless spade connectors they would be great, other wise you have to replace you connectors at least once a year.
I have spent mad money on connectors and they were not worth the money. So I have gone back the way and will be using this version in the future. This is a socket from an old PC. plus the plug from the power lead makes a great power plug and socket. The one below is for a different application. But the one on my battery box below is off an old kettle. The plug and socket seem resistant to corrosion for now. So all good so far. Best of all there free,

The one below is from an old kettle. As you can see the standard screws are rusting and the socket is like new. 

This box is not water tight but will do for inside the kayak. A sandwich box would be a better choice if your doing surf landings as you may get some water in the hull.

The trident 13 has battery bag up in the front of your kayak so you can just slide the box inside it.

Not the tidiest looking but it does the job.

Things to be careful with.
There are a few things you really have to watch out for with a fishfinder on a kayak.

1. Never ever leave your battery connected when the fish finder is not in use. Meaning when the kayak is lying in the garden or on the car roof. Moisture and the power from the battery will totally destroy the plug connection in a short period of time. As little as one will destroy some units plugs.
2. Always have an inline fuse. Connected up wrong once could be enough to ruin a unit.
3. When putting the unit head away be sure the plug is not lying in water when not in use. 
4. Always keep your head unit indoors when not in use. Damp garages and sheds are very hard on any electrics.

So I hope that makes your install cheap and easy. A total install cost should be no more than E15.00 including adhesive and battery box.
Good luck with your install and I hope this helped you with your install.

Glorious killybegs and giants jumping.

Hi all,
By a stroke of amazing luck last Sunday the 4th of September the forecast changed for the better at the last minute. With the forecast being up and down all week we had near give up when the forecast changed for the better on Saturday morning. So car packed and down to Killybegs for the night for an early start on Sunday.

Not as calm as hoped , 5am.
5am came and it was blowing a stiff breeze and was no where near settled enough to think about heading out. So it was back to bed for another hour until it got bright at least.
6am still a bit breezy but it was still breezy but we where well sheltered from the land.
So a slow rig up and out we went, witha good session on the ballan wrasse, squid and maybe some cod.

First stop was not very far away, but it is a regular spot for fantastic sized cuckoo wrasse. But they were no where to be seen. It was very quiet we had a couple of small ballans and that was it.
So on we went to another mark close in and I was looking for cuckoo's and ballan wrasse.
They were at home and we had some good fishing but none of them of any real size. But big enough for a good scrap on the light gear.

They were good fun and we had quiet a few over the next hour or so.

So with a change in order I upped my bait sizes in hope of ling or small conger and as fished one rod for wrasse the other was baited with mackerel and sandeel with a dose of Bioedge shrimp wand.
It wasn't down very long altogether when I got a nice take and a short wrestle brought up a grand ling of 4.4lb I was happy with that.

That was a good start but still no decent cuckoos', another move along the ledges produced lots of ballan and at last the cuckoo's came out to feed. We had a good few none breaking the specimen size but great to see them. 

Some cracking colors in the male cuckoo's. 

Again the heavier set up was doing it's thing fishing away and again another good take, this fight felt decent and was similar to a conger kind of fight with out to much reverse fighting from him. 

But to my surprise it was a very nice bullhuss. Also nearly jet black. One cool looking huss.

We were having a blast and the fish were flying in, many different species. At least 15 in total and this little comedian came in ink the hell out of the kayak as he buggered off lol.

I also managed a good few goldenshinney, they are comical how they wreck a small bait. If they grew to 10lb we would need wire traces for them.

With Mike spotting my fine Golden Shinney he was over to try poach my monster shinney lol. 

With that we where for heading out deep to see if we could catch a few of the rarer species that frequent the deeper water around Killybegs. 

But it was savage quiet out there. I had a few nice whiting and Mike's luck was in as he haul up 2 or 3 doggies up from 180ft of water. I was crying laughing. 

This was us some 1.75 miles out. Ah it was glorious out there. All that was needed was for Mike to get another doggie out of that depth lol. 

But a\as we were about to head back What sounded like a huge wave crashing turned out to be huge tuna. One was a monstrous size and the rest were around the 300lb plus size. We paddled around a few times and saw the 3 more times over the next hour. It was an unbelievable sight and was worth the trip just to see them. We were not close enough to get any pics but maybe the next time I'll get a few on camera.

