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 

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 

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