Gotta be in it to win it!!!

Im recently back from a week off Fishing for Catfish in depest darkest Dorset! we had a whole lake booked for me and my Mate Steve Blackmore who is a Catfish nut and one of the UK's most forward thing carp anglers, he prides himself in wild venues! no puddle pigs for steve! we ventured of to a tiny venue in dorset which is stacked with Catfish, with 5 cats in the lake to just over 40lb!!! and numerous high twentys. . . . its was gorgeous here and was idyllic venues iv visited in years, just what the docter ordered! now iv never ever bivvied up on a venue before and certainly never sat behind bite alarms but i can honestly say i really enjoyed myself! it was a proper adventure and i loved it! apart from some rather frosty mornings which killed the catfishing dead the carp certainly made a good diversion from the slow catfishing! I had 12 Carp all in the mid teens to late teens the biggest being a pair caught almost one after each other at 16lb and 18lb 4oz. the carp came thick and thin to stalking tactics which brings me back to my school days where id sneak up to the lillie pad bays on my local canal and plop a lump of bread on the nose of sun bathing carp! Great fun!

the week went soooo fast and with 4-5 dropped runs on the live bait rods we started to cross our fingers for the cats to come out and play! as you can see in the photo above i am a bit of a forward angler and never let a good chance slip by i pinned a live bait off under the tree on the right of the photo, the laughter from anglers around who came to see some crazy 26 year old devon lad neck deep in a freezing cold lake was great! guys just couldnt believe what i was prepared to do! but as i always say...... you gotta be in it to win it!! :-) well the week finally passed and not a single cat was landed but between the two of us we landed god knows how many Carp and we had some steaming runs from the live baits but to no avail! i really enjoyed the week doing a completely different style of fishing and i cannot say how much fun it was getting that sheer paniced feeling when the alarms screamed on the live bait rods knowing there could be a 5ft long monster which is very angry on the other end! we had sorted some dates for hitting some other venues later this year around the south of england to finally nail the cat! i cannot wait!!

A few hours out before the BIG week!

Fished a local venue on friday with Martin Harding, we headed to a section that just doesnt get bothered by anglers as its miles from anywhere! gin clear water stuffed to the brim of weed and lillies and billions of Rudd and Roach! Martin stuck to his usuall Ultra light gear i was using a 40gm wand. i pretty much decided to put some water time on some of my Sebile products which Nick had sent over, mainly trying to abuse the Magic swimmers hard and soft baits. i started off with the 75mm Sebile Magic swimmer in a slow sink model in electric blue and silver. it looked amazing in the water the added feather on the tail really makes these already unreal swimbaits look even better! this lure got the attention strate away from jacks in most swims having follows and a few hits, first impressions were spot on! we came to a old cattle bridge where i hear Martin shout, i walk over to see a fish 12-15lb sat there watching his Rapala Husky jerk suspending mid water. Martin said the pike just blasted out after the lure from the reeds to the left of the bridge. but it was obvious it had seen Martin by the way it just froze! after a few chucks Martin gave up so i clipped on the Sebile Magic swimmer softbait in BlueGill colour and wacked it out to the bridge. it got half way across and smash a small jack 2lb or so grabbed the lure right in front of the Double figure pike still sitting there! i do admit to letting the jack wallow about for a bit in hopes the Biggie came and nailed it :-) once i get the jack in i realised that the little sod had ripped my brand new BlueGill swimmer in half!!!! one cast, one fish!! i was gutted!

