Sunday 30 December 2012

What do Parrots sit on ;-)

After some of the most shocking weather I have ever seen, pretty much the whole of mid Devon being under flood water I finally got out on a session with the lures! On this session I was joined by my brother for his first fresh water mission together in over 10 years!!! We hit one of my fav venues with the intention of some nice sized Pike although I secretly have a massive obsession with winter Perch! so after a good hour of slogging through slushy mud and over grown reeds and brambles. I set both our rods up with some medium diving plugs Joe had on a Orange Rapala Xrap and I clipped on a Rapala Fat Rap, after about ten mins of chucking in around the features of this bend I got a stinking great follow right up to the surface by a hefty Perch well over 2lb! I kept casting keeping away from the waters edge but couldnt produce a take so I whipped out my usual Perch lures being a 4" natural coloured shad and wasnt long before the magic started to happen!
After four or five casts where I had the follow and there was some Perch holding up under a over hanging bush and smash! This Beauty which i could of swore was a good 3lber hits the net, I was well and truly chuffed we snapped a few quick photos and weighed her tipping the scales at 2lb 8oz I was proper buzzing by now and my brother was keen to get into the action too so we tied him on a another shad and off we went and almost instantly I was hammered again! This time i was into something a bit special this was allot bigger and could tell it was a Perch and a unit at that! got it just under the surface and the hooks pulled :-( it was a beast well into the three's I could of cried! Anyone whos done any Perch fishing knows that a lost fish in the shoal is the worst thing that could happen, these beautys spook all too easily! I cast out again right on top of the fish and wham im in again!
This time its a smaller fish but still a cracking Perch coming in at 1lb 14oz I wont argue with that!!! Mean while my brother is looking a little frustrated as he's not getting a touch :-) fishing was pretty dam awesome right now and things werent about to stop! the very next cast I get smashed again....... now by this time there was quite allot of Perch moving now Its always awesome seeing them close to the surface like this! I had a cheeky cast over towards my brother and got hits straight away, pluck pluck and bang fish on again! but a split second later its off...... :-( by this point my bro is getting a little frustrated so I gave him a go on my outfit but he didnt get any hits, the problem with bumping off perch it soon ruins the fishing! we clipped of our light gear and got out the big guns! We both fished Savage Gear lures I clipped on the larger DP spinner and Joe fished the Da-bush spinnerbait two of my fav lures for Piking as they can be retrieved really nice and slow right in the zone.
This scrappy Jack just under 7lb was a pleasant quick bit of action, it nailed the DP well and after a good bit of tail walking Joe had it in the net. I could see Joe getting eager to smash a fish now and he was thrashing the lure to a foam it wasnt going to be long before he was into something! about 20mins in he shouts he's had a hit on his spinnerbait I was secretly hoping something was going to smash him soon! and it wasnt long before a monster of the deep grabbed his lure, after a good battle I scrambled down the bank with the net to tame this beast!
Mother always told us "its not how big it is!!!" ha ha ha ha Heres Joe with his first pike in over 10years!!! Not the biggest brute thats graced the pages of this blog but I dont care to see my bro nail a Pike after all these years was pretty dam quality and i cant wait to take him out again ASAP. we fished on for a few mre hours and with only a few more hits and takes we ended the day with three Pike to me plus the two tidy Perch and Joe with his Pike, we managed to escape the weather for most of the day with only one small blast of rain, the winds were happily playig ball though and at times gusted really strong but all it all what a top day out! Will do my best to break Joes PB the spring of 12lb and this is my goal until the weather sorts itself out and we can get on better waters for the Green Submarines! until next time tight lines

Danny

Friday 14 December 2012

What a crap end to the year.......

Hello guys sorry been so quiet but after the worst seasons fishing due to the horrendous weather this year my fishing pretty much grounded to a halt! :-( with the worst flooding iv ever seen the Southwest around Exeter was pretty much shut down with waist height water in most towns the rivers pretty much spilled there guts all over the fields of mid Devon! Recently Iv managed a couple sessions in the Fresh water (something iv totally neglected in the last 2 seasons) it was really refreshing to get back to my roots and fish for pike and Perch.
First session was on the absolute ball ache of a venue Exeter Canal
Above is a true classic and one of my Fav's the good old school Replicant, on this session I only managed one hit and that was on a Replicant in the Perch pattern on the drop across on the far bank, I lifted into it and felt a good head shake and it was on for a few seconds and came off! we fished the rest of the day without even one chase! the water was mint with cracking clarity but with pure blue skys it wasnt all that hopeful! I will be back to the Shipping Canal over christmas when we have some cloud cover and hopefully a better 
report on the days sport!