But with that it  was time for home and we had a few stops for bait. Hitting some fine scad 1 of which was 1oz shy of specimen weight. I also had the camera down and got some very unusual video of squid and mackerel working together. So if I can clean it up enough I'll get that video up soon.

Thanks for reading tight lines everyone.

Porbeagle, a cracker at last.

Hi all,
Well half the country knows about my porgie from the kayak on the 12th of June.
It has all gone a bit mad since then, from RTE, Unilad and even over to Arizona where 4 presenters had a right laugh with it.

Back to the fishing, 
Ivor [aka fisher man] met near Malinhead for an early launch. He had his nicely rigged out van with him so he was there ahead of me.

We geared up on the pier and paddled out in search of bait. From reports of shark about the previous weekend I was trolling baits the second I had a decent one.
I had one 50lb class standard rod with a big Okuma multiplier, and the other rod which was handed the other week an asked to catch something decent on it. The convo went along the lines of its a " bit thin, I'll probably break it". The response I got was " heave as hard as you like it's under warranty".
The rod was a Big Bite 30lb to 80lb class can cast 200g. It had a Fin nor lethal on it loaded with 300yards of 60lb braid.
The 2 rods had 15ft of 250lb wind on leaders and 3ft of 400lb 49 strand AGF wire, one had a 10/circle hook and the other had a cat fish hook on.

Fresh baits rigged and out we went to the mark.
I also had some huge soft lures with me to try as we went.

 Although the weather was to be good later it was still pretty wild out there. So we had a bash in the shelter. Ivor went after Pollock and had 2 shark set ups on. Fishing was just ok Ivor had lots of coalie and small Pollock but still wasn't great.
But things began to pick up. Ivor start getting better Pollock and I had red gurnard and 2 nice bullhuss , each a new PB as they came 8lb3 and 10lb6 I was delighted.

The weather finally eased.
At last the weather settled and we moved out closer to where beasts are meant to frequent. But this time when we moved I tried a short drift to check the ground out. But I didn't really move. The wind and tide cancelled each other out, so no anchor needed a huge bonus when fishing for beasts.
We fished away and that's where I had my 10lb6oz huss. I was happy with when.

A SHARK A SHARK,
Ivor shouted a shark a shark is after my fish. I laughed and assumed it was a basking shark passing by. But he said no its a blue one.
I turned that quick I near gave myself whiplash lol.
As I looked over there was a beast of a porgie head butting Ivors kayak looking for a coalie.

With that I reeled in my swim bait rigged mackerel and casted it at Ivor. The mackerel sank as nice as you like down in front of the shark and he didn't even give it a second glance, no interest at all.
Ah but I had an ace up my sleeve. With it rigged swim bait style I started reeling in and it swam like one of those tru line lures. As I reeled this shape appeared from behind it and gave chase.

My heart was going like steam train. She was catching up fast but the bait had made it to my kayak.
I stopped reeling and waited for the bait to be engulfed.
But no, as soon as I stopped reeling she stopped opened her mouth and dodged the bait.

OH SHIT
But it could never be as simple that she turned away with her mouth open and got the wire in her mouth and the circle hook on her pectoral fin. So I quickly shook some line off and with that she sat there thrashing the water until the wire came out of her mouth and thankfully the hook just fell off her pectoral fin.
With that she put her head down and swam away. I was in a state of shock, get the cameras out or recast.
For fear of missing my chance I cast in the general direction she went and half way through the retrieve up she came through the water and again stopped at the side of the kayak.
So I thought I'd troll the baits as I would get a longer run if she chased. I had the 2 rods out 1 with Pollock and 1 with the swim bait mackerel. The Pollock was spinning as I trolled and the mackerel was swimming away nicely.

Trolling away.
I was now trolling and with info from Alastair to keep the baits close I had them about 30yards behind me or even less. The baits where high in the water no more than 6inches under the water as I trolled.

