Lightweight sea fishing gear. When it comes to sea fishing it can be very difficult to travel light. Especially if you’re wanting to take heavy beach gear. Carrying two beach caster, tripod, gear and lamps can be a heavy load. Here’s a load out of my travel sea fishing gear.
Even the tackle can be quite heavy, if you think carrying 6-7 heavy leads the weight really adds up. Then you’ve got bait and all the other bits of gear that you need with you for a days fishing.
It’s great if you canned out onto the beach for a micro adventure from your car or walk half an hour to a mark but think about all those hardly fished marks that are a distance away or only accessible by kayak / canoe.
No more carrying heavy gear along distance.
Fishing some marks that are so remote or difficult to access can be an amazing trip. I don’t believe that they will produce more fish than regularly fished marks but what an adventure to be out under the stars fishing a remote area.
This is where the S-Max by rigged and ready comes into play. The s-max is a real big fish rod, not only is it a great rod for carp, pike and cats it’s absolutely perfect for casting some heavy leads of the beach or into a deep Scottish Loch.
The S-Max comes with 2 tips the first which is the tip that I mainly use for sea fishing gives the rod a test curve of 4lb, length of 3.2m and a casting weight of 100g – 170g. The second tip gives the rod a length of 3.6m, test curve of 3lb and casting weight of 50g – 100g.
The rod packs up small in a really sturdy tube which, when wedge between a couple of rocks or buried in the sand acts as a rod stand.
Rigged and Ready produce dome great travel fishing rods for all types of fishing. One of my favourite rods is the X5 Adventure. This is a great rod capable of lure, spin and fly fishing. This is a great hiking rod or to have on a canoe expedition.
What Reel?
The reel I use is the RR 6000 which works really well but if you want to use a bigger reel with thicker line the s-max will hold it. I generally tend to have one of the spools with 60lb braid and the other with 18lb fluoro.
So limiting tackle with keep your weight down if you need to think about what you’re carrying. I generally carry 3 of each traces with a mixture of types. As you carrying limited gear and if your fishing rocky of a bottom with lots of hefts it’s best not to loose gear. This is the reason I prefer to us a pulley rig and also use lead lifts.
Depending on where you’re fishing and time of year it’s also best to consider taking lures with you. Whether you taking jigs, spoons or soft baits it’s worth having a few in your bag for the deep water Pollock or surface fishing for Bass.
Lightweight Sea fishing gear: traces & tackle.
Traces carried
- Wishbone with 1/0 hooks
- Pulley rig with 3/0 hooks
- Cod rig with 3/0 hook
- Bass rig with 2/0
- Mackerel Feathers
Terminal tackle
- Spare hooks from 1/0 to 3/0
- Swivels
- Quick links
- Beads
- Pulley lead clips
- Spare hook link (18lb, 30lb and 100lb)
- Spare lead lifts
- 30lb shock leader
All of the above can be used to fix or make new traces. The long nose pliers in my eyes are a must as they can be used for unhooking, sharpening hooks and making traces.
Lightweight sea fishing gear: Miscellaneous Tackle
- Bait elastic
- long nose pliers
- Foldable fillet knife
- Rod bell
- rod holder
- multitool
- Knot picker
- Sunblesa Gen 2 Headlamp
The only thing I have yet to find is a decent packable rod stand. I’ve been using this one I found on Amazon, it’s not the best but it works ok, as long as you can get the spikes in the ground. Ive also seen people adapting a camera tripod as a rod rest.
Bait.
Now bait con be a bit more tricky with sea fishing, especially in the summer where the bait can spoil very quickly. If you don’t have to walk to far then it shouldn’t be a problem but if your hiking or paddling in (especially for a few days) then bait can turn very quickly.
Having mackerel feathers with you will help catch some bait, foraging on the shore for peeler crabs, worm and shellfish is also a good idea.
Having a shelf stable bait for sea fishing with you is another good option as you don’t have to worry about it spoiling.
Salting bait has been done for a long time and pretty much any bait can be salted, the only thing I have found is blow lug tends to fall apart so keep well away from them.
A good way to cure your bait is if you have any bait left over from a session, cure it, make loads of bags up and put all together in a bag then you have a mixed bag of bait for your multi day fishing trip.
Salting your own sea bait.
The method is really easy. All you need is the following.
- Large box of cheap table salt
- bowl / takeaway container
- ziplock bags
- bait
I found this method works well for Ragworm, Black Lug, Squid, Shellfish and Fish.
- Separate dead worms for live / cut fish into size / remove split and remove guts from squid.
- Cover the bottom of container with salt.
- Lay bait onto salt.
- Cover bait and add more bait if required.
- Completely cover ALL bait in salt, seal box and leave for 24hrs.
- Remove bait from salt, wiping off excess salt and put into sealable bag (or vacuum bag), if using vacuum bags take care not to get fluid or salt around top of bag as this might stop the bag from sealing completely (see video).
- Store out of direct sunlight.
This method will keep the bait for use for many months. Personally I think it actually helps with fish bait as it hardens the flesh making easier to hook and stay on the hook. A bit of bait elastic and your ready to catch!
Have a look at the video below showing my lightweight sea fishing gear and how to cure your own bait. This video shows you just how small and compact you can have your sea fishing gear.
Don’t forget the 5% discount on any of the Rigged and Ready travel rods: VM5
The S-Max is the perfect companion for some great days fishing without having to carry all that heavy gear. Have a look at the video below when I paddled into Loch Etive on a packraft for a few days fishing with the S-Max.
If you’re looking for a rod that is a little smaller than the S-Max then have a look at the S-Mid or the infinite ultimate which is a great rod as a lure rod, brilliant for micro species fishing or fly fishing for Bass.
