I've been quite lucky this week to not only have time off work but also to have such fantastic weather with it. This inevitably has led to quite a bit of fishing time, some quite successful, others not so much. I've tried to vary the fishing as much as possible to try and boost the species total, but this has led to chasing the harder species e.g. Bass & Mullet, and we know how frustrating they can be! We'll start on freshwater though and slightly more relaxed circumstances.
This week I have had one target in my mind - Mullet, but if you know of these fish you know that planning to catch one and doing it are completely different things. Myself, Ellie, Olly and Shane all had Monday off so decided to try for the 'Grey Ghost'. Looe had done the trick for me in the past so we headed there with the intention of hopefully catching one, we arrived to find conditions were not in our favour, a cold breeze and weedy water were no good for the shallow water stalking I wanted to try. I decided there was no point in wasting our time and that Bake Lakes was a better option, it held a few species we all still needed to catch. So that's where we headed. We arrived and set up quite quickly, having bought the bait and licences needed. Me and Ellie fished one peg on Dunes and Olly and Shane fished another. Baiting up with micropellet and sweetcorn the Carp soon bulldozed their way into our swim and got to feeding, with them so focused on micropellet though it took a while to persuade them to take our bait, I was using Isome on a Dropshot rig and Ellie (more traditionally) float with Sweetcorn. Ellie's was first to go though and what a surprise it was... A good sized Bream of about 3lb. We weren't expecting it and the size was much higher than average for the lake, a great turn up for Ellie and a new species for her. She soon followed it up with a Crucian Carp and a Common, taking her to 20 species. With nothing happening on my LRF tactics we switched over and eventually, after quite a few missed bites and the usual Roach & Rudd, I had my own Crucian. I love Crucian Carp, they are such a great little dinner plate shape, give their all in the fight and aren't very easy to catch at times, I was really happy with that result. Meanwhile Shane had a couple of Roach and Carp which were new species for him. Olly had a couple of Carp but he was really after a Crucian, they avoided him all day though. I switched back to LRF and had a ridiculous take! A large Carp stormed off in front of me and my drag screamed, after a good five minute battle it was in the net. An immaculate 8lb Common Carp that couldn't have looked more perfect, some of the Carp in the lake have unfortunately been caught so many times that their mouths are damaged and some scales are missing. That is the reality of a commercial lake that sees so much business, especially from inexperienced coarse anglers that don't always treat every fish like they should. This fish though had obviously been either lucky or wily enough not to be caught much and it was an honour to hold such a pretty fish. We fished most of the day with good success catching varieties of Carp then satisfied, headed home.
Robbie had invited me to fish and do a write up for the new Specimen Lake - Caesar's Palace, the next night. I obviously couldn't resist and I will post that up soon. It was a lovely way to spend 12 hours and ended up in a completely virgin 11lb 2oz Mirror Carp, my biggest fish of the year so far.
I had Mullet on the mind still though.
Looe was worth another try so Ellie and Me went down again. With fish moving in the shallows we cast out our bread baited hooks. Quickly Ellie grew frustrated, I couldn't blame her, Mullet will do that to anyone. She decided to sit it out whilst I persevered, I waited for the tide to bring in the thousands of fish that it does every day. The fish in front of me gave tentative nibbles but nothing concrete. The tide started flooding in and I had completely underestimated the size of it! Washing huge amounts of debris in along with the fish I couldn't get a bait out there long enough to fish effectively. Two guys fishing across from me seemed to have similar luck. I gave up and decided the pub was a better option! A fishing trip is never a bad one when it ends in good company, food and beer, there's always next time.
Olly has recently been eyeing up my LRF gear in some jealousy and decided to buy himself some, well I was going past the tackle shop so bought it for him. I shouldn't really go to Osborne & Cragg in Plymouth because I always take far too much time in there, such is the quality of tackle and conversation. Having met the man behind the 'Duke Nukem' profile picture on Facebook, Andy Smith, I was able to thank him person for the spare spools he gave me the other week. I finally decided on what set up for Olly and then left to try for mullet again up the Plym River. I had overestimated the tides though and there were very few fish to target. I left after 45 minutes as I had promised Olly we would target Bass & Pollock that evening. I'm glad we did. We arrived in our favourite rock mark to beautiful clear waters, things looked promising. I had barely tied my lure on when Olly shouted 'Fish on!' his first cast with his brand new rod! He quickly followed it up with 'It's a Bass' which made the excitement levels jump. On light tackle the Schoolie Bass fought hard and it was a relief to get it in the net. It had taken a 7g Pink & Silver Metal Shore Jig, you couldn't wipe the smile from Olly's face, his first Bass of the year. We quickly took some photos then returned it to the sea. After that we were expecting more action but the only Bass we saw after was one smash my lure right by the rocks then come off, leaving me pretty devastated! Shane caught a little Pollock but as darkness set in it stayed quiet and we headed home. It certainly whet my appetite for more light jigging from the rocks, hopefully with more success next time.
