Smashed........

Managed to get out with the Portland Penetrater in search of more monster chub on a different venue last nite...... i knew there was some huge chub here as often spooked them while out Pike and Perch fishing often seein fish over 4lb blasting off upstream when we hook a jack going mental in the swims. we headed out leaving mine for 11pm in total darkness as thats the time to target lunker Chub and Pike and after my recent chub action from the week was buzzing to get out again! it wasnt long before theaction started i was the first to hook up with a tiddler of around one and a half pounds! but still exciting fun when you cant really see a hand in front of your face!

its not long before Mart is into his first of the session! im litterally in the next glide up when i hear the take and turn to see a massive swirl in the moonlight and Marts rod looped over good and proper..... thinking the chap had done it again and caught another 5plus but as you can see it was far from it he was lent into the fish as it had lunged head first into the streamer weed and thats why it looked like he was bent into a monster! after a quick snap the chub was returned for another day, the very next cast see's me being nailed like a gooden behind a sunken tree i had it on for a while i stuck my lamp on and got a glimse of a fish around 4lb before it came off bolting for cover! after a hour or so of F*%k all apart from the odd hit we decided a move was in order as i reckon this stretch has seen a bit of action with the bait boys since open day!

iv fished this river allot over the last 12years and knew a few swims normally neglected due to the stupid weed growth and shallow runs its practically un fishable unless you are willing to get stung bitten snagged or fall in :-) i have done some thinking in to what a chub wants from its night time feeding and this stretch with its gin clear water, shallow runs and cover from lillies, trees and streamer weed offers plenty of hunting ground for big chub and iv seen them moving up into these areas on eveings im guessin to feed...... it wasnt long before we had scrambled down the banks in search of swims as you can see from the photo above its a bit jungle warfare down here! all the better for me as the guys with all there gear wont venture down to these rough spots! well after a few missed hits by smaller chub i decided it was time to stop pissing around so i clipped on my fav surface lure the swampy and within 3 casts in a likely looking swim the magic happens :-)

i get what i think is a pike charge up behind the lure with one huge swipe at the swampy which misses then another miss before smashing the lure with vengeance its on..... still thinking pike at this point the fish takes line heading for the far bank i stop it thinking iv nailed a 7-8lb Jack! we get it to our bank where i lose sight of it as it burys its head in the streamer weed martin shouts its a Chub!......... (shit my pants moment) as i knew this was a large fish, after a bit of a faff and panic stations we netteed the beast. i couldnt believe my eyes and i knew it was a PB with me like a jibbering wreck its weighed and BOOM hovering between 6lb 13oz and 7lb with nervy shakes ill call it 6lb 13oz :-) my PB chub what a moment and wow i wont be forgetting this week in a while, what a awesome weeks chubbing and the season has only just begun :-) i actually couldnt care less about catchin much else so my fishing was a bit half arsed to say the least after one more hour we headed home. ill be giving chub a break for a while in search of more bass and wrasse so keep ya eyes peeled

Danny

What a day.....

Im still smiling my ass off! decided to head out to one of my favorite local Chub spots for a spot of surface fishing for Chubblys the conditions started off awfull with bright sunshine and temps climbing, it was HOT! i could see chub from the get go and they deffo had there minds on sun bathing rather than food with a couple chases and two small chub to about a pound within the first 10mins. then as if the weather man was listening to my moaning about too much sun bothering the fish the cloud sneaked in, it was still really warm and started to get muggy. but the cloud cover is just what the doctor ordered

i got to a nice glide where i sneaked in behind the reeds and stingers i could see four nice chub, two about 2lb and two around 4lb now the sun was not beaming down i felt allot more confident so i cast my tiny Jitterbug (ill talk about this lure at the end of the report) across to the other bank plopping it next to the far bank streamer weed, and slowly crept the Jitterbug up the current and i could clearly see the chub looking for what ever is in there swim and the two smaller fish charging over to it in the gin clear water they were litterally competing for the action and smash this fiesty little 2lber nails the lure and instantly im grinning from ear to ear as this is my favorite type of fishing!

In the very next gap in the streamer weed i only had 3ft to play with and i could see this nice plump two and a half pounder nails the lure almost instantly i wound the handle once if that and smash it was on! and while is was crankin this fish over the weed another massive chub spooks out well over 5lb i was buzzing with excitement as things started to all come together! it was crawling with chub most gaps in the weed had one if not a few chub lurking around and they all wanted a bit of Jitterbug!

