Whiting and Match Fishing

Just a quick update of what’s been going on over the last few weeks, no lure fishing but more Chesil bait bashing, which to be honest has had mixed results. I’ve picked up a few more cod but had two trips completely wiped out by Whiting. The latest of which was last Saturday, I’d arrived early with a plan to fish the western end of the beach for a late plaice (they had been a few coming out in the week), and with clearish looking water I was pretty confident. The Whiting had other ideas though, absolutely annihilating my baits within seconds of them being in the water and they did not let up throughout the tide. I counted them, just out of curiosity and had 54, uninterrupted even by pout or poor cod so the plaice did not stand a chance. Still was a fantastic day to be out with non stop sunshine which is not bad for December and made up for the poor fishing.  

What was more successful was my dabble into the match fishing world. 2 weeks ago I fished the Bristol Channel Federation of Sea Anglers (BCFSA) winter open which is a measure and release style match fished between Minehead and Blue Anchor. Match fishing is not my thing at all but there was a team element to the match and a few guys from my club wanted to fish so I went along to make up the numbers.

I opted to fish the Minehead town beach, and started of badly , firstly by returning a 20cm + whiting unrecorded (I underestimated the size and assumed it was under the 20cm minimum size) then by blowing up both my reels, which is something I rarely so wasted about half an hour re-spooling and re-tacking. Despite these set-backs though I still recorded 270cm of dogs and whiting which was enough to give me 7^th overall, not too bad out of over 100 anglers and would have been 6^th if I had measured that first whiting!

I have to be honest and say I really enjoyed the match, it was tough fishing in cold windy conditions but keeping concentrating for 4 hours and fishing hard was a real challenge. I might have a crack a few more.

I’m definitely getting my mojo back for bait fishing though, so much so I have just picked up a couple of 2^nd hand Century rods and matched them up with Penn Fathoms for the Bristol Channel, which I’ve not fished for a few years now but fancy having a few sessions over the winter as there are a few codling around.

Anyway, that’s it for now, not sure I’ll get out again before Christmas so have a good one and I’ll be back in 2015!

 

 

Chesil Cod Fever

Anyone who keeps half an eye on the various sources of catch reports for the famous Chesil Beach, cannot failed to have noticed that it’s been fishing really well for the last few months and in particular the last month, when the number of codling that have been coming off beach has been astronomical with people taking bags of 30 + fish in a session.

These are not big fish generally, being around 2.5lbs on average but what they are lacking in size they are making up in numbers.

So with this in mind I headed down to the Eastern end of the beach on Saturday morning, I went for the early morning shift arriving at around 6:30 am as I knew it would get very busy later in the day. Even at this early hour though, there were lots of anglers on the beach and I still had to hike for 30 mins or so to find a bit of space.

Conditions were pretty good with a nice sea running, although the water was clearer that I would have liked. To be honest it actually looked more bassy than Coddy and I found myself wishing I’d bought my lure gear! Still the clear water didn’t affect the fishing that much and I had bites from the off. The codling were soon coming ashore, fish typical of this year’s class, at around 2-3lbs each. I think I ended up with around 10 or so in total, most coming on fresh blow lug. Not bad for a few hours fishing but quite quiet compared to some of the bags that have been taken here recently.

Amongst the codling though I managed a lovely black bream which was a PB by a mile, weighing in at around 2lb 10oz. I have tried for years to catch a decent bream from Chesil so to get one at last was a real bonus and left me feeling pretty chuffed with the session.

I packed up around mid-day, content with my mornings work and having kept 3 cod and the bream, I had enough fish to weigh me down for that horrible hike back across the shingle to the car park (anyone who has fished Chesil will understand!)

There’s a couple of pics below, I’m loving my DSLR camera but there is so much to learn, I’m taking it one step at a time however but am determined to improve my fishy photography!

So that’s it for now, hoping to get a few more trips in before Xmas, maybe the weather will settle down again and these will be bass trips!

 

 

Back in the room......

OK, one year on from my last post so thought it was time to re-launch my blog! Why? Well mainly because I have just been given a new DSLR camera and I want somewhere to showcase my amazing fishy photos that I’m no doubt going to be taking with it…however, in the meantime you’ll have to make do with all sorts of rubbish while I get used to it!

