On Board with the Sunline Team, plus LRF an HRF action!

A few weeks back I mentioned I had some great news that was in the pipe lines, and I can now let the cat out of the bag and announce that I’m now part of the Promotion staff for Sunline. When I got the call I couldn’t have been happier with the offer, I’ve always been a big fan of the Sunline range especially for my LRF angling. The great thing about the call was the appreciation for honest anglers and that it has been noticed that everything I write about on the blog has a picture of the fish to back my words. I love fishing, photography and writing so seeing this blog grow over the last few years has been a passion of mine. To have have Sunline supporting my efforts is an honour.

Check out my Bio pager HERE.

 

You will endeavour to see some product reviews of the Sunline range from time to time, I’m currently using the Rock Bite Fluorocarbon for some LRF projects I’ve been testing, I shall write a full review on this mainline in the next few weeks... all I’m going to say about this project is that it involves LRF tactics and big boulders at night.

 

 

Now for a little humour.. When given the call from Sunline i was asked to go out and get decent photo for the Bio page for NiceFish! Easy I thought, go out, do what I do best and catch a few fish an take some photos.. Wrong! First problem was that the weather has been appalling and falling on poor tides, every time there was a perfect break in the weather I was either working or fishing one of the LRF meets in Weymouth. So I thought a night skirmish for bass might be the best idea, only one problem, I`m on my own and capturing a decent picture of a shining bass is near impossible. So here is one of my failed attempts. No smile and what i call a light bulb fish, when I got home I was gutted! The problem is I rush to get fish safely back in the water causing them as little harm as possible.

 

 

luckily when i caught my first bream on lure my mate Rob was on hand to take a few decent snaps for me.. which is the above photo used on the bio page. cheers buddy!

 

So where are we at with the Local LRF scene, still growing that’s for sure and there have been some stunning fish caught and a few random bonus species like Bill`s lad Sam here with the first cuttlefish that I’ve seen caught from Weymouth stone pier.

 

 

The cuttlefish nailed one of the many pout that we had been catching along the harbour wall, it always amazes me how when LRF fishing a bonus species comes along an makes your day, this cuttlefish certainly put a bend in Sam`s rod.

 

 

There has also been a lot of firsts for the LRF group, with a few species that I haven’t caught myself, like Dorset Fishing Rods Richard Cake`s Dragonet, I have been hunting for this species for over a year now, an he managed this on his first LRF session! He puts it down to his match fishing experience from the course fishing world, mate... when have you ever heard of whacky rigging in course fishing??

Mike from Chesil Bait n Tackle is now becoming a regular every Tuesday so I was well chuffed when his rod bent double as this scad, horse mackerel, AJI call it what you will started ripping line off his reel,  It’s really nice to see one of the tackle shops really embracing LRF and getting involved with the local scene, Chesil Bait n Tackle have really got there kit together with a great selection of top end LRF rods an lures.

 

Right then lads, the second LRF meet we all got our butts kicked by Lolly, if that was a competition she would have won by a mile, as we were all stood around talking lures and what looks best she was there none stop hammering the fish and finding out what catches best.. (Look out Plymouth! She’s our secret weapon)

 

Both me and Scott had a couple of nice Wrasse and Blennies on the LRF gear a few nights back, the colours in Scott’s Green wrasse were stunning.

 

 

With the past few weeks of half decent weather I thought it was time to chase down a few rock pigs, I have to admit it’s been harder than then earlier in the year but they are still there, I’ve been playing around with different Baits an presentations while using HRF tactics. Now I know there is this Line between Bait and Lure anglers but the results you will get if you can open up an cross those lines is incredible!

Pop a peeler crab on a Texas rigged EWG hook and 3.5g cone weight, wrap it up with bait elastic to form a slug with the hook point tucked in the bait making sure the rig is weedless. Cast out and slowly bop it back to your feet, I tried this and ended up having fish after fish on a night I heard others blanked both on lure and bait. There is no tail nipping from smaller fish, missed bites or tackle loss, when a wrasse or Pollock hits this set up its aggressive as hell. I tried this set up with other baits and had mixed results that I shall report on again soon, but if you’re a bait angler not convinced of HRF tactics please give this ago. I’m an ex bait angler now lure angler and this method opened my eyes further.

 

 

To finish off the blog here`s a couple of pictures of Rich from Dorset Fishing Rods, you can see the sort of terrain that we are having to cross to get to these marks, it’s not for the faint hearted! Sadly the fishing was poor over the last few days with only a handful of decent fish between us. That’s not including the 30 or more small fish that Rich had fun winkling out under his feet! Next time I shall take an LRF rod down for some serious fun.

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the read, loads of thanks goes out to Rob Mears for some of the brilliant photos, an again big thank you to the Sunline team.

 Tight lines!

 

 

 

The Tenryu Is Reborn!

At last I have had a good chance to get out and find some Bass to Christen my rebuilt Tenryu Injection, I`ve been so busy the past month with LRF that I was concerned I was going to be out of touch with a few local Bass marks, normally when I’m on a bass hunt I would set at least a 6 hours aside, an plan to cover as much ground as possible, but with everything being so busy I only had a few hours to chase down a wrasse or bass, my first stop was Portland Bill, the tide was flooding fast an things looked perfect for bass but to rough for the wrasse, after 50 or so casts around the rock marks, it was obvious that there was no wrasse, Pollock or bass to be found, I decided to cut my losses an head to Plan B with the final few hours I had left.