iv been using these softbaits for a couple months now and they have all done 10plus fish before having to retire them! this BlueGill was my favorate colour as well :-( well we headed further up the canal where it was looking even more fishy! i had yet another Jack about 4lb on the Sebile magic swimmer softbait in Brown trout. put the fish back and cast out and had another fish over 15 follow the lure it really was a mental afternoon you can fish these stretches sometimes and not see a fish over 2lb and we'v seen to good doubles in a hundred yards! Martin whipped out a few small perch all nailing his 5cm Rapala husky jerk, no big ones all under a pound but good fun all the same! the colour of these perch was amazing deep greens and reds just what they should always look like!
i just love perch fishing, growing up on the Grand western canal iv caught perch since i was 3years old! if only they grew 10-15lb!!! we carried on fishing for a couple hours with simular results perch and jacks nothing over 5lb but great fun and just really good to get out! once again i was overly pleased with the Sebile gear, as always all top lures fitted with owner hooks and fool proof actions!! a amazing brand from across the seas and a real pleasure to use and abuse!! all Sebile gear is avialable from Nick at www.basslures.co.uk check it out!!! well this week iv got a week off in search of the mighty Wels Catfish!!!! we have a whole lake booked just for us! ill be trying my hardest to land my first Lure caught Wels Cat and i literally cannot wait!!

Poppers

As mentioned in a few earlier posts the surfice fishing is starting to kick off down here in Devon, with weed and lilly beds sprouting up everywhere the fishing is really heating up! theres sooooooo many surface lures out on the market at the mo its hard to choose between the thousands of "catch all" lures out there! iv been throwing one of these puppies around over the bank hols and they dont dissapoint!! iv had the smaller version of the Sebile Splasher for a fair few months now, the tiny Splasher is ideal for smaller fresh water fish and will murder the local chub here soon as the rivers open up again! but this 12cm version is the full monty! armed to the teeth with Owner hooks, and is fully wired for tropical sea's abuse!!

Check out the size of the cupped mouth of this Popper!! once again prime example of Patrick Sebiles forward thinking! this lure is built to last! iv destroyed allot of lures over the years and theres nothing better than seeing tough lures hammered bike pike! these baits are available in 4 sizes from 7cm's to 18cm and all available from Nick at www.basslures.co.uk you really do need to get ya self a few for this summer!! your going to want some serious gear to blast these lures out and give them the proper action! they move like no other poppers, due to the keel weight these puppies will pop and walk the dog all the way in! making it a two in one surface lure built for monsters! as i said another top lure from Sebile

Mini Monsters

Heres a quick picture of a Tiny Pollack from the other day! check out how this small fish has nailed a 4inch slug-go!!! they may only be tiny fish but they are soooo agressive, we had god knows how many tiddlers this size completely nail the lures i love the way this pollack has folded the Slug-go in two! i certainly wouldnt wanna be a sandeel here in south devon :-) i was fishing these 4-5inch slug-go's on Lunker Citys Lunka grip jigs perfect for fishing these amazing lures deeper and quickly! the Pollack certainly loved them!

When its on its REALLY on!

Well Me Adrian and Martin headed out to some middle of no where rock mark in south devon yesterday afternoon! iv been aware of this venue for a fair few years but never got around to fishing it! it was stunning the water was so clear it was like another country! the water was a gorgeous blue and you could clearly see the sand and reefs hugging the shoreline. with Bass and Pollack in mind we armed our tackle boxes with 3-5inch soft baits and small nordic spoons. with Kaolin grubs and the nordic spoons working the best! once we scrambled down the very wild headland me and Martin found a nice little rock ledge to start on and i kid you not Martin hooks up on the very first cast! things certainly seemed different from previous trips where the cold seas have slowed the sport a bit! Martin lands the first fish of the day a small Pollack aout a pound and a half. Now Martin knows his stuff when it comes to salt water lure fishing far more than i do and fluke or no fluke he then nailed 2 more Pollack in a row!! three casts three Pollack.....