Over the last year my fishing has focus has changed a little, not massively but I have done a little more bait fishing over the course of this year compared to the last few. That’s mainly perhaps because the bass fishing has been hard on one hand, and the other Chesil beach, has been fishing incredibly well over the course of the summer.

The bass fishing has been tough for some reason, so far this year I have caught 32 lure caught bass in 20 trip, numbers way down on previous years on a fish per trip basis. I have no idea why this should be, but I am not the only one struggling. I’m not convinced there are any less bass this year than normal though, I just think that their habits have changed a little. Maybe that’s down to the great weather we’ve been having, or the mild winter with all the storms, who knows? What I do know though is I have fished a few marks several times in spot on condition in which I would have bet my mortgage on catching and have not seen a sign of a fish, bass or otherwise. Other marks, though, have produced as normal.

Just to fill you in on some of the sessions I’ve had over the last year though….2013 finished with a flourish, then a whimper. I had a blinding session down in Cornwall catching 40 bass in the space of a couple of hours, it was absolute carnage with virtually a fish a chuck and if I had the time to stay on that day I think I could have doubled that figure! Then the season finished abruptly and I didn’t catch another fish!

This year got going in early May and it started pretty well to be honest, but things have slowed down over the summer and almost ground to a halt now, in what should be the best time of year, still with this good weather there is still plenty of time to get in a good session or two.

Bait wise, as I mentioned Chesil beach has been fishing well, particularly for the summer species at the Portland end of the beach, with lots of Bream and Gurnards and a good run of codling to around 3lb to which is always a bonus. I’ve had a few trips down here over the last couple of months and done pretty well. I’ve also caught quite a few Gurnards on lures (or power isome to be specific), bounced around on a jig head or drop shotted at 30/40 yards out. It turns out this is a very effective way of catching them and I’m sure would account for a few other species with a bit more time and effort put in.

Anyway, that’s it for now, here’s a few pics (from the old camera) of stuff I’ve caught over the last 12 months and here’s to more regular updates moving forward!

August 2013 - A bit a bait fishing!

I’ve been out and about again this weekend and as the wife and kids were away I got in a couple of trips.

 1^st up on Friday evening, more bassing down in Dorset, I ended up with 5 in total which all came through last light and into darkness. Three fell to the trusty savagear eels and 2 on a “Flash Arrow J” which is a fantastic looking lure. They cast really well and look incredibly lifelike in the water. I’m going to be getting some more of these in different colours I think.

On to Saturday then and I thought it was high time I used the Daiwa beachcasters I have eventually finished rebuilding so I headed down to Chesil with a view to bagging a few of the summer species and some flats. I did OK and ended up with Bream, 2 (small) Small Eyed Rays, a Thornback Ray and a Dab amongst some other bits and pieces. It was nice to get out and so a bit of bait fishing for a change, I must get in another go this Autumn as there are lots of sole around the moment so would be nice to catch a few of these.

Here’s a few pics from the weekend….

 

August update

OK so it’s been awhile, I have to say that the last couple of months fishing has been very slow for me. I have not been out much at all due to being very busy at work and at home, and when I have been out the fishing has been very slow. Which just the odd fish per trip.

Still better signs now, for one I am nearly over my busy work period and two the fishing has been picking up  pretty much everywhere in the last couple of weeks and also water temps are back up to normal for the time of year. Perhaps this year has finally caught up with itself and we can look forward to a productive autumn…I live in hope

In terms of the fishing, I fished the Cornish Lure Festival again this year, with Mediterranean temperatures and flat calm seas it was hard going all round and I didn’t land a shore caught bass through the entire weekend! In fact very few decent bass were caught and in all honesty, I should have concentrated on fishing through the night which would have given me a much better chance. Lesson learnt for next year though.

I did spend a few hours out with my brother in his boat on the Saturday though, were I proved the value of lures V bait, landing about a dozen Pollack to 8lb and a 4lb bass whereas the guys fishing live mackerel blanked!

Onto to this weekend just past, and I headed back down to my normal Dorset lump of rock, and for the first time for the year the water felt alive, the water was full of bait fish and I getting plucks and tugs from Gars on virtually every chuck. In total I managed three bass, the first off the top on a small patchinko, and then a couple after dark on a savagear sandeel. My normal after dark lure (Komomo II in JFP)  had unusually not resulted in any action but as soon as I switched over I have two in quick succession, one of them a really nice fat 61cm fish that went like a train on its first run.  To be honest I feel I should have caught more than three but once I had the biggest fish I was happy enough to head home.

