First of all big apology for the lack of blog posts over the last few weeks, January was one of those months that life and work had to take a stand over fishing, this doesn't happen often, but when it does its normally for good reason, and it has been, to add to the strain the weather hasn't been able to make its mind up and trying to plan a successful trip has been a nightmare, we have had snow, rain, floods and gales that have broken a lot of the met office records for this time of year. On the plus side I've managed to spend a lot more quality time with my folks who live near Cerne Abbas where when they get snow.. Its proper snow! Check out these snaps from one of the walks me and lolly had one weekend, when we took a trip to the pub.
I have managed a few trips out, one of which saw me Lolly, Iain Turner and Simon Harris head out to Portland bill for a quick LRF Pollock bash , right on queue the Pollock showed up and gave us some sporting fun, nothing to big to sing home about but when fishing has been this poor anything that pulls our string is a bonus.
It also gave me the opportunity to try out a hook presentation I put together a few weeks back, I have to thank Mr Paul Burridge, as after a long conversation about his bait fishing days and giving me tip after tip that certainly got my grey matter sparking, I would love to say more about what I learnt but he would properly kill me for giving up his secrets… but I’m in the clear to let you guys see this simple trick.. Honestly since I've used this I've saved a packet on ragworm and imitation lures, they take five minutes to make and cost next to nothing, its not a new idea as the course fishing guys have been using this tip for paste based baits for years, and I've heard of guys also using this tip for mullet when using bread flake.
Simple and highly effective, even when using EWG weedless hooks using the spring to lock lures in place that would normally slide off the eye of the hook, especially the likes of Isome and Burkleys Gulp sand worms, which can be a nightmare to fish with standard weedless hooks and Carolina rigs.
Today I managed to do a recon mission with Iain, I've had my eye on this place for a little while now, but never took the time to adventure and cast a line to see what’s out there, and damn how I regret doing so, I've properly driven past this place hundreds of times each year while out on fishing adventures, within my first few casts along a steep drop off that must have a good 12 feet of water at the base, I got the tell tale nibble and bites from a wrasse, striking into the fish saw the Yamaga rod bend double, FISH ON!
After a surprising long scrap this stunner was in my hands, I couldn't drag this fish in as I was only using a 6LB mainline braid with a 10LB leader, check out the missing section of this dudes dorsal fin. Poor guy must have picked a fight with the wrong fish in his earlier years.
We couldn't stay any longer than we did due to a flooding tide that would have cut us off big time, neither of us had waders on due to thinking our recon mission was going to be more hiking rather than fishing but next time.. Waders will be a must, also i would just like to note.. the above picture makes me look a lot larger than before Xmas, this isn't because of my Xmas dinner but the fact i`m wearing a flotation vest.. just saying.. also please ignore the double chin.
Hope you enjoyed the read guys, fingers crossed ill get out and fish more in the coming weeks, but I’m sure we have a lot more snow on the way according to the recent forecast.
Tight lines.