I spent two hours on my local canal literally behind house! I hooked up on the very first cast using a Savage Gear Da Bush spinnerbait, the tiny jack of about a pound flung itself off the lure as i was surfing it in, I had another few casts in the same swim and fish No.1 turns up this small jack above again taken on the Da Bush lure, this section of canal was looking great with roach topping and the odd swirl there was obviously allot of pred action kincking off! and i had a fish of over 5lb follow literally to my feet before charging off! this type of urban fishing it really ticks my boxes, guess growing up on this canal catching literally thousands of pike itll always be close to my heart!
Heres another tiddler from the last few casts and even though they are only small it was awesome to get out, very much looking forward to hitting it again this weekend, thinking of going further out of town to the gin clear waters where we fish in the summer with surface lures a friend of mine fished it the weekend just gone and had them to 10lb, i know where they are just need to shift this horrid cold i have and upset some decent pike! and if im lucky the odd bonus Perch chucked into the mix! Anyway heres a quick update and ill keep on top of the blog as much as possible through the winter with all my fresh water campaigns so watch this space!!
cheers Danny

Wednesday 12 September 2012

Recent Adventures

Sorry been quiet on here the last couple weeks we have had yet more mixed weather and not near as many trips out as id like!! anyway not being one to miss out Me and my friends have squeezed in a few trips here and there including the Art Of Fishing Wrasse comp....... I believe 17 people signed in from Devon and Cornwall for the comp as well as a few further afield! Me Karl and Jim fished our usual stomping grounds with over 45 fish landed between us to almost 50cm
Karlos manages to smash the chunky 3lb Pollack on the texas rigged wrassing gear which was always a bonus! we all caught a fair few wrasse but no biggies with my biggest being around 2lb 7oz loads and loads of tiddlers around the 1.5lb mark but all good fun!! Both Karl and Jim managed some awesome sport with Karl getting busted off in the "famous gulley" that we have all been beaten up in! I managed to sneak out a 
bonus fish too which was awesome and after a weird fight i knew something was up!
Again a nice change while fishing a Poor Boys bait texas tight to the bottom, theres always been lots of bass here and between us we saw a few shoals of Bass swimming in and around the gulleys on this venue no real biggys but still nice to see!! The end of the day soon crept up and we headed back to the Art Of Fishing for the final weigh in where we managed to take two of the top 5 spaces!! cant complain with that ayy! Last weekend me Jimbo and Henry managed a pleasure session and we planned to fish a few different fairly local marks and we got off to a good start with me nailing a few Pollack and a chunky ballan on the OSP Dolive sticks while Henry and Jimbo continued to winkle out Wrasse to the right of me. 
We ended the session on some of the ground me and Karl have been fishing where i nailed all the beasts a few weeks back and Me Jim Henry and the dogs Maisey and Storm scrambled down the ledges and instantly started getting wrasse to about scraper 4lb but mostly around the 2.5-3lb mark. After a few hours down here we headed back up the cliffs where Henry headed back home me and Jim stayed on and planned our next trip! We headed Bassing that night but with no action although we were greeted with some of the most stunning sunset skys iv seen in a very long time!
Me and my friend Jules a Fox consultant for the general coarse side of the brand managed to also get out and with a few ideas of getting him his first ever Bass and his first ever lure caught Wrasse i took this challenge seriously!! on the first session we both managed Bass to just over 2lb Jules was over the moon and with a confident head on my shoulders i now had to but him onto Mr Wrasse, with the weather being awful again with SW winds whipping up a big swell and chop i had only one spot worth looking at and it wasnt long before we both got into Wrasse 
The light wasnt playing ball and we only managed about two hours out and we completed our mission! we both left for a well earned Mac D's and a horrid drive home in mist and rain! I get a real buzz from helping other anglers even experienced fisherman like Jules where all he needed was help in these grounds that our out of his comfort zone all in all a cracking few weeks! lets hope the weather plays ball as autumn is well and truly here! im out again soon so keep your eyes peeled!