The only other thing of note is a new bag! Not the most sexy of tackle products I know but I had been looking for ages for a sling style bag which was big enough to hold enough gear/clothes and food for an all day session. My search was ended by discovering the fantastic maxpedition range of kit. I opted for the Kodiak bag which is perfect for me…..it will easily swallow two or three lure boxes and all the kit I could wish to take. It’s not cheap at around £120 but it is built like a tank so I’m sure I’ll get many years good service from with no more broken zips or split seams! Highly recommended or you could consider the smaller stika bag which is more like the snowbee bag for size.

59cm through the mayweed!

Just a quick update, I went down to Dorset yesterday afternoon, a lovely sunny day and perfect conditions for where I had in mind, however my heart sank when I arrived and saw the horrible green/brown colour of the water, thick with Algae and restricting visibility to around 18 inchs.

I gave it a bash though, and after a couple of hours of hard fishing I tempted this one out on a pearl Feedshallow. It gave a cracking account of itself over the shallow rocky ground and came in at 59cm or around 5lbs, a nice result given the conditions and made the trip worthwhile. After this success though I couldn't get motivated to keep on fishing through the sludge so with the blank nicely averted I packed up and had a swift pint in the pub by the beach!

May 2013 update

It’s been a long slow process, but finally, the sea has heated up and lure fishing has kicked off around the country. Unfortunately it seems that may weed/water/rot (the annual algae bloom) seems to have killed it again instantly in some areas but this only be temporary lapse.

I’ve got a couple of trips to report on, the first a few weeks ago now was my LRF debut! I bought an LRF starter outfit a couple of months ago, with a view to using it to teach my daughter how to fish on our trips down to Cornwall, but with a couple of hours spare on a Sunday afternoon, I thought I’d try it out and popped down to Westbay Harbour. It didn’t take long to christen the outfit as I quickly landed a little flounder. A bit of a triumph this as I really wanted to catch a Flounder on a lure, so I was well chuffed. I also ended up with 4 weaver fish, which seemed to be around the entrance to the harbour in numbers. Luckily I managed to unhook them all with no damage to any of us, although the novelty of catching them soon wore off…nasty little blighters.

Then last week I kicked my bass season off, at my usual mark in Dorset. I fished for a few hour on the first of the ebb, and ended up with 2 fish. Both taken on my now top catcher, the Savagear Sandeel (I can’t recommend these lures highly enough, absolutely bass killers and pretty cheap into the bargain).  The first of the 2 bass was a nice fish, pushing 4lbs maybe. What was really stunning about it though was whilst I playing it, it’s fins were glowing bright blue, I’ve never really seen this before but in the sun it was an incredible sight! You can just make our a bit of the blue in the anal fin in the picture below, however in the water this was much more prominent.

So that’s May over with, now into June. To be honest this summer is going to be difficult to get lots of fishing in as I am going to be very busy at work but I’m out this weekend (top conditions for my “big fish” mark) and the Cornish Lure Festival is looming so I’m looking forward to that.

Anyway, as much as I enjoyed the plaice fishing it great to put away the beachcasters and finally get this year’s lure fishing campaign underway, so until next time……

 

 

 

 

Winter update....April 2013

Well what a winter is has been….it seems that ever since January we have had constant easterly winds and really cold weather… and this has made for the latest arrival of spring that I can remember. Still there are now signs that things are on the up at last, the winds have shifted around to SW and it’s almost starting to feel warm.

The sea temperature is still way too low though, 7.3 degrees today but that’s a whole degree higher than this time last week so hopefully within a few weeks we will get to that magic 10 figure!

The net result of all this cold weather is that I have not even considered going lure fishing yet…by this time last year I had already had several trips and caught 6 bass…this year not a chance so far but it can’t be far off now surely. I have to admit that with the sudden end to my season last year, and the late start to this one it has been six months since I last caught a bass on a lure (from the shore) and I am itching to get back out there again.

