Fishing Adventures 2011

Me and James have been busy doing features the last 9 days and wow what fun we'v had! its been tough weather wise and fishing but as per usuall we nailed it! southwest ireland is such a gorgeous place to fish, what more can ya ask for that pure blue sea's fish literally everywhere and stunning coastlines its anglers heaven! we headed out with the Legend Nick Dent on the first day in search of monster pollack and cod on the light gear, we took our shore lure rods 7ft rods and 4000 size reels loaded with braid abusing jigs and grubs fished over the Fast Net reefs and rock ledges. the water was between 80 and a 140ft and had to be crawling! it was literally instantly into fish on the first drop! braid screamin off the reels

heres James lifting into one of the first braid melting runs off the Fast Net anyone who says you cant use light gear off boats is wrong! there is deffo conditions where its hard but as long as you have some water sense the fish are there to be abused good and proper and boy dont Pollack and Cod scrap on light lure rods! we had tons of Pollack to just under doubles all on our light jigs and grubs. it was the Delalande GT shads in the smaller sizes and Buster shads that truly came through with the results! coupled with Decoy jigs around 3/4 of a ounce to a ounce. it was cracking sport and i would be lying if i didnt say im addicted!

Not being one to turn my nose up at this sport i soon put down the camera and put the stomp down on these beautys..... between us we had 30-40 decent pollack to 9lb all on the soft plastics and it wasnt long before we lost the tide so out came the big gun rods the 20/30's for the conger and ling fishing! and after some funny rigging techniques shown by Mikey.H which worked a treat! we were soon into the fish! nearly 13lb Huss conger to 20lb ling to low singles your have to stay tuned to TSF mag for the full report and pictures.

the next day after a trek and a half we headed out on Nealy's boat out of Valencia as you can see above the weather did its usuall irish trick of pissing it down with rain but not being one to mess around i soon rigged up my lure rods and put on the Danny show for the cameras with action from the get go! we drifted casting distance to the rocks in 60ft of water loonking for structure it wasnt lomg before the fish came out to play! with this 6lb Ballan being the first decent fish to nail the jig's after a brutal fight it was released after a few piccys and again the rain pounded and pounded! we nailed a good 20 or so nice Pollack off this mark we moved on to what can only be said as the mother of all inshore Pollack marks...... after feeling a take on one of the first drifts on the drop and striking lifting into what can only of been a monster Pollack it comes off GUTTIN! but the next drift see's this corker showing

anyone who's done light shore pollacking knows how well a 6-7lber goes and when you nail doubles like this it really is a hold on for dear life style angling! they really do try and F%&k you up and after 4-5 steaming runs i still hadnt seen this fish i knew it was a brute due tonthe sheer power it had i pulled it pulled back! the water here is gin clear i got the Pollack under the rod tip, in about 15ft of water i finally saw it and panic sets in! one more run and it was over strate in the net! 11lb cant be all that bad! after a few more fish it was time to head in! again wait for the mag features for more details and fish! after this we headed off to the beautiful Beara

we stopped off at Kenmare in the hills of the Beara for a spot of Salmon bashin while the water was still running high fro recent rain! i think it was my second cast in the first pool this little bugger nails my flying-c spinner and wow what a heart stopping second...... if only it was 10lb heavier lol. but still my first Irish salmon dead chuffed! mean while Jimbo has the beast of all braid wind knots, iv seriously never seen anything like it ha ha ha . it was long before james was in and nails his first irish salmon too :-)

by this point the bass were calling us and who were we to say no to that! first stop was a spot tucked away fro the irish secret squirrel club on the Beara which no one knows about! thanks Mikey.H it was long before they were soon charging up behind the the soft plastic surface lures :-) but after a good few near misses and countless swearing from me and Mike nothing was banked to head off to Clon for the serious Bassing with local guide Allan i fished from the small boat with Pete and James stayed with Allan where they nailed 2 nice bass to 4lb on live eel where as i blasted out pollack after pollack on the hard baits Megabass X120's and IMA Komomo's i had fish to 6lb which again was a ball on lighter gear! me and Pete headed back up the beach to meet James and allan where i cast out my IMA lures for bass in the estuary, second cast and Bang!

