Hi Angus,

Not sure about the specifics of fishing in Scotland, have only 'angled'
there half a dozen times when working near Faslane - and that was only when
I could slope away from work for a bit ;-)

Dogfish can be a right menace, speaking from the South West there are times
when your bait doesn't even hit the bottom before a Dogfish is on your it.
The real menace is when you're Cod fishing and you put about 3 quids worth
of quality black lug and peeler on the hook only to have it intercepted by a
Dogfish. Having said that, there are nights when you'd be glad of a
Dogfish - just to prove that there is life in the Sea ;-) Must admit I've
never tried them on light tackle but even on heavy gear a brace of 3 Dogfish
at a time gives you something to wind in.

Personally I own all kinds of rods but my favorites are a Diawa AWB 129 and
a Diawa TDXS 129 - both 12' 9" beachcasters. They are powerful enough for
the kind of "Long Range" antics described earlier, but are also good close
in - a rod only casts as far as you want it to ;-) The downside of using a
12' beachcaster is that you lose a lot of the enjoyment of the fight. The
heavier the rod is the bigger the fish you need to catch to put a bend in
it. If you catch a 10lb Bass on a carp rod the scrap would be immense, on
a 12' beachcaster the rod will tend to tire the fish very quickly and almost
bully it into submisison.

I do a lot of heavy rock fishing all along the Dorset coast and usually use
a really heavy beachcaster ( Conoflex Tournament Extreme ). It's more of a
scaffolding pole than a rod really but teamed up with a SLOSH 30 with 30lb
mainline straight through it will cope with the roughest environments. The
main use for this rig is Wrasse fishing ( not sure if you get many Wrasse in
Scotland? ). With Wrasse, they tend to grab the bait and dive straight under
a house sized rock, the only way to get them up is with animal gear and a
fast retrieve reel to keep them above the bottom. I'm not talking about the
6 - inchers you get on a float fished ragworm but the 4lb plus fish that
would give a Spanish trawler a fright ;-) The other use for this gear is
fishing for Congers from the shore - again it's a 'Take no prisoners' form
of angling. One good benefit of a heavy rod is that you have more chance of
craning up a fish if you are fishing from a high ledge.

If you already have a selection of carp rods, you're already setup for
spinning and float fishing - even light legering. You could get yourself a
12' beach caster for heavier fishing and it would compliment your existing
kit nicely.

The choice of Fixed spool or multiplier is down to personal preference
really. Multipliers are more difficult to start on as they tend to 'fluff
up' on you when you cast them. Out of the box the ABUs are more likely to
birds nest during a cast than the Diawa 7HT but the ABU reels are more of a
racehorse and are more highly strung. The topic of level winds has been
covered so I won't go there again ;-) But if you decide on a multiplier be
prepared for loads of 'fluff ups' for the first few casts. It's worth
making sure that a new multiplier has all the brake blocks fitted ( they
have little fibre cylindrical blocks fitted inside one of the reel caps )
unless you get a 'Mag' reel, and it's also worth putting a drop of 10w40
engine oil in each of the bearings to tame things down until you get used to
the casting action. Personally I prefer multipliers but lots of people
swear by and use fixed spools - both have good points and bad points.


ETV


"Angus Robins" wrote in message
...
Whilst not fully appreciating some of the points offered here I feel that
the response has been an enlightening one for me. I have gleaned some
useful stuff; however, am now asking more questions! Such is the price of
progress!
BTW are dogfish a nuisance...I thought that they might offer a good bit of
sport on the right tackle and I was hoping that I might stand a chance of
a shore caught Tope. Perhaps I'm being a little over-optimistic: beginners
gusto, ignorance or something similar.
However, all I own are present are some carp rods, so I'll have to get
something to handle larger baits, weights and rough conditions. I'll
listen carefully to any more snippets on the pros and cons of multipliers
but why not use an 11' or 12', 4 - 6oz beachcaster even for quite
close-in rocky shore work? I was quite used to handling carp from the
margins on a rod of that length.

Thanks again for the advice and entertainment so far...much appreciated.

Angus
Applecross

"Eric The Viking" wrote in message
news:4325f0d2.0@entanet...

"seaside" wrote in message
...
Angus,

Whilst it is absolutely true a level-wind reduces distance I'd
say that is only a meaningful statement for those wishing to blast
a lead 150yds plus.

I've fished for years, on both coasts of Scotland, with and without
a level-wind, and my preference is to have one as it allows me to
focus on playing the fish rather than setting the line correctly.
Also the fact that the level-wind does inhibit the cast a little
actually helps control the cast.


snip

How does the level wind inhibiting the cast help to control it exactly?

ETV