We've had some fabulous weather recently which has raised the sea temperatures enough to see a few fish start showing inshore. Following on from the last entry our best laid plans have had to change slightly due to a shocking lack of Sandeel availability preventing my friend and I pursuing any Ray fishing, yes we could use other baits but we would not have anywhere near the same results. Instead we have been out on Fly and Lure with reasonable success.

Another LRF trip produced some nice Pollock to around the 2lb mark which was great fun on the ultralight gear and a strong tidal flow! The fish crash diving underneath the pontoon I was fishing from making the reel make that - zzzz - zzzzz - zzzz sound as they made a bid for freedom, and the rod at full curve, epic fun!!

 

 

The next trip was on the fly and though it was a bit of a struggle I did manage a few Basslings plus a fish of about 1 3/4lb but at least it was a start!

First proper Bass Lure session of the year again produced a few sporadic fish to about 3lb which was very satisfying and a promising start for the mark I fished which has been very unproductive for the last few years compared to when I first started fishing it and my friends and I were getting good numbers of Bass on most sessions. 

As you can see I have started using the action camera as much as possible to record some of the sessions. I find this a lot easier than trying to use a normal camera to take still photos while fishing and reduces the time the fish need to be out of the water. I can take an instant photo on the action cam if need be. Hopefully I will have enough to make a short film by the end of the season.

So what's next? More fishing of course! hopefully plenty more fly and lure action when tides and weather permit.

Until next time, tight lines.

Recent adventures!

I have recently re discovered my love of Saltwater fishing, that's not to say I fell out of love with it entirely but just got distracted by other things. My renewed enthusiasm has led to discovering some new marks, re acquainting myself with some old one's and actually managing to catch a few fish!

I began with some bait fishing as it was still early in the year and lure and fly opportunities would not present themselves for a few more weeks. The target being Rays which have seen a resurgence in numbers the last few years. The first session produced some fish, however not the target species as the Dogfish were in proliferation that night!

The next session produced the desired species and between my fishing partner and I we landed several Small eyed Rays.

A few nights ago I managed to get out for a couple of hours Lure fishing for Wrasse at a new mark and from the first cast I was getting bites, and eventually hooked up with a Rock Donkey!

So that brings us up to date really, there have been a few blank sessions in between but hopefully there won't be too many of those!

Roll on the spring!

It's been a funny old few months since I last wrote in this Blog. I've been fishing, but not in the salt, which I think may have been a mistake. Whilst I thought I was enjoying what I was doing in freshwater, It seems in all honesty I was just going through the motions this winter. I thought by setting myself some targets, i.e a big Roach and a big Perch, that it would keep up my interest, and, whilst it worked to begin with, I am now struggling to muster any enthusiasm for it anymore. It seems freshwater definitely does not hold the interest for me it once did....
The whole saltwater experience, encompassing HRF, LRF and Fly fishing have really got under my skin. The techniques, the tackle, the sport, the magnificent raw environment and scenery, and almost no competition for 'swims' or someone ruining your day by casting at you, across, you and / or just being a general nuisance cocking up your chances of a few fish!

Unfortunately we are at that time of year in the salt where fish are harder to come by, paricularly Bass, as they are spawning offshore and only a few fish are venturing closer in now and again when conditions suit them. Even Lrf'ing for the smaller species can be tricky. I'm waiting for a decent enough tide to try a bit of Lrf at the moment. Hopefully a few fish will put in an appearance.

In the meantime obviously my thoughts have turned to preparations for the coming season, and as a result, I made the decision to sell my Kayak, the proceeds of which have gone towards the purchase of a new HRF rod in the form of a Century HPR lure rod, I chose the popular all round 7' 3" EBT model, as this will cover most if not all my wading and shore fishing requirements. Obviously I cannot give a proper review of the rod until I have used it extensively, but my friend has this model also and used it a lot last season, and from what I have seen it promises to be a superb tool for the job, and will hopefully help to improve my lure fishing skills as well as assisting me in catching a few more fish. Credit to Keith White and the gang over at JBG extreme fishing, who helped design and field test these rods extensively, these guys know their stuff and the input into these rods make them one of, if not The best lure rods on the market. There's lots of new soft lures I want to try this year, along with some new ( to me ) techniques, so I'm really looking forward to this season. Our first season was very good so all being well this one should be even better now we have a better understanding of what we are doing, and the places we are doing it.

