Sorry been quiet recently had a busy time etc with trade shows and some half assed fishing sessions. but as usuall iv managed to have a bloody good giggle while iv been doing it! on the last warm period me and James had the pleasure of getting out in a Westport Marine Pilot6 CC for the day slashing around the plymouth sound on some Bass and Wrasse stopmping grounds...... and what a cracking day we had! we got down the quay at first light armed to the teeth with our softplastic rods and one 6lb class just incase mr Conger wanted to play!
heres a picture i took of james blasting out the back of the breakwater before we headed back in towards Plym for some pictures for Jims new book for the RYA. Jim knew we could crack on with the Pigs almost straight away with the tides and weather playin ball for once! it wasnt long before we were both into fish! Jim smashes the first wrasse on the Hart absolute worm while i search the ground with a HWK craw's and almost instantly im in to a nice wrasse of a couple pound! as we sit just out of the main tide behind a lovely feature we continue vertical jigging for wrasse and i get a massive smash in 20ft of water this rough and tumble fight sings out decent wrasse as the fish battles hard under the rod tip! james readys the net when we get a nice surprise as it comes into sight! a gawjus bass coming in at nealry 5lb i was dead chuffed!
as you can see in the photo above the bass nailed a HWK craw aimed for wrasse but hayyyy beggers cant be choosers :-) after a few quick snaps and a bollackin from the harbour police for drifting in the path of some bloody great german battle ship (cant they see we are fishing!) the Bass was safely returned to fight another day! we managed a few more hits here before we decided it was time to more to more open water on some of Jimbo's old stomping grounds when he chartered these waters! we had results almost instantly with hit after hit on numerous lures fished in around 40ft of water. i had my fishing brain on while James cracked on with doing images for the new RYA book and of coarse some magazine stuff for our TSF mag features it was all happening nicely! i had one more wrasse but only a tiddler and james nailed a wrasse on his Absolute worm
the colours on these more open water wrasse are such a warm orange compared to the fish caught right in under the rocks off the shoreline where they were more greens and reds but hayy wrasse on lures is a real guilty pleasure of mine anyway! you cant imagine if you have not caught wrasse on light gear when there right in the rough stuff how hard these beasts fight! talk about hit and hold tactics they are brutal! and never fail to wack a huge smile on my face, and i know James has also caught this bug of pigs on SP's with numerous 4's and 5's falling to the lure! it wasnt long before james's mate came along on his charter boat so i could transfer boats to shoot some images for james new book of him basting around the sound and some anchored up shot!
this was some of the last shots before the weather decided to take a complete turn for the worst! and i kid you not within the space of mins we went from vests and tshirts to chucking on the hoodys and getting battered by cold winds and mist! the seas lumped up and forced us to get back into the sound to shelter from the brunt of this bad weather hammering in! we tucked away behing the breakwater where James and i both had decent bass smash our lures on numerous hits but no results! it literally was proper shocking out here now and light was going rapidly! the mood dropped and we decided its prob best we headed back in! but not without one last highlight of the trip and one of the funniest things iv had happen to me in a long time!..... whats round, grey and weighs about 80lb and fights like you wouldnt believe!! i accidently foul hooked a sunfish! we got it close enough to see what the hell i had hooked before what can only be described as the most violent rod and line fisht iv had! i knew i was in trouble when i had one of the most experienced skippers behind me laughing like a school girl! well all in all a cracking day and once again its angling days like this with good friends that make fishing such a special part of my life! cheers Jimbo for another cracker :-) check out
www.westportmarine.co.uk for some serious kit!
This summer has seen some awesome fishing in me salt water antics and myself and James really put some effort in to catching one paticular addictive critter the Ballan Wrasse :-) this hard fighting brute of a fish is everything you could want in a UK salt water species for light lure fishing! Above is Jim with a lovely marked male Ballan which literally scraps like you wouldnt belive! such a small fish really does go off like a steam train and cannot fail to make your heart buzz and wack a massive grin on your face, Jim nailed this fish on a Hart absolute worm on a 10g ball jig fished no more than 5yards off the rocks in the deep clear gullies off south devon.
Heres my most recent wrasse after having my ass handed to me by Jim on monday on his local stomping grounds think he done me over something like 6-1 to him :-( most wrasse being a good average size all scrapping like demons! this fish nailed a giant Xlayer by megabass on a Owner sled-head it took on the drop on a small patch of boulders and kelp it made 3 good steaming runs to the point i had to palm the spool to stop being ruined in the rough stuff! bloody heart stopping stuff! after boga'ing it out and some quick snaps it was returned to swim another day! Jim had a cracking take where the wrasse was literally swimming along with the lure in its mouth plodding along nicely, before James whammed the jig head home and nailed the chunky wrasse. we are out again this weekend so will wack up some more as and when..... all in all a cracking day out with a good buddy catching awesome fish