a golden grey mullet....... from a distance i thought id nailed a small schooly but once i got it to my feet i could see it was a mullet! and it nailed my IMA komomo good and proper! while james rung Mikey.H we were told this was a seriously close contender for the Irish rod and line record!....... chuffed to bits but we later found out i was a couple ounces off, but still its the second biggest nailed and on a lure...... brilliant result! it was now time to trek off to Cobh in search of the monster Bass from cork harbour the second biggest natural harbour in the world! literally Bass central! on the first night it wasnt long before my Bass brain started churning and we got out with Kev and Howard (father son compo) and owners of the biggest fishing hotel base this side of the sea's. ill post up about these guys in the week . we headed out in the stunning Warrior 175's in search of Bass

This fine nearly 6lber was the first to show its face to a Cultiva shad and Decoy football jig combo banged out to the treeline you can see behing me in this picture. by this point we were both shattered as we had covered serious miles getting here it was time for Rum and coke! we steamed of back to the hotel for a well earned bit of grub and smash back some drinkys! i nailed three decent bass in the next sessions all over 5lb and the biggest being 7lb sooooo much fun and on the last days session we nailed yet another 8 more bass to over 8lb again watch out for the reports in features for TSF and Boat Fishing mags soon. ill post up more stuff as and when we deal with it. a cracking week with amazing people behind us big thanks to Micheal Hennessy, Paul Harris, Kevin Murphy and Jim Clohessy for the support and friendly welcome while me and James had a tough yet awesome week!

tight lines Danny

Free stretches...... :-)

Just recently me James.O and briefly young "lure Guru in the making" Jamie have been seeing what the local free stretches have on offer! with mostly chub and perch in mind we'v managed some good results, one of the most comman comments i hear on stretches of water like these are "you aint going to catch anything decent there mate" we lets hope this short report and pictures spurs you into having a venture on you local free stretch.

heres James with a chunky chub on one of our recent outings just touching 4lb and taken while stalking fish in gin clear water, none of this sitting there and waiting for it to happen, when your fishing these type of venues you gotta make ya own luck and getting out using water craft and reading the swims is key to successful fishing we knew these fish were here it was a case of setting the trap and going for it, remembering to keep off the skyline and keep out of the chubs crafty view and bingo this was one of twelve fish over 3lb mostly 3-4lbers one under the 3lb mark! not bad hay for a "useless water"

heres the biggest from that session at 4.5lb a cracking scrap as i was in the usuall snagged up chub swim "hold on tight" with light gear as they dont half pull, you gotta have ya witts about you when near cover as chub know there homes better than we ever will! all you need is a good pair of polaroids we wear Costa Del Mars which are pricey but they are the best you can get leading the way in the fishing glasses scene! http://www.costadelmar.com/ and some nice dark clothing as you can bet your last quid the fish will see you before you see them! we bumped into to a couple fairly large perch some 2lb plussers but we couldnt get any to play but hayy Danny knows where you live now!!

we fished today on another free stretch me and Jamie with some cracking results..... the sun was beaming kids were climbing the trees and jumping in it wasnt what you would call my kind of scene while our light lure fishing but i wanted to get out and show jamie some nice local fun fishing! now iv done very well here before and have had perch to over 2lb and chub well over 5lb here but to the locals its just a "roach bashing" venue with tiny perch, roach, gudgeon crawling the river bed, i often get asked how iv caught such big fish here as its just not seen as a big fish venue. but if your willing to put the effort in and sculk around looking for the features there is plenty of whoppers here, just most of you spook them before you get a chance to see them! after a hour of tickling out half a dozen small perch on texposed kalin grub i get to my banker swim :-)

second cast with a pepper pearl Kalin grub tex rigged on a decoy offset hook weightless chucked over a raft of weed where i could see 4-5 2lb plus chub and this beaut of a chub, i let the lure sink and started my retrieve and bank the biggest nails it! after a spirited fight under all the weed and snags i managed to get it up on the top. with anglers line wrapped around my braid i was worried this chub was going to snag me up but after some crafty netting by young Jamie and it was ours :-) weighin in just over 5lb proof is in the pudding this fish and many other was no more than 20yards from spots where other anglers sit on bait nearly every day of the week! this fish didnt have a mark on it, no hook damage and yet again it is another big chub from the venue that "aint got no decent fish"

i also managed to whip out two pike from the same swim this little bugger Jamies holding and one of about 6lb also. which Jamie actually has attack his savage gear grub again on our way back! just showing these aggressive little chaps are here for some fun on light gear even if its only a hour after work. we ended this session with 10 perch 3 pike and a decent chub all on the same stretch of river not far from exeter, cant complain it was awesome seeing the smile on jamies face every time i called him over to show him another fish :-) jamie also had 2 pike on but they came off and lost a coulpe small perch too he was beaming with smiles which makes me a happy bunny as i remember being his age and catching pike and perch, i wouldnt be the man i am today without those experiences. tight lines to next time