Thursday 23 August 2012

Evil Wrasse Cult custom DFR

At the weekend i was lucky enough to bring home my custom made Dorset Fishing Rods wrassin stick...... Richard the owner of DFR has once again proved that this guy makes the finest customs in the UK by far! my Evil Wrasse Cult rod is packed with features that are totally unique to my rod from all the blingy Matagi customs parts, the Tiger Wrap whipping in the handle section (very rare and stunning) to the work put in to make the butt section as unique as possible.
Its built on a Japanese T-Russell blank, and is a two piece with the split being above the front grip giving the majority of the blank a solid non interrupted action from the join to the tip eye rather than a joint half way which can be a weak when we are power cranking big Crab Crunchers from there holes in the rocks. the blank is whipped in black apart from one small DFR logo on the first eye. speaking of eyes this rod is loaded with a full set of Pac Bay SV low mass single legged eyes which are super light and create sweet sweet music when the braid is stripping off the drag when fighting a fish! its truly a awesome looking rod designed with rock fishing throughout its styling and functionality.
Yesterday i managed to get out on the rocks and found some boulder fields and reef that just screamed big wrasse and after some faffing and scrambling the rocks on all fours to get down onto the ledges. The water was still a little tinged from the beastly winds we seem to not get away from this summer but it was clear enough to see the bottom on most of the reefs i wanted to fish. i could clearly see the boulder fields and where the barnical covered rocks and the dark patches of kelp and weed. This venue is allot shallower than some of my wrassing grounds further down the devon coast and from previous experience i knew i was going to be in for a hard fighting tough day
This wrasse was the first fish landed and christened my DFR nicely coming in at 4lb 2oz and was very greatfull to land it as the fish before this which i nailed over the boulders literally destroyed me and after a good 20ft first run into the rough snagged me and i lost it! This fish above ran some good braid off my Stella but i managed to get its head up early and turn it only feet from the danger! The very next cast i nailed a nice chunky 3lber on the Hawg senko in black with blue glitter, they were literally nailing the lures as soon as the texas hit the bottom it was exciting fishing! I was then well and truly spanked and felt under gunned as i hooked a wrasse at range which bolted off in the direction of France and snagged me up in the reef, I managed to get the fish out when it then slack lined me and turned and ran off again! hand on spool and i still couldnt stop it, i could feel it running through rocks and then it cut me off :-( 
I ended the session with 7 wrasse to 4lb 2oz which all bent my new rod well and the fact i hit some larger fish and the rod behaved like a dream was awesome! Its getting to that time of year when the Units start showing again, so im keeping my ear to the ground with the bait boys to see when the monsters are showing up! I have a good feeling about this season coming up to christmas that we should see some monsters and that beast 7lber shows its face....... iv got some pretty hence fishing coming up soon and will use the DFR on all of it so will hopefully come back with even more positive feedback. untill then tight lines 

Monday 20 August 2012

Chesil Bait 'n' Tackle Lure Day

Yesterday was my first "Lure Day" for Chesil Bait 'n' Tackle in Weymouth, Me Jim Odonnell and Gemma drove down for a day of lure displays, hints and tips and general lure fishing banter. The weather played ball and boy was it nice and hot! With a good turn of Lure anglers from all ages and styles the atmosphere was awesome I spoke in detail with guys who had 50years of angling experience to people who had only been fishing 6months and was amazing to see such varied groups of people all joining in and learning new skills from my Hard lure demos to my Soft plastic clinic for all things rock fishing!
One of my favourite ways of putting across the modern lure scene is by using the large tank displays some of you may of seen me at the CLA game fair and of course the T&G show where I go through the various ways you can fish different lures, these tanks are also brilliant ways to show people in a very relaxed way different hints and tips. I love the look of peoples faces when me and Jim tied on the weightless Slug-gos and other similar lures, they literally come to life and that soon puts the sceptics in there place! Everyone left these displays in search of various products in Mikes store where myself and Jim would happily point people in the right direction. With the scorching weather the BBQ and refreshments went down a treat and all in all it was a awesome day chatting all things Lure with like minded people. Thanks for the support everyone gave me and Mike/Andy for the day and Very much look forward to the next one. please do pop in to Chesil Bait 'n' Tackle if your in Weymouth or give them a shout 01305 766222 

Monday 13 August 2012

Winning like Charlie Sheen.......

