Mixing it up

With another year coming ever closer to its conclusion, it’s been time to tackle up and set about making the most of what’s left of the warmer weather and the marine species that come with it.

Last week I made a trip down to Portsmouth to meet my old mate Dylan Floyd, a talented artist and also a keen lure fisherman. As we had both spent time as students in Portsmouth it was nice to meet up and reminisce over old times; even though, as we recollected moments, the both of us agreed that most memories were at the very least, rather hazy! Faded memories aside, we got down to exploring a few marks which with the very windy conditions, proved to be fruitless. A last ditch effort as the day came to an end saw me resort to twitching a small jighead and piece of XL Power Isome in front of some feeding mullet. Surprisingly this resulted in a fairly instant hook up and then having to lead a decent fish back along a pier and to a promenade where I was able to reach down and grab it. Realising that neither of us had a camera it was returned quickly as I ran back to the car to retrieve my phone hoping I could catch another mullet for a photo; then realising half way that my phone was actually in my jacket pocket! Doh! Anyhow back in position, the mullet were still feeding and again I managed to tempt one with the Isome, this time much bigger and seemingly the leader of the group as all the other fish fled at the sight its struggle. Again the fight lead me back down the pier, passing my MC Crostage around lamp posts, then down some stairs and onto the prom again. Overly excited I reached down for the fish and after grabbing the leader, a firm shake came from the fishes head and off he went! In all honesty I had no business attempting to land such a monster on light gear, from a pier and without a landing net but as we were exploring new ground and had caught little else, the tantalising sight of them feeding proved too much and I walked away having learnt a valuable lesson. Always be prepared!!

Back to my home ground and in preparation for the coming months I have been busy exploring some freshwater marks in hope of some winter sport on the local rivers. Having met up with Stuart we decided to try some of the free stretches on the local River Stour and we were far from disappointed. On the first occasion we found ourselves wading down a lovely stretch targeting perch from some of the deeper eddies and even the odd trout from the shallower runs. (My first wild brown trout on light SP's!)

On another trip we headed to a different stretch again having some great fun on the perch, chub and pike with Stu landing fish of the day from right beneath his feet on a 3” Ecogear minnow.

 My attempts to better it with a pike after nailing a few on a previous evening session resulted in more, smaller perch.

I am gradually learning with the pike, never having really targeted them before that they really do prefer bigger lures. Plenty have followed my 3” lures right to the bank before turning their noses up as if to say “you expect me to chase that!?” They definitely think about how their energy used will convert to a decent enough meal. Smaller lures just seem to attract small pike and I’ll be trying some bigger plastics to see if that does the trick in some forthcoming sessions.

Finally I've been hitting the salt and with some needed encouragement from good friend James Hearn we got stuck into what turned out to be a rather wet, but extremely eventful day on a local rock mark. I met James last year and whilst being a successful top-water fanatic he has also recently been experimenting with all things LRF. After a couple of hours throwing various softies, metals and hard lures to no avail, it was time for James to shine and by fishing small pieces of Berkley Gulp Sandworm he proceeded to hand me my dignity on a plate as he began to nail wrasse, after wrasse, after wrasse.. After about half an hour I had to admit that the scented stuff was doing the damage and when he kindly offered me a piece, I rigged it up and was instantly able to break my duck and land my first few fish.

After a well-needed confidence booster from the Gulps I got back to searching around in the deeper water in hope of some mackerel for my tea and maybe a bonus bass. James - who by now was having so much fun with the Gulp worms, was beginning to experiment with his rigging and presentation, continuing to catch fish after fish, he was starting to get the odd decent one mixed in too.

Fair play to him, I think we lost count of how many he caught on the Gulp's but there were a fair few and to be honest I was feeling well and truly beaten. Not that it’s a competition; well we all know it is, and that’s what drives us to try harder and out-fish our peers.

Luckily my endless chucking of metals began to pay off and as the pollack turned up for their evening feed so too did the garfish and mackerel giving me a few well earned scraps and just as importantly, something tasty for supper and dinner the following night.

Until next time, thanks for reading as always!