Danny

Exeter Float Tube Zeds........ ;-)

I must say this is the most fun you can have with you clothes on....... float tubing is gotta be the best way to explore new and exciting venues...... just the thought gets me smilling ear to ear! you fish light none of this 10tons of gear shite, all the unhooking tools on ya chest a small bag of lures to allow easy movement to unhook fish while there still in the water! you only need to take fish out if you wanna quick photo sheer fun and really good for fish handling. and most of all you wont stop laughing from start to finish by beiing towed around the place by the pike etc.
here's adrian with his first of a very very very long drawn out start to the session on a "apparently" stuffed full venue it was hard going with me losing every single bloody pike that came anywhere near me after a solid 3hours jigging and drop shotting for the crafty Zander that call this place home....... which didnt show a sign of coming out! we decided to head back down the venue in search of pike on the spinnerbaits and that soon showed us some results from jacks around a few pounds but just great to get a bend in the rod :-) Me and Adrian met up with Adrians bass junky mate Kev and he had what can only be called a shite morning for all the wrong reasons...... he's a Spinnerbait virgin and manages to hook from the bank what can only be said as a horse of a pike well over the doubles right in the lillies its going ape shit! he only had on 15lb super PE braid and his trusty Berkley skeletor ultra light gear...... after a explosive 2mins the braid goes and the fish swims off :-( guttin losing a PB but losing it still attached to a lure is truly guttin :-(

after we had fished the sections which had ment to of been a dead cert for the Zeds we thought lets take a short drive to a free stretch we knew of which had saved my bacon a few times over the years for pike and zeds and we had almost instant action! on only my third cast from the tube i see a fish charge up to look at my Delalande buster shad thinking it had been my Zed as it followed up literallt 10inches from my legs i dropped the shad down and smash it was on! i could tell instantly i had a pike! but all good fun :-) i also had two other pike in only a few casts the biggest being this plump of a pike on the sebile magic swimmer. while being towed around by this fish and i mean being towed around the pool Adrian was paddling over to take the piccy. its released and strate away Adrian shouts im in! a big congrats to the Dorset destroyer on his first Zander you should of seen the smile on Adrians face...... this Zed took a fox hornet spinnerbait in hopes of a pike! i couldnt believe how aggressive this fish was literally nailing the lure right to the back of its throat...... you couldnt see the lure unless you opened its mouth, the state of the spinnerbait was awesome! all mangled and twisted! Adrian lost a zed on our last trip out for them and we'v been sayin we wanna come back and hit it with the tubes ever since...... a big well done and at a respectable 6lb 7oz a nice zed for your first! by this point i was a man crazed with the zed feaver! as we released this fish Kev shouts up and he's into a zander too.... :-( where was mine? i frantically cast all my small shads and lures in hopes a zed came out but after another pike i had got pretty pissed off
I turned around to drift back down the pool toward the other where i could see bleak scattin and being chased around so i stuck on the Delalande shad again and it wasnt long before my zed showed up! result at last! after a quick scrap it was mine i tailed it out to unhook the zed which got nailed on my owner st-36 stinger treble took a quick photo etc and got it back safe and sound! a nice plump 5lber....... mission accomplished! the problem is this midlands venue is a good 2hours drive for us which sucks as its doing my head in i wanna get back and break the double figure zed! well it was a slow start but it all came together nicely with Ady and Kev getting the first ever Zeds :-)

Anglers and Danglers..... :-)

Just recently iv been lucky enouth to tag along with the fly fishing Guru and all round wrongen Lewis Hendrie iv been gaggin to get out using fly gear for bloody ages after being mentally ruined by Nick Hart and the gang watching them fly fish for trout and pike...... its something iv wanted to do in a long time but not having access to this stuff on a reg basis it was always something that never spawned! well Lewis rings me asking if id fancie joining him for a session i jumped at the chance to get out our first session was on one of my local small rivers for wild brownys and it was AMAZING the next session was some pure angling porn!Now i would call myself a sheer dangler when it came to this type of fishing, we fished little bug patterns in teams of twos or new zealand dropper under the rod tip on this STUNNING southwest tiny water....talk about jungle fishing i was beaming with smiles this was exactly the sort of stuff fishing dreams are made of, kinda takes you back to ya childhood waist deep in water, whats not to like! quoting a a Nick Hart comment "if theis style of fishing doesnt get your juices flowing your not a angler" soooooo true..... with the hepl of Lewis i soon got the flick and catapolt technique dialled and was gettin into fish, although Lewis was whippin me big time!

