Carp-e Diem

The past month has seen me make some big life changes, one of the biggest being a change of job and a change of career, I've worked in the same company now for ten years as a CNC lathe  programmer setter and operator, for any man or women ten years is along time to stand at the same machines doing the same thing day in day out, I needed change big time. and the change came when I got the phone call for an inspection roll at one of the most advance aerospace companies in the south west, to say I was over the moon was an understatement, not only is this a new job and change of scenery this is a completely new roll all together, new challenges and a whole new roll to learn and sink my teeth into, Just like when I first read about LRF, HRF and plugging, making that first step is the biggest challenge and finding faith in your choices is the first reward, I've been working at the new company now for two weeks and already have that feeling of when I first caught that first bass, the moment you realise that all the research and blanks suddenly starts paying off. 

I owe a massive thank you to the those that have helped me over the past couple weeks get to grips with everything from software to equipment.. whether you guys ever read this or not, I'm truly thankful and one day I hope I can repay the favour. 

So hows the fishing been for me these past few weeks, the sessions I've managed to get out for have all be productive now the summer species have really kicked in to gear, I haven't managed to get up early like i used to to chase some of the bigger specimens, but it hasn't stopped me catching, Me and Lolly were joined by Andrew Mytton for a afternoon LRF session over Portland Bill and we had some great fun testing out some Berkley Gulp sandworms, strait from the word go.. Andrew was slamming fish on the Major Craft KG lights rod. 

Like me Andrew likes to mix it up and see what works best, we used all sorts of rigs from jig-heads to texsas rigging, we even had ragworm at hand, like always the ragworm found small fish strait away, but we lost tackle due not being able to effectively rig it weedless, soon as we used the Gulp sandworms we could fish effectively around the boulders and kelp without fear of snagging, thus finding some the bigger fish.. 

By the end of the evening I was surprised that Andy hadn't hooked a Pollock, right now over at Portland Bill the Pollock are crawling up the rocks, catching them on light gear like we were is awesome fun, I'm sure Andy would advise anyone to have a crack at it, I took Andy to a favourite rock perch of mine in search of that Pollock, determination was on our side, I'm sure it was one those moments when he said "right this is it, last cast" and sure enough, fish on!

Both me and Lolly have noticed a huge increase in the amount of anglers now fishing some of are favourite marks, now I don't believe this is because I have advertised them because some places I fish that I've been shown I wouldn't dare take a picture at, but its the shear growth in the sport, I remember only a few years back I wouldn't meet another guy with a lure rod in his hand, everyone used to fish bait and carry broom sticks around with them, so me and lolly brought a boat, not exactly a big boat but a half decent dingy with a outboard.. I've managed a couple trips out on it so far and already caught a new PB Mackerel, I swear when I hooked this fish I thought it was a bass on speed or something, it ripped the Sunline Rockfish PE off the spool like it was going out of fashion, if only every mackerel were this big in our waters.

(please excuse the picture quality, I'm not going to take £xxx DSLR out to sea with me on a dingy)

Also been catching plenty of Pollock out of Portland harbour, next investment for the dingy will be a fish finder, not necessarily to find fish but to find structure, when your out on the water looking down in to the depths you have no idea what's down there, if there's anything I've learnt over the years is that structure equals fish.

Me and Lolly also managed a quick trip to the lakes for a bit of LRF sporting fun, now we could have taken the easy route and used a pinch of bread on a size 14 hook, but that would just be to easy, we like challenges and when looking through the endless baits and artificials available to us at Revels fishery tackle shop we came across these little dynamite balls!

As you are already probably gathering, my faith in the Berkley Gulp range is growing by the day, not only does this stuff stay on the hook (hair rigged) it doesn't dissolve within five minutes. I managed to stalk the margins for over and hour in search of the bigger fish and still the bollie was as good as new, even after hooking this chunk.

This fish gave me an absolute blast of a fight on the Blue Current 80, this rod goes everywhere with me now, coupled with the shimmano 2500 C14 and Sunline Rockfish PE its an amazing set up, it would pay to say now that a lot of fisheries don't allow the use of braided mainlines, but after talking to the powers that be at the lake, we agreed that using 3ft or more 10LB mono or flouro leader would avoid any fin damage to fish. yes there are a lot of opinions on this subject, but fish safety comes first.

Today I was lucky enough to bump into a really nice chap called Graham Rainbow over at Portland bill, from what I gather he had been trying for a bass with not a lot of luck for a few hours, I decided to pitch a cast just in front of him, it wasn't long and the Blue Current 80 was bending into a small critter of a wrasse.

The fish wasn't of great size, but the chap soon came running over the rocks to investigate what I was doing differently, after a five minute chat and a quick demo about lures and weedless presentation the chap was hooked on the idea of nailing wrasse, I gave him a couple of old Ecogear jigheads I had in my bag along with some new lures I've been trying out for JacksLRF and left him to it, I didn't want to be one of those guys that come along and ruin some guys peaceful mornings fishing by blabbering on about fishing.

I soon saw him waving out to me from his rock and it was like magic to me, this guy had never before caught a wrasse let alone heard about catching them on soft plastics.. and this was his prize, again not a big fish.. but a wrasse all the same, and it was one of those stunning green ones that always look amazing for photos.

I hope he remembers the name of this blog so he gets to see the write up and pictures, I'm sure he's now got the soft plastic bug that's gripping the sea fishing scene here in the UK 

It wasn't long before the weather started to turn, the waves started building and the fish pushed off out of my casting range, my last fish of the day was this small ballan on one of the lures I'm testing out, doesn't seem to matter what colour I use at the moment the wrasse are loving them!

Hope you enjoyed the read and lets hope I can catch something a bit bigger for the next write up.