A Weekend Of Learning

Well my trip to Jersey was a real eye opener. Meeting up with Keith White at the condor port in St Helier, you can tell this guy is fishing mad yet professional from the off, talking everything wrasse, HRF and bass for a whole day with this guy is mind blowing. I went to Jersey knowing the fishing was tough, like the south coast the winds just don’t seem to let up. But after a coffee at the point of saint-Catherine and quick chat.. Keith put me in front of the fish. Soon as that lure hit the water the bites where there, but the fish just didn’t want to commit to the hook. All in all the whole day showed 10 fish between us, with Keith pulling in a stunning wrasse of around 3LB on the HPR 73. Seriously, watching this guy with this rod was like a watching a Samurai wielding a Katana, Perfectly steering the fish to the shore.

Check out Keith’s blog for an account of the days events;

JERSEY BASS GUIDES

I do apologise for the lack of photos on my behalf, but I didn’t have a lot of time due to the mass amount of tips, hints and techniques I was trying to learn. Planning a return journey early November to get among those wrasse yet again. Until then ill be practicing all the new techniques I’ve learnt, and hopefully be able to hook a few more fish.

To add to a great weekend of learning I took some time out with my brother and his family. We went down to Bowleaze cove in Weymouth for a bite to eat. And as usual I cant go anywhere without my fishing gear. It wasn’t long till my little nephew Eddy wanted to have ago at fishing, at only four years old hes already got the makings of a pro!! (This time last year a huge shoal of bass held up in the cove for 2 nights)

To finish this blog post off I got to see my first water spout at Portland bill, this spout was spinning for at least 5minutes before I remembered I had a camera on me. But I managed to get a photo of the last of the funnel in the sky. Click the photo to get a bigger view.

Rainbow Garfish

Well not a lot to report on except its my first Garfish on a hard lure. I’ve had a couple Garfish with LRF, normally using small 1inch grub tails in white and yellow colours, but seriously what was this fish thinking…

Lure of choice was the IMA Sasuke 140 in rainbow pearl, reason being I’ve got to break my addiction to using the MegaBass Zonk Gataride. Yes it’s an outstanding lure, but I’ve broken 3 bibs this season, 2 being hit on sub surface rocks and 1 being bent upwards during an epic bass fight a few nights back. I cant cry over it though as these lures have all caught me some outstanding fish.

So after the strange fight of the Garfish came this bass of around 1.5LB. I swear this fish nipped the last treble for around 20 feet before I gained a positive bite. I even stopped after a few knocks but it wasn’t till I sped up the retrieve that the fish took the plunge. Just for the record this wasn’t a successful night for me as I would class both these fish as foul hooked.. Luckily there wasn’t to much damage done and both fish swam away safe and well.

Thanks again. Early night tonight for me, as ive got to catch the condor at 5:00AM to Jersey for a lesson in HRF.

IMA Sasuke 105

With the local fishing being a little slow of late, I have taken the time to scale down and target whats in front of me, without falling into the realms of LRF. I have been looking for lures in the 110 - 75 scale, with a little more weight than usual, distance is a priority at the marks I plan to fish.

First up on the shopping list was the IMA sasuke 105 F. A shallow diving lure, with a tight rolling action and a dive depth of around 55cm on a medium pace retrieve. There are more colours being released from the IMA lure giant every month, but I choose the darker rainbow pearl colour for 2 reasons, 1. it looks like a pollock at night and 2. in the day the extra light makes this lure flash like a baby mullet or mackerel.

I purchased this lure from Chesil Bait 'n' Tackle, a fairly new tackle shop to Weymouth, but the amount of decent gear for the roving lure angler that these guys are supplying is outstanding.
From top names like IMA, SAKURA and MEGABASS.

First cast with the Sasuke Lure saw it fly out to the distance, the ball weight transfer system working the 13g lure perfectly, even in a slight cross wind (very impressed). The third cast saw the pollack switch on and start nailing the lure, (now im really impressed). In total I think I caught around six pollack before I was washed off the mark and had to return home.

Something I noticed this evening was all the pollock had hooked themselves on the first treble, which, when being retreived sits dead center of the lure. I prefer lures with only 2 or less treble hooks, they do less damage to the flanks of fish, can be removed easier, and get snagged less often. Perfect!

So with a few pollack on a brand new lure I can't complain. This lure has found a small place in the tackle bag and im looking forward to some better weather to present this lure to some bass.

Hope you enjoyed the read. Off out fishing now!!

Full Moon madness!

Ok there are no werewolves in Weymouth waters, tuna maybe but no werewolves. However. I made a prediction on last years catch records that id pull a good size bass on the full moon… bass fishing has been slow this year, with even the mackerel shoals on Chesil being thin and far between. I’ve had to work hard for every fish I’ve caught, even a Mackerel on a hard lure seems a welcome sight.

But tonight all seem to come together with this girl, and I gave her the biggest kiss before sending her back on her way to the deep blue.. mad maybe, blame it on the moon. I took a gamble and fished a mark that I’ve only caught one bass at… Bang fish on!

Lure of choice was the Megabass ZZonk 120 Gateride in Rainbow Pearl. (As always)

Size and weight of fish is unknown.. Who cares! All I care about is ive got a couple good photos and I know that fish is still swimming!

Makes me think?

To be honest I’m still a little speechless over this news that I read on Matt Newcombe and Henry Gilbys blogs. I’m not going to repeat what all the top angling blogs are saying this week, all I’m going to say is… It makes me sad and more concerned for the future of sea fishing in the UK, when are people going to learn to respect these creatures and enjoy the fact that we still have half a hope an prayer at catching a few bass, THE MORE WE RELEASE THE MORE WE CATCH!

Right, now that’s off my chest I can tell you all about the one hour session of freedom I had this week. High tide was at around 7pm, and I didn’t finish work till 6:45pm so I had no time for any major adventures. My choice of venue was the local pier, which not many people realise, but get the timing right and this pier can make dreams come true. I arrived at 7:30, rig up and tie on the fox lure clip. First lure of choice was the 125 SLD F H139-TS Duo Tide Minnow.

This lure has caught me some cracking bass in the past and casts like a bullet into a head wind. The swimming action is a perfect representation of a sand eel, with a slight twitch of the rod tip and slow retrieve at night its outstanding. Within around 4 casts came the first of two fish, for a fish of around 1LB the fight was exceptional. After a few photos courtesy of Rob Mears, the fish was returned unharmed and ready to fight another day.

To give Rob some confidence and the best chance of his first bass, I gave him the Duo Lure to fish with and changed over to a Tackle House Feed Shallow 128 Pink Rainbow, moving around the pier I could see a few ripples on the surface over a very close in weed bed, I swear the water must have been only 12 inches deep, second cast and bang! Fish on.. I’ve got to say that for school bass they are putting up a harder fight than earlier in the year.. Perhaps because the water temperature has risen.. Who knows?

As this fish was landed I heard a few young voices behind me asking if I had caught a mullet or mackerel, the look on their faces when I lift a bass out the water is priceless, (especially from the piers). I took this opportunity to show them a little about the bass, and how they should be handled with care and safely returned. I just hope these guys listen and feel the same as most of us bass anglers do..

Thanks for reading