Now this mark can throw up some big fish when conditions are right, but you have to approach the mark like a ninja not to scare any fish off, head lights off, and being as quiet as possible is key. When I arrived at this mark I could see the odd fish surfacing, I presumed it must be mullet, as the mullet fill this mark in their thousands, so I waited until the tide had just turned an started to ebb, from previous experience I know the bass are behind a reef at this mark waiting for the ebb to bring food to them. Soon enough the evident sign of bass smashing baitfish was present over the reef, time to lay a cast over the top an fingers crossed get a hit...

Bingo!

Lure of choice was the popular Zonk Gateride in Rainbow Pearl, worked dead slow, to keep it simple on a standard 3000 size reel I’m doing 1 turn of the handle every 2 seconds with the odd pause now and then. This simple method at night has scored me dozens of bass now, and normally a much better size fish than in day light hours. Also I think it`s worth mentioning that waiting for the tide to ebb an gain current pushes the weed down an allows you to work a diving hard lure at this mark. Fishing this mark on a low or high slack water would restrict you to surface lures and weed less soft plastics.

The DFR Injection performed incredibly, now that the rod is balanced and weighs a tone less than standard it’s a dream to use. Richard from Dorset Rods put all my rambling ideas and rebuilt this rod in to something significant;

A custom 1 off titanium butt section with cross hole to fix lanyard for kayak use, and dare I say skishing ... maybe if I man up to it, think I will need a few lessons in Jersey with the Legend Keith White first. The butt section also allows for weights to be added bringing that tip section up past neutral, my personal preference is to have a rod that site between 30 an 45 degrees for HRF. This position also helps a lot when used on a kayak or if waste deep in waders.

Gun smoke PacBay guides make this rod a true down an out rock fishing rod, how many times have I fallen an cracked a plastic or ceramatic tip eye, I’ve lost count.. Call me clumsy but it happens to us all eventually. These PacBay eyes are solid stainless steel inserts that cannot be broken and save a tone of weight from the original titanium eyes that the rod was made with. I had concerns that the eyes may not be braid friendly or fluorocarbon friendly being that the width of these guides are a lot less than standard guides, which could create a kink in fluorocarbon leaders an mainlines on the cast or when under heavy load while playing out a fish. Now I’ve caught a few good fish I need not worried, I’ve had absolutely no problems at all. One thing I will mention, an it’s a minor detail is that these guides are a lot noisier on the cast than the standard guides.. But like I said, minor detail.

Half way through the build I asked Richard if he could bind the last four Guides in a bright white, I remember reading Keith Whites blog on the development of the Century HPR rods, after owning an using the 7.3 HPR having these bindings bright white makes absolute sense. Reason being is most of my bass fishing is done at night and as much as seeing that rod tip at night helps you connect with bites, my biggest reason was to protect the rod from me dropping a foot on the blank while messing with a fish, or when walking along making sure I don’t ram the tip through a fence or between rocks.

When discussing reel seats and how you want your grip to feel is something I had never really thought about, until Richard showed me the dozens of EVA grips and combinations he could build them in. Having to think about how you want your reel seat to screw up or screw down, the length of the grip and width was an eye opener. When I thought about it in depth it made sense to have the reel seat screwing up, as I normally always hold my rod forward away from the reel its self. This would stop the reel seat screwing lose in the palm of my hand, which has driven me mad on a few rods I’ve had in the past.

Next up was the decals an paint job which I left in Richards hands, my only request was to lose the Tenryu paint job to save weight an lose its identity that so many people recognise an want to talk about, when I’m bass fishing it really gets to me when someone shouts out “NICE ROD” or they have to join you on your one man rock to ask you a dozen questions. Seriously I’m fishing not standing at a bar having a chat over a pint!

The decals were kept simple yet stylish completely different to the original boldness that Tenryu had used, to say I’m happy with the rebuild is a understatement, I’m over the moon with it. I have many rods that I am slowly selling now as this DFR rod has become my go to rod for my HRF and bass fishing, the blank has been built how it should have been built in the first place. Richard.. Thank you, your skills are second to none mate, give it a few years of my heavy abuse and I`ll properly be asking you to rebuild it yet again.

Just a quick heads up to the growing Weymouth LRF scene, I`ve put a list together of all the meets for the rest of the year, anyone can come along to these meets, if you get in contact with me before turning up I might just have a spare set of gear for anyone who wants to have a go. These meets are just open meets for fun, so please come along and have a good time fishing.

 Here`s a picture to finish the blog post off, Billy Short with a Red Band Fish, I’ve seen these in a few pictures before, but I haven’t caught one on lure or with bait so I have to take my hat off to him for going out an targeting these fish with LRF gear... I’m jealous mate, but well one indeed!

Hope you enjoyed the read !

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!

Today is the day

It’s the big day at Chesil Bait and Tackle, if you’re a lure mad addict like myself, then get yourself down to;

77 Portland Road
Weymouth
Dorset
DT4 9BE

Meet the Legends Jim and Danny from top water lures, grab a burger off the BBQ, have a cast in the casting pool with some of the top quality bass and wrasse lures. There will also be a raffle being held and some of the prizes are from the tackle giants DUO and Megabass!!!

Scott beauchamp with a stunning Sand Smelt

If you’re interested in a LRF taster session down the harbour then pop in an if I’m available I shall happily take you down and show you how to catch the mini species, like gobies an scorpion fish. Trust me its loads of fun.

Iain Turner with his first LRF Rock Goby

The Olympics are over, the sun is shining! The wind isn’t blowing! We have some brilliant tides falling on sunset tonight, an I can’t think of one place round Weymouth and Portland that wouldn’t be worth casting a lure out for a bass or over some rocks for the wrasse!

See you there....