Me and Adrian certainly wanted some of this action! i had a few slams but couldnt connect! Adrian moved to the left of us where the tide was ripping across the rocks a ideal holding spots for Preds, i fished a 8gm Gama Jig with a 3 1/2 inch MegaBass Hazedong in pearl white and smash i got nailed by a fish about a pound again! but it dropped off as i lifted it from the water!! Martin was still nailing Pollack almost one after another! so Adrian clambered over to us to join in the fun! Both Adrian and Martin armed with 3inch Kaolin grubs in the limited Dale Winton coulour but me and Adrian still struggled! Martin shouts "iv got a decent fish" the BassPro rod was bent double! the Pollack was nearly 3lb id say when all of a sudden a massive seal bolts up behind the fish and grabs it!! steaming 60-70ft of braid off Martins reel then breaking him off! Gutting stuff but this happens all the time in deepest darkest devon :-)
After a while the soft plastics stopped working and we stuck on the Nordic spoons with instant action! i found a little gully where i boosted my fish count from 4 Pollack to about a pound and a half to 19 fish with a couple over 2lb! great sport on our light 6ft6 casting rods! Pollack certainly do fight!! shame soooo many anglers fish with pool que beach rods for these fish because they really do scrap! Role on Ireland in july!! i also caught the biggest Launce iv ever seen!! this sand eel was a good foot long, in thought it was a Garfish at first untill i got it in! mental stuff..... i lost count after 36 Pollack, with just as many lost! this really was dream light spinning! darkness fell and we thought the way things had gone throughout the day that darkness would be mental as Pollack really switch on in Darkness! but the tide died on us and we only had a handfull after dark with Adrian getting a Pollack well over 2lb. Martings Headlight then died on us also so we decided to call it quits awesome fun and cannot wait to do it again!!

Surface Action

within the Next month or so the Surface lure action here in Devon should really start hotting up! iv fished various surface lures since i was at school but two stick out by miles in my books..... the Renoski real Frog and the SwampFox! these lure literally murder the weedy shallow venues here in devon and between me and some of my fishing buddys we have managed to pull some absolute monsters from our water on bot these Surface lures! the SwampFoxs being my personal fav this lure as simple as it is will produce the goods everytime! last season i have large Swampys literally ripped in half while out fishing with Adrian and Martin last season! shocking stuff! heres a Photo taken of me last summer it really catches what i love about surface fishing throughout the summer! keep ya eyes peeled for some serious action this season i seriously cannot wait!!!!!

Couple hours out

Fished sunday with my fishing Buddy Tezo a couple miles of our local canal which is really coming to life at the mo as the water starts to warm up! fish already showing interest in surface lure which is fab in my eyes as this year i have some serious scores to settle!! we started off not far from my house slowely working our way out of town enjoying the mild overcast sunday afternoon! i decided to abuse some of the gear from http://www.basslures.co.uk/ which Nick sent over. i was armed with mostly Slug-gos and Fin-S fish shads as i just know they will do some serious damage this season, iv messed about with rigging them in different ways just to see what i can come up with! the one lure i wanted to abuse the most was the Sebile Magic swimmer softbait! this lure truely is wonderful in my eyes! i wrote about it in previous posts.

I left the house with my super smooth Shimano Conquest GT-ti 51 coupled with a tournament rod from Savage. this kit is spot on for general lure work in the UK and has help me land a fair few big fish in the last 12months! the Sebile Magic swimmer softbait was ideal for the just off clear water conditions with cloud cover it was superb! the action has to be seen to be belived, it would take a bit of getting used to if you havent fished texus styled lures with worm hooks before. the temptation to strike instantly is unreal and it just gets my juices flowing everytime i have to contain myself when i nice fish hits the lure! the key is to fish these lures in water where you can see what is happening! its amazing watching how a pike will nail a lure so hard that it will nearly rip the rod out your hands but then swim off with this softbait gently across its jaws..... you need to feel the strike and let the pike have the lure while you gently keep in contact enough to feel when the pike has taken the lure back. then wind down and STRIKE!!! amazing fishing which does take a while to figure out but once you have got the hang of it you will have no problems getting fish to the bank!

Heres Tezo with the biggest fish of the afternoon Just over 9lb and gave a good little scrap, it took the lure in 2-3inches of water it certainly was explosive action! the pike are coming thick and thin now and 2-3 doubles a session are now a regular lets just hope the surface action is anything like last season! ill be keeping a detailed account on the 2010 surface season on here so lets hope those twentys show the heads again!!