Making the most of it......

Well the weather is getting from Bad to Fudging shocking! and its proper shafted my fishing! with all still waters and a couple rivers being totally frozen solid and have been now for almost a month! with temps not leaving the minus's throughout the day! we even have over a foot of snow fallen over the weekend its making fishing out of my reach!

Soooooo i thought id go through a few Lures im currently putting through there paces, some new some old but all still catching "when" i manage to get to the water.....

Going to start with my Trusty Sebile Magic Swimmers in the Hard swimbaits and of coarse my Fav the Magic Swimmer Soft. Both these lures ranging in size from the 62sk standard swimmer and 100mm soft, to the 228ssk beast standard swimmer and the impressive 200mm soft swimmer! coming in a serious amount of colours from the garrish blues and greens like Peacock(NI2) and Chartreuse Holo(M5) to the really awesome naturals like Rainbow Trout(NRT) above, to the likes of BlueGill and White Perch (NBG-NK2)These lures have actioned to be seen to be believed! iv used the Soft swimmers 130mm allot recently for its totally natural appearence and swimming action its Soft Weight System is the key here! you can alter the actions decents by adjusting the Soft tunsten weights forwards of into the lure depending on your style, also being weedless its the lure to use in and around the heavy cover. The standard Swimmer is the King of swimbaits with throughwire construction, to full Owner hookage (st-46 on larger sizes and St-36 for all else) these lures cover it all, the pike on one of my local venues go completely crosseyed for them and they provoke such mental attacks! the three models FSK, SK and SSK cover all situations! truly one of my Fav lures.

This time of year i like to fish lures nice and Slow close to the structures or bottom this is where Softbaits come into there own, there are literally thousands and thousands of Companys making alsorts of good baits out there today, from Japanese super brands to the western greats such as Savage Gear etc. But one of my favorite Brands that make some blinding lures Hard and Soft MegaBass....... those of you who follow salt water lure sites like http://www.henry-gilbey.com/ and other sites and forums will know this brand well! with the likes of the Zonk's and Xpods holding up the Hardbaits and the likes of these two beauties, the SpindleWorm and Xlayer's :-) now iv used both to amazing effect in salt water here and over in Ireland for Pollack, Wrasse and Bass but these stunners also kick the competition in the nuts with there Innovative designs and lure styles, The Xlayer being the Lure above they come in 3-4 different sizes in endless hand poured colours these lures either fished on jigs or weedless on offset worm style hooks really do offer endless styles to fish for Perch, Chub, Zander and of coarse Pike! the Xlayers are truly a legend in there own with tons of fish appeal with the Ribs and crease causing vibrations also a neat little tail rattle it really does the business! i fish mine on a light jig with anice sized hook fished really aggresive making the lure almost walk the dog under the surface! a true slash bait! The spindle worm really coming into its own for winter Perch! you can rig on a jig and slowely crawl this lure tight to the bottom, the tail naturally paddles away the perch just love them! Spindle worms do have there own problems though! due to them being made with Vios they WILL react with all over baits, and literally melt the lot! these need keeping together in there neat little packet apart from that hold on tight!

These lures above are from the Massively popular Delelande range, the white lure being the impressive GT-shads and the lure below the Buster shad. these lures again are ideally suited for perch and pike! with the GT-shads coming in various sizes right up to 8inch in a massive range of colours they are a very dence lure with a quick sink rate, the rubber is very tough and good with toothy critters like Pike and Zeds as you can see i rig mine with owner stingers which i make up in varied lengths to suit differnt situations. the Buster shad is one of my favorite shads with the articulated tail section and holes through the wrist of the tail giving this shad a mental action! it wriggles soooo much it almost feels like a plug on the line SERIOUS again comes in a numerous amounts of sizes to 6inches in a wicked amount of colours. shads can be fished on sooo many ways its best left to the fisherman to figure out but these to work very well! all of the above lures were sent to me by http://www.basslures.co.uk/ Nick and the gang over there will sort you out with all ya pred needs why not check them out.

