Strings of beads- need your 'pearls' of wisdom.

[silverfox]

Hi all,
sorry about that! i've seen 'plaice snoods' with between 6 - 12 beads on them - does this work ? If so does it work for other flatties ? Not the floating type beads i guess.
Also does anyone know if the large glow beads (16mm)work for cod - i think you 'charge them up' with torch light - (the beads that is not the cod !) Thanks. clive

[davey]

Not sure Silverfox, I think these rigs are designed more to catch the fisherman rather than the fish! At the end of the day nothing beats fresh bait. I've fished with and without attractor beads, can't say I've noticed much difference, Still can't catch. ;D

[Pete B]

I'm not convinced either. Every year the chat goes around saying that you have to use a certain colour bead or colour combination. Attraction - yes, colour scheme - not sure?
A slow retreived spoon I find works well or a bit of movement to kick up the bottom every 5 minutes I prefer.

[gremlin]

They certainly DO work for plaice ..... whether it is the vibration, or as I suspect, curiosity (plaice eyesight is very good) or as some people suggest (rather, imaginatively) that they mistake them for 'pea mussels', I don't know.

For boats, black and green/red and yellow/etc are all popular.
Fish them on longish, flowing traces with size 1 - 2/0 hooks (depending on bait size; size seems to increase along the S Coast as you go E > W) and rag/squid seems particularly deadly.
You need to catch using them and stick to a proven pattern which you can then use with confidence.

Shiny chromed spoons fished no more than 10" from the hook and also incorporating beads/sequins are also effective.

I've just done a mag article about plaice and include some draft rig details as follows ...

[mick75]

i have always used red beads for plaice and white for cod

[Pete B]

Personally I cant see it being just a bead thing, IMO attraction in general is more to the point. I have always fished with a few beads on my snood between hook & spoon because this is my choice of attractor but the flash of a spoon or the disturbance of a lead bouncing on the bottom should have the same effect.

The pea mussel theory I think is quite plausable, the mussel beads off Selsey have given us our best plaice fishing in years in the boats here. Maybe brightly coloured pea mussel shaped attractors are the very best type of attractor on a bland pea mussel covered seabed for an inquisitive sight feeding fish?

I dont think its a case of beads = plaice. Millions of beads probably get threaded on each year without consideration if their doing any good or not. I won a club comp with 15 plaice without a bead in sight! I couldnt imagine beads having a detrimental effect but all the same the christmas tree ballball rig is unnecessary in my eyes

[craz-e]

Never caught enough Plaice to find out really

[maghouse]

Agree with Gremlin, locally, red & yellow beads do work well for Plaice - I have had some nice size plaice with beads - but - I have also had a decent one without !

Also find beads work for Bream as well ....

[skatenchips]

Used to have trips out of Dartmouth with Barry Lingham
on the skerries banks famous Plaice area,his advice to us
novices was always have mixed coloured beads on our traces
but the most important thing he had us do was bounce our
drilled bullet weights to create vibration and a puff of sand
around the launce hook bait.
The hardest thing was for me.........."dont strike"
count to 6 and just wind in.

Gazza

[silverfox]

Great fish lads. Thanks all for the info.

[codlingchaser]

guys im a novice at plaice fishing but would love to give it a go, fairly muddy/sandy here in clacton, that the right bottom?
how far out to cast?
calm weather im guessing/
what about night time, is it best?
all advice welcome

[Lavy]

We have a sewer outfall about 1.5 miles off bexhill and some of the locals who fish there swear by yellow beads because it looks like sweetcorn. Food for thought.

[gremlin]

how far out to cast?
calm weather im guessing/
what about night time, is it best?

There's never a definitive answer in this game; someone will always break the 'rule'!

On Solent shallow beaches, those who can cast 90-120 m will get plenty of fish.

Calm weather and crystal clear water favourite on my patches .... Hayling-Eastney.

Night time? NOPE!
I reckon they are 90% sight-feeders and the slightest puff of sand/movement gets their interest.
Caught hundreds of big plaice in daylight. Never had a decent one after dark. Dusk can bring on a feeding spree; but lights out is lights out!



Innit

[solehunter]

Strange as all my in size plaice i have caught, have been caught at night, or very dark dusk. They are pretty rare in the west wight flatty marks i fish, but i have had quite a few now while fishing for sole when the sky is as black as ya hat! I know the day light rule for plaice, but i just cant nail the buggers! I`ll keep to my few a year when i`m out sole fishing!