And so it begins...

Fishing the past few weeks has been awesome to say the least. Tides the past few days have been perfect for the bass whilst the smaller ones beforehand were great for some daytime action with the wrasse. There's even been the opportunity to get out and bag a dinner fish or two to accompany the abundance of salad and veg coming from the garden at the moment.

As the month began I was determined to venture out just to get the lure bag organised. I've still been carrying too much plastic so in an attempt to thin things down I had a few sessions of quick fire action to determine which ones would be best to carry on my adventures. There's just no way of sensibly working through so many lures in one session and if anything it just confuses me. When things are slow I often go into overdrive and start frantically swapping from lure to lure in hope of finding the game changer, this never helps and I'm hoping a more slender selection will see me put in a more sensible amount of time with each lure in the water. 

Stuart and I have been focusing on the wrasse as usual in hope of bettering our personal bests, it's always a good days sport and you can rely on some stunning colours and patterns from these beautiful fish.

I defy anyone not to enjoy a day on the wrasse, especially if other target species are not playing ball and I'm always keen to encourage friends to give it a try. My good friend Dylan came down for a few days fishing and with conditions a little challenging to say the least, we opted for some shelter and got stuck in at one of my favourite rocky venues. I've been told I'm not always the most accommodating of companions at times so hats off to Dylan for putting up with me for the duration. After a quick debriefing he was perched on a rock with a box of senko's and some nose weights, it was literally minutes before he shouted over to indicate he was into his first ever lure-caught wrasse.

As I said conditions weren't the best but we nailed a few fish regardless, I'm hoping you enjoyed it Dylan and will return at some point when the weather is better!

Finally as I had mentioned earlier on this year I was hoping to focus a little more on the bass this season. That means forgetting the wrasse for the odd session and with that in mind I headed out last night for the last hours of daylight with the conditions looking perfect for my intended quarry. 

I was lucky enough to get amongst a few fairly quickly with the odd pollock getting involved in the action too. All in all a great little session and the first of many this year I hope! 

Thanks for reading!

Just a few April wrasse

Bar the last few days of inexcusably British weather, the season is well and truly off to decent start. The mackerel have showed on occasion although not in numbers, bass and mullet have entered the harbour and the ballan wrasse have been setting up residence along our favourite rocky marks. Just a few photos this time to whet the appetite. I’m hoping there will be some serious fish to remember this year.. Thanks for reading!

First bass of the year and a personal best..

Things have been really hotting up on the saltwater front and with that in mind it was time to make the journey to one of our favourite kelpy marks to try and hunt down the first of the decent wrasse with the possibility of a nice bass or two.

The afternoon tides were looking perfect and conditions on arrival couldn’t have been better. Water clarity was pretty decent, sun was scorching and without the slight breeze you could have been mistaken for thinking it was a summer’s day. We took a brief hike to our mark and after stashing our pockets with a few packets of softies we got about wading out towards a nice drop off and a jungle of kelp. Things had really settled down and at this point I could still see the bottom, I set about casting my texas rigged worm in hope of drawing out a wrasse but after a few chucks I had a double take when I saw a huge bar of silver pacing up behind my lure. Only about 10 feet away it had a quick nip and then came to a lazy halt, it was at this point I realised the girth of the fish and was in no doubt that it was indeed a very large resident bass. Within seconds I had recovered my lure and recast a few feet behind the fish and as I twitched it slowly past his eye I watched in awe as he casually turned his head and hoovered in my offering. That serene moment of concentration was instantly broken as I set my hook home and the fish turned to make its first run. Not having dealt with a bass of that size before I was instantly taken by the immense, methodical runs such a fish can make. It was a frantic few minutes and 50 yards or so off shore with water up to my thighs I think it took me a moment to get things under control and then turn to my friend and signal that I had a serious fish on. Whilst working my way backwards to a dry ledge I went through a series of surges with the fish and each time I managed to recover some line it instantly responded by stripping it straight back. I finally made it back into a couple of feet of water and at this point the fish was looking as if it was just about ready to tire. My friend James had now joined me and offered to help out and with the fish at rest it was then that it all went a bit wrong. I won’t go into details as I can’t lose any more sleep over it but let’s just say it was the quickest catch and release in the history of fishing. As the hook was plucked free I managed to cradle the fish for a second as we gazed on in awe and saw for a moment the true girth of the beast. It was indeed a cracker and as much as a photo would have been a great memento it was in fact given the upmost respect it had deserved. A quick flick of the tail and it was all over, ‘proper fish that’... said James...

