'Quick' Kayak session

Another quick session, this time on the Kayak at a venue I have been keen to fish for a while to explore the Wrasse potential. Initial results were very promising with plenty of bites despite a difficult drift, resulting in 3 Wrasse boated along with a School Bass all in about an hour and a half. Lots of ground to go at and I would be staggered if there were'nt some biggies lurking down in the depths...
Also first time I have caught on paddle tails, Reins Rockvibes seem to work well here.

Metal Mayhem!

Had a couple of hectic evening sessions lately, daylight leading into dusk. First evening my friends and I turned up at a regular venue where I managed to spot some birds working several hundred yards down the beach, my mates thought I was seeing things as they couldn't see them, but I have bionic long distance sight, and knew I wasn't imagining it! We set off and as we got closer my companions began to realise I wasn't losing the plot after all!

The activity was still out quite a long way even though we were able to wade out from the shore about 70 yds, and so the old Dexter wedges came out to enable us to reach the fish. From the first cast it was obvious there were a lot of fish here, nothing big, mostly small schoolies but it was hectic fun and we regularly had multiple hook ups at the same time. Didn't last long but we had near on 30 fish between us. Then we moved along to another spot where we took a few more slightly better fish before the light went and we headed home with aching arms!

Last evening visited another venue with just one of my mates, first tried for Wrasse and despite a few bites, no hook ups for me, but my mate had a small one. With the light failing, we decided to focus on an area of current, again at range with the Dexters. Bites were forthcoming almost straight away, and despite no obvious signs of fish, we had most definitely dropped in on yet another good shoal of fish, they fought very hard in the current and their strength belied their size, most were around the pound mark but they fought like twice or three times that! We took about 8 apiece before the light failed and the fish moved off. A good couple of sporting evenings fishing, but the wind is back today having calmed down a lot for the last 48 hrs, so once again we will be back to struggling with the conditions! Sorry no pics as didn't have time during the action. lol.

Back at it again

The beastly Easterlies died down sufficiently for us to get out again last night, and with a touch of southerly to it the day was warm and muggy, and it felt right for some Bass.

We arrived at dead low and prepared our gear, the plan was to not fish the 'prime spot' until the optimum time in the tide and so we started fishing a spot with a nice bit of current to it to try and bag an early fish or two. There were fish present from the off, but they were fry feeding and consisted mainly of small pollock and schoolies, such was their pre occupation with the tiny fish they were feasting on, that our lures were almost completely ignored save for the odd tap. No matter we were holding out for their bigger brothers and sisters to come in later in the Tide, so we took a short break while we waited.

While we were sat chatting and surveying the scenery, it occurred to me that there was a spot further along  the beach that we had not looked at and suggested we go take a look just to see if we were missing anything. As we approached to spot and it began to reveal itself in more detail and l I felt the excitement rise, as it was very good looking  indeed. Making a couple of exploratory casts along a ledge where the water was flooding over, my Sluggo was immediately hit and I found myself giving line to an unseen fish. I called to my friend Mr B that I was in and he hurried over to join me. A few moments later I was holding a Bass of around three pounds and beaming with joy! What followed was so hectic we had a job to keep up!, just about every cast our lures were hit by something, and for a short time I seemed to be constantly into Bass, in fact I think three consecutive cast produced three fish on the trot! All the fish were of a good average size ranging up to three pounds or so, and then after a while things went a little quiet. For a time we got hardly any interest and then out of the blue I hooked into the fish I had been waiting for. It's first run tore off at least thirty yards of braid from a fairly tight clutch, and then several more runs left me with a fair amount of line to get back on the reel. At one point close to the end, the fish weeded itself but I was able to walk over to where it was sat, as where we were wading was only waist deep, and change the angle of the line and get it moving again. Then it was in the glow of my headlamp as it was now fully dark and I scooped up a good fish. On the scales it weighed 4.5lb's, a new Soft Plastic's best, boy was I chuffed! Altogether I had 8 Bass in the space of probably an hour, and my friend managed three due to some technical issues with his braid otherwise he would probably have managed around the same number.  

Uncovering new ground

The last few sessions have yielded no fish for me, not surprising really as my friends and I have been attempting to get to grips with fishing for Wrasse on the soft plastics. The ideal ground for it is hard to find here, as we are not surrounded by the type of structure that is to found in the Rockfish mecca's of Jersey, Gurnsey and Cornwall. With a little hard work and some pioneering spirit however, we have managed to locate a couple of prospective venues and signs have been promising. We experienced bites right from the off, though clearly only from quite small fish, they were hitting the lures but not enough to find the hook, one bite off on the tail of a lure proved this. The interesting thing was that they seemed to show prefferences for certain lures and all but ignored others. Eventually my golden sphered friend Mr B managed to latch into a decent fish and landed a very pretty Wrasse of around a pound and a half. Not a monster but proof that we are on the right track and if a half decent sized fish should come across our lures then there is no reason why we can't be successful on a fairly regular basis. Encouraging and exciting, as it adds yet another dimension to our fishing, and an alternative for when the Bass aren't playing ball. We have some other spots to look at that have a track record of producing good fish on bait, but have to my knowledge never been fished with the SP's before. Sadly at the moment strong Easterly winds are playing havoc with the conditions and we will be on a forced break for the next few days. Time to catch up on chores, re-assess lures and tactics and generally re ignite the fire for when conditions come right again.

I also have some new Fly patterns to tie and try when I get the chance, as I am keen to develop some larger patterns to use when targeting bigger Bass.

Until I can get out again, Thanks for reading.