Also dont forget the newest "in the know" forum packed with goodies from guys right across the board some come on join in! www.jerseybassguides.com/rockfishing

Hopefully be out fishing soon as the ice and snow fudges off, have a good christmas and new years guys

Danny

Couple hours out

Brrrrrrrr its fudging cold!! Managed a few hours on a local river this weekend, with hopes of Pike and possible perch and Chub. we fished some known stretches that are stuffed with Pike etc with stunning slow deep bends, over hanging trees rafts of weed behing sunken snags it just screams fish! i had a hit from a Pike of around 2lb almost instantly but the little bugger wouldnt take again! soon after a Tiny Perch ruched up behind the Shad talk about eyes bigger than its belly! Martin had on the trusty Sonic spinner but managed to wang it strate into some snags deep into a slow corner losing the first lure of the session! things started to slow, the water was freezing cold conditions looked amazing over cast skys great colour to the water it just wasnt happening! we found some lovely looking swims tight to trees on our bank that when Martin manages to whip a small Jack out from the tree roots, the way it stayed deep made me think he had nailed a decent perch!

Martin caught his Pike on a trust twin tail on a Gama jig deadly on the right conditions! i soon whipped out the proper gear, sticking to the Sebile soft magic swimmer 130 in BlueGill the colours and action of this lure are amazing and one of my all time favorite lure since i was given them by Nick at TopWater over a year ago! but as hard as i tried skipping this lure under bushes and trees into all the likely holes nothing! it was really trying my skills to find the fish that are normally crawling these swims! it just wasnt happening! we fished a section a good 3miles long with only one follow to show for it! the water was soooooo cold the jacks we caught were shockinly cold and i reckon these fish are all holding up in the deeper water untill temps change! still it was good to get out shame we coudnt fish one of the local canals due to ice but next time fingers crossed!!

Cross Over's

Good evening guys, please check out a article i recently put together for Keith over at JerseyBassGuides! we are going to do more Cross over articles throughout 2011 ill put up some HRF/LRF stuff on here and he will be sticking up my Freshwater antics!
http://www.jerseybassguides.com/bassfish/blog1.php/2010/12/08/night-pike-a-guest-article-by-danny-parkins
Keiths stuff on his blog is always worth a read as these guys are truly a step above the rest in my eyes with the way they are pushing the techniques myself and my friends love to be involved in.
dont forget the new must see forum if your partial to a bit of salt water luring :-)

Danny

Dangling in Dorset

As promised heres the report from my good mate Adrian and his angling antics this weekend!


"I wasn’t sure whether to go sea or river today but decided on the river as I fished the sea all last weekend and I haven’t fished the river for ages. So I dug out the UL gear, tied on a 20lb single strand titanium leader and off I went.
There was still a lot of snow and ice on the ground and I couldn’t get to park in my usual spot so had to walk a little way to the river. When I got there the water level was still quite low but the flow was reasonable and there was the right amount of clarity, about 3-4ft.
2nd swim upstream I hooked this little jack, about a pound or so, on a Rapala jointed Shad-rap 4cm.

Good, I thought, the fish must be "on". But spoke to soon as I didn’t get another take for nearly 2 hours. Had a pike of about 5lb on for about 5 seconds, then it was off.
Nothing again for 1/2hr so I thought I’d start making my way back to the car, and maybe go bassing somewhere. So, fishing back downstream, I then had these 2 jacks, both in the same swim. One about 4 lb and the other about 5lb.
and

Moved down to the last swim and decided "last cast".
Fish on. After a short fight I landed and weighed it at 13lb7oz. My best pike this winter so far. By now it was raining hard so I had another couple of casts (had another tiny jack) then packed up back to the car.

On the way home to pick up the bass gear I changed my mind and thought I’d fish a different stretch of the same river. When I got there, the water was beginning to rise due to the rain and the snow melt and was becoming more coloured but I thought I’d give it a go. 3 casts and I had this lovely, deep bodied chub on - 6lb4oz.. That was the only fish in about and hour and a half. It was still raining hard, so I packed up and called it a day."

Id say thats a pretty good session!! nice to be out evenin if it is wet and cold! thanks again Ady keep up the good work! it'll soon be our Perch session time of year!

Danny

F-F-F-F-F-Freeeezing

Alrite Guys, managed a day out finally! Me Jimbo O'donnell from http://www.fishinginflorida.co.uk/ and Fatboy (shaun) headed out on this very cold -7 friday morning! a quick pit-stop in Mak d's then off to the tackle shop to pick up the day tickets, i wont go into the conversation that happened in the tackle shop! good job we all knew each other because we would of prob been arrested :-) ha ha ha i blame Jimbo myself! a quick 15mins drive and we were at the venue of choice, one of the pike rivers i fish fairly aften it looked awesome! still with snow covering most of the fields and the water looking very dark and moody Perfect pike fishing conditions!

