It's been a very quiet week after last weeks flurry of activity! To begin with, the winds for the early part of the week were Easterly again, which cooled the weather a little, but temperatures were still in the upper 'teens' for the most part. The Tides have been a bit 'in between' , and by that I mean neither high or low Tide has coincided with late evening or dusk which are My favoured times and seems to bring the best results. We did have one evening where We managed to find some Fish, a mark that has been on our list of places to spend a bit more time investigating, but unfortunately The 'spot' was already occupied by two Anglers, but despite there being numbers of Fish present, they failed to capitalise on the opportunity in front of them. We just had to watch as the Bass continuously hit the surface, unable to position ourselves to be able to Fish for them effectively. Next time...

The Bank Holiday weekend isn't forecast to be great weather wise, certainly not for Fishing anyway! Windy with showers is how it's looking, but the early part of next week it looks like the winds could be calming down a bit, enough to get the Fly rod out again hopefully, though they may possibly still be of an Easterly orientation. I just hope the month of June really takes us into Summer proper, with some hot calm days to bring the Fish back inshore again in numbers. So much to do, so little time!

First Kayak caught Fish

I'm very pleased to report our first Kayak caught Fish today! Amongst the Fish caught were Bass, (including a handsome 4lb'er to my friend), Pollock and Mackerel, Some of which came to Lures and some to Fly.


It's nice to be actually using the Kayaks as a Fishing platform at last as opposed to just paddling around in them. It's easy to get carried away and end up paddling for miles when there is really no need to! We are beginning to use them as they were first intended; to enable us to reach previously unreachable areas, plus allow us to stay in productive spots later into the Tide than wading would have allowed. Rationalising the way we use the Kayaks paid off today and proved a point, and their worth as Fishing tools, because thats what they are, tools to do a job, a means to an end. Another piece of Tackle to help us Fish more efficiently and provide an advantage in difficult or tricky situations.

Upon our return visit this evening, to the same venue, this time with the Fly gear, we were greeted with the wonderful sight of the years first Bass Blitz. Gulls were excitedly flapping about and diving over the top of the area joining in the free for all. Many of the fish were just out of reach of our casts but a few came within range of our Flies and several Fish were landed to around a pound and a half. As the tide Ebbed and the Fish moved out of range altogether, we followed it out over the top of the feature, treading very carefully and only advancing forward as the water shallowed up and we could easily make out the bottom in the clear water. It was a lovely evening following the warm overcast muggy day, the sun put in an appearance and so did some more Fish including Bass and Pollock again, all super sport on the Fly rods!

You can just make out the Gulls sitting over the Fish in this Picture

It's been a week of Ebb tides here this week, so We have been off in search of a new Venue that We can catch Fish from on the Ebb. We have plenty of Venues that fish well on the flood but finding one's that fish well on the Ebb can be tricky. Different places tend to fish at different states of the Tide and this seems to be even more of an issue with an Ebbing tide. So, with this in mind, off we toddled this evening to our prospective spot. Now this spot is a considerable walk to get to, and over very uneven, ever changing ground which makes it even more hard work! The spot is part of a major feature and there are many smaller features within the main feature, making it a very interesting prospect. It is also not an easy one to fish from the shore, much care and keeping an eye on the Tide is required to fish it safely and efficiently. Anyway the experiment paid off because Several Bass were landed along with some small Pollock, which was a good result and very promising. We approached this venue with Spinning gear this time, simply because I find I can cover more ground and much quicker than with Fly gear in order to locate prospective areas from which to catch Fish, once these areas are pinpointed We can then think about trying to fish them with Fly gear.

I look forward to tackling this venue with Fly Tackle, particularly for the Pollock as, so far, We haven't found many places where it is possible to take Pollock from the shore on the Fly.

I used two Lures this evening, the first was a Sidewinder Blood head, which has been catching a few Fish for myself and My friends lately, and the second was the ever faithful Dexter Wedge which has literally caught Me and my Friends hundreds of Fish over the years.

I'd also like to add that at last the weather has picked up as well, Winds are now predominantly West and South West, and this week temperatures have broken into the 20's several days running, hopefully pushing up those all important Sea Temperatures by a couple of degrees.

New season, New Line, old Fly.

Well, it seems that the season is now well under way over here, and though the Bass are not here yet in the huge numbers of summer proportions, there are still plenty to go at and We seem to be getting into some on a regular enough basis. There is an upshot to not having large numbers of Fish around yet in that so far We have been able to get through to a better stamp of Fish. During the Summer months this is more difficult due to the vast shoals of smaller Fish that are resident inshore. Whilst these are are enormous fun on Fly gear, being a specimen Angler I yearn for the Heart Pounding, Adrenalin pumping fight that big Fish give you. To that end We will be attempting to seek out the better Fish this year, and being more single minded in our approach, as well as trying out new venues and Fly patterns.

I mentioned in an earlier entry that I was about to change over to a Shooting Head line, which I have now done. I've changed over to a Rio Outbound Integrated Shooting Head line, and I have to say it has made casting so much easier, especially if there is any wind. It has a short 37.5 ft head that is heavier than AFTMA standards and an 82.5 ft running line, which gives it an overall length of 120ft or approx 40yds. Simply the reduction in the number of false casts needed over the course of a session has been a bonus, and there is no need to double haul except on the last false cast before shooting the line. I'm now casting further than ever with a lot less effort which can only be good! Less casting and more time with the Fly in the water Fishing should help to increase My catch rate. Trout lines will do the job, but this is designed specifically for Saltwater Fishing and is easily able to cope with the task.

