Inspiration, Lure Master Mr Takayoshi Orimoto.

What an amazing past few weeks, fishing is on fire from local rocks marks, with wrasse and Pollock showing in good numbers and the harbour is full of mini species.  So where to begin... The Weymouth LRF crew had the honour to fish with Mr Takayoshi Orimoto and the Maraukyu team, there was plenty of fish caught but yet again the tides and LRF meet didn’t collide to show up some bigger fish, I had the chance to meet Takayoshi for an hour before the meet and was amazed by his style of fishing for bass, fluent accurate casts between boats and tight to walls, some would say he was mad and trying to lose his lure, but what I learnt was Takayoshi was working the water in a grid pattern covering every inch of water in front of him, using an Ecogear power dart jig head with a spinner blade and shad was allowing him to cover all depths of the water column.

 

After a few followers and missed bites for the Maraukyu team they joined us for the regular Tuesday LRF meet, luckily the poor weather forecast didn’t come to anything and we had fun dry evening fishing the inner harbour, we had a small comp for the biggest fish over an hour, the prize being some rare new large white Isome, I can’t wait to see more of this product in the UK as it looks incredible!

 

Winner of the comp was Simon with this stunning looking Sea Scorpian above. Well done mate, I’m seriously jealous!

 

 

I couldn’t make out what Takayoshi was using for terminal tackle, but he and Maraukyu member Peter were hammering out the Pollock.

 

 

Here’s a picture of Nick Marlow with another stunning Sea Scorpion, looking back now I’m surprised at how many sea scorpions got caught that night, normally we see one maybe two, but I’m sure there was at least 6 between everyone. (PS. Nick ,the rod you showed me... stunning!)

 

 

To finish off the LRF meet I managed to get everyone who joined us for a group photo with the Maraukyu team, I’ve got about five versions of this photo and each one there is someone with a rod crossing there face or someone looking like they have two heads. So I apologise to anyone now who isn’t happy with the outcome.

 

Over the past few weeks, both me an Rich from Dorset Fishing Rods have been embarking on what we call MuRFing or MRF, something that isn’t seen as a type of fishing and isn’t something we are trying to create, we call it MRF because its exactly that, fishing small lures over rough ground searching out bigger fish, a standard LRF rod wouldn’t consistently handle some of the fish we are catching, hitting 2LB plus wrasse in a boulder field there is a 1 in 10 chance that you are going to land that fish and a even slimmer chance you are going to get your end tackle back, take some of the 3LB Pollock we have been finding.

 

YES we can catch them and land them on LRF gear and trust me we have, but what we have learnt is that every fish we catch we are maxing out the capabilities of our rods, and leaving our selves no reserve. This is where my faith in the Major Craft Zaults grew, I know after over a year of using that rod, the blank has a bucket load of power in the mid section capable of stopping average size bonus fish... but would I use it for “MRF”? my answer is no.  These Japanese LRF rods rated .5-5g are special works of art in my eyes, not built for the stresses and strains of crash diving rock Pollock and wrasse.

 

Some readers might be thinking, well use a HRF rod average rating is 5-25g, plenty of wrasse stopping power and if you have the right rod then there is plenty of sensitivity there for lure fishing. But what me and Rich are finding is that rods that fall in the middle of HRF are so much more versatile for both LRF and HRF, take the Yamaga Blank blue current 80 Tubular, this rod is rated 1-11g weighs next to nothing has a stunning crisp through action and plenty of power to stop crash diving Pollock and wrasse at close range. The beauty of using a rod this light yet NOT LRF is that we can work light lures effectively searching out the rougher ground in confidence that we have a good chance of landing the fish we connect with there are also added advantages of casting distance that I mentioned in the last blog post for searching clean sand beaches.

 

On a number of occasions now we have come across some stunning fishing conditions over the past weeks, in a matter of a few hours we have been hitting fish numbers of 40 plus, we aren’t necessarily targeting species in particular.. We are lure fishing for everything and most casts result with a fish on the line and a fish on the bank.

 

A lot of the fish being caught are on the Large Pink Isome by Ecogear, or the Ecogearaqua 3 inch Bug Ants, Pollock and wrasse love these lures, on occasions as soon as the lure has hit the water fish have been smashing the lure and taking us by surprise.

 

 

 

 

There seems to be a few people out there saying that the Ecogear Isome is cheating in some respects, I even noticed people knocking it as a lure/bait, call it what you will if it catches fish I’m going to use it. That’s what it’s all about right? I had a local angler message me saying that they are now planning on banning it from a boat competition after he bagged up big time. So before those individuals try and rope me into yet more Jealous fuelled politics, one of my favourite lures lately has been one from Andy at Jacks LRF, he sent this out to me as a sample and all I need to say is WOW fish love em!

 

 

To finish off this blog post I just want to add a big well done to Rob for nailing his first half decent size wrasse on lure, this fish took rob off guard and certainly gave him the run around but he got her to the net in the end. Think you owe Rich a pint for bringing the net Rob!

 

 

Lure of choice was a Reins RockVibe Saturn in a green and blue fleck, wrasse love these lures!

 

 

hope you enjoyed the read!