Still, I have not been totally idle during this period; I managed to get my first bait trip in for two years…two of them in fact! Both trips were to Chesil in search of plaice, the first at the beginning of March was hard going and I had just had one small fish, the second a week or so ago was more like it, and with the first warm day of the year I winkled out four plaice, no great size to any of them but after bass I think plaice are my favourite fish to catch so that counts as a pretty good session in my book.

 

 

I’ve also been rod building again, inspired by last years Red Dragon rebuild I have invested in a couple of battered Daiwa TDXS133pm’s to rebuild. I’ve also bought a rod dryer and made a rod wrapper so I’m expecting to do a really smart job of these this time around.

Progress has been slow so far, as I’ve been really busy at work and at home but I’ve stripped one down, and sprayed the tip black (as it was originally) and now have to wait 10 days for this to fully cure before I can apply lacquer and carry on with the build. The spray job has come out quite nicely to be honest I’m so really looking forward to finishing it off and seeing if I can create that “as new” finish.

Other than that, house chores are mainly done….so roll on the good weather and regular blog updates full of catch reports!

 

11 Jan 2013 - Something a bit different

After 2 failed attempts I finally managed to get in the guided boat trip I booked last summer. The trip was arranged at short notice after a window in the weather appeared along with some promising tides. It was late in the season for Bass but the fishing in Cornwall in Jan can be exceptional with Cod, Pollack and Wrasse as viable alternatives should the Bass fail to show.

I was to be fishing with another chap, Marc Westward, who had also bid for the day kindly donated to charity by Austen Goldsmith (Oz), professional bass guide and skipper of the fantastic Zen2.

We met up at 7am, the day had dawned mild with a few showers forecast and a lightish SW wind and by 7:30 the boat was launched and we were away, belting it across Falmouth bay at 25 knots.
The first stop was at a reef system, there were a couple of commercial boats already working the area as is normal at this spot. The commercial boats tend to motor round the reef trolling but we fished savagear sandeels, drifting in the tide and casting at structures in 20-50ft of water. Oz was first in with a small Pollack and I followed up with an equally small Bass.

We fished on for another half an hour trying different spots on the reef then Oz called it to move on to another part of the coastline (the commercial boats had also moved on so no-one was having much luck!). The next hour was fishless as we hunted bass in around the shallow reefs close to shore before Oz moved us out to slightly deeper water. Fishing vertical was the technique here, again with Savagear eels, bumping the bottom. The was plenty of activity on the fish finder and from the off here we hit into fish, Wrasse were the first to come aboard, Mark nailing a really nice one before I hit into a bigger fish that put a real bend in the short Tenryu jigging rod I was using (Zen 2 standard issue!) and after a dogged fight pulled a nice cod around 10lbs.

This proved to be the pattern for the rest of the day, with the drifts in deeper water producing more Cod, a number of nice Pollack and Wrasse and Oz winkled out a better Bass, but the shallower ground proved to be Bassless despite our best efforts flogging the water with both topwaters and divers.

We called it a day at around 2pm and headed inwards pretty happy with the day and all having caught a number of decent fish.

I have to say the trip was a real eye opener to me and it was amazing the quality of fishing you can get on light tackle and in inshore waters during January. Many of the fish were taken within casting distance of the shore although getting access safely on this rugged coastline and effectively targeting them in the rough tidal ground could be tricky to say the least!

Oz was fantastic though and being primarily a Bass guide tried really hard to find us a few more of these and on another day I’m sure he would of. Today though it seemed the local shoals had moved off. I would thoroughly recommend him however to anyone wanting to sample this fantastic style of fishing for themselves. Oz takes a real “sportfishing” approach to guiding, far more reminiscent of what you might get overseas than traditional UK chartering…to see here for a link to his blog.

Anyway that’s me technically off the mark for the year with my first bass, I’m looking forward again now some warmer weather and that first trip (and inevitable blank!) of spring…. Hopefully we will have a better summer than in 2012!

All over now....

That’s it, I’m done now….my 4^th blank in succession last weekend and with no more free weekends between now and Christmas I think that is my season effectively over!

I was sure I was going to catch on Saturday to, I wasn’t too optimistic when I headed down to Dorset on Saturday morning but when I arrived at the mark I saw an unexpectedly large swell rolling in (the costal report said <1m but this was nearer 2m), creating lots of fizz and white water and with the perfect “tinge” to the sea. That coupled with the perfect state of tide had me full of confidence but after three hours of flogging the water for only one touch, no other signs of fish and the best of the tide gone I gave up.