While Jimbo and Shaun fished Deadbaits i of coarse stuck with various soft plastics, starting out with 5 and 6inch Cannible shads fishing them tight to the bottom following the contours hoping for a big Pike or chub to nail them behind the snags. while Jimbo pitched up a little trap of Lamprey and sprats in the pools behinds submerged trees and features. after half hour of fishing i managed to get a few chases but they just wouldnt nail the bait, i reckon the brilliant blue skys and awfull temp's just pushed the fish down! Jimbo was the first to connect with a fish as the float bobbed away and sailed up stream against the flow and then charged off back down stream, Jimbo cranks down hard and strikes the 10ft fox aqaus twig stalker looped over with massive head shakes and huge boils on the surface of 8-9ft water this fish was giving its best to not come out of the swim, i clambered down the slippery frozen banks and the fish spat the hooks!!! Gutted after a swear word or two the baits soon got wacked strate back out.

Those of you who follow the blog or know about Sebile lures will know iv been Testing the gear in our waters for over a year now and really enjoying being involved with the brand, i just love the style and innovation Sebile brings to the table! i pride myself in the up and coming techniques and pushing the lure fishing boundries so i spent most the day fanny assing around with the Softbait Magic Swimmers with all the different ways they can be fished! this photo shows my "secret" jig Mod with stinger hook. i wanted to come up with a method of rigging the lure as if it was on a Jighead but without the hook sticking from the top of the lure to keep that (almost) snaggless presentation and Hell yes i cracked it this time! ill post a "tech talk" in the week where ill go through what mods iv made to create this rigging style.

While Using various lures from Sebile etc i only managed to get 3 hits to the lures which was soooooo pissing me off as the conditions were spot on not even Fatboy and Jimbo had sniffs on there baits which was frustrating to say the least! but as usuall the day was full of Banter and humour its nice sometimes to just get out and enjoy Fishing for the love of just being out with friends trying to look like we all know what we are doing :-) we ended the day with a blank but hay ho great fun all the same. Adrian text while we were out he managed to fish in Dorset ill wack the report up tonight!

Danny

Check this out!

Well this weather has really Ballsed my fishing up! But im out this friday shooting new photos with Jimbo O'donnell on a well known local venue stuffed to the brim of decent pike and chub! ill hopefully have a wicked report to stick up sat evening to watch out!
Well im posting up for a reason and thats this! http://www.jerseybassguides.com/rockfishing/index.php heres a new and exciting forum form the guys over at JerseyBassGuides, iv mentioned Keiths efforts and his site on my blog before deffo one to watch! this forum is dedicated to the new school style HRF/LRF style lure fishing as well as other Japanese styles of artificial fishing! iv prided myself in these styles for a few seasons now its a great way to fish! this site already has some of the big names using it and will be a gold mine of knolledge and info. lets hope it keeps level headed as this is a forum for the guys in the know and new comers alike! we dont need the school playground antics of say the P+P/LAS forums which are a weak shadow of them selfs due to problems with users. hope you guys check it out and give Keith the support and help JerseyBassGuides diserves!

Danny

Tropics

well its all good for one certain friend of mine Adrian who is off on hols in St.lucia he packed his roadrunner rod and is going to feed me mini reports as and when he manages to get away from the wife and wet a line

here's the first fish caught so far and i believe it was on his first cast!! i spy a Kalin pepper perl grub hanging from that fishes mouth.... these lures really do shaft most fish swimmer from pike perch in our canals to irish Pollack, seems as if these "zoo creature" fish over there like them too. will post up again if he manages to land any more monsters..... 10points to who ever figures out what this is! check out the teeth

Tech Talk

I see on numerous Forums newbe's and sometime more skilled anglers asking the heated dreaded "what Reel to use"....... so i thought id take the time to go through my main Baitcasters ( Multipliers ) which is use the most through out the season, from ultra-light perchin to the heavy weight 11-12inch swimbaits i use Baitcasters for 99% of my luring with sea luring being the only time id switch to the fixed spool reel.

