Shore Fishing For Plaice

Plaice are commonly confused with flounder due to both having orangey yellow spots evident on the back, though generally on the plaice the spots are much more vivid. That said the best way to identify plaice is to look for a series of 4 to 7 boney knobs running backwards from between the eyes towards the pectoral fin. These are missing on the flounder which instead has raised sharp prickles above the pectoral fin.

The back of the plaice is typically light to medium brown with vivid orange spots. The belly is pearl white. Occasionally the belly can be pock marked with darker blotches.

Plaice spawn in the January to March period, usually in water over 30-metres. The eggs float in the surface layers hatching usually between 10 and 20 days later. The larvae and post larvae live in the surface layers for another 4 to 6 weeks, at which time one eye migrates to the right hand side and along with other body changes the plaice becomes a flat bottom dwelling fish measuring roughly 3/4 inches.

Female plaice become sexually mature at 3 to 7-years and males 2 to 6-years. They can live to be 30-years old.

Their diet consists of brittle stars, worms, crabs and shellfish such as razorfish and mussels, plus they are adept at nipping the siphons off sand clams while they siphon nutrients from the water. They can also be formidable predators and will eat sandeels and also occasionally have been found with sprats and gobies inside their stomachs.

WHEN AND WHERE TO FISH

Plaice are found all around the UK and Irish coast, also as far south and including the Mediterranean, and to the north throughout Norway to Russia, all around Iceland and off the southern tip of Greenland.

The UK season for plaice kicks off in the south and west as far north as the Scottish border around the end of February, but a month later in the east and off the Scottish coast as a general rule. The early fish are thin, but soon feed up and by late May are fat and healthy. They stay inshore until about October and then move out in to deeper water.

Beach plaice are best fished for during the bigger spring tides as the fish are more active then and will feed more eagerly. Estuary plaice can be different and prefer to feed more frequently when the tides are smaller and the tide run less fierce.

In all areas the majority of plaice are caught during broad daylight, though occasionally the odd plaice is caught at night. They particularly like clear seas with minimum colour and good general clarity.

Beach plaice tend to concentrate over sand and shingle beds, but can also be found on mud mixed with sand. They also like seed mussel beds at the mouths of estuaries and muddy channels where weed covered rocks form the estuary sides.

PLAICE TACKLE

On beaches long range fishing will give you your best chance of catching so choose a standard 4/6oz beachcaster about 13ft long, match this to a smaller ABU 6500 sized multiplier or Daiwa 7HT type and fill it with 15lb line, plus a 60lb shock leader. Alternatively a longer European style rod some 15ft plus in length and a fixed spool reel again carrying 15lb line will gain you more distance if your casting still needs a little work.

In estuaries a lighter bass rod about 11ft 6in casting 2/4ozs is ample matched to a smaller reel like an ABU 5500 C3 CT. 12lb line is often enough in this situation with a lighter 30lb leader as the leads will be between 1 and 3ozs, plus long range casting is not normally required.

BAITS

A great plaice bait is to cut the body of a peeler crab in half and bind this to the hook with elastic, then add a long slice of squid to the hook to give the bait movement.

Other top baits for plaice are fresh blow and black lugworm, ragworm, fresh mussel, sand clams, razorfish and white rag if you can get it. They also take fresh sandeel and squid strips when these baits are fished on the drift with a plain bomb.

TOP TIP 1

Surf beach plaice like to move in with the tide, then sit in the deeper parallel gutters that are feature of these beaches, also in any scoured out depression. They also favour burying themselves in sand at the base of shallow sandbanks and picking off food as the tide brings it to them.

Estuary plaice are often found at the edges of seed mussel beds at the heads of small estuaries.

TOP TIP 2

Plaice like a moving bait, so where possible, change to a plain bomb or flat type lead and let the tide pressure on the line sweep your bait in a wide downtide arc slowly inshore. This tactic lets the bait fall in to all those gutters and depressions and will locate the fish for you.

If the tide run is minimal, try “twitching” the bait back towards you a couple of inches at a time. This is often enough to induce a take! Breakaway Flattie leads are good for this!

TOP TIP 3

Plaice feed best in very clear calm seas. When this is the case, as with so much of this type of fishing, you’ll catch more fish if you change your mono hook trace for a lighter Fluorocarbon hook length. With plaice only being normally caught up to 3lbs or so, you can go as light as 10 or 12lbs to add more natural movement to the bait.

TOP TIP 4

Plaice bites over sand in shallow water can be quite gentle. You’ll see the rod tip rattle slightly a few times, but resist the urge to strike! Only when you see the rod tip pull properly over do you strike, and there is no need for a full rod lift, just retrieve the slack in the line and move the lead to hook the fish.

When fishing in muddy coloured water plaice are more aggressive. They’ll give a couple of small rattles and the tip will pull hard over as the fish takes the bait and tries to move away.

When fishing a moving bait the fish will again be more aggressive as it chases the bait down. The lead weight will stop drifting or slow right down when the fish hooks itself and you’ll see the rod tip pull over.

TOP TIP 5
Always use fine wired, but strong Kamasan or Mustad Aberdeen type hooks. Plaice have small mouths and these hooks are the best design suited to the way plaice feed. If you’re missing bites and suspect these are plaice, then drop down to size 4 or even 6 hooks. Plaice can be the fussiest of all the flatfish, especially in prolonged periods of flat calm seas with high clarity.

Always experiment with other bead colour combinations on the day. White and green can be good over sand, as can blue and yellow when fishing close to mussel beds.

Noble's Fishing