So we are in the latter weeks of March now and though the winter hasn't been a really cold one it does seem to have dragged on. The sea temperature in the Solent is hovering around 7.5 degrees c at the moment and has been for a while. We've just had a couple of slightly warmer days with the air temperature pushing up to 13-14 degrees but the winds have had some kind of easterly in them.
I think it's going to be a late arrival for the fish in any numbers this year unless things get a shift on, but in the meantime I have been busy preparing regardless, by tying flies and cleaning the gear and checking the lines. My old Orvis mid arbour reel has suffered from salt corrosion as a result of being dunked and though I always try and remember to wash all my gear down after every trip, sometimes it gets forgotten for any number of reasons !
So off to I went on the internet to hunt down a new reel and hopefully a bargain !
Love it or hate it, Ebay is an excellent resource for the angler and providing you are careful a bargain can be had...
I managed to find this Lamson Konic, brand new and unused at just the right price, Lamson reels are fantastically engineered and functional reels, lightweight, with a tough anodised and polyurethane coated finish.
As you can see it's already loaded with line and ready to go.
I am actually going to be fishing mostly with a six weight outfit this year, the main reason for that is I want to focus as much attention as possible on Mullet. We normally get vast numbers of them here, and with Bass stocks being so critical it seems silly not to target the Mullet which are in abundance. We all know they aren't the easiest fish to catch and there is lot of mystery and legend surrounding them but like every species there is always a puzzle to be worked out until you hit on what it is they want.
Anyway that's the plan and Bass will take the small trout flies that will be used for the Mullet so they will be a bonus by catch.
There's normally quite a few other species that will turn up on the fly and lures here including Mackerel, Pollock and Garfish so hopefully i'll bump into some of these as well.
I didn't in truth actually manage many saltwater trips last year on either the fly or lures and spent more time coarse fishing but that just doesn't fulfill my soul like the saltwater fishing does, the only fishing I intend to do in freshwater this year is on the fly when I can't get out on the coast due to adverse weather or water conditions.
To that end I have invested in a little 3 weight outfit for the job. This little outfit consists of a 6ft Shakespeare Agility Rise, paired with a little Okuma reel and a Barrio small stream line. I am really looking forward to using this kit as the rod is like a noodle !
I will review all the above bits of tackle individually at a later date once I've had chance to play with them and hopefully catch a few fish on them....
So those are the new toys that I will be playing with this year and also my plans, lets hope they all come to fruition and that some fish arrive in reasonable numbers to make it all viable !
If I'm successful with the Mullet and indeed any fish to that end, I will go into some more detail on the flies and gear I'm using to catch them ;)
In the meantime, thanks for reading and keep checking in ;)