Starting from left to right:- The Old worrior being my trusty Shimano Culcutta 101d, this old dog is my "MegaBait" reel.... loaded with 60lb PowerPro this reel is pretty much used soaly for Massive swimbaits and Jerks with a steady 5-0.1 retrieve and awesome drag even still after years of use, i actually used this reel when i caught my PB pike of 31lb 14oz and it dealt with the Pike great :-) Then its the Shimano Curado E7, this reel is my general purpose medium weight Baitcaster. its loaded with 30lb PowerPro and is used for general lure fishing with Medium swimbaits, Shads, spinnerbaits, general plugs etc also used allot while out Night surface fishing due to its rock solid reliability and ease of use. Then its my pride and Joy........ my rare as rocking horse shite Shimano Calaisdc :-) this reel beggers belief and is my fav bit of fishing kit its the top dog lure fishing reel money can buy in the world..... not cheap mind one of these puppies will set ya back 600quid i had mine shipped from Shimano Japan as soon as they got released a couple years back, with 4x4 digital control there is nothing conditions wise that will stop this reel! i use it for the pleasure of fishing, from larger lures to tiny spinners. Then its my other pride and joy the Shimano Conquest 51GT-Ti one of the smallest baitcasters on the market and smooth as butter used only for ultra-lighting as this is super tuned for the lighter work, again had this sent from Shimano Japan on the week of there release. almost scared to use it as its soooooo good looking a pure pleasure to use. Ill go through the Fixed spools i use next month and the ways i set the up, will also post some rods up

Winter Piking....

Me and Adrian Fished this sunday just gone in search of some decent fish around some of our local waters. with the rivers looking brilliant and a few "secret" still waters should start coming to life as the colder weather settling in! if im honest i was soooooo hoping for some huge perch but we only managed 4 Perch biggest being half a pound or so, but did see two Perch around the 2lb mark. but with super gin clear water it was almost impossible! we fished a few venues early off with no real luck the Pike we saw just didnt turn on with the odd follow the clear water didnt help matters. we ended up driving to a nearby lowland venue where Adrian managed 2 pike in 2 cast from the first swim we thought things looked up! but apart from a few small Jacks it just didnt happen! mind you i had a follow of a good double around the 15ish pound mark. after a couple of hours we decided to change scenery with the rivers in mind we headed off to a well known Pike and chub river when things finally started to happen with action almost instantly!

although the first 3 pike caught were the smallest iv had from this river 2 of which were less than half a pound! the average here is 6-9lb with lots of doubles when they decide to come out to play! this 8lber was my biggest of the day and really went well on light gear! long runs and tail walks! conditions couldnt get any better it really was amazing out there but the fish just didnt play ball! with the final pike caught being 10 not the best days piking iv had especially the tiny micro pikes trying to breast feed or something off my lure! was great to get out though this venue really does it for me! and ill be back hopefully in the next week or so and ill have some whoppers for the blog!

Bassing Adrian Stylie.......

Well not much time before christmas for the Bass fishing to still come up trumps! with the colder weather heading in rapidly! but as usuall my good mate Adrian certainly made me want to dust off the Sea gear again after fishing Ireland...... heres a short report of what you could call a "GOOD" session :-)

Friday afternoon......leave work early.........go home, grab gear.........arrive at local Dorset mark.......conditions good (what wind there was was offshore, good tide flow, clear water, about 2ft swell and no chop, cloudy/sunny spells).......1st cast, thought I saw a swirl near where my lure landed, no takes....2nd cast, 2lb bass on......3rd cast, 1-1/2lb bass on........4th cast, no takes........5th cast 3lb14oz bass on

and so it continued. After 21 casts I'd landed 10 bass and 1 pollack. Then it went quiet as the tide slowed, the wind swung round to sideshore, chop started to build. Stopped counting casts, but ended up with 16 bass, 4 pollack and 3 gars. what an afternoon! Adrian tells me that most Bass were taken on the great IMA K2 in blood orange i believe, theses lures are the nuts and simply work where most other lures just dont get a sniff. I have 4-5 K2's and they really do catch fish, doesnt matter if your chasing Bass or chucking this lure in the fresh stuff it tracks well and can be fished in a variety of ways check them out along with the rest of the IMA range at http://www.basslures.co.uk/

I'd say that concludes a impressive Bass session by anyones means! im hoping to get out Bassin this coming weekend so keep ya eyes peeled. Cheers Adrian for forwarding me some stuff keep at it :-)