Me and the Portland Penetrator hit the rocks this weekend for a bit of a "heads up" session before the Art Of Fishing wrassing comp on the 1st of sept. out the door at 4.15am sat morning for the drive down to this area i had found a few weeks back, as we walked along the coastal path the horrid easterly winds blasted across us but we knew our spots would be tucked out the way so we trooped on a good half hour walk to the grounds which we were now literally in the middle of no where and wrasse HEAVEN. We scuttled down the first cliff literally on all fours which is always a way to get my fishing brain buzzing the place looked utter Crab Cruncher bliss. There was a nice deep pit in the middle of all these gulleys and reefs it just screamed it! we both set up our texas rigs ready for punishment and it was long with me getting smashed to pieces on the second cast!!
This beauty nailed one of Karls own Slug-X sp's in black with silver glitter one of my top 5 wrasse lures and wouldnt leave home without them! unhooked, weighed and photo quick as can be and returned into its pit a nice chunky 4 and a half pounder = one happy Danny and only on my second cast! We were both getting bites pretty much every cast here and i managed 5 wrasse in 12 casts which was pretty cool going Karl also getting into the fish with a fish of 2lb the morning was going from strength to strength. I love wrasse fishing with a passion and when its kicks off like this there is nothing better in the very next Gulley we both hit small fish and getting hits on most casts some of which you could see the wrasse we were getting hit by. Behind us was a small bay which had gullied sides and a mixed reef and kelp bottom so we made the steep climb up and down into the bay and it didnt let us down!!
Karl was straight into this plumb 3lber at mega long range was awesome seeing this style of fish trying too keep the wrasse from grounding you while cranking down 20yards of braid in evil conditions Karl had a gulley in front of him where the tide had filled as the tide was coming in, this made the final few seconds a bit heart stopping after that awesome scrap was the fish going to do him over in the last 15ft?? Naaaaa Karl bossed it out brillant stuff :-) again it was pretty much every cast all very long range to our normal work. it wasnt long before i was in to another fish! and this time the magic lure was the hawg Senko in 4.5" water melon and red glitter i got totally slammed
Not the biggest wrasse to grace my line but the fact we were casting such long distances was a truly awesome way of fishing which made us really have to work for our fish this is soooo the sort of fishing that ticks all my boxes! we must of stumbled across a wrasse nest as the more we fished it the more the action ramped up with the hits getting better and better turning from nibble nibble knock knock to one hit smashes where they almost hooked themselves! you cant beat the noise of the braid through the rod eyes!

Even managing the good old double hook ups check out the markings on these Ballans such awesome looking fish and no matter how many i catch i still think every one is as beautiful as the last! We were on something like 13 wrasse from this one spot now and things just kept going and going and going, i had ruined a handful of my senkos as the fish just didnt stop chewing them my water melon and red Hawgs just worked every time they hit the bottom, funny how certain colours punch above the others on given days iv had numerous days where Blacks rule the roost but this session Green and red owned it!
We headed over to the next set of rocks where again it wasnt long before we both hit ballans again on the senkos the tide was now pretty much sitting on the high slack and we had fished most of the spots we fancied so we thought lets hit it all again but from different ledges which ment some more cliff hanger style climbing on all fours and ass twitching climbs down into likely looking spots just to get different angles on the productive spots!
As you can just about see here in this photo above to the left which was our shallow bay which carved a big bowl into the cliffs but in the entrance you can see here it just drops away on a ledge from 6-10ft to well over twenty along this one edge there had to be some bigger ballans tucked in there and boy did we find them! 
I had swapped over to one of Karls Slug-X's in the motor oil colour and continued to do the damage, the tide was going out now and the conditions started to hit exactly what me and Karl like to fish so we upped sticks again and this time tucking into what we both though would be our best chance to get into the 4's again the water was about 10ft with kelp forests covering pretty much every where you could see! i had that feeling things would get pretty hectic! and literally first cast i chuck out my Slug-X and bang straight in, as im retrieving the wrasse i could see something behind it and got it closer i could see it was a huge ballan 4plus just following my tiddler in. I unhook my smaller wrasse and drop straight back in and instantly nail that bigger fish!
This old manky wrasse looked like it had been in a bar brawl after 15pints of cornish rattler with its funny wonky eyes and mis-matched dorsel but gave a beast of a fight under the rod tip making my Stella sing with the drag a few times :-) Karl was to the left of me and it wasnt long before he was in too on another one of his super SP's it was all going a bit mad with fish on and lost in quick succession 
Karl with a nice wrasse on one of his Foxtrot Senkos in clear with red glitter (one of the sweetest baits iv seen) he beasted this fish out of a tight gulley island combo and got a good scrap and sent back nice and quickly after this shot this bites came thick and fast now with more smashes than nibbles it was heating up i had another 4lb 10oz but didnt get a photo as was a pain to unhook after deep hooking so i returned it straight away as fish care and safety is high on my agenda shame as was a nice deep red! I moved around to the left hand side of Karl where i was faced with a deep narrow gulley to my left two island boulders in front with a deep pit between them and open sea kelp forests to the right i Cast out my Hawg senko again and this time i knew this was something special as my Stella melted braid off