I got to a really nice wier pool where it just screamed chub big slabs of rock and feed beds created a really nice looking swim it was clear of streamer weed and had two nice glides where the water was creating some nice eddys and slacks once again the first cast comes up trumps! bang and yet another chub nailing the lure and this time it was the biggest of the session at just over 3lb it scrapped well even taking line i thought for a second it was allot larger, they certainly pull ya string! i put on the side strain to not spook the wier pool and that certainly worked a treat! after two more casts im pleasantly shocked at what happens next! i see a nice dark brown shape turn and then with a explosion of action the fish leaps completely clear of the water, this was no chub! it took a fair bit of braid off my calais before leaping again! i got it to the net and had to weigh this beast! a new PB

3lb 3oz......... stunning fins, not a spot out place and my fish ever Jitterbug trout :-) and went really well considering i had the rod loaded up to deal with snag happy mental chub! the river was now picking up pace and shallowing the streamer weed creating lots of nice creases and runs all full to the brim of nice chub and i know some corking runs and glides where iv caught some big chub over the years in winter on SP's twitched across the bottom will they hold the chub today? only one way to find out! things were looking good as i aproached i could see three big chub all over 4lb and one massive fish i was like a child in the sweet shop! i cast the Jitterbug down the run and instantly could see the chub gettin twitchy it wasnt long before i nailed a biggy! it took 3 casts and then a big bow wave steams up behind the lure and smash the big pair of rubbery lips nailed the lure!

Heres the biggest fish of the session and my daytime surface PB chub of 5lb 6oz...... im gutted i couldnt get a decent picture of this as it really was a barrel of a fish and went mental when it was hooked charging off down stream and then some dirrrrty tactics by ploughing through the streamer weed! i thought for a minute i was going to lose the chub as it charged deeper into the weed i just couldnt get the correct angle on it but after a bit of Parkins persuasion i got the fish to the net shaking like a leaf trying to take the picture i am sooooo chuffed out this fish! and there was a few all around this size through this run, ill be back on a night session to see whats what next week!i wasnt long before i was in again! i crept down the run where i could still see some big chub i took only two casts and bang i was in again!

check out the guts on this fat chub at almost 5lb they were built like carp with massive guts they certainly arent short of food here as the belly on this chub shows! i would love to see the size of the chub we caught in the winter from this run they were 6-7inches longer than this fish weighing the same i dread to think! im hoping there show on a nite session next week as i know there still on here! these two fish bumped me up to chub number 21 on this hectic session and i was having a ball even with the tiddlers which plagued the twisty bends on this river, one thing missing today was pike...... you can normally catch a fair few here and i only saw two all day, one of around 8lb and a tiny jack. not one of them taking any interest in the lures, i think if i had syuck on a Sebile soft magic swimmer or something like that i think i could of prob nailed one or two but the chub was my target today and boy did i manage to pull that off..... gutting i didnt have a buddy fishing with me so we could have some decent grab and grin shots specially of the larger fish as im never happy with rod and grass shots but hay its not the end of the world!

Heres the tiny Jitterbug..... deadly for chub and even pike will smash this lure, we cut the standard hooks off as there very poor quality they come with two small trebles i cut them off and attach a small split ring to the rear eye and wack on a nice new small Owner st-36 be sure to use a hook big enough to hook the fish well but not too big it kills the action of the lure. and now it only has one hook its slightly more weedless too :-) i would consider this the premium lure for surface chubbing day or nite, so why not give them a go. ill be trying a night session here again next week ill post up so keep ya eyes peeled

The Postman.......