I’m a bit disappointed not to have managed a single fish in November and now it’s looking like a December blank as well, that’s bought a flat and early end to what has otherwise been a pretty decent season for me.

Overall though, I can’t complain too much, I beat my target of 50 fish, caught more fish on surface and soft plastic lures than previous years and had a couple of 5lb + fish so met most of my objectives… my complaint about myself this year is that I wasn’t adventurous enough with my marks and didn’t really fish anywhere new…. So that will be my objective for next year…find and fish at least 5 new spots (or at least put some time into learning spots I have only tried once to twice before). The other negative of the season has been the weather…. Quite simply it has been crap all year and I have never known so much rain and shitty winds…I can’t do anything about that though except keep my fingers crossed for better next summer.

There not much other fishing to look forward now either, the local cod fishing is hard work with very few 3-6lb class fish around, some bigger fish are being caught but naturally those are fairly hard to come by so are going to the dedicated few who really put the hours in. Still, maybe I’ll have a crack for one over xmas.

So that’s it…game over and time to get on out on the Mountain Bike again, I need to regain the fitness I have lost over the last 6 months and shed a couple of pounds to!

End of year stats below….

 

November update

Been a little while since my last update and I’ve had mixed success since my last report. First up though is a new rod. Having broken two Megabass rods in the last month, I decided not to risk it for a third time so as a replacement I sourced instead this Graphite Leader beauty from the Art of Fishing….an Angento Nouvo 932m.

 

I won’t bother writing a full review on it as Henry Gilbey has done a far better job of this than I ever could HERE. Suffice to say the rod is a completely different feel to the Megabass it replaces, it has much faster action and is more steely and robust.  More like a Tenryu than a JDM style but does not feel over-gunned for my fishing like some of the longer Tenryu’s.  Still if you like the Tenryu feel but want something 9ft + and a little lighter than say a Rodbar 270 or Ultimate One then I can highly recommend this baby. One word of warning though, the butt it quite short and some people will not like this so definitely try and pick one up for a waggle first.

On to the recent fishing then, I followed up on the last session in Dorset with another productive one, bagging up on 11 fish again, I tried to add a bit of variety to the lures but ended up with this year’s tops lures doing the damage still and the fish being shared across my Shoreliner Shiner R50+, Savagear Sandeels and the Sammy (now officially my best top water lure).

Since then I’ve struggled with time but managed two short trips to an estuary system which have both resulted in blanks, I wouldn’t mind but my mate has been hammering this mark with up to 15 fish a session, on the last one we stood two yards apart up to our waists in water in he caught 5 whilst I remained fishless…frustrating!!!

Then finally, another trip to Dorset this weekend resulted in a further blank, despite being there for daybreak and perfect conditions I did not see a sign of any fish activity. So that’s three blanks in a row now, never a good sign as the season draws to close, I think it will be very hard going from now on.

Another frustration is a guided boat trip I have had booked since the summer was cancelled (due to bad weather) for the 2^nd time last weekend, hopefully I’ll get this in before the end of the year but water temps are dropping fast now unlike this time last year and the end of the season is looming!

22nd October - Breaking rods, losing fish and a decent session…

Well September/early October has turned into a dire period, through a combination of work/weather/a nasty infection and having a new kitchen and bathroom installed at home I have only managed two sessions in the last 6 weeks. On the first I landed one schooly before losing two decent fish, the first of which was an absolute cracker. This fish hit my lure on the surface before I started retrieving so I got a good look at it as it smashed into my lure before it dived and took me to ground.  

The second trip was total disaster, as having driven for 70 miles and walked another 30 minutes to the mark on the first cast there was a gunshot like crack and the tip of my Megabass exploded into 4 sections! I’ve never seen a break like this with the rod breaking at multiple points simultaneously...bizarre

I then walked 30 minutes back to the car and drove the 70 miles home pretty pissed off!

Still to be fair to the retailer, they refunded my money with no quibbles (they did not have a replacement in stock) and I managed to secure a replacement from an alternative source.