I ran up the ledge pounding on the side pressure as this wrasse steam boats through the rocks and under the island i could feel the braid slicing through the barnicles, truly heartstopping fishing with Karl giggling as we both knew this was a different stamp of fish! it them snags me up with a fair bit of braid sprawled out through the rough stuff i let the bail off and within seconds of no tension the wrasse surges again and this time i turned it we could see in the depths it was a pig of a crab cruncher and one i had landed it karl took my rod and i knew it was special weighed in at 6lb 1oz and the biggest of 2012 so far! i was straight back in the Gulley and boom in again this time a fish of 3lb then another 2lb then again in almost exactly the same spot as the 6 the rod literally lumps over and im in AGAIN!!
The water melon and red Hawg senko doing the business again! this lure was smashing them hard and the 5lb 7oz owned it! we fished on here for another half hour with a few more wrasse in the 2's and 3's before we hit the last gulley of the day where we were faced again with "a bite a cast" with both me and Karl getting hook ups almost instantly the light was dropping and the tide was pretty much bang on low water things looked good for the end of the day with both of us hitting another 7 wrasse straight away
Check out the Slug-X doing the damage again this time in a clear rubber with blue, red, green and black glitter mix (Gary glitter) these fish were nailed on the rocks on the opposite side of the gulley about 5-6ft off the wall and wallop we were in! great scraps as we had quite hefty kelp and weed under our feet the wrasse tried to crash dive every time!
and Here it is my last fish of the epic day magic number 40...... we ended the day with Karl getting 13 and i managed a pb amount of 27! Wow what a day, things looked good from the second we stepped on the barnicles and we both said in humour that the last time we fished and i nailed a 4plusser on my first few casts it was a blinding session and we nailed 24 to 5lb but i had no clue that the day was going to end up like this!! every gulley, hole or bay we hit numerous wrasse mostly in the threes and up! truly awesome me and Karl are back out this week somewhere completely different lets keep our fingers crossed!! anyway i hope you like the look of our session and it inspires people to try out wrassing soon as its addictive on the correct gear

Anyway Tight lines to next time Danny

Sunday 22 July 2012

Video Blogs

Something iv been thinking about for a while is doing short videos to accompany this blog, so starting from Next week i will start my new series of "hints and tips" plus other lure based vids showing rigging and lure types to detailed looks at the fish we catch on these methods. really looking forward to showing you guys a different way of doing your lure fishing and hopefully help you put more fish on the bank! Heres a quick video filmed this weekend while out wrassing with Karl and my girlfriend Gemma