Well....... i think you can safely say Adrian is the postman, he certainly delivered last night!! we fished a southwest venue which we'v been gaggin to fish for a couple months and it certainly came up trumps :-) we got there about a hour before dark and with the pooring rain it was looking amazing! we had the usuall banter while gettin ready, the whole "im not greedy, a 20 will be fine" which we know there are plenty of those in here :-) and it wasnt long before Ady nails his first fish! actually it was his first bloody cast to be honest..... a fish of around 6-7lb which came off at the reeds in front of us, was that a sign of things to come or the dreaded first cast session killer......but literally in the next swim im happily walking along in the pissing it down with rain! and Bang Adrian is in again! the pike was only a rod length out in from of a big patch of reeds and adrian shouts its a better fish maybe 8-9 lb so i get the net off my back rucksack off and get ready to land it, thats when i see the fish steam off 10ft line i could see it was a double and i would of said 15lb after a few talk walks i start my descent into the depths with my waders on ill be ok right? well i managed to get to the edge of the reeds to a safe landing spot and the water was 2inches from the top of my waders lol :-) the fish was in the net and i passed it over my shoulder to Ady up the bank ofter a quick photo she was weighed a nice tidy 14lb 1oz not bad for less than 10 casts! it wasnt long before it was my turn for the action! in the very next swim i cast my swampy to the other bank into a small hole in the lillies and start my retrieve it isnt long before i see this huge bow wave charging up behind my lure. but it didnt come to a take i think it saw me as i couldnt get it to charge and take :-( judging by the bow wave it was another lump of a pike. Adrian was managing to completely distroy me last nite by this point he was managing a fish or lose a fish in most swims it was awesome! the pike were on fire hitting anything twitched across there swim
by this point adrian was 7 fish up on me after i seemed to lose every single bloody pike that came anywhere near my lures.... awesome sport though when they charge up behind your surface lure and smash it with vengeance! just before we lost too much light i whipped out my camera and decided to film in the next bay, and after two casts Adrian manages to get the chase i wanted and we got the hit on film which was soooooo buzzing and will edit it and crop stuff and try and get the video up on here asap. the problem now was the skys started to clear and we all know what moonlight does to nite piking..... kills it dead! luckily we had trees covering most of the venue we wanted to fish but soon as the light completely went the fishing just died... and it became very hard work! with only a few fish rising to the swampys after dark which its normally happens the other way around, the dark normally turns the pike on big style its like a light switch! but the moon light killed the fishing, Adrian manages a few more fish and for me it was dead :-( in the end we called it a day, as things just got bad to worse. Adrian was 10 fish in front of me but hayy cant win them all and was awesome to get out again on this special venue.

OPEN SEASON.........

Well it looks like the weather is going to play dirrrrty this weekend prob ruining most peoples open seasons first couple sessions :-( Ill be mostly upsetting the monster chubblys all around the southwest and cannot wait im like a child on christmas eve....... armed to the teeth with small swampys, renoski rubber frogs, and jitterbugs along with various soft plastics! Tight lines guys and keep your eyes peeled for new reports as the 2011 fishing really starts to kick off

Danny

Wrasse bashing

Fished today with my brother using soft plastics and bait for Ballan Wrasse on one of my top wrasse marks and as usuall it was blindingly good fun! you gotta love the absolute smash grab and crash dive fight of the ballan on the correct gear! the fact they are prob the most beautiful fish in UK waters being all different colours from bight reds and oranges to lumo blues and electric whites :-)This Ballan nailed a megabass spindle worm on a delelande jig you can see how aggressive they are when fished for correctly as you can only just see the jig in the mouth! after a scrappy fight right under the rod tip i managed to get it to the surface, great fun on a 25g casting weight casting rod coupled with a shimano curado e7 and 30lb braid! the action on bait was pretty much non stop...... soon as our mini fixed pats touched the bottom the rag worm was nailed instantly! plenty of smaller fish hammerin the bait the second it was in there, with the larger wrasse smashing the worm and pretty much nailing them selfs on our rigs which are deadly! it wasnt long before my brother was landing fish

Joe into only a fish not even 2lb but they dont half put a bend in powerful spinning rods like this Speedmaster above from shimano this is a saltwater specific lure rod designed for large bass and tropical species yet look at the bend this wrasse puts on it :-) again fished with 30lb powerpro braid if youv never had the pleasure of under the rod wrassin you do not know what your missing

Even the smaller fish fight like troopers...... it was awesome wathing my brothers face when he hooked these ballans as you think youv hooked a beast then up pops little fellas like this pretty little fella. the tide had turned and i knew that the monsters would start to show there faces..... it was long before the proper bites started to show. and i didnt have to wait long before my rod was looped over trying to pull me off the ledges :-) it never fails to crack a smile on my face and iv litterally caught hundreds and hundreds of ballan wrasse

with litterally hundreds of missed takes it really does do your head in its impossible to not get frustrated as these fish do you over most times you hook them, in this venue iv had ballans over 6lb so these smaller 2 and a half pounders arent all that special but there cracking fun..... its all about fishing these gin clear coves where all you can see is deep clear blue ledges coverd in kelp and weed the mind certainly gets going when the rod first taps over and we even had a first today from this spot..... and a cool little critter tooa very cute but aggressive sea scorpion :-) certainly a first for me here in the UK we'v caught loads on the costa brave in spain where they get well over a foot long and weigh a couple pounds and the bite it gave me on my bait rod was awesome i honestly thought i had another ballan on the end until i struck like a loony and felt this little bugger on the end i think i ruined his day lol. off out bassin again in the week so watch this space :-)

Danny