 

So onto this Saturday morning and with a window of weather and family opportunity and armed with a new replacement Megabass XO Shadow 96ML I headed down to Dorset. Unusually there was someone on my chosen spot but I started of further into the bay and 1^st cast…fish on, nailing my Sammy. This was the start of my best session of the year, as over the next two hours I landed a further 10 bass + numerous mackerel, most of which came on my new favourite lure, the Shoreline Shiner R50+.

No great size with the average fish being around 1.5lb and the biggest around 2.5lbs but still good fun with all the fish in fat fighting condition and stuffed to the gills with small sprats which they were feeding on.

With still plenty of time before I needed to leave, and the best part of the tide still to come I was looking forward to having a real red-letter day as they were still feeding hard when I heard another gunshot like crack. This time the rod seemed to be OK but on closer inspection I saw the blank had cracked about 6 inches up from the spigot on the tip section….so that was that, game over.  I packed up and headed home. I suppose I should be pleased as I managed a few fish before the rod went but I have to say I’m distinctly unimpressed having this model of rod break on me twice now, when casting lures not particularly hard and well under the stated 35g max weight.

So another rod to go through the hassle of returning, I shan’t be getting another one of these though. This time I will take a refund and look for another brand/model as, much as I liked the Megabass, I have now lost total confidence in the quality of them.

 

1st September - Some days they just don't want it...

I fished Dorset on Saturday afternoon, and endured what must have been my most frustrating lure session ever. Conditions were nice with an overcast sky, lightish winds and a small clean swell rolling in. I arrived pretty much on low water and fished the tide up for 5 hours.

During the first four hours I had countless fish follow my lure, including a couple of really decent ones but whatever I did I could not induce a take. I went through my entire soft and hard lure collection, fished at all speeds from just drifting in the current to cranked in at warp speed but they just wouldn’t take it.

As it went into evening I started to get the odd gently pluck, but still nothing too firm before I finally snagged one on a Savagear Sandeel. Even this fish had about 4 attempts before it was eventually hooked.

Then that was it, it may have improved had I stayed into darkness but I was fished out by this point so headed home to think about what I’d done wrong.

I’ve still not figured this out though, I saw more fish and bait activity today than I had ever seen previously here but I guess they just weren’t that switched on.

I’m one fish short of last year’s total now…so hopefully I’ll beat it soon. The forecast is set fair for a week or so now so I should get down to my “big fish” mark over the weekend….hopefully it will live up to my billing!

Oh yeah, I also managed to catch a Pollack that was quite honestly, smaller than the lure it took…what was it thinking??!!

15th August - Update and a nice fish

I've had several trips in the last few weeks, fishing has been fairly slow, with just one or two small fish after dark so nothing really to shout (or write) about.

Still, catching is better than blanking so I won't complain and things picked up a little last Friday evening as the combination of some (warm at last) settled weather and small tides gave me the opportunity to fish one of my favorite spots which for the best part of this year has been too coloured up.

Very calm seas and nice clear water greeted my arrival, and lots of surface activity so things were looking good.

I'm not sure what fish were hitting the surface though, they weren't mackerel or garfish and I had lots of bumps (virtually every cast) without hooking up, my guess is thin lip mullet but they could have something else like herring or scad perhaps...anyway they looked between 0.5lb and 1.5lb and were proving very frustrating so after half an hour or so I stopped trying to catch them, put on a larger lure and started fishing for what might want to eat them!

This was a good call as almost immidiately I had a proper hit and really good fight later put this 63cm (6lbish) bass on the rocks...shortly followed by another smaller one.

Great result and as this is a mark that tends to produce decent fish rather than high numbers I quit whilst I was ahead and enjoyed a nice pint of thatchers in the nearby pub rather than fishing into dark.

Good to get my best fish of the year so far though...oh and test out the new Caldia on a proper fish. Out again this weekend weather permitting so hopefully something else worth reporting!

New Rod Christened!

First update for a little while, sorry for the delay. Just to close off on the Cornish Lure Festival, suffice to say I caught a few fish, but didn’t win! That honour went to local angler Craig Russell with a magnificent 10lb 4oz fish! A great weekend though and I’m already looking forward to next years….big up Art of Fishing for putting this on!

Since then I’ve had a bit of a “firesale” of some tackle to raise funds for a couple of new purchases, the first of which arrived on Friday…a 9’6’’ Megabass XOR Shadow XX 8-32g. I’d been hankering over a new 9’6 rod for a while now, the Red Dragon, whilst fun to build was not cutting it for me as fishing tool and was simply to powerful for what I want from a rod.