This is just a demo and the final vids will feature more close ups of rigs and other relevant info. feel free to drop me a message if theres anything you guys feel you would like to see on here as this blog is done for you guys. Anyway we fished this weekend in south Devon for wrasse me Karl and Gemma hit some amazing ground which myself and Gemma had fished about two months ago in fairly awful conditions and we still caught some awesome wrasse and iv been gagging to get back ever since but the weather has really hit my fishing bad!
Check out the sceney! this is the view we got as the sun popped out over the headland, truly stunning the sea was flat as a pancake and crazy clear! things looked good so we all sat on some rocks set our texas rigs whacked on some of Karls soft plastics like the Senko's and the Catapillars its wasnt long before we got hits crawling our lures over the rocks things looked mint but starting slower than hoped! we fished a few rock points on the front of the headland with just the odd bite to show so we upped sticks and ventured around the side of the headland where things looks brilliant the gin clear water showing all the reefs and and gulleys up a treat we could see the wrasse swimming around down in 15ft of water amazing sights.
Heres my first crab cruncher of the day at just over 2lb a puppy compared to the monster we knew lurked below! Karl had already nailed two wrasse to around 3lb on his home made Senko's in the black with green and red glitter i was getting eager now hearing him shouting across the gulley everytime he nailed a fish so i was glad when this pup came along and nailed my senko too! i could still see some wrasse and some fairly bigger ones too lurking in the gulley so i called Gemma over to try and smash her first proper landed ballan wrasse..... it wasnt long before i saw my girlfriend almost yanked off the rocks by this beautiful wrasse
This picture doesnt do it justice the blues and greens of this wrasse mixed with the dark reds and bright oranges these fish never fail to amaze me!! this beauty nailed one of Karls own SP's the Slug-X in a nice natural colour you should of seen the smile across Gemmas face when we landed this i was soooooo proud!! it wasnt long before she was in again from the same gulley this time it was even bigger!#
By this point i was a bit pissed off as i was being beaten by a girl!! not a happy chappy! it wasnt long before she was in again, i couldnt believe it this time the braid screamed off the reel and as i looked up Karl was in too in the gulley next to us. This time i could see Gemma had hooked into something slightly more special, i had to lean over and put a couple turns on her drag as this fish was still taking braid and the ground we were fishing was pretty horrific. heres what we landed i was soooo chuffed!


Check out this Beast! weighing in at 3lb 4oz this was a awesome start to Gemma wrassing day! she was on fire, so not only was she now drawing with Karl she was beating me and caught the biggest fish of the morning so far!! i felt like throwing myself in ha ha ha Karl and Gemma now being on three wrasse each i was seriously lagging behind so decided i would have to up my game!! after fishing on and missing loads we decided to head off and search out another mark. this was a personal favourite of mine and had been looking forward to heading back it wasnt long before we hit fish with all of us getting bites on our Foxtrot Senkos i had a fish on my first cast another wrasse of about 2lb Karl wasnt far behind with another tiddler being landed! once again Gemma showed us how it was done yanking out two wrasse from right under our noses. we fished on around the corner and by this time the tide was bang on low water
I managed to sneak out this little fella from a small pit but things were very slow! the sun was high in the sky so me and karl changed tactics, we tied on smaller hooks and lighter cone sinkers and the smaller 3" Go-b-fox thinking this would buy us some more bites while the tide slacked on low water. it kind of worked with this increasing the bites but these were all really small puppys all under a pound! we clambered over this point to get into deeper water where both of us continued to get knocks and bumps but not much was happening. Gemma scrambles over the rocks and flicks out another one of Karls creations the Frosty Rag a catapillar style senko it wasnt long before i hear drag belting off and Karl shouting "thats a bigger fish" 
after a spirited fight Gemma lands this nice fish weighing in just over 3lb and returned safely to fight another day, we were all tired now after getting up at 3.30am to head down here and had a blast as usual not as manic as we had possibly hoped but we ended the day with 17 wrasse between us with a good few bumped off we all left smiling! it was a nice sunny evening and a pretty walk back along the coastal path to the car where i literally cried all the way due to having my assed kicked by Gemma not only did she catch more but she caught the biggest! last time i take her out lol ;-) off out again soon where i will start doing the proper video blogs so keep your eyes peeled!

Friday 13 July 2012

CLA Game Fair Cancelled

Just a quick post to say the Game Fair has been cancelled due to the horrid weather conditions

Wednesday 11 July 2012

CLA Game Fair


Its that time a year again........ the CLA Game Fair! this year we are show casing a number of new and exciting brands as well as exclusive lure models and styles from our standard brands such as Megabass IMA and Lucky Craft. this includes hard lures for Bass and other salt water species as well as numerous exciting soft plastics from the Megabass fresh water black bass scene! Also keep your eyes peeled for new and exciting rods from the usual brands as well as brand new companys.
This year the fair is at a new venue and hopefully this year will see a even bigger and more axciting fair! the dates are the 20th of July to the 22nd, at Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire near Grantham. Get your self there to check out the new gear, and buy your self some nice flashy fresh and salt water gear to use and abuse! as well as check out our Q&A and displays in our testing tank and of coarse your all welcome to come along and chat all things lures with Nick, Mike and Myself its going to be a top weekend so hopefully see you there! more info can be found at CLA's website www.gamefair.co.uk 

tight lines

Monday 2 July 2012

Busting your balls........