Danny

Channel Critters

Well this isnt lure fishing by any means but still i get offered the chance to wrestle Ugly, Smelly, violent and evil creatures and i dont mean the Girls around pubs on a fri nite, Conger Eels....... me and my Bro headed up to north somerset last nite in search of Congers and Cod. we arrived at the various possible venues bang on high tide planning to fish it down and couple hours back up after low water. all the venues were packed by noddies and local anglers! iv never seen a North coast venue soooooo packed with anglers, they even had a burger van :-)

once we had stocked up on Fridge raiders and cola we headed to the spot we knew had the fish running close enough to be able to cover them with our casts, the fish at this venue are always between 75 and a 100yards off the beach. as you can see from the photo above you really have to pile on the pressure here as the fish try and pile into the big stones that litter this coastline and they WILL snap you off if the get in the rough stuff. it didnt take long before i had my first bite! literally 5mins aftwer my first cast my rod nodded over and smashed over and after a quick spirited fight the first Conger was landed! a fish of about 6lb not a monster but a handfull of angry Biting Eel.......
after a few dropper runs and shy bites the tide really started to crack on and our Fav time of the tide was starting to creep up on us..... i had another steamer of a bite which ended up on me being bitten off by yet another Eel, then as you can see abouve my Bro managed to nail a small Codling at super long range where we knew they would be shoaling at low water. its always good to see the cod showing again after a rough period for the species around UK shores. we managed to nail another big Flubber while trying for the Cod and i lost another decent fish while reeling it in over rough ground. we stuck it out for a couple hours more and decided to call it a day. Always good to try different types of fishing, shore fishing like this isnt really my cuppa tea but all in all a great night out with some nice fish thrown in the mix.

"oohhhh we do love to be beside the seaside"

Just returned from my second trip to Ireland this year, me and Martin headed out a couple weekends ago for two weeks of smashing Pollack, Coalfish, Maks and Wrasse with some PB's thrown in for good measure! we fished a different part of Ireland than when me and Adrian fished the Beara earlier in the summer. this was a totally different back drop to the wild southwest coast but all together beautifull suroundings to chuck some lures around! we even had the weather on our side with only two days deciding to piss it down on us!

we nailed Pollack on every session didnt blank at all! there was'nt the numbers of large Pollack like the beara but we did 20-30 fish a session on numerous sessions with Pollack between 4 and 6lb coming out most days with the odd larger one screaming line off the reels every now and then. we fished mostly wild rock ledges and reefs all stuffed with fish of all sizes, all willing to smash ya lures from soft plastics to surface lures the pollack loved it! on the first session we even smashed the hard fighting Coalfish. no real biggies but had them to around pound and a half, great fun on our light lure gear!

This Pollack which just bumped over the 6lb mark did the usuall dirty Pollack style take and fight! took right under the rod tip and steamed off 20ft of braid easy! its crazy how tough these fish are, pike this size dont even come close to the exsplosion off anger and charge these fish have when they have the kelp! i had 9 Pollack from this mark all between 4 and 6lb as well as my PB Wrasse which was caught on a soft plastic from Lunker City. all the Pollack took MegaBass Xlayers jigged in the deep holes close to the near rock ledges which are tackle grave yards you really have to bang the pressure on these hard fighting fish! check out the beast of a wrasse

We nailed lots of Wrasse on this trip on lures proving that it can be done, if you find the right swims and the right lures they really do abuse ya on light gear! we had most of our wrasse on jigs using 4-5inch grubs or as you can see a 7inch lunker city Fin-s fish!! i even had a wrasse on a surface lure while fishing one of the shallow reefs to the north of our holiday flat! iv never taken wrasse on surface lures just shows how aggressive these Ballans can get! check out the photo of this wrasse Martin nailed on a storm rattle grub on 5inch.

Nailed or what!!!

we found endless coves and points where you can chuck the lures in the right conditions and even the shallow little nooks and crannys produced some monsters! Martin nailed some clonking Pollack in one venue to a cracking 8lb! again on grubs fished tight to the reefs tackle loss was high but worth the risk when nailing fish like these, the storm grub winning again while i nailed fish to 5lb on the xlayers

Xlayers being my best catcher, in various sizes this lure rigged right just murders most fish that swim our seas and even the not so obvious colours doing the business

It wasnt all wild fishing we had some of our best catch's from the multiple small Harbours dotted around the place with fish 4-6lb cropping up nearly everywhere! the best bit is these places are totally neglected by all the anglers over here! anyone willing to put the tim in and venture off the beated tracks will be amazed at what can be had! both me and Henry Gilbey have said before its just plain crazy why its not more popular!