So, after making a shortlist of replacements rods, this came out 2^nd but after failing to be able to source the rod I really wanted from Japan (at least not in my impatient timescales) I ordered the above.

So on to Saturday and a trip down to Dorset to give it its first test. Thankfully, summer appears to have arrived at last, so glorious sunshine and crystal clear calm seas greeted me. Not the best conditions but after weeks of wind and rain I didn’t care it was just lovely to be out by the sea in the sun. The tide was low and flooding when I arrived at my first mark. My strategy for dealing with the bright conditions was to try and get a reaction bite, so Chartruse based lures and fast retrieves were the plan and on with a Zonk in “hot shad” to kick off.

My first impressions of the rod were that it was a bit heavy, but in fairness it’s not really, it’s just I am used to my 8ft Branzino which is feather light so anything feels heavy after that!

Casting wise, the more progressive JDM style action of the rod took a little getting used to, but I soon had it sorted and was firing the lure out nicely. Actually casting with the rod is a real pleasure, you just need to let the rod load and do the work which makes for easy effortless casts. Distance wise they were a little up on what I can normally achieved with my 8ft rod, but nothing to shout about until I put on a Tide Minnow 140, which really flew out, a good 20 yards + on my normal efforts. The rod also made easy work of a Patchinko and it was simple enough to work surface lures effectively.

The rod struggled when it came to fishing soft plastics “HRF” style, the additional length and lack of feel and balance point well forward of the reel made it a not very pleasant experience, but to be fair it’s not really designed for this sort of fishing and that’s not why I bought it.

Overall I’m really happy with the rod, it does exactly what I was after and all in all it’s a very good tool for fishing HP’s that’s will cope with all conditions without being overly powerful. I do particularly like this JDM style action on a rod I’ve decided, the action is more forgiving than some of the “Euro” top end rods and it make playing fish an absolute dream.

Talking of fish, I did manage a couple, or 5 to be precise two at dusk on a Sammy and three after dark on a Komomo II of Joker FP. Again I’m learning the lesson that it really pays to fish into darkness during these summer months, I must do more of it!

I forgot to mention my other purchase, a Diawa Caldia 2500 reel which I haven't tried this yet. Until this point I have been a sworn 8ft rod + shimano reel man so I’ve broken all my own rules with these buys, hopefully the reel will be a similar success to the rod!

4th July - Holiday update

What has happened to our summer? I feeling pretty cheated now and getting really fed up of constant strong SW winds and endless rain!

I'm into the 2nd week of my holiday now, and with the weather being so poor its put a bit of a dampner on the fishing side of things but I've made it out a couple of times and found the odd fish, nothing to shout about though and it continues to be hard going.

Off to Cornwall on Friday for the Cornish Lure Festival, the forecast is OKish at the moment so hopefully it'll be a nice weekend with plenty of good fish caught (not least by me!).

Update 6th June...hard going

I’ve had three trips out in the last week and I have to say it’s been pretty tough going, last weekend I fished the west side of Portland for the first time. Access to this area is not for the faint hearted (or unfit) and once down on the rocks the sheer size of the boulders makes moving around and finding decent fishing platforms pretty tricky. This is certainly an area I will be revisiting though, as I’m sure it has good potential, particularly as a HW mark but I wont be going back until I have some rubber soled boots as the hike down is pretty hairy in felt soles!

On the day though fishing was slow, there were a few fish around as I had a few follows and plucks but they seemed quite tentative. I eventually hooked a small fish that came off in close and I gave up at sundown as I didn’t fancy negotiating the path back up in the dark.

This weekend and bank holiday I took advantage of the time off to get a couple of trips in to my more regular haunt, Friday was bassless but I had a few Pollack and wrasse to show then on Monday I fished for 5 hours and into darkness before eventually snagging a small bass on a Sammy. So that’s my first fish off the top for the year and my first on a Sammy which is already my favourite topwater lure now.

