One INCREDABLE week!

Well this has to be one of the best weeks I’ve ever had where my fishing is concerned, firstly I’ve had yet another new species to add to my 2012 LRF species count, which was certainly an amazing catch on LRF, but I’ll get to that later in the blog post, the local waters of Weymouth have really started to swing into winter action with species like whiting showing in good numbers now, The flounder fishing has been amazing the past week, check out this cracker I caught on the Tuesday night Weymouth LRF meet...

 

 

The Weymouth LRF scene is starting to take on a life of its own over the last few months, the small groups of friends that I’m meeting around the harbour most evenings is starting to grow, only last night I was walking along and saw a commotion, when I got there it was Bass man an LRF angler Craig Allington reeling in a prime looking Bass.. I believe that was his first LRF harbour bass, top skills mate, May it be the first of many!

 

 

We were also joined by Alan Banks the main man behind the site Lure Factors, this guy is one of the only guys out there supplying all you need to create your own lures in the UK, if your into the wrasse fishing game, and the fishing is hot you will soon start seeing how fast wrasse will chomp through lures creating a hole in your wallet in the process, I had a go at making lures back in the summer and it is dead simple, just watch some of the clued up videos on Youtube.

 

So at the beginning of this post I mentioned that I have had a new specie to add to my 2012 LRF species hunt, Now this fish came as a massive surprise while searching for my illusive dragonet that everyone seems to be able to catch but me, but this species I’m being told could be a first from Weymouth harbour let alone on lure tactics in the UK, it may be small but I am dead chuffed!!!!

Queue drumroll..... SOLE!!!!!!

 

 

Big thanks to Rob for the quality photos..

 

 

Quote Lolly; "This sole has more sole then a shoe shop"

 

 

To finish off the this blog post I’m going to leave you with a bunch of fun photos from the past few weeks, like Richard from Dorset Fishing Rods first Sand Smelt and Lollys first lesser spotted leaf fish!

 

 

 

For those of you that know about the Movember charity craze.. Check out the LRFer MoBro Iain.

 

 

 

Tight Lines!

 

 

 

 

 

Quick update.... Flounder and MC KG Lights Rod

Going to be a quick blog post to keep everyone up to date, A lot of the flounder marks around Weymouth have really started to heat up now, hitting them on lures is a challenge but once you nail it proves a huge amount of fun, I suggest for anyone looking to target these species to try with good old fashioned bait tactics until you have confidently found their feeding grounds. Check out Mr James Fulton Standley here with a healthy looking flounder he caught last week, I believe he was using his Major Craft Zalts LRF rod with a 3.5 cone weight with a small Aberdeen hook and ragworm, I turned up to watch the last 30 seconds of James battling out this flounder.

 

Something that I have been told in the past but only now starting to understand and have confidence in is that Flounder will stay close to structure and follow harbour walls and reef structures, obviously finding the sandy, silt ground is key basics for flounder, but casting up harbour walls and running the shadows of street lights has seen me finding more flounder, normally they will come out of nowhere and hit your lure or jigged bait super aggressively!

Shame about this next picture, but I was a  good 5 minutes walk away from where this fish was caught, I’ve been running a small comp for the Weymouth LRF meets for the first person to catch and land a flounder on any LRF tactic be it bait or lure, surprisingly a good few weeks have passed before anyone actually tried hard for it, and yet again Mr Simon Harris came up trumps and landed his first ever flounder on Isome, Simon went all out for this fish creating his own special receipt sauce and lure rigs. Big well done mate!

 

Soon after Simons Flounder I managed to hook up this stunning sand smelt another new LRF species to my 2012 list, Looking at this picture you can really see why so many of the mullet pattern lures work over sandy beaches like Weymouth and Ringstead, Just check out the reflective colours of this fish.

 

 

For the first time in ages I actually managed to fish in day light hours, wind an tide conditions were looking really good for some MuRFing fun along the Portland Bill rock marks, I could have easily of taken the HRF rods, but making the decision to go light from the start was the key to success, Both me an Lolly were into fish from the word go hitting wrasse an Pollock, Lolly even manage to pull out a Tompot Blenny out of some rougher than average conditions.

 

 

The Major Craft KGLights rod is proving one hell of a beast, with such a sensitive tip section and powerful midsection you would be surprised of what this rod can do just reading the numbers and descriptions in the catalogue, this rod has serious fish stopping power!

 

 

Due to the soft tip section at first I kept losing fish because myself and rod was allowing fish to get to ground before I pull that rod into its power curve, the trick to this rod is to have your clutch tight and slam the power down as soon as you know the fish is hooked, as soon as I realised this my catch rate went through the roof, the added sensitivity allows me to work 3g Texas rigs at range perfectly, as long as I slammed the hook home on a positive bite it was a 100% hit rate.

 

 

Here`s Lolly with the final fish of the day, a stunning typical Portland Wrasse, Both me an lolly have been using the New XL isome, which so far has been an absolute game changer of bait Lure hybrid! I can’t wait to see this stuff hit the shelves.

 

 

Until the next time...

Tight Lines!

LRF Halloween Special.

Some thought we were joking when we mentioned fancy dress fishing, but living in the south here in Weymouth we are all a little mad, some people might be raising an eyebrow reading this, but sometimes it’s nice to break the same old routine and have a laugh, I take my angling a lot more serious than some but it was nice to let my hair down and just have a laugh, when we mentioned on FaceBook about a special Halloween LRF meet, both me and Lolly were taken back by the fact there were no negative comments.. So instead of a trip to the tackle shop I headed straight to the fancy dress shop!!

 

 

The evening started well for the first few of us fishing the last half hour of sunlight, Pollock a cast from under most of the jetties around the harbour walls, most of the fish were feeding high up in the water column and I found sizing down the split shot to encourage a slower sink rate caught me a few more fish OTD, this method also helped to avoid the gobies and other bottom dwelling species, which Billy Short and Lolly and Iain were having great fun with, was really good to see Lolly moving forward from the split shot rig and using jigheads.

 

 

The direction we were heading round the harbour meant that we were about to head past a well known local flounder spot, as soon as I got there I heard Billy spitting all sorts of muffled obscenities, and I knew straight away that he just dropped his first LRF flounder and lost himself a pack of Isome that I promised to the first member to catch a flounder on an LRF meet can have, when he said “I lost it at my feet” guess where I’m going to put my lure... soon enough my rod tip bent into a half decent weight and a flounder came to the surface, but as always due to rushing around I forgot my landing net, Bill kindly offered to climb a short ladder and try and grab the fish but after four or five failed attempts the fish spat the hook. LESSON LEARNED...!

 

 

Star of the show in my opinion was Mr Simon Harris the butcher with a stunning Dragonet, I still haven’t caught one this year and with a New LRF rod that I’ve brought I’m considering making it target number one before the years out.

 

 

 

Earlier in the week I managed a few sessions over the Local rock marks, and I have to they have been fishing incredibly well. One session saw me hit way over 30 fish in a few hours being mackerel, bass and Pollock all coming to the XL isome that will be hitting the UK shelves soon, seriously like the small, medium and large this stuff absolutely rocks! I’ve been using it in its standard length or cut in half on Carolina rigs, texas rigs and jig-heads and either method hit fish big time!

 

 

One of the all day sessions saw me and Richard being chased from mark to mark trying to out run big swell and heavy winds, but out of nowhere Rich pulls out a stunning bass on a white Xlayer mounted on a jig head, top stuff!

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the Random Halloween Blog post, I’m still testing, using and abusing the Sunline RockBite fluorocarbon, am I now becoming a fluorocarbon convert... time will tell.

 

 

Tight Lines!