The Weymouth LRF Buzz!

Rock and Roll! Considering that 2 years ago I was properly the only chap waving a LRF rod around the harbour, now every time I take walk down the pier for an hour’s mini-beast hunt I’m bumping into all sorts of people on the same mini-beast hunt that I have been on. There is something special happening in the Weymouth angling scene for sure, there are people meeting and friendships being made, people fishing together for fun, having a good laugh and helping each other out.

 

So far the egos haven’t crept in, and fingers crossed the direction the local lure scene is heading keeps on track because it’s all looking positive. Some of the guys don’t realise the attention it’s getting, to gain a page spread in the local paper the Dorset Echo made me smile. An in fairness they did an incredible write up and got some fundamental details spot on.

 

This last week has had a few ups and downs for me, started off really well with getting to meet the Ecogear team at the Weymouth LRF meet, was a real shame that the meet landed on low water and fishing was hard, but everyone caught a few fish, looking at some of the photos of John, Nick, Rob and Jon the smiles say it all, I’m pretty sure they enjoyed their selves, fingers crossed they make it back down to sunny Weymouth again and get to meet a few more of the LRF anglers.

 

 

 

Star of the show was Rob’s cuttlefish, certainly a stunning creature, I’m currently looking into Major Craft Egi (squid) rods from Japan at the moment so I can target these species efficiently. If it’s one thing I’ve learnt over the last few years, having the right tools for the job can make your success rate go through the roof.

 

 

So like I said, this week has had its ups and downs, and the big down was me going sick with man flu, I had to cancel a holiday this weekend down Devon with lolly and her family and had two days off work, I did managed to get out for a few strolls on the beach to get some fresh air, an I would have been stupid to leave the rod in the car. Now something I talk about now and then to a few guys an I have read about on a few other blogs is this middle ground between LRF an HRF, now from day one the boundaries have always been set that LRF (LIGHT ROCK FISHING) is 0-7g or less weighted rods, HRF (HARD ROCK FISHING) 5-25g or more weighted rods, now I’m not one to pigeon hole myself into anything, just like in the last blog post where I spoke about using bait as another method in HRF. So where am I going with this.. Well I’ve been coming across marks that I know hold fish that would be perfect for LRF tactics, but the problem of casting distance has been an issue. Using a HRF rod would lose all concept of feel an contact with the micro lures...  so I’ve started playing around with a few rods like the tubular Yamaga Blank Blue Current 80, rated 1-11g at 8ft long, coupling this rod with the Shimano 3000 Stradict, Sunline small game .4 PE braid made for a very well balanced outfit.

 

Strait from the word go when I reached the beach I could see disturbances on the surface and a few birds diving, but to my surprise on my first few casts at this mark I managed to catch a few flounder, and drop a much bigger fish due to it burying itself in the sea bed at range. Lure of choice was some of the larger Power Isome that the Ecogear team left behind from the LRF meet. The flounder were going mad for the larger red isome mounted on a size 14 course hook with a molix 5g tungsten cone weight , Very much similar to the HRF tactics for wrasse less the EWG hook, I wouldn’t use the tungsten cone weights for wrasse fishing due to the expense, but on shingle clean beaches they are perfect. This set up fly’s through the air and allows you to cover some big distances on light tackle. Using the Yamaga rod and Sunline PE allowed me to feel every curve in the sea bed and every shy bite. I only managed an hour on this session due to my man flu tablets wearing off and I had to get home.

 

So after a rest up in bed and dosing myself up with more flu tablets I went back to the beach to see if could find that bigger flounder that I lost, but to my surprise not a single flounder in sight, what could have changed in 24 hours??

 

 

 

Then the answer came by a sharp pull on the rod tip and short but feisty run of the drag, it didn’t take to long to land this stunning school bass. I’m guessing the bass have moved in within the last 24 hours and cleared out the flounder. Which is a real shame as I’m only just starting to profile them and understand what works best where and when.

 

I managed to finish off the session with a couple bass and one mackerel, not bad for only an hour’s fishing before my flu tablets wore off. I believe it’s the Lure forums annual Bumble this weekend, so I wish all you guys off the forum the best of luck, would love to have joined you but I’m feeling to rough as I write this blog post. For anyone fishing ultra light there is plenty of mini-beasts in the harbour, and plenty of bass from the rock marks.

 

 

Tight Lines!