we also fished a fair bit in the hours of darkness which again is still unheard of over here we got some funny looks from the locals walking out to the spots armed with lure gear in the pitch black! but remember that this is such a dangerous coastline even in the day, the most experienced anglers can get into trouble here! so this sort of fishing is best left to guys who know there stuff! we fished mostly rough seas where we knew the pollack will be in close and smashing the baitfish which are shoaled up hiding from the mental seas i managed Pollack to 7lb in the pitch black truly heart stopping stuff when you cant see anything around you!

check out the scenery we were lucky enough to fish you cant beat sun sets like this in these beautiful suroundings! heres Martin gearing up for another night session which is always great when the conditions come good! this is proof that people should really be seeing this with there own eyes!
All in all a brill two weeks away fishing some amazing venues in the most amazing scenery you really cant beat this! cant wait to get back over there next year with Adrian again to put the Pollack back on the rocks bring it on!!

New toys for Ireland!!

Off to Ireland on sat and finally rumaged through the gear im taking..... along with two Savagear Road Runner travel rods and my trusty Shimano's ill be packing the fab Sakura Alpax which i have on long term test and is the reel that taimed the Beara Pollack on my last Ireland trip i have been sent a rather nice package from Nick at TopWater. I am now armed to the teeth with lots of slimey new MegaBass soft baits such as Xlayers, Spindle worms and the rather stinky Hazedong's. but the lures iv been waiting for are the new 100mm Sebile soft swimmers! if you have followed my Blog i was lucky enough to get my hands on the first swimmers in the country months before they went on sale through http://www.basslures.co.uk/ these were the standard 130's which i wrote about on here. they truly are wicked lures and really do the Sebile magic swimmer brand justice!

Heres a picture of a selection of Sebile magic swimmers ranging from the (hush hush) not even released Swimmer 82SSK snagless, soft swimmers 105 and 130 and the standard Magic swimmer 110FS all these lures have proven time and time again that all pred fish just love them from Perch to the double figure pike in fresh water and the Pollack and Bass in the sea fish just love them! Sebile really do have the playing field sorted from floaters to fast sink! they even got the swimmers in the Salt & Sun series which are specially designed for the most bad ass toothed fish that swim in the sea or fresh water! Another Sebile product that i am lucky enough to have my mits on are the Sebile hollow stick shadd softbait! based on the popular EFFTEX winning Stick Shadd they are designed with the same removable weight system as the Soft swimmer where they are rigged on a beast of worm hook where the tunstan weights can be pushed on. the hook sits inside the Lure where the top slit opens pushing the hook into the fish for near 100% weedless fishing over lillies or heavy weedbeds.

Check out the Youtube videos for most of the Sebile range on there own channel, some really innovative designs and lures which in my eyes are punching in a league of there own in the new and exciting lure market of 2010-2011 iv had the chance to check out the 2011 range and expect BIG things..... of coarse ill have first picks before sales in the UK so keep ya eyes peeled. Please check out www.basslures.co.uk for the sebile range they will sort you out with most of the 2010 catalogue, get in touch you will not be let down on what ever Sebile lure you choose. Tight lines

Danny

Off to Ireland AGAIN!!

Well im having a rather Poo time at the mo what with recent Job issues and money rapidly running out..... so its amazing that iv been offered another trip to Ireland!! this time we are heading to the west coast rather than the wild wild southwest Beara. iv never visited this part before and have seen it many times through good friend Henry and his TV shows on sky.

Just check out the views of this place...... writing this makes me just wanna get out fishing!! Ireland has soooo much to offer even if you are a worm dangler but for me its the epic light lure fishing for Crazy Pollack, Coalfish, Bass and the odd surprise! fingers crossed for the weather as its pretty dam wild out there but thats the beauty of being lucky enough to visit these places through my fishing! i am a luck Bugger. Im over there for 2 weeks this time and i simply cannot wait!! going to be using some new gear from the guys at Topwater so ill be doing some product reviews on here so keep ya eyes peeled! lets hope we can connect with some more wierd and wonderful species like the John Dory from the last trip

Ill post up more info on venues where we will visit when i know more, off out fishing tonight for Pike on the surface lures. will post up if we have a good session