I also want to try and utilise the Fly rod a bit more this year when conditions are suitable, as I believe there is some superb sport to be had fishing like this at some of our venues.

Lots of new venues are going to be explored this year too, as well as getting to grips with some newly discovered one's from last year, we really aim to maximise on the potential of these spots whenever possible, and find the best methods to use to catch the fish, whether they be Bass or Wrasse, or any of the other species available.

I'll be keeping a close eye on the sea temperature in the coming weeks, waiting for those steady 9's to appear, although it has been a very mild winter so far compared to the last couple of years and as I said there is the odd few Bass putting in an appearance already, so just maybe that time will come a bit sooner rather than later......

Looking forward to many evenings like this......

What a year!!

You know, this year I have enjoyed my fishing probably more than any other. I have certainly had the best years fishing in terms of numbers and average size of fish in the Salt.
So why is that? Well a major component has been the adaptation of HRF and LRF fishing methods, they are just so effective. I have so enjoyed learning the basic techniques this year, which of course you have to be able to do for them to be so effective, if you are unable to understand the fundamental reasons for fishing lures in specific ways, then they will be no more useful than any other method of fishing. I have to thank the guys over at Jersey Bass Guides for bringing HRF and LRF to the mainstream, they certainly captured my own imagination, and that of my two friends. For many years I had been in a sort of void with my fishing, due both to my personal situation, and that my fishing had grown stale and unimaginative, most of the time I would just be going through the motions. I would go so far as to say that my rejuvenated enthusiasm for fishing has also had a marked effect on my personal life as well, because now I have much to look forward to when not combatting the day to day mundane which enables me to cope better, be more organised and more confident in myself.
The Saltwater fishing has come to a temporary halt for now, for no other reason than, as an allrounder I have set myself the target of catching myself a big Roach this winter, and yes it's probably a little more comfortable to sit inland at this time of year rather than out on the coast...MEOW!
But seriously in previous years I would not have had the enthusiasm for this task that I find myself with at the moment, again much to do with my new found drive. LRF techniques have opened my mind to appreciate fishing delicately for smaller species, and this has spilled over to the coarse fishing, I can once again appreciate an 8oz Roach for what it is and not just another nuisance silver fish. 
Back to the Salt... I'm really excited at what next year might bring in the Saltwater, all the new marks we discovered this year ( driven by HRF and LRF ), hold so much potential and promise, we still have an awful lot of learning and perfecting to do, merely scratching the surface of the possibilities this year. Returning to the Kayak fishing, again driven by HRF and LRF, also holds many possible scenarios for some great fishing. The Fly fishing for Bass was more or less put on hold this year while we learnt a new craft, but learning what we have has really put it back in the picture for next year as a viable way of catching some big Bass and some brilliant sport!
I really can't wait, so much to do and learn and so many good times ahead, those lovely sunsets, superb atmospheric evenings and nights, days out afloat on the kayaks and good company, and of course a rod in your hand, bent at full curve, reel screaming as a good Bass tries to regain it's freedom....who could ask for more?

As this will probably be my last blog entry on this side of things for this year, I would like to wish all who visit this blog either regularly or occasionally, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, and fish filled, New Year!


Please don't forget to visit my Coarse fishing Blog to see how I am progressing over the Winter!

One more..

...Session last night resulted in another four fish for me, the biggest this time going 4lb 4oz. Thats 15 Bass from this spot for me this week in four 3 hr sessions, a very nice result in less than ideal conditions with the bright moon and I look forward to seeing what this venue has to offer when it all comes together properly!

4lb 4oz

Inspired late season Bass session.