we had Grayling on the brain and after i had spooked and lost a few while Lewis consistantly caught is was my duty to star nailing some of these gorgeous "lady of the streams" and i soon got stuck into grayling! all of which were between a pound and 2lb which are awesome fighting weight for our ZERO weight fly rods..... yeh zero weights! truly stunning gear coupled with some tiny Sage reels this was amazing finesse gear just right for the job and a real pleasure to use. around every corner there was another pool or gully all crammed to the brim of grayling it was amazing to see and be able to fish water that i usually wouldnt get on!

the next session was my kind of thing.... i had told Lewis about some clonkin chub fishing on another southwest venue where i had recently beat my PB on lure caught Chubblys and we chatted about how on light fly gear it would be insane fishing, real hit and hold no holes barred fly fishing! when we pulled up a short walk to the venue i could see Lew's face coming to life he could instantly see the potential here...... everywhere you look in this river you are greeted with hundreds of chub from a pound to 7lb plus! theres also a huge head of big pike here too :-) we took two fly outfits a 2weight and a 3/4weight for the chub etc so we could play around with nympths on the lighter rod and whip out the frogs and mice patterns on the 4, i also had my trusty Sakura Mazzera 742ml and 4000 reel with a bag of tricks

I had a few casts in a small wier with the fly rod and managed a tiny 3/4lb chub instantly but i could see the Perch and bigger chub tucked right in under the wier in all the white water, so it wasnt long before my lure came out to play :-) i rigged a 3" kalin pepper pearly grub onto a offset hook unweighted and popped it above the wier to let it come doen over the wier into the white water..... and on the next 4 casts i nailed 2 perch to around a pound a 1.5lb chub and a 1lb wild browny! while we moved down the river i continued with the lure and found a small raft of weed on the other side and cast out to the clear water behind, let it drop and drift under and started my drift soon as i started to wind i could see the beats turnin and looking at the grub and a 3lb perch come hammering out but doesnt take! i was in pieces i wasnt expectin that! in the next swims down i can hear fish splashing and see small fish scattin from the water in all directions! thinkin it was the pike which normally hang out here i cast out only to see huge perch everywhere...... i couldnt believe my eyes! it wasnt long before the piking pisshead was into his first decent fish of the day! this plumb 2lb perch! well chuffed we carried on up river

we fished a good old stretch teaming with chub and perch where both me and Lewis nailed them on lure and fly we both saw chub over the magic 5lb mark and a few real biggys well over 6lb...... lewis was jumpin around at the thought of nailing these fish but lost every single one ha ha we headed to a really snaggy patch of the river where there is pubic acces and of coarse shopping trolleys, prams, bikes, traffic cones, beers cans Gotta love wild fishing ayyy! and Lewis shouts F%*$in hell look at that browny........ i knew this venue had beasts as i caught a 3lb 3oz wildy only a few weeks back on a surface lure aimed for chub! after about twenty casts snaggin a few times lewis was sure we spooked this fish but as we were pissin about and lewis was actually on the phone i sat down lookin on facbook and Lew shout "I GOT IT!" it couldnt of been a worse swim snags everywhere on a light fly rod it went mental! but we landed it! a beast of a wild browny!
It was getting late now and we headed back to the car fishing the good looking pools on the way back in hopes of one of these beast Chub..... it wasnt long before they came out to play...... i had the fly rod in hand this time with a chernobyl ant pattern on and BOOM up comes those big rubbery white lips it literally smashed me! i had to run the bank after it i had no control in this fast paced river...... but wow what fun! after 2mins of shoutin to lewis that i had one it burys its head deep into the cover, i could still feel it plunging deeper and deeper into the weed so lewis jumps in with the net to try and help out but i get that heart breaking feelin of slack line... the chub is gone :-( a good fish too so lewis says. Lewis had just been snapped off as well by a big 6lber on 5lb flurocarbon leader...... these fish actually abuse light gear! we finished the session with 11 chub and a couple nice trout plus the biggy and my decent perch. that was it game over home time. bring it on next session on here we are gaggin to hit it again. couple that with the 30 odd grayling and 20 odd trout to fly gear its been a awesome couple weeks :-)

CLA Game Fair.......