Danny

Bassin about

well iv been shockinly busy working for my brother so sorry not put anything up for nearly a month!! iv managed a fair bit of fishing mostly in the sea as fresh water needed a bit of a rest! we have been fishing various spots on the south hams in search of Bass with surface lures or soft plastics. with hundreds of tiny Pollack enjoying smashing the lures last weekend we managed to nail a few nice Bass! on the last session we landed four bass to almost 3lb and lost a few biggies one of the venues was literally packed with bass it was almost unreal!

as you can see we fished sooooo hard that Martin fell asleep while holding up this bass for a mug shot! this fish was caught on a 3inch Kaolin grub in pearl white one of our Favorate lures for bass it smashed Marts lure after about three casts to the pillars, it gave a good old scrap on light Bass-pro gear. i had my fish on a Megabass Xlayer in white also, didnt get a decent picture due to the lovely weather that decided to cover us in heavy sea mist. we are out again tonight in search of some of the bigger bass we saw cchase the lures some of which easily reached 8-9lb truly awesome stuff on the light gear

theres plenty of schoolys out there if your willing to get out and try for them..... and this time of year really gets them going! ill hopefully have a much better report up tomorrow after we have had a good session tonight

Danny

Its a Dirrrty job, But someones gotta do it!

Headed out last night with my friend Dangerous Dave as he has been asking for months to take him out Piking..... i think he kind of had the same idea as everyone else that fishing is this boring slow Hobby where we sit the and watch floats :-) gosh was he in for a surprise ha ha within the first half hour i had numerous smashes and hits from decent pike he couldnt believe there was fish this size and sooo crazy in this small venue! he had his eyes glued to the surface lures not wanting to miss a thing it was really warming to see someone who im normally seen with after a few shandys down the pubs come up here with me and actually be amazed by what i was doing !

Dave did a good Job of Netting her for me after a very spirited fight all the way in! this fish actually got hooked twice! it came off first i was gutted as i knew it was a lump seeing it in the clear water. i cast out directly over it again and SMASH it took again...... 18lb 2oz of mental Summer surface Pike. it was one of a good buch of fish all of which hit double figures, with one fish only being a tiddler but all in all a great evening out. wicked to see a fresh face on the bank experiencing this fishing!

Danny

Surface Pollack!!!

Managed to hit the south coast of Devon in the week with Martin for a spot of Pollack and Bass bashing, we headed to a gorgeous spot which iv fished a few times this year and its always fished its nuts off!! mostly Pollack here with Maks if you choose to go for them slimey buggers it just screams fish on the lure! we headed out with the usuall lures small nordic spoons and jigs fished on light rods for a good bit of sport! just check out the views from the spots we are lucky enough to fish here!

I stuck to my tried and tested pollack smasher for surface fishing in this gorgeous tide rip running through the creek between me and the small island, it just screamed pollack and bass! 6ft of fast flowing water running through rocks and weed..... can it get any more better than this?? any red blooded angler could NOT resist this spot i almost fell in twice just in excitement trying to rush to the spot, this lure is called the Sebile Stick Shadd. in Blood Red violet 90mm this is a slow float ( kind of suspend ) but fished with a fast erratic twitch its the perfect unpredictable wake/walk bait with fish just love to nail! i used the 114mm version over in Ireland where i caught Pollack off the surface which is a dream come true!! well it all just came together on this evening and i landed 12 Pollack off the surface all on these Sebile lures.
All the Pollack were around the 2-3lb mark but great fun off the surface! i lost two massive fish 5lb plus at range one leaping clear of the water it was like Pike fishing on my local canal they tailwalked all the way into the rocks! i had competition though!! 3 12ft long grey seals they eyted up my fish numerous times and have had the pleasure of Mart having his fish ripped off the line here before!! i didnt want to lose my best lures so we moved. we ended the session with 65plus pollack landed and god knows how many lost, all in all a good evening. the sun set and i couldnt wish to be anywhere else just amazing backdrop and amazing UK fishing. if you want to try out some of Sebiles Lures go to www.basslures.co.uk Nick will be sure to sort you out. great sport

Nice Night for some Doubles :-)