An inspired suggestion by Mr B had us heading to a new mark a couple of nights ago, in search of some Bass. On arrival it was clear that it had all the necessary hallmarks of good Bass ground, structure, Current and shallow enough for us to wade. Dusk was setting in fast due to the cloud cover that evening, and the timing felt just right as it was the tide had just started to push in creating a nice rip line around the feature we had chosen to begin on. First cast, a few turns of the reel handle and bang I'm in straight away! Like I said, Inspired Mr B ;). It had been a while and we had struggled to find any good Bass fishing since earlier in the year, our early season mark had been seemingly deviod of fish save for a few small schoolies here and there in recent times, and the weather had been too rough to target the areas 'out back' where we knew the bigger fish were. It looked like things were possibly about to take a turn for the better as I landed a fish of around a pound. Successive casts produced a couple more fish of the same stamp, and then there was a little lull. As darkness fell, I hit into something that felt a bit better as it tore off with several yards of line, Oh how I had missed that feeling, and without even realising it! Moments later a half decent fish came into view and I handed out a fish of around three and a half pounds. A while later another decent fight resulted in another fish of slightly lesser proportions probably an upper two pounder. A few more smaller fish and my tally stood at six Bass and Mr B had managed one, ( due to some 'technical issues'!). Things seemed to go quiet after that and with just the odd tap from small fish, possibly Pollock, we opted to try another spot for half an hour and then call it a night. The new spot produced some bites, but again seemingly not from Bass, so we toddled off home very pleased with our new venue.
Of course we had to have another go the next night, ( last night ), this time we were joined by Mr H. No two nights are ever the same and tonight was definitely a different night, the sea was very calm and the tinge of colour of the previous evening had dropped out and the water was quite clear. With it being a big moon phase I prayed for some cloud cover, as to date I have never done particularly well on bright clear nights in the salt. Well I got my wish as darkness fell and a bank of cloud covered the sky overhead, obscuring the bright moon. No first cast fish this time and after a while I began to feel that it wasn't going to happen. Now we had been wading fairly far out up to this point and had heard the odd fish splash behind us in some much shallower water. Yet again in another inspired move a cast behind us by Mr B had him engaged in battle with a good fish, and clearly not the Mullet we assumed they were! The fish charged around in the shallow water creating a lot of commotion. Eventually it was in the net and a fish in the upper three's was being admired. We continued for a while but I wasn't feeling it so went off to investigate another spot for a while, but returned still biteless to find Mr H had bagged a fish of a couple of pounds and Mr B also had taken another couple of fish, so it looked like I had missed out by not sticking around.
Some time later it seemed that things had definitely quietened down and a move was in order for the last hour of our session, my two companions focused on one spot and I opted to try another, as yet unfished one. Cutting a long story short I saved a blank by bagging three Bass in the new spot to around two and a half pounds, but my companions failed to catch in their area but Mr B did lose a good fish. And that was that...
Only it wasn't! Third night and we were faced this time with clear skies and a very bright Moon..would they still play ball?
In short, they did for a very short while, and the two fish that came to me and the one to Mr B all came from maximum range and the deeper water as opposed to the close in shallow areas we had caught in the nights before. They were obviously reluctant to come in too close at this stage, perhaps later on in the tide they would briefly venture in, but the cold was getting the better of us this night so we called time and took away some new information from this session. Traditionally we  had never done at all well on a full moon phase and clear conditions, but it seemed tonight we had proved that it was possible to catch in the bright conditions but that cloud cover during such phases is preferable. 11 Bass  in three sessions is a good result, factor in Mr B's 5 fish and Mr H's 1 fish and we have 17 fish of good average size in the 3 sessions, each lasting around three hours. Pretty good fishing in my book, in probably less than ideal conditions,  I feel that this venue has much more to give, how much more this year I do'nt know, the weather is closing in and temperatures are set to drop this week, but if at all possible we will do our best to keep trying for as long as we can...

Big Pig!