After that the totals are:
Ben - 23 Species - Perch, Roach, Bream/Roach hybrid, Mirror Carp, Pike, Rainbow Trout, Common Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Tompot Blenny, Ballan Wrasse, Rock Goby, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Pollock, Goldsinny Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Golden Orfe, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench & Crucian Carp
Ellie - 20 Species - Golden Rudd, Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Perch, Pike, Corkwring Wrasse, Pollock, Mirror Carp, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Tompot Blenny, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Ballan Wrasse, Common Blenny, Golden Tench, Golden Orfe, Bronze Bream, Crucian Carp & Common Carp
Olly - 16 Species - Perch, Rainbow Trout, Pike, Rudd, Roach, Mirror Carp, Common Carp, Pollock, Goldsinny Wrasse, Common Blenny, Shore Rockling, Corkwring Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench & Sea Bass
Will - 14 Species - Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Pike, Tompot Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Common Goby, Ballan Wrasse, Dogfish, Golden Rudd, Golden Tench & Golden Orfe
Robbie - 11 Species - Perch, Mirror Carp, Roach, Rudd, Eel, Ballan Wrasse, Topknot, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Golden Rudd & Blue Orfe
Shane - 8 Species - Rudd, Roach/Bream Hybrid, Crucian Carp, Pollock, Shore Rockling, Common Carp, Mirror Carp & Roach
Zoe - 5 Species - Pike, Goldsinny Wrasse, Rock Goby, Ballan Wrasse & Long Spined Sea Scorpion
Grant - 2 Species - Ballan Wrasse & Tompot Blenny
As always thanks for reading and please check out fishingtails.co.uk where I'm now a contributor.
This week I have had one target in my mind - Mullet, but if you know of these fish you know that planning to catch one and doing it are completely different things. Myself, Ellie, Olly and Shane all had Monday off so decided to try for the 'Grey Ghost'. Looe had done the trick for me in the past so we headed there with the intention of hopefully catching one, we arrived to find conditions were not in our favour, a cold breeze and weedy water were no good for the shallow water stalking I wanted to try. I decided there was no point in wasting our time and that Bake Lakes was a better option, it held a few species we all still needed to catch. So that's where we headed. We arrived and set up quite quickly, having bought the bait and licences needed. Me and Ellie fished one peg on Dunes and Olly and Shane fished another. Baiting up with micropellet and sweetcorn the Carp soon bulldozed their way into our swim and got to feeding, with them so focused on micropellet though it took a while to persuade them to take our bait, I was using Isome on a Dropshot rig and Ellie (more traditionally) float with Sweetcorn. Ellie's was first to go though and what a surprise it was... A good sized Bream of about 3lb. We weren't expecting it and the size was much higher than average for the lake, a great turn up for Ellie and a new species for her. She soon followed it up with a Crucian Carp and a Common, taking her to 20 species. With nothing happening on my LRF tactics we switched over and eventually, after quite a few missed bites and the usual Roach & Rudd, I had my own Crucian. I love Crucian Carp, they are such a great little dinner plate shape, give their all in the fight and aren't very easy to catch at times, I was really happy with that result. Meanwhile Shane had a couple of Roach and Carp which were new species for him. Olly had a couple of Carp but he was really after a Crucian, they avoided him all day though. I switched back to LRF and had a ridiculous take! A large Carp stormed off in front of me and my drag screamed, after a good five minute battle it was in the net. An immaculate 8lb Common Carp that couldn't have looked more perfect, some of the Carp in the lake have unfortunately been caught so many times that their mouths are damaged and some scales are missing. That is the reality of a commercial lake that sees so much business, especially from inexperienced coarse anglers that don't always treat every fish like they should. This fish though had obviously been either lucky or wily enough not to be caught much and it was an honour to hold such a pretty fish. We fished most of the day with good success catching varieties of Carp then satisfied, headed home.
