Sunday, 13 November 2011

Dorset 12th November

Headed down to Dorset again yesterday morning, although winds were lightish all week, the wave bouys were giving some pretty big seas so wasn't sure what to expect.

Mark one saw the water far too coloured for my liking so headed off the Portland. I stopped in the car park and peered off the cliff, the sea was lively but looked bassy so I decided to give it a go and wandered along the path to my chosen spot. By now I was having second thoughts about the sea state so I stopped on the cliff to smoke a fag and watch the water. It soon became clear that it far too dangerous, with a big powerful groundswell rolling in and the rock I looking at fishing getting regularly swamped by big waves, so onwards to mark three......

I'd never fished here before but I happily found clear water and shelter, and bass first cast! Taken on a zonk in crusing blue, two casts later I hooked into a better fish but it snagged me round a post, I tried to to wade and free it but it was just to deep so I tied it off and carried on fishing.

As the tide ebbed I landed another fish, a smaller one this time and had a follow from a couple of lunker fish.

Finally as I packed up, I went back to my tied off line, managed to retrieve my lure and found the fish had freed itself in the mean time so a happy ending for all concerned...all in all not a bad session to end up with a couple of fish from a new mark when conditions were tough elsewhere. It's good that the fishing is continuing well into November.

Monday, 7 November 2011

7th November...A new rod and a tough session

Ok, where to start? New rod I think. Last week I walked into Veals in Bristol for a lunchtime browse, when I spotted something new among the lure rods....I wandered over...can it be? yes it is! The Diawa Branzino range had hit town!

To be honest I was perfectly happy with my current rods, but when I picked one of these up I knew I was holding something a little bit special...so light, so slim, so had to have one...I resisted for a few days but by the weekend I was back, and walked out with this, the 80ml Seabass Quest Custom.



Now I know I truely am a tackle tart, I know this won't catch me one fish more that my previous gear, but I will get lots of pleasure out of simply owning and using it...a bit sad perhaps but there you go.

Veals also had in the Japan range of Shoreliner plugs, there are some nice ones in there but I was dissappointed to see the 140 size are identical to the Saltiga Minnows which have been around for a while. No great problem there perhaps except these are £19.99 and you can pick up a Saltiga for £13 if you shop around (although for how much longer now I don't know). I guess that's the price you pay, it's great that we are getting so much more choice of gear these days but with the high demand for branded jap gear (fueled by tackle tarts like me) there is going to be some commercial opportunitism going on!

So yesterday I went down to Dorset for the afternoon...conditions were not good with a strong offshore wind, the remnents of a big sea still rolling in and still some colour left in the water. Plenty of people around hoping for a cod and I thought they had a better chance of success than me. Still I did my ususal walk, heading along the beach for a couple of miles, the water got clearer the further east you went and eventually I was rewarded with this to save a blank and "christen" the new rod.




Its nice to get a fish in November, I've set my self the objective of getting a bass as late as December this year and as early as April next year...that way it will feel like the "off season" is only three months long!