We've been waiting for another opportunity to venture out on the Kayaks my friends and I, and yesterday morning we took a chance on the weather and got afloat again. We were a duo for this trip, myself and Mr B, and the target was Wrasse, hopefully as big as possible !
Upon arrival conditions didn't look too bad in the bay we were launching from, but once afloat and reaching the boundaries of the bay we were met with some swell. It didn't seem too bad so we made our way towards the area we intended to fish. As the tide pushed in, it brought with it some larger swells, sometimes probably topping four foot, which  made the fishing quite difficult, but despite this we carried on. Persistance paid off and eventually I managed to land a small Pollock, not the target species but a result never the less, next I hooked a small Wrasse, of which bites from these were plentiful but with only the one hook up, so they were playing hardball and using the conditions to spite us eh? Again perserverance rewarded me with a better and harder fighting fish. At first I thought I had a good wrasse but it turned out to be  Bass of around 2lbs. All the fish falling to a gold legend Rockvibe fished on a Carolina rig.

My companion and I had all the while been targeting different areas to one another, with Mr B focusing on some deeper water. I had just taken a break to re tackle after a loss and turned around to see My friend well and truly bent into a serious fish. His HPR was doing battle with an unseen monster so I turned my boat around and began to paddle over to him to lend a hand. Now let me tell you, this fish was doing some seious crash diving in it's attempts to reach sanctuary back on the bottom, some 30ft below! Just before I reached him, which took a few minutes, I watched him net a good fish, not sure if it was a Pollock or a Wrasse, I called and asked what it was? "A Wrasse" he stated with a big grin on his face!
I pulled alongside and stared unbelievingly at the net, and laying in the bottom was a very big Pig!
The fish was accurately weighed and after the net was deducted  weighed in at 4lb 6oz and was an absolute beast of a fish! Now Mr B is six foot two, ( and eyes of blue! ) with hands like clubs, but this fish still looks big in the pictures despite the ample frame of my friend, so you can see it is a genuinely big fish...It doesn't look like it but we were riding some good swells while trying to get the pictures of this magnificent creature, so getting reasonable photo's was a result in itself here.
Well done to my good friend and well deserved, ( even if it was caught on a metal ;) ! ) and it also means we have actually managed to pin down an area where we might get some more fish of this stamp or bigger, it comes as no surprise though really as we thought this spot had all the hallmarks of a big Pig producing area. All thats left is to work on achieving the target of presenting the lures effectively to them and catching them consistently if possible...
Not long after this conditions became too much and so it was time to call it a day, just riding the swell to dismount on the shore was a trick in itself but we manged it with no mis haps thankfully!

4lb 6oz, A genuine big Rockfish

Sakura Stingray SGS 702 M

I've been meaning to review this rod for a while now, I took a punt in buying it when I first started fishing with the soft plastics at the beginning of the year, and Im pleased to say it is serving me very well.
At seven feet in length and built on a nice slim dark blue and grey blank, when coupled with a 2500 or 3000 sized reel it feels light and well balanced in the hand. The balance point when set up with a reel is just in the centre of the front screw down winch grip. The taper on the 5-21 gram rated blank is super fast and initially the rod feels very stiff and capable of working hard lures effectively. Despite the stiff feel, the tip bends very nicely and progressively through to the middle of the rod where the super stiff butt takes over and gives the rod some real power for dealing with bigger fish. Feedback when working both hard and soft lures is good, the tip, although stiff, is sensitive and when fishing for Bass there are no issues with feeling exactly what is going on at the other end as the the fish bites the lure, I can most of the time, tell exactly when to strike. The rod works very well with soft plastics fished Texas and Carolina styles and plenty of feedback can be felt when making bottom contact. I must admit to having some issues when fishing for Wrasse in the beginning, I just did not seem to be able to read the Wrasse bites and failed miserably to hook up. Of course at first I thought perhaps the rod wasn't right for the job and that the tip may be too stiff, but eventually and predictably it turned out to be my lack of experience in fishing for the species that was the problem, and I have now taken a good few Wrasse on this rod and in fact I would say it is ideal as it has plenty of stopping power for when they are diving hard towards any structure. You cannot use too soft a rod for these fish and truthfully I would not want to go any lighter than this rod for fish of even half a pound as they would easily get the upper hand on any lesser tool!
So onto the build and finish of the Stingray.
Understated it is not! it has quite a 'blingey' finish compared to some other models on the market but it is quite tasteful and I like it, I've always had a thing for slightly overstated rods and I like contrasting whippings like the gold and silver ones that are featured throughout on the Stingray. The EVA handle is of the Fuji IPS type but used in reverse here with a matching winch down reel fixing finished with an aluminium ( i think ) collar as is the EVA butt.
Rings are Fuji SIC single leg throughout and each ring whipping is finished in black thread with the silver and gold tipping. There is also a nice ( and blingey!) woven carbon effect feature on the butt section next to the reel seat, this contrasts nicely with the metallic blue finish on this section of the rod, the tip section being in plain un-ground grey carbon. 
Thats it really, there's not much more to say about the rod except that as a tool to do a job it does it well, and at a reasonable price too. I am extremely pleased with mine and have caught many many fish on it this year so far and I have no designs on changing it at the moment. I am not known for my ability to look after my equipment and so far it's standing up well to the abuse I give it, having had a few knocks in my clumsy hands! To summarise I would say this is a great HRF rod, especially for the newcomer, it's well finished, durable and does the job perfectly well.

