A Change Of Seasons?

I can’t remember us having an Autumn this year, but its sure starting to feel like winter, the East winds have stirred up the water good an proper and most marks especially the rock marks are proving hard work, water clarity is making most methods of lure fishing a nightmare and Baits and lures like the Ecogearaqua range and Isome are proving their worth with the added scents and attractants.

With all the poor weather conditions being thrown at us, I have to take my hat off to the Weymouth LRF crew, with heavy rain an bitter winds driving us into the harbour we are all still turning up every Tuesday and we are all still catching, unless your me this week and lent your Zalts to a newcomer, only to find that the majority species feeding are micro gobies and Pollock, the only spare rod I had in the car was more suited to cast and retrieve with small jigs and metal Vibe Baits. Do you think I could find a big enough fish to slam a larger LRF lure... No chance! But hey I can admit to a blank.

 

So while I’m on the subject of blanking, I don’t think I’ve blanked so tremendously as when the legend Matt Jones suggested we go on a 12 hour long fish hunt in the poorest conditions I’ve seen this year, typically we had our hearts set on a monster bass or a Wrasszilla to grace one of our lines, but every direction we turned from East Dorset to West we faced big swell, milky water or waves of weed. By end of the day I was being gloated at by the Cornish Angler for his tremendous Surface lure caught Sprat! Check out Matt’s blog HERE for his high octane accounts from that day.

 

 

So to redeem myself on the no fish problem, I took a trip down the Harbour with the Girlfriend Lolly, in a matter of seconds we had Pollock and Sea Scorpions gracing our lines

 

 

I lost a belter of a fish at my feet all due to lack of concentration, It was one of those moments when the mini species quieten down and bites suddenly drop off, you just know that there’s a bigger predator lurking around, soon my rod jolts and a few feet of line strips off the spool... and then out of nowhere some guy comes up behind me asking all sorts of questions.. most people that know me, know I love to have a good chat when fishing, but when I’m into a bigger fish on light gear, whether it’s a mackerel or a big Pollock.. Concentration is key, when that fish spat the hook, most likely because I didn’t loosen off the drag, I swear this guy must have seen the frustration in my face, after a short and blunt conversation with the chap I got my lure back in the water and soon pulled out my first Whiting of the year. It wasn’t a big specimen but it’s another species added to the 2012 lure caught species list! Bonus!

 

At the beginning of this post I mentioned that we have had a few newcomers join the LRF meets, one guy that I never thought would come and try Light Rock Fishing but I’m so glad that he did...Mr Paul Burridge!

 

 

Paul is the founder of the rapidly growing Portland Sea Angling Group, I talk to Paul once or twice a week and the future plans for the Club are incredible, with future lure teaching days in LRF, HRF and Plugging, bringing the schools and youth clubs on board for both lure and bait fishing lessons, Its guys like Paul and the Portland Sea Angling Group that sustain the future of UK sea fishing, offering their time to organise such events takes a lot of effort, just keeping up with the Tuesday LRF club can be hectic for myself, and that’s nothing compared to the running’s of a growing club.

 

 

I’m sure Paul got a good feel for LRF and added 2 maybe 3 species in a matter of hours to his personal 2012 species count, I’ve got to mention that Paul is a hardcore bait angler through and through with years of experience under his belt, and I know this post might cause a bit of stir in his angling social scene, but I keep having to remind people that as much as most of us are using lures, or lure/bait hybrids like isome, there is no reason why we can’t use bait, small harbour rag is deadly as a LRF bait or when the water is coloured a small sliver of squid on a 2g jig head might prove trumps over any lure. At the end of the day we are fishermen and share the same passion whether its catch and release or searching out mini species or specimen Bass.

 

 

Last night we also had another newcomer, Mr Rob Holwill! I bumped into Rob earlier in the week while fishing the inner harbour, from what I gather Rob has a fly fishing background, so picking up LRF will most likely come as a breeze for him. Fingers crossed he can make it next week!

 

 

Here`s Rob with one of his first LRF caught species, a belter of a scorpion fish!

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the read, next post will be a review on the ever successful WhatFishUK APP, trust me if you haven’t downloaded this APP on your smart phone, do so! It’s awesome!

 

 

Tight Lines!!