Fished a really remote part of a southwest venue last night with Adrian and Martin Pike in Mind!!!!! as usuall armed to the teeth with Swampys and ready for action, the weather was crap all day with very strong winds and pissin it down with rain pretty much the whole day but we still managed to show those Pike who's boss..... I landed the first fish after casting my surface lure up into some heavy reeds and lillies in what is looking 100% pikey and instantly hook up within about 6ft of retrieving, it smashed the lure sooooo hard it just gets the heart pounding everytime and the fact iv not night surface fished in couple weeks really puts ya on edge!! after a spirited scrap i put her in the net

things looked good water was warm and the weather was settling the cloud lifted and winds dropped this could be turning into a mental Night session. we fished about a 3mile stretch of this venue abusing all the features and all of us turned a fair few nice fish! Poor Martin was lacking takes and wasnt even getting a sniff while me and Adrian put fish on the banks, we came to what i consider one of the quieter sections but that didnt Bother Adrian! i hooked and lost a nice fish and Adrian shouts he's in! i could hear the take from 50yards away awesome stuff, the fished weighed a good 11lb 6oz and scrapped all the way to the net great sport!

not the best picture quality but good enough for drizzle and a bit of fog. fishing with surface lures is hectic enough in the day you woundnt want to do this fishing if you had a dicky ticker i tell ya! heart stopping takes and runs these fish just bring a grin to my face everytime i get out for them! Now poor old Martin still hasnt even raised a fish yet! mind you the sod did managed to land 3 massive doubles while me and Adrian fished Ireland. the best bottoming out the 25lb scales which is always a good thing lol! a 18lb 5oz and a 15lb 3oz..... the 25lb plusser sounded like a fish yet to be caught by me as Mart tells me it had a old scar on the top of its back and all the biggies we'v landed this season have been clean of damage!! photo's as soon as he has uploaded them! Adrian is on fire at the moment and its not long to he's in again! this time with his venue biggest of 2010! a lovely fish of 16lb 1oz..... he didnt even shout for us with the net as he thought this fish was only a few pounds!! i walk over cool as a cucumber and shine my head torch over to the fish to land it and im greeted with this!! some tiddler!!

well after this it kind of dies the fish really quiet down and we fish a further hour and a half without a sniff, we head back to the car and manage two fish of 6-7lb and Martin has a real sulk on due to the fact he didnt raise one fish!! BUT on last nockings he winkles out this i believe low double, we didnt weigh it he reckons 9lb but i say at least a 10-11lb! nice fish and finished off a cracking nights fishing..... you cant beat this fishing and its still fishing as good as it did 2-3months ago!! with the best to come!!

roll on next time i say, me and Mart our Bassing this weekend and a cant wait to get out again, keep ya eyes peeled for more reports and hopefully some decent piccys

Danny

Blog id Deffo check out guys

Morning all. Heres a Blog iv viewed loads through Henry's praises over the last few months! this is deffo forward thinking Bassin and really shows how Lure fishing can be pushed and used to awesome effect! Keith has shown interest in my Blog for a while and we have chatted and decided to link the two blogs together, he will be having the odd article pushed on here and ill have the odd piece put up on his blog etc. Please check it out http://www.jerseybassguides.com/bassfish/blog1.php its updated as much as possible and will put the spark back into ya modern bassing, i look forward to crossing over some interesting articles this summer with Keith and the guys over in Jersey

Danny

Wrasse on Soft plastics

Its that time of year again where i am seriously struggling to keep off the rocks of south devon in search of the crazy hardcore Ballan Wrasse!! those who follow Henry's blog will know that Wrasse on the lure is the new Rock and Roll!! iv been lucky enough to catch some pretty massive wrasse over the years! and getting stuck into them over in Ireland really didnt help my crave. Now Wrasse on lures is a fairly new challenge and to most of us can be fairly tricky but if you willing to brave the reefs and rock ledges there is sooooo much potential

Just check out the views from the venues im lucky enough to be able to fish! these coves are just stuffed with Wrasse all waiting to be nailed by the angler willing to up his or her's game. within the next few weeks im going to be really pushing wrasse on soft plastics and know just what lures to use! im thinking small 8-10gm jigs with the likes of small natural coloured Megabass Xlayers and spindle worms. as well as Kaolin grubs and Savagear grubs and hopefully will produce some amazing results! we have had Ballans from the spot in the above photo to over 6lb's!!! and on nothing more than light spinning rods and reels loaded with braid WOw what fun its going to be!These photo's are taken by my good mate Henry Gilbey check it out on my links bit or here. www.henry-gilbey.com the eagle eyed angler will spot rag worm hanging on for dear life in the above picture but there will certainly not be any bait on my next session for the spirited Ballan Wrasse. keep ya eyes peeled for a full catch report in the next few weeks

Danny