July catch up.

Okay, quick catch up . So we've been out, my friends and I, we have caught some fish, but it's been a bit of a struggle, Bass, Wrasse have been targeted from both shore and Kayak. My best Bass of late was a fish of around 2 1/2lb the other evening, and my friend was lucky enough to land a clonker of 5lb 3oz while out with his new Century HPR lure rod on it's maiden mission, a very nice way to christen such a prestigious rod. My other mate bagged a 4lb plus. A blank on the local pier, which hurt, I hate piers...while fish were clearly and visually in evidence, but we couldn't catch one. Been out on the Kayak this morning, conditions started off ok but started to deteriorate making presenting to the targeted Wrasse very awkward and I managed only one small Ballan. Not very good is it? so what am I doing wrong? The answer i think is not much, you can only catch what is there, and if the fish or the weather or tides or any of the other pieces of the puzzle aren't in place then it's not going to happen either way. I don't like to make excuses, and often I will over analyze a session if it hasn't gone well, but when you look at the dismal weather we have had for July...lets hope August and September make up for it!

Mr B's 5lb 3oz and New Century HPR lure rod

Afloat again!

Well, it's certainly been a year for mixing it up, new methods new techniques, some old style fishing and a return to the water, on, not in! I'm talking about a return to kayak fishing. The new HRF and LRF techniques I have been using this year lend themselves very well to fishing from a plastic tub, access from the shore to prime ground for Bass and Wrasse and all the other species available on these methods is sometimes difficult if not frustratingly impossible. We tried the kayak fishing last year but with normal spinning and fly fishing techniques, but I personally didn't get on with it, and so I sold my kayak. Since using the new methods however, I realised just how much more effective they could be if I were to get afloat again, and so I began to reconsider. The truth was that the one I bought last year was totally unsuitable for the job. Too big for me personally to handle, both on and off the water and totally the wrong shape with very limited room making it very uncomfortable to spend long periods in. What I needed was a smaller lighter craft, built specifically for fishing, and easy for me to handle.
I began to research and looked at all the usual suspects including Ocean Kayak, and Wilderness kayaks. I paid careful attention to the details and assessed which had the best features to suit my needs. The Tarpon range by Wilderness seemed to be exactly what I needed, and the smallest craft in the range at 10 feet seemed ideal. After a lot more looking around and some emails and phone calls I eventually found and ex demo model at a very good price...