I recently spent 3 days working up at Blenheim Palace, just outside Oxford at the CLA game fair. filled to the brim of all the horsey types (fit posh totty ;-).....) farmers, outdoor sports etc and of coarse the fishing village........ where we had our EPIC stand Basslures.co.uk stand had a awesome weekend meeting ang greeting all the lure crazed fishing from all sorts of background! we had the pro's right through to the new'bees all coming over to see our amazing selection of lure brands like Megabass, IMA, Lucky Craft, Lunker City and Delalande

we had the testing tank on site which was a crowd pleaser and let Me and the guys Mike and Nick show and tell all of our top brands and the popular lure styles from the awesome Slug-go to Zonk's...... I managed to get peoples brains churning with my various drop shot styles and funky rigging types of the popular soft plastics which allot of guys werent all that tuned into, its always good to see the look and grin on guys faces when they see what can me done! your be surprised how many of you have all the nice new lures and actually have no clue of its "benifits and actions" the tank allowed us to show you all what was what and we had lots of good feedback from guys and girls who learnt lots of new tricks :-)

As you can see we stocked a fair bit of all the top brands which we sell and import and managed to sell a fair bit as our stand seemed to be one of the busiest in the angling village, mostly lure sales but we also shift some rods and reels to some very happy punters some of which knew just what they wanted and lots of guys who came to us for help and advice which is where i really love to be involved in..... i cant think of anything better than where i can help others learn and get out the experiences iv been lucky enough to have from lure fishing. myself Nick and Mike were all on hand to help out as having that "new bingy" lure is all well and good but not having the foggiest how to use and abuse isnt all that fun :-)

we also had a good selection of the rods from the brands Sakura, Lucky craft and the "secret squirrel club" Megabass rods which literally made me weak at the knees..... the Sakura range consisted of the older Rookie the Shinjin's, Stingrays and the Mazzera's. we had ultra light to 7g right up the the sea monster upsetting 802XH Mazzera tropical beast killer! covering all ground for todays modern lure anger from Bass to fresh water applications and even the GAY'me boys hand there salmon brains ticking with some of the kit we had on board! the Megabass range was beautifully made and i can honestly say out of this world..... if you got the wonga and you dont buy one when you could you need sectioning! the ShadowXX range simply oozed sheer class so did the Indipendance and XIO range! pure lure fishing porn!

the brand that stands out for me in terms of styling and function has to be IMA.... dont get me wrong im a Megabass for life kinda guy but hats off to the IMA guys...... new lures like the super thin Komomo's and new sizes of most the models as well as simply mouth watering new colours that im sure will catch anglers but distroy the UK Bass population ha ha. we had allot of new stuff that isnt even on the topwater catalogue yet all of which will surely rise up the ranks of the finest lure gear on the market! Basslures.co.uk is truly the boys in the retail lure market today and will continue the march to superiour gear for you guys so please please pop onto the site and support Nick and the gang @ www.basslures.co.uk i had a awesome weekend surrounded by awesome people all of which are part of the basslures family a true sign of quality family run business its really a pleasure to be one of the lucky few to be involved :-)

www.basslures.co.uk Parkins quality assured ha ha

CLA Game Fair 2011

sooo its that time of year again! next weekend is the CLA game fair in Oxfordshire. where there will be a wealth of Angling, Hunting and general outdoor activities all on show as well as tons of shops and dispalys from all the top names in the Fly fishing world. Hardy/Greys will be taking care of casting displays etc as well as numerous coarse fishing brands now on display!I will be there working on the Basslures/Topwater stand over the three days where we have a awesome selection of Lure brands from the likes of MegaBass, Lucky Craft, IMA, Lunker City, Sakura, Sebile and Delalande. including all the most modern lures from each brand, Rods and Reels as well as a tank to "show and tell" on various products across the ranges. So please come down and visit us for a banter and check out what exciting brands www.basslures.co.uk and www.topwaterlures.co.uk have to offer up to the Modern lure angler.

CLA Game Fair, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. 22-24 July 2011

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