What A Weekend!

Its weekends like the last that make you wish they were longer, The open day at Chesil Bait n Tackle was a huge success with plenty of people walking away with new ideas an a better insight into HRF an lure fishing for bass, all thanks to Danny an Jim from Top Water Lures. From the minute I walked in the buzz was something special. Walking in to the shop to find the likes of Richard from Dorset Fishing Rods, Matt Jones a member of the Sunline Pro Team, Paul Burridge from the Portland Sea Angling Group. A lot of these people you only hear an speak to over the internet, to get to meet them all face to face on the same day.. Brilliant!

I only had a chance to watch one of Danny’s demonstrations for five minutes, an I certainly wish I had longer to watch because the skills an experience being shown that day were second to none, fingers crossed the guys at the shop hold another open day, because the growing interest in HRF an LRF is incredible.

Now I know there were a few people at the open day that were hoping for a trip down the Harbour, an I do apologise if I was busy or missed you, please get in contact an I shall happily meet you for a session down the harbour. I did however manage to get a couple hours out with Charley, we started off talking the basics of LRF an the concept that any fish can be caught on lure, an soon enough Charley was pulling out Wrasse an Gobys by the numbers. Check out the smile in this picture.. Again the LRF addiction is there.

Half way through the short session we were joined by Matt Jones who is a down an out master of LRF, I felt a bit sorry for Charley because when two anglers who practice LRF come together they don’t shut up for a second talking lures, rods, jig heads, lines, reels the works. After a few dozen casts an a number of common mini species I felt the strangest bite, or what I thought was a bite.. My rod tip was juddering an going, when I struck into the fish I got the strangest surprise.. A greater Pipfish!! The fish coiled itself up my line until it reached the surface, when we landed the fish I have to be honest here.. It was foul hooked but more in a lasso kind of way so the fish was completely unharmed.

Thanks for the pictures Matt!

As soon as we got back to the shop I saw Charley eyeing up the Zalts an solpara, two fantastic rods, I cant remember if an which one he brought but fingers’ crossed I shall see him down the rocks or round the harbour sometime, Or meeting the newly formed Weymouth LRF crew! There has been a lot of talk for a few months now about getting everyone together, so a few emails an phone calls later saw the all smiling all singing LRF crew hit the harbour last night. Now I know if we could have got all the people that live local to Weymouth we would have had over 20 anglers but to see the 10 of us show was amazing! How times have changed, as this time last year I was the only one I knew walking round Weymouth casting 1g jigheads an 1inch lures.

Here’s a cracking photo of what fishing is all about, Mike handing his rod over an showing a young family how to catch mini species using LRF.

There was plenty of fish caught, Pollock, Pout, a cracking Wrasse for James, a few Scorpion fish through out the group, 3 species of Goby that I saw but more importantly there was 4 leopard spotted Gobies, three of which were caught By Iain.. Lucky we had both James an Rob who are professional photographers.

Something I would like to add is a big thank you to Mike at Chesil Bait n Tackle for a bunch of discorgers he kindly gave the LRF crew. For anyone who doesn’t have one of these handy please invest in one for LRF as they cost pennies an save so many fish when deeply hooked. I’ve found this happens a lot when using the split shot rig an any hook under size 14 can be a nightmare to remove. So please please consider using one.

Hope you enjoyed the read, going to try an get out on the rocks the weekend an chase down the bass an wrasse with the rebuilt Tenryu Injection… CANT WAIT!!!

Tigh lines!