So far just about all of the Fish we've had have fallen to the ubiquitous Clouser Minnow Fly, Charteruese over White being the winning colour combination. The smaller the better it seems as well early season, Flies tied on size six hooks, proportionally material wise, have done far better than size four or bigger, with one exception, the decent Fish I had the other night fell to a different pattern and larger hook size. But the venue this Fish came from has, so far, not fished particularly well to the Clouser, this may be due to what the Bass are actually predating on here, but time and experimentation will tell. For the most part however, the Clouser is a very successful Fly and is the 'goto' Fly in any box when trying a new venue for the first time. As the season progresses I expect larger sizes to come into their own especially when trying to target the bigger Fish.

Nice way to Christen a new Rod.

I felt totally lost since breaking My Fly Rod the other day, and whilst it will be repaired and back with me soon, not having a back up was frustrating to say the least, and a bit silly on My part.

I started looking around on the Internet, as you do!, and found an Orvis T3 at a considerably reduced price as they have been superceded by the new Hydros models. I had harboured a wish for one of these Rods for a while and naturally I couldn't resist it!

Obviously I was keen to try out My new aquisition and so, bouyed by our modicum of success a couple of evenings ago, we returned to the same venue for another try.

As we trudged across the muddy shore toward our spots, the wind was pushing quite strongly from the south west, which at this venue meant it was blowing from left to right. I took me a while to get a feel for the T3, but soon I was getting within 2 or 3 yards of the backing on the cast, lovely! Being quite a bit faster action than My other Rod, the line speed generated took a bit of getting used to, but I soon got my timing right.

After a while the wind seemed to drop away to virtually nothing, this coincided with the state of Tide we expected to begin getting bites. Sure enough My Fishing partner reported having had a few 'bangs' indicating some interested parties. It was also at this point that I noticed a rather heavy black cloud a few miles away across the Solent apparently dumping rather a lot of rain and looking like it was headed in our direction! Trying to ignore the advancing threat I recast, after three or four strips My Fly, ( a new pattern tied specially for this venue), was grabbed, the line tightened and the unseen Predator on the other end began to steadily take line. I could tell imediately that it wasn't a Fish in the ounces bracket like we had mostly been catching lately but something a bit better. The T3 took on its battle curve and and My friend grabbed the Camera to get a few Action shots. After an admirable tussle I finally brought My Prize to hand and landed a nice Bass of around 2 1/2 to 3lb. Nice Fish to christen a new Rod and a new Fly pattern with, and very pleased we were too! Unfortunately the weather decided that was enough and that it had been nice to us for long enough. Moments later the wind got up again, this time blowing from a very uncooperative, (for Fly casting), south easterly direction, not only that but the Black cloud I had been eyeing up also caught up with us and began to hailstone! We got the message and ran for home as fast as you can run in waders!

Undetered by the absence of a Fly Rod, an Impromptu session this evening with the Spinning gear resulted in a handful of Fish, including Bass and Pollock Though only small, it was a surprising and pleasing result, as we are still being blasted by the cold North and East Winds.

If it wasn't for the fact that it was looking like a nice sunny evening, we might not have bothered at all, but it was better than sitting indoors for another night! As it turned out not only did We manage a few surprise Fish but, I hope you agree, I also managed to get some nice shots of the evening..

Winds of Change

The lone Fish of recent session being landed by My Friend.

So That was that! The Winds are back off the North and East, which for most of the venues I fish is utterly useless! The Temperatures have also taken a nose dive since last week.

The fish are still there but less inclined to feed so well in the conditions.

We have ventured out, but in truth it's been a struggle, one lost fish and one landed. Thats it.

Additionally, I broke my Rod, which is rather inconvenient, though not a total disaster as it's covered by Orvis's 25yr Guarantee, but it still has to be sent back. Luckily it's happened while things are quiet, which isn't so bad as if it had occurred during a good period! Hopefully Orvis will turn it around quickly and normal transmission will be resumed shortly, in the meantime if any windows of opportunity 'pop up', then it'll be be Lures and Spinning Rods that will be the weapon of choice, obviously i'd prefer to be Fly Fishing, however I am flexible enough to change to more appropriate methods when the situation demands. Over the years some great fun has been had on Spinning gear. Rapala's, Dexter Wedges and small white Eddystone Eels have all caught fish for me and My friends. The Mackerel shoals are about the best fun you can have on light Spinning outfits and small flashy Lures, tremendous sport on warm summer evenings on a deserted beach, especially when they're chasing the whitebait right up the shingle at your feet!
I think Mackerel are a tremendously underrated Fish, yes they make great Bait but they are also incredibly hard fighting fish, and on light gear they can make you believe that you have something much bigger on the end of your line! Can't wait to get some on the Fly in the summer, it's gonna be mad! In the meantime it seems patience is going to be the name of the game, the Tides are coming right for some evening floods, (My favourite time), later next week, though the Forecast Winds are still off the North and East, but we'll see if we can muster some Fish somehow either way.