        

After losing another smaller fish shortly after and having a couple more takes I decided to turn my attention to old faithful. Good old Mr wrasse! It didn’t take long before I had a lovely ballan for a quick consolation photo.

Having convinced myself it was bad luck to return today I opted for a local LRF therapy session instead to help the wounds to heal. I was healthily rewarded with some lovely corkwing wrasse (one of which was a definite pb) followed by an hour of ‘fish a chuck’ pollocking up until sunset. I’ll leave you with a few photos, thanks for reading as always!

LRF pollock

Things have definitely been improving around the harbour but in typical British fashion, just as things pick up, some nasty weather comes along to spoil it all. I've been out this week to check on some favourite marks and its quite shocking to finally see the devastation that our turbulent last few months have actually caused to our beloved coastline. Plenty of new cliff falls have taken place and in some areas the immense battering from the sea has actually taken sections of the rock ledges we once fished which have cracked off and disappeared to now become part of the sea bed. A reality check it has been indeed and after months of fishing the river, being perched on an outcrop with seas pounding at the cliffs surrounding you certainly awakens the senses to say the very least.

Despite the conditions, I have found some fish and after the first wrasse of the year I was more than happy when I managed to locate my first few pollock of 2014 during a brief LRF session one evening after work. After nailing a few gobies I started getting a few bites on the drop and managed to stay with a small shoal as they worked their way along the harbour wall.

Only small but very welcome to feel the takes nonetheless. Hopefully a sign that the bigger fish aren't far behind. 

The change over

What a year it's been already! I fished right the way to the last day of the coarse fishing season landing some lovely pike on the light gear and also the odd surprise bonus-species. My hard drive is literally rammed full of photos, too many to upload without looking picture heavy so here's a few.

Wire traces and other such essentials have been stashed away until next season and the tackle bags have been rearranged in preparation for some long days on the salt. 

I've already been out for a quick LRF session to readjust from the freshwater and was happy when I began to connect with my first salt water mini-species of the year. Quite a contrast to the pike I've been nailing on a regular basis but a small early wrasse gave me a brief reminder of why they are once again going to be at the top of my target list this year. Can't wait to start hunting hunting down a new Pb in the coming months.

Lure fishing the floods

After what seems like an eternity the rivers are finally beginning to drop and with only a couple of weeks left of the coarse fishing season it was time to make the journey to one of my favourite fresh water lure-fishing venues.

After a final check on the river levels I set off this morning with an open mind. I have been fishing on a lake for the past few months which in reality has been a godsend with the floods, I've been nailing some cracking pike like the one below but after 100 or so circuits of the same venue week after week I was really looking forward to being back on the wild water of the river.

On arrival it became apparent that the river levels were still quite high, much of the footpaths were still underwater and for a moment I briefly considered getting back in the car and travelling to a different venue. Something I soon was glad that I decided against.

After a quick wade down the footpath I came across my first sunken tree and with that a small eddy which seemed like a likely holding area for any fish staying out of the main current. After a quick twitch I could see there was a good level of visibility despite the raging currents and after only a few casts I was met by some resistance resulting in my first pike of the day. 

Slightly in shock at how quickly I had landed a fish I got a quick photo and carried on down the path until I came across the next pocket of slack water. Once again I let my lure fall to the river bed and after a twitch again, bang.. another fish on.. 

I quickly realised after another few fish in quick succession that pretty much every little bit of slack water was holding one or maybe two pike that were nailing anything that drifted into their zone. I really didn't have to work too hard and literally letting my lure drop and then holding it back in the slack was resulting in a fish at almost every peg. Over the course of four or so hours I had the best session I've had for quite some time, as soon as the fish were hooking up they would instantly make a run for the main current, doubling the speed of their escape and making it easy for them to strip line off my reel at a fairly scary rate. A heavy pike on light gear is one thing but combine that with the currents from the floods and you've got some serious screaming reels action!

I tallied up 14 fish landed, lost 2 and unhooked a good teen in the water that was too tired and angry to be banked. Most fish were caught in the margins which would usually be the river bank and one I actually nailed right next to a submerged footpath. Lures of choice were the awesome Orka Shad Tails and Tiki Paddletails, two of my favourites for the freshwater!

Safe to say it was a pretty epic session, I really wouldn't have expected such a result with the rivers in that state! What I should say though is if you're thinking of giving this a bash in the coming weeks, do be ultra careful. The banks are really unsafe as I was reminded of on a few occasions when landing and returning fish. On that note I'd better go and clean up that pile of muddy tackle and clothing I dumped at the door earlier..

Tight lines and stay safe out there!!