Up came a Fin.
5 minutes later Up came a fin, Oh and what a sight. I nearly forgot to keep paddling lol.
Paddling away and that fin was coming up on the baits like jaws after that water skier in the film.
As I was afraid of a violent take I stopped paddling and began reeling. She sped up and grabbed the bait. No real panic and passed me as she did. I tightened the line as she passed but the bait pulled from her mouth.
I was heart broken, and convinced that was my last chance. But now I was convinced that I needed a live coalie. I shouted to Ivor could he catch one while I kept the shark entertained.

Knackered mackerel and Pollock rerigged as a swim bait I trolled as Ivor got some livies.
Again she came and now was keen on the Pollock swimming away up right. But this time the hook folded over and the hook went into the Pollock instead of the shark and again she was gone.

Ivor to the rescue.
Over he came with 4 lively coalies. Swim bait rigged and again I was trolling and again jaws came to the surface fin out of the water and she was making an impressive bow wave as she charged after me. This time she meant business. She was coming much faster and was not playing this time. She tore through the water and grabbed the coalie. But this time I kept paddling and she swam straight past me.
As she did I grabbed the rod held on and let the line tighten.

FISH ON.
Well it was like hooking a bus that didn't know it was hooked. She just sped up a bit and kept going and I held on and away she went. She was not that really bothered. she would go a bit and then shake her self as if she was just going to snap the line and carry on. This went on for a little while and she towed me into the rocks. But still it was as if she was going for a look around and taking me along for the craic.

But I put heavy drag on her at least 20 to 24lb of drag to get her coming up. I was sure the rod would break. But after 40 mins up she came I had the leader in my hand she done a circle around me, I heaved the line, I even had the 3ft wire in my hand and THEN.

Then she looked at me.
She went on her side as I grabbed the end of the wire and looked at me. Ye one of those looks. With that she turned and darted down and out. I let the line go and she came around and rammed me as hard as she could. What a slap. She sent me at least 5ft through the water.
Ivor got it on camera.
From then on the fight was seriously tough. She dragged beside every rock she could find.
At one point she even tried to get me into a gulley.
Thankfully Ivor was on hand and towed me out away from the rocks as the shark done her best to get me on the rocks.

Down deep and very tough.
She gave up on the rocks and headed out down deep and a seriously heavy fight was on I had at this stage at least 24lb of drag [which is a ton of drag on a kayak] on and heaving like hell. But she had no interest in coming up. This went on for hours and I was in bits at this stage, the long butt on the rod was making it tough. I wasn't able to heave the rod anymore and my back was aching. I was now using my knee to lift the rod and reeling any slack.
But I was getting no more than an inch of line at a time. But eventually She came up and I thought it was over, well she came up 4 times before the end and every time she powered off with big drag on her. I had to slack it off several times as she went off so strong. One of these times she came up and breached in front of me and smashing the water as she went.

Eventually up she came.
She eventually came up for the last time and she was immense. Bigger than I had thought. Her body was twice the girth of her head. She was like of those big fat ones Andrew Alsop gets on his boat.
As she did come up the wild life ranger/basking shark tagging team came by.

 They got a couple of nice pics and Emmet our shark expert reckoned she was easily 300lb. I reckoned it was comfortably 250lb but she was very hard to fathom her size when she is right beside you. All I could get into the pic was her head.

But it was great to see the shark I was sure I'd never get up. I had her along side and as the lads where in a boat I got them to tow me for a few seconds and she swam along side nicely. hook out and away she went.

The beast released and I was delighted and set to paddle home. Oh but I was wrecked lol. So a ditch on a rocky bay was in order, and a quick call to Linda my wife for a pick up.
So a week to recover from that one, Rod handle cut shorter and ready for the next one.

So until the next round of mayhem, Tight lines.

Tope have landed

Well the long awaited tope have landed.
But with bait being very scarce at the moment we headed out near Malin head for a bait hunt on Saturday afternoon.

Sodding weather.
As the general theme this year. The weather for cast was a bit out and it was considerably breezier than we had hoped for.
But we got out and fished away until the weather made it to uncomfortable to fish. We done well and we all had some fine coalies and I managed 1 mackerel. But the beer and steaks made up for weather. It's looking like it will be a great year for it all going well. we are well set up now.