The day after I collected it from the dealer my friends and I went out to try our luck at our favoured spot, but, due to the conditions it was apparent that we would not be able to fish so we took to some sheltered inshore estuary water to just have a paddle and get used to the kayaks once again, ( my other mate had just bought himself a kayak too ). We spent a nice couple of hours paddling around the estuary looking at the wildlife and dodging the small sailing craft whizzing backwards and forwards across the water!
Suitably re aquainted with the vessels the next day came with better and calmer conditions with the sea being a lot more settled so we were able to take to the water at our venue of choice.
Wrasse were the target over some very rough and broken bouldery ground. My friend had managed a good session there the weekend before so we hoped for more of the same but it seemed the fish were in contrary mood and bites were infrequent and difficult to hit. trying different lures and rigs I eventually managed to connect with a Wrasse, the only one of the evening and very welcome it was too! Only a small fish but proof and justification that getting afloat could and will pay dividends when the fish are in a feeding mood. Hopefully there is more to come and we shall have access now to the prime ground and be able to capitalise on our opportunities. I am very pleased so far with the Tarpon, it is everything I wanted, light, easy to manouvre and very comfortable thanks to the seating system, and it has lots of storage options and room to work from as a fishing platform.

Bonus Bass

A short recce of a potential new venue for HRF Bass and Wrasse showed promise with the capture of this fine specimen after just a couple of casts. Conditions seemed less than favourable, or were they? Time will tell, but we were only there about half an hour! Very excitied about this one and can't wait to get stuck into it.

Lightning Storm Bass!

Clearly we were mad...ignoring the forecast of impending thunderstorms we trekked out.
Standing there, waist deep in the dark, rain hammering down, thunder and lightning erupting all around, and us holding carbon rods in a wide open flat space!
We caught some fish though, nothing big, maybe fish of around two and a half pounds.
After an hour and soaked to the skin we called it a night. On the way home the car radio was playing, 'Knocking on Heavens door', we all laughed...

Soft Plastics HRF and LRF

As much as my friends and I love fishing the Fly, and we will fish it as often as humanly possible, sometimes the weather conditions are just not conducive to persisting with the method, and so we look to alternative methods or other types of fishing in order to continue catching. For a while now I have been keeping in touch with the latest developments in fishing soft plastics, particularly those that are finding their way here via Japan and America, I am talking of course about HRF and LRF, ( Hard rock Fishing and Light Rock Fishing ). Both these methods facilitate fishing for many Saltwater species with light tackle using soft plastic lures and jig heads. At first glance both methods seem to indicate a fairly specific way of fishing, particularly as they both specify Rock Fishing in their title. The casual enquirer might take it as read that these methods are suitable solely for, Rock Fishing, but look beyond this, and with a little imagination the same methods can be used just about anywhere. This is the conclusion that Myself and my friends have come to and we have looked at ways we can adapt the tactic to suit our own fishing and available types of venue. Utilising this way of fishing will not only allow us to continue fishing for our favourite species when Fly fishing is not possible but also opens up a whole new world of possibilities regarding targetable species, whilst still maintaining the light sporting element that we have come to appreciate from the Fly fishing. We have much to learn and I forsee a new and steep learning curve ahead, a challenge that we relish. There is much more to say about the method, and there will be much more to report in the coming months, but this evening we took our first steps towards getting to grips with this new and exciting method.

With one last small window in the tide and conditions being really not Fly fishing friendly, a last minute decision was made to have a dabble with the soft plastics. The venue would be the same one that was the scene of our success yesterday evening on the Fly, as it is a reliable testing ground due to the numbers of fish that are normally present. Not really knowing what to expect we began fishing, and to our relative surprise the fish immediately showed an interest in our offerings. We had many seemingly tentative bites on our lures but nothing positive that we could connect with, so we began to chop and change and experiment with different patterns in an effort to find exactly what they wanted. Eventually we settled on a worm imitation and immediately found success as we began connecting with some more postitive bites. By this time the light was fading fast, but we continued on in to dark to test the 'into darkness' capabilities of the method. I am pleased to say that the fish continued to show interest in the baits until well into dark, and seemingly had no trouble in detecting and attacking out lures despite the apparent, ( to us ), darkness. All very interesting and exciting and a great result for a first outing on a new method. I have to say we are really buzzing about the potential of the soft palstics after this and we cannot wait to see exactly where we go from here. In the meantime heres a pic of the proof of the pudding....

Only a little chap, but we did have fish to around a pound as well to the same lure setup, and in almost complete darkness.