Fished one of my all time fav venues for wrassing this weekend with Karl and then again on the sunday with my brother and our mate Shaun and WOW what a tough weekend indeed....... possible the hardest wrassing iv come across in years and years! Me and Karl had our alarms blaring at quarter to 4am on Saturday for a short drive down to Torbay on some of the rock marks around which over the last few seasons have been a goldmine for local-ish wrassing.
We had some awful winds blowing 20+ but the ground we had wanted to hit was N/E facing so it was blown flat calm, with a bit of cloud cover and nice mild temps things looked like we would be having a action  packed day on the water! how wrong i was...... hit the first mark and covered some blinding reefs and gulleys with not a sniff on the 4" senkos we had been fishing a good hour before i got some hits in a deep gulley tucked in right under my feet after a spirited scrap i yanked out a plump female Ballan around 2lb. we fished on hoping things would hot up but only managed a few taps here and there it wasnt happening at all....... by this time the Makky bashers had made the hike down the cliffs it was carnage with all manner of horrific casting flying left right and centre. We decided that venue number two was calling so a sort 10mins down the road we hit the next venue. it wasnt long before things started to show some interest with me getting hits on the very first cast, five mins later my rods slams 
this plump 3lb 6oz crab cruncher nailes my Tiki stick senko and runs me under the rocks taking drag and whacking a nice big smile on my face! it was on now and me and Karlos were raring to hit some more it wasnt long before i hear a drag screaming and then some swearing from the direction of the Fox, Karl got smashed to pieces around 10yards out a big fish nibbled them engulfed his home made Slugo/Xlayer and turned before snapping him off! GUTTED so Karl rigs up again ready for some more abuse but we hit another brick wall of really slow fishing! we tried everything in the box from Senkos in 4" and 3", Xlayers, craw patterns, Karls home made SP's in various styles it wasnt happening! we moved off to the front of the headland where it was totally out of the wind, it was literally flat as a pancake this side so bites were easy to tell. it wasnt long before Karl shouts he's in!
Possibly one of the ugliest wrasse iv seen in years all covered in boils and scars but was still a good bit of fun played on Karls Nories Rockfish Bottom, was fun trying to get it up over about 12 ft of rock ledge mind you!! we were starting to get a few hits now fishing the lures smack bang tight to the bottom just wriggling our lures nice and slow, Karl went over to the Jikka rig with a 3" senko where as i fished on with the 4" lures still getting hits every now and then, it wasnt by any means kicking off and we really had to work for the bites changing through every colour we had between us, i found the darker patterns getting me more attention with lots of slams on these beautys made by Karl himself

This is Karls Goby SP fished on a 2/0 worm hook these have such a nice action and fished texas along the bottom on a 5g cone head it was the only lure all day that got me regular attention from the crafty ballans, i also used one of Karls rascal Beavers which had me another fish but this was a tacker at about 1.5lb. the day was getting on now and before we knew it we had already clocked 16hours on the water......... talk about tough fishing with only 5 wrasse to show for our efforts...... the conditions couldnt of been any better the only thing we both thought could of snuffled it was the amount of sandeel in the water everywhere you looked was thousands of Eel could this of been a factor of why we struggled to really get any proper sport this weekend?? anyway i was told of some nice wrassing on the bait only a week ago so i feel a mid weeker coming on so watch this space.


Monday 25 June 2012

New Grounds

Well me and Jimbo hit our first session since the states where he was chasing poons and i was looking forward to this trip as we had decided on hitting ground we had checked out earlier in the year, Jim had walked these sections a few time taking some pics of possible gulleys and points to fish they all looked mint! so with this in mind we packed our softplastics gear and headed down the cliffs in search of Wrasse and silver snufflers....
I wasnt quite prepared for what i was about to see.... some of the most beautiful ground iv fished around this part of south devon! this was wrasse and bass heaven, mental deep gulleys and reefs breaking within casting distance, fingers of reef criss crossing in front of us silver sand coves creating almost tropical looking blue bays it was stunning!! every nook and cranny screamed fish i was like a child in a sweet shop didnt know where to look! it wasnt long before the fish showed up with Jim nailing the first wrasse in this gulley from right under our feet, FISH ON! 
  