Mackerel.
Sunday came way to quick as we may still have been recovering from the refreshments from the night before. But up at 7am and out we went in search of bait. We gave it 2hrs and I only found 2 mackerel. A lonely grey gurnard. And a good helping of some fine coalies. I had my mark3 live bait tube out on trial again to see if putting the floats inside would help stream line it will paddling. It ended up not too bad and still works very well. This 2lb coalie was in it for well over an hour while I paddled around.

He was returned after his little trip around the area. So with that, we had enough bait and away went went. The lads were under pressure and didn't have time to hang around. So I was heading out on my own for the tope.

Time to try the tope.

Oh I was busting to hit the tope and with the lads catching some on Lough Swilly I had high hopes.

So 3 nice fresh mackerel and some more coalies things were looking good.

I was launching close to time low water so it was out asap and anchor down. 

I had the new fin nor lethal 100 out to see what it was like and the usual tope set up on the other. So 2 lovely mackerel fillets on pulley rigs and even though the fillets were fresh I couldn't resist give them a dose of Bio Edge sardine oil. I didn't have a bag to marinade them in so I just stuck the nozzle into the mackerel fillet a few times squeezed some in and it had a great scent trail coming off it.

Time was ticking and would the bad weather come in before the tope. 

By now the lines had been in about 30 mins and not a tap and the tide was easing off. Normally I would be hitting tope by now if they where around. But my fears eased as the rod tope got a classic bob,bob take. The heart was near jumping out of my chest waiting for some thing to happen. 

But no nothing. After a few minutes I lifted it and there was a couple of nicks at the edge of the bait so it definitly was a tope. Line down again and 10mins later the bait on the rod with the new beast of a reel got a take.

Doesn't matter how many tope you catch, the first of the year is epic. Pure tension, excitement and delight all rolled into one. 

A bonus flounder while trying for bait.

The take.

Sorry got side tracked there lol. Ye the take. I had the Fin nor drag set very light so the tope could take the bait with no resistance. As he took the bait and started to go I sank the hook. I had my finger on the spool so he could run a bit. But the drag was a bit light. So a I quickly turned the drag 1 full turn and, well I kind of over done it and stopped a tope in full run dead in his tracks lol.

He wasn't happy he turned and gave a mad close hand fight and rolled the trace all around him. The bugger was mental. I also had the water wolf camera on and he mangled that. Bent the wire and all sorts. But it is still working, thankfully.

So a mental tope along side  the kayak , wrapped in my trace and still full of life. In he came and as every year their sheer power amazes me every year. Pure muscle and power. 

 Oh he was a handful, but I wouldn't have it any other way. So after a wrestle , hook out and away he went. He was a feisty bugger lol.

So that was my first tope of the year. Oh it was great to have one in and released to start the season. But I had hopes of more but the weather rolled in. You can see from the time on the photo's how quick it changed. In less than an hour it went from a light breeze to strong breeze. I had to up anchor and make a run for shore and dodge the yachts as I went , or they dodged me lol.

So That was it, tope account opened and ready for more.

Until the next time tight lines and thanks for reading.

Also don't forget. Boat angling Ireland tope meet greenore co. Louth 10th/11th/June 

Tope 80lbs possible all welcome 
Find us on face book

While I'm waiting on the tope.

Hi all,
As the title says, since the weather was to dodgey to heading to far from shore in search of tope I head to a local in shore mark.
I was hoping pollock and wrasse but fishing the ebb tide it was never going to be a bumper session.

Something new.
I had some nice fresh rag with me and the usual assortment of feathers and some new soft lures from http://www.fish-dynamix.co.uk/ . Their that new they don't have a name or packaging lol.
I am as bad as most anglers always looking to try something new so it will be interesting the try the whole range out over the summer.