Robbie had invited me to fish and do a write up for the new Specimen Lake - Caesar's Palace, the next night. I obviously couldn't resist and I will post that up soon. It was a lovely way to spend 12 hours and ended up in a completely virgin 11lb 2oz Mirror Carp, my biggest fish of the year so far.
I had Mullet on the mind still though.
Looe was worth another try so Ellie and Me went down again. With fish moving in the shallows we cast out our bread baited hooks. Quickly Ellie grew frustrated, I couldn't blame her, Mullet will do that to anyone. She decided to sit it out whilst I persevered, I waited for the tide to bring in the thousands of fish that it does every day. The fish in front of me gave tentative nibbles but nothing concrete. The tide started flooding in and I had completely underestimated the size of it! Washing huge amounts of debris in along with the fish I couldn't get a bait out there long enough to fish effectively. Two guys fishing across from me seemed to have similar luck. I gave up and decided the pub was a better option! A fishing trip is never a bad one when it ends in good company, food and beer, there's always next time.
Olly has recently been eyeing up my LRF gear in some jealousy and decided to buy himself some, well I was going past the tackle shop so bought it for him. I shouldn't really go to Osborne & Cragg in Plymouth because I always take far too much time in there, such is the quality of tackle and conversation. Having met the man behind the 'Duke Nukem' profile picture on Facebook, Andy Smith, I was able to thank him person for the spare spools he gave me the other week. I finally decided on what set up for Olly and then left to try for mullet again up the Plym River. I had overestimated the tides though and there were very few fish to target. I left after 45 minutes as I had promised Olly we would target Bass & Pollock that evening. I'm glad we did. We arrived in our favourite rock mark to beautiful clear waters, things looked promising. I had barely tied my lure on when Olly shouted 'Fish on!' his first cast with his brand new rod! He quickly followed it up with 'It's a Bass' which made the excitement levels jump. On light tackle the Schoolie Bass fought hard and it was a relief to get it in the net. It had taken a 7g Pink & Silver Metal Shore Jig, you couldn't wipe the smile from Olly's face, his first Bass of the year. We quickly took some photos then returned it to the sea. After that we were expecting more action but the only Bass we saw after was one smash my lure right by the rocks then come off, leaving me pretty devastated! Shane caught a little Pollock but as darkness set in it stayed quiet and we headed home. It certainly whet my appetite for more light jigging from the rocks, hopefully with more success next time.
After that the totals are:
Ben - 23 Species - Perch, Roach, Bream/Roach hybrid, Mirror Carp, Pike, Rainbow Trout, Common Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Tompot Blenny, Ballan Wrasse, Rock Goby, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Pollock, Goldsinny Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Golden Orfe, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench & Crucian Carp
Ellie - 20 Species - Golden Rudd, Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Perch, Pike, Corkwring Wrasse, Pollock, Mirror Carp, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Tompot Blenny, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Ballan Wrasse, Common Blenny, Golden Tench, Golden Orfe, Bronze Bream, Crucian Carp & Common Carp
Olly - 16 Species - Perch, Rainbow Trout, Pike, Rudd, Roach, Mirror Carp, Common Carp, Pollock, Goldsinny Wrasse, Common Blenny, Shore Rockling, Corkwring Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench & Sea Bass
Will - 14 Species - Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Pike, Tompot Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Common Goby, Ballan Wrasse, Dogfish, Golden Rudd, Golden Tench & Golden Orfe
Robbie - 11 Species - Perch, Mirror Carp, Roach, Rudd, Eel, Ballan Wrasse, Topknot, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Golden Rudd & Blue Orfe
Shane - 8 Species - Rudd, Roach/Bream Hybrid, Crucian Carp, Pollock, Shore Rockling, Common Carp, Mirror Carp & Roach
Zoe - 5 Species - Pike, Goldsinny Wrasse, Rock Goby, Ballan Wrasse & Long Spined Sea Scorpion
Grant - 2 Species - Ballan Wrasse & Tompot Blenny
As always thanks for reading and please check out fishingtails.co.uk where I'm now a contributor.
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