Jim nailed this wrasse on Megabass Xlayer and Gamakatsu texas rigged combo after a short spirited scrap the fish was landed! i love these fish there so much fun on balanced gear Jim was literally getting hit on every cast i could see his rod banging over the whole time it was in the water! i fished right next to him and even had the wrasse swimming right up to the surface chasing our lures it was awesome seeing them bolt up behind the lure and actually see them looking for the lures when they hit the surface in the weed

Heres another fish from the same gulley again taken on the Xlayer this type of fishing is addictive and pushes all my buttons and i cant get enough of it! we fished numerous gulleys all of which had wrasse climbing the walls, after a short walk along the sheep tracks we stumbled across possibly the fishiest set of rocks and huge gulleys iv seen! both me and Jim sat on the rocks totally blown away by the ground we had found! this just screamed bass on the rocks breaking in the distance but i couldnt help myself so i flicked my Wave Worm into this pit of a gulley and instantly got smashed up! after three or four smash and grabs i was in!

this fish took a Wave worm Baby Tiki stick, black with red glitter with a red tipped tail. these are 4" long and a bit slimmer than the standard Tiki Sticks this makes them awesome for fishing really snaggy ground as you can fish them with the hook completely inside the worm rather that nipped in texposed. the softer rubber allows you to strike the hook home when you get a bite but also drag the lure through fairly thick touch weed without it hanging the hook up and snagging! the only issue is this method tends to tear the lure up allot which can suck ass sometimes. after 3 wrasse from this pool while Jim plugged for bass we moved to the other side of this pit/gulley where we were greeted by more mouth watering water to fish!!
Jim was straight into this near 4lber while actually fishing a 6" Slug-go for the bass ripping the lure across allot more "bass like" but these Pigs kept smashing the lures well off the bottom it was awesome seeing Jims rod lumped over fishing a method completely different to me crawing senko type lures along the bottom. but he kept getting hits on every other cast!
things were hotting up now as the tide started to push back up and the wrasse started to get more and more aggressive with most casts getting hit or fish following the lures up the ledges! in the next set of gulleys it was allot more bassy...... it was half hour or so into the in coming tide and the water was gin clear, with the 4-5ft deep pools with sand on the bottom it looked like something from your holiday snaps from the med! i scrambled down the ridge onto pretty much virgin rocks when all of a sudden i hear Jimbo shout out he could see a chunky bass swimming towards me further up the gulley behind me! i had a few casts but no luck when from right under my feet i saw a Bass swim right past me! i tied on one of my Fiiish black minnow's with my 5g head but nothing..... i caught out the corner of my two faily chunky Ballans literally under my feet on this small patch of kelp. i flicked my Black Minnow into the gulley and dragged it through the weed next to them when WHAM

This was one of the coolest catches iv had in a long long time!! it was like stalking chub on our local river i saw this fish tucked up against the weed and watched it follow up and look around for the lure before jumping on my lure it was awesome! we do sooooo much of our wrassing in deep gulleys in 10-15ft of water where you cant see whats going on, being able to see this fish come up from 5ft of water and taking a lure in water with only 3-4" of water above it was epic and such a buzz! 

we then moved to some ledges around the corner which we had fished on the high tide mark earlier in the day, so wanted to see what it was like at low water..... it didnt let us down with fish instantly! with Jim getting his Slug-go ripped down the hook and my Salt stick senko getting whammed straight away by this chunky low 3lber sport was thick and fast with two smaller wrasse in as many casts after i released this fish! i kept getting good hits in the deeper part of the pit when again i was whammed and stripped of line into the snags

all the fish seemed to be stacked in this tight hole it was almost a fish a cast and was epic fun! these greedy ballans are a ball to target this way, does it get any more simpler than twitching senkos anlong the reefs.... NO its soooo much fun! Jim had another wrasse and called it a day as the weather was sneaking in behind us with the colder winds making it rather chilly but i was on a roll while Jimbo sat on the rocks chilling i fished on with good results the very next fish was this beauty


being my biggest of the session at nearly 4lb and a good scrap to boot dive bombing into the kelp and running me through the rocks, i checked my leader after and how i didnt get cut off is a joke i was lucky on this one!! time for a few more casts before we head back for a well earned cup of coffee im getting my lure back out there and after a few casts im in again....... all from the same spot this was mental!! and couldnt of ended such a good fun day any better! 19 wrasse landed and twice as many hooked and lost we both walked back up smiling and already talking of the next session!!

tightlines