I’ve not just been fishing though, I’ve also spent a bit of money in the last week on a few bits and bobs, including:

Costa Del Mar glasses - £150 is A LOT of money to spend on a pair of fishing shades so are they worth it? I’m not sure really, the lenses are great (I bought amber ones), colours contrast amazingly and they make fish spotting easier, but given I am not really sight fishing the overall benefit is limited so in short, I’m glad I have them, I like them but if I lost them tomorrow I’d probably revert back to normal cheaper polarized shades (like my Sainsbury’s ones I was wearing before).

Snowbee sling bag – Brilliant, why did I not get one sooner?

Scierra C4 waders – Comfy and don’t leak, that’s a good start but lets see how long they last before I pass judgement!

So the overall “bass to cash” ratio of the last week puts me definitely back in the category of all the gear no idea but with two weeks off looming at the end of the month culminating in the Cornish Lure Festival I’m looking forward to putting that right!

Dorset 18th May

Has it really been two months since my last post? Well work and weather had pretty much put pay to all my efforts to get out over the last couple of months, except one aborted trip which turned into a “recce” of a new area rather than a serious trip. To be honest though I don’t think I missed much as the reports from all areas suggested the fishing has been slow to get going so far this spring.

Still, over the last week or so, the weather, the fishing appear to have dramatically improved, so with a well earned day off I packed my gear and headed down to Dorset.  Conditions on arrival looked good, with just the faintest of tinges to the water clarity. The tides were less promising however as I would be fishing over high and the first couple of hours down, never the best state of tide for this mark but nevertheless I started off full on confidence and pleased to be out fishing. 

After half an hour of no interest though, my mind started to wander so I switched from the hard’s to an xlayer with a view to bagging a wrasse and at least avoiding a blank. I had a couple of casts with a few tentative plucks before a decent take which I stuck into and the rod hooped over. I always have the drag tightened right up when HRF’ing but this fish took a good 10 yards against this drag in its’ first run and I soon realised it was no wrasse but nice bass. A couple of minutes later and this was on the shore coming in at 59cm and around 5lb….great result and that was me well pleased. 

No more fish showed to this method though so back on the hard’s (a mullet feed shallow to be precise) and in a flurry of activity I landed two small fish, lost another and missed a couple of takes before it went quiet again. Then an hour so later just as I was thinking of packing up I tried a few casts with a Savagear Sandeel and quickly had two more fish to around 2.5lbs. 

So overall a cracking session and one that gets my season underway properly…. I’m really looking forward to the next few months now with work easing off and the house chores done I should be able to get out much more often than of late!

24th March - Dorset blank

Just a quick update on progress, I've finished the rebuild of my Tenryu so I took for a test drive down to Dorset on Saturday afternoon. It was an absolutely beautiful day, more June like than mid March but no bass wanted to play ball.

Still it was nice to give the rod a workout, or more truthfully the rod gave me a workout, its an absolute beast! It shows hows lure tackle has progressed over the last few years, when this rod came became available in the UK it was being touted as the best lure rod around, but now after a couple of years of using 8ft fairy wands, this felt really long and heavy. Still it will chuck a lure a long way so useful for those days when conditions are really bad (or good, if you're a bass!).

I'm pretty happy with the build though, it was interesting to do and although far from perfect I learnt a lot and reckon I could do a really top job next time so I think I'll buy myself another "project" at some point. There's a few pics of the finished job below.

No fishing for a couple of weeks due to kids birthdays etc, so by the time I get our again water temp should be back up to 10 degrees and the bass should back properly so hopefully no more blanks to report!

10th March - The season starts here!

Well with a lovely spring day forecast, I decided to forego the plaice fishing and as normal, went for the lures instead, so a trip down to Dorset was in order. It really was a gorgeous day, I love the first trip of spring and feeling the suns warmth again after winter. Summers on its way and its all good from here on in! Anyway I went for my usual spot to start the season as timing of the big spring tide was perfect for here. I arrived about three hours before low, just as the flow was picking up.

Three hours later I got my first of the season, not a monster but that's me off and running. Last year I really struggled early season so it was nice to get the first one under my belt. Taken on one of last years favorites...the komomo II in Joker FP.

The rod build is coming on, I've nearly finished varnishing the blank now. This has been a bit of a faff as I've tried a couple of techniques. I think a rod turner would really help but without one of these its been tricky to get a decent finish, but after a couple of experiments I think I've got there. A few evenings on the rings this week and it should be finished for next weekend...hopefully I'll get out to give it a bash.