Light Line Advice & Late Seasons Beginners Luck Portland

Something I keep hearing here and there, is that people are struggling with some of the lighter PE lines that they are investing into, be it wind knots, leader knots and general care, now there is no doubt that some of the PE lines that have been slowly entering the UK market from makers such as Sunline, Varivas and YGK are incredible, the day I started using the light game PE lines last year was a turning point for myself and in some cases took my fishing to new levels, but trust me it hasn’t been all plain sailing, I’ve had my fair share of bank account breaking wind knots that have put a session to an abrupt end, now I’ve heard and read so many different bits of advice about preventing wind knots like under filling your spool (which certainly helps) and wetting your new line before spooling up, but the biggest and most effective bit of advice that I came across was... After each cast check your spool and line lay, now to any armature anglers out there this could mean anything so I’m now going to try and kill two birds with one stone and explain this without going into two much detail.  

 

Check out the picture above where the arrow is pointing, this is damage from a fall, either by myself or when I’ve lent the reel to someone, it happens to all of us at some point while out fishing on slippery rocks or when trying to land a fish etc, I’m properly becoming one of the biggest self confessed  tackle tarts out there, but this is the reason I normally don’t buy into over expensive reels that in one season could end up worthless, this is just minor damage but can have an expensive knock on effect where expensive braids are concerned especially the lighter kind, this next picture high lights just what can happen.. The begging of a nightmare.

 

 

 

This situation normally occurs as soon as you flick the bale arm over after a cast or if you’re really unfortunate when using surface lures when there is repetitive slack in the line during the retrieve while using poppers, this however normally goes unnoticed and where under filling your spool greatly helps, if you were to carry on reeling in and filling your spool with your line like this than on your next few cast you are almost guaranteed an epic wind knot or a loop of knots that would either mean losing a casts worth of line or cutting out the knot and rejoining your mainline, which if you have OCD like me, will drive you wild knowing it’s there and could become week point while playing out a fish.

 

 

If you are having these troubles I suggest you have three options, one spend out on a new spool or two spend out on a new reel, which in some cases a spare spool can cost as much as £50 plus for the likes of Shimano Stella’s and Van Staal`s. OR option three which I have been doing now for a couple years, polish out the small dents and scratches, when using Light Game PE lines even small scratches across the spool lip can cause loss of casting distance and accuracy, increased line wear as the abrasive scratches on the spool will gradually cut the micro fibres that make up the line, I normally use a very fine grit wet and dry paper and gradually polish out the scratches taking away as little material as I can, getting carried away here and removing silly amounts of material can cause you even more trouble so a little common sense is required, if you have access to a lathe then a consistent amount of material can be removed and polished being as careful as possible, It may not look pretty and shiny but at least it will save you a small fortune.

 

 

The past few weeks here in the south west have seen some absolute dire weather, with major flooding being seen across the nation, the problem with the flooding is all that water inland will eventually head out to sea and in that process knocks out one of my favourite places to fish.. Weymouth harbour, if I was so some up what the harbour looked like earlier in the week I would say one word MUD, from past experiences I know it’s just not worth trying the harbour there is plenty more sport to be had by travelling out of town a little, as did the Tuesday night LRF crew, who ended up at Portland Bill for the evening.

 

 

To my surprise most of the small group that braved the weather brought the bigger bassing gear in hope of a late season silver bar or some bigger Pollock, but sadly nothing showed for the guys using larger plugs and even Bait which surprised me, the few that brought LRF gear won the day with a handful of hard earned Pollock, check out Mike and Lolly here with the fish that saved their day.

 

I feel sorry for the above fish!

 

 

 

 

Today I woke up bright an early to picked my old work colleague up Iain for a trip down the East side of Portland, after defrosting the car and putting on my thermal socks for the first time this year, I could tell this was going to be an awesome morning, there was little to no wind and the past few days have been very settled, so I was expecting some crystal clear waters and some perfect conditions for some wrasse action.

 

 

Sorry about the small smudge on the lenses.. So annoying

 

 

 

Iain’s fishing experience is very minimal and I had my fingers crossed for something decent to show, lending him the7.3 Century HPR I decide to keep the morning simple and get him used to bites, and fighting fish I decided to take some of Chesil Bait n Tackles awesome ragworm, soon enough Iain was smiling and pulling into a decent fish! Talk about beginner’s luck, that’s Iain’s first Ballan Wrasse!!

 

 

Seriously, well done Iain mate, well chuffed for you!

 

I was switching between ragworm, Marukyu Isome and Burkleys Gulp worms throughout the morning with mixed results, trying to distinguish which is better is a hard decision, as all three have their pros and cons, standard ragworm got a lot of attention from smaller fish and doesn’t last on the hook for long, isome singles out the slightly larger fish, yet struggles to stay on the hook due to its soft nature, Burkleys gulp worm stays on the hook a lot longer but gains less attention.

 

 

BUT its early days and making any final decisions will take a lot more time, I will properly find that each bait has a time and place where they will out fish each other, time will tell.

 

 

 

I managed a few half decent fish out of a small glory hole that seems to throw up fish every time I fish this area, accurate cast are required to run the edge of a submerged boulder just visible on a sunset, and nearly invisible on a sunrise due to the sun being too low.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the read everyone, fingers crossed the good fishing will last through the winter and the settled weather continues, I had a small LRF session yesterday after work in the harbour, and conditions have defiantly improved with a few bites here and there, no Flounder this time round but plenty of larger scorpion fish and gobies to keep our selves occupied.