On my pollock mark.
I got on my Pollock mark, But today there was an unsual amount of coalies on the mark. Lots of them hitting the feathers when I was looking for mackerel.
Great to see a hard fishing fish about but a bugger when your after Pollock or mackerel.
So the feathers I use for early mackerel is the bleeding glow worm rig. Always a killer for early mackerel and herring. But it was a waste of time with the coalies around. So it was on to rag on a flowing trace or soft lure.
By now the lovely sunny day had turned to over cast and quiet breezy. But I was alright sitting aound the head land out of the breeze.
As the tide was running very fast I decided to anchor and tried the new lure with a 1.5oz lead head. I fished it for 30 mins with not so much as a tap.
So it was onto the rag,  but as the breeze was getting up all the time I didn't route out a boom I just run a line from above the jig head and use it as a weight as it was an ideal weight.
So rag down and fished very slow and deep and as expected on my second cast and retrieve I got the bump bump and take of a lively little pollock. I was sure he took the rag but no he took the new lure fished dead slow and deep.
Which surprised me, it did have a rub of the smelt wand on it too so that may have encouraged the take when fished so slow, I'm not sure yet.

No beast by any means but it was encouraging to see him on the lure when there was a nice rag worm behind it. 

Another couple of casts later and another classic pollock take with a much feistier fish this time and nearly up and another burst of life and a tustle and up came 2 pollock one on the rag and one on the lure.

The better fish was on the new lure, with a little one on the rag. Seems the better fish took the lure before the rag again. May be coincidence but some more testing in the future will give a better picture of how the new lure is working. I have a right few to try out so its going to be fun trying the them all. 

Getting very windy.

By now the wind was kicking up rightly and it would soon be time for home. I had to try the wrasse before I went home so I whacked some rag on the glow worm rig and let that sit while spun for pollock.

It was down only a short while when I had my first wrasse.

Another 20 minutes passed and I hadn't another bite from pollock or wrasse and as the wind was howling by now it was a pain fishing at anchor. So lines up and in I went. It was a tough paddle in and I was glad I didn't go out to the tope or I would have had a nasty run in for sure.
Mind you when I got back on the shore the wind was totally missing the beach. Typical. I should have went after the seatrout.
But sure I had edible size pollock for the dinner and got at least one new lure tried out so it was a good run out despite the weather.
Until next time tight lines.

Fish finders how to choose and fit yours.

Hi all,
Its the start of most kayak anglers and boat anglers angling season. Soon the tope, coalie and ray will be in. Long with the warmer weather species as the summer approaches.
A lot of you will be getting ready kayak or boat ready and choosing a fish finder and fitting it will be top priority.

Choosing a fish finder.
 First of all before you break out the cash what do you want it to do.

1. Do you just want general depths and basic features along with thick fish shoals to show up. Price from E80.00 up.
2. Do you want a fish finder to show the above and pick up as much fish as possible as more basic units will not show up mackerel and herring unless the shoals are very thick. Usually from E160.00 up.
   
3. Do you want a unit that will do all of number 2 and have CHIRP which shows huge bottom detail and very accurately show up even individual fish. Normally from E250.00 up.
4. Or all of number 3 and have a built in gps unit with chart plotter. Can be got from E350.00 up

1. Sounds a mine field but it is easy with a little help to get you going. For option number 1 the Garmin 90 is not a bad choice. I have had an older version and it was not a bad unit. I did up permanently  sealing the leads into the back of the unit as they did start to suffer from corrosion.
2. In my view if you are on a tight budget try and push towards a better unit I have seen the lowrance 4xdsi for E160.00 new from a French seller but normally nearer the E200.00 . You will have to google that one they come up on sale from time to time. This unit has exceptional image quality and can even show he shape of lobster pots in 40ft of water. The only problem I had with this unit was it did fog up at times. But did clear with in a few minutes when out of direct sun light.
3. Now if you have the cash a top class unit that has CHIRP is worth the money, the Raymarine dragonfly 4 has this. But can be hypnotic, they can show up amazing detail and can be a real eye opener to what the bottom is really like. It is a big bonus to finding areas holding fish and will show even light shoals of sandeels.
4. Well option 4 is the top of the game and you could spend a small mortgage on one. The Dragonfly 4 is one of the cheaper ones out there. An excellent unit and well worth the money, the screen is bonded so it can never fog up. The only down side to this unit is, in my view the maps that come with it are very poor, they lack detail and when zoomed in show next to no detail.
   
   You can get Navionics for it, which are excellent but I was quoted E200.00 to get them on my unit. I was not happy about that but it is a good unit. Lowrance do a similar unit which I have great things about, but I have not had the privilege of trying one out. I have heard they are more expensive.