There are few types of lure fishing that feel as simple and pure as spinning with metals. The act of casting out a shiny thing with hooks in it, yet somehow persuading a fish it's food, has fascinated anglers for generations. In the end it's a piece of metal: no frills, no scent, just a fish catcher. But that's not always the case is it? There's so much more to the world of jigging and that's what's had me fascinated recently.
As with every fishing technique, I'm no expert and that's always a pretty fun position to be in. You can never stop learning and the finish line should always be moving further away from you, all the time setting new goals. My first experience with lures was with a small spinner, targeting perch. We would catch hundreds of little 'stripeys' on my local river as a kid. It kicked off a love affair of fishing with artificials; although I couldn't have guessed how intense that love would get in my adult years! Since then I have gone from dabbling with lures to being completely obsessed, as you can probably guess if you have read any of my blogs over the years.
That brings me to metals, being a keen LRF'er I'm mostly talking about small, metal shore casting jigs up to around 7 grams. These range from cheap £1.50 Dexter Wedges to over £7 for something by Shimano or Xesta. Now what you fish with is your business, unfortunately my inner tackle tart is easily tempted and ouch, my bank balance does feel the burn! Do more expensive lures catch you more fish? Probably not but they sure are pretty. I digress though, the point of this little blog isn't to persuade you to buy fancy lures, it's to talk about the different techniques I enjoy and the variety of fish species I catch on them.
Probably my most successful, is also the simplest: the cast and retrieve. By this I mean casting out your lure, letting it sink to the required depth and straight retrieving it back with pauses and lots of twitches. There are few pelagic fish that will ignore a metal whizzing past their face seductively. As with pretty much all my spinning (I use that as a blanket term for fishing with metal lures but it's not my favourite), I prefer not to use a solid tip rod as I get far more action from a tubular model.
The next is the classic sink and draw. This where you cast out, let the lure sink, then reel in the slack, then let it sink again, reeling in the slack and repeating, lifting the rod as you retrieve. This provides bites on 'the drop'; essentially as the lure flutters down a fish snaps it up. This can be a killer with species like scad and mackerel. For garfish, I like to use a shallower, slower version of this where I don't let it sink as long, so it's constantly fluttering up and down on the retrieve. They will hit it on the drop and hopefully you lift into the fish and strike, in theory...
By far my favourite though, mainly because I don't get to do it that often, is the 'bounce along the bottom'. This is so simple and is just as it reads. You find a mark that is pretty snag free, let the metal hit the bottom then either straight retrieve it across the sand, hopefully leaving an intriguing dust trail in your wake. Or, even better, add jumps, pauses and twitches to this, bouncing it up so predators can see it flutter back to the bottom. Little flatties cant resist this technique and you will likely catch other sand dwellers like gurnards too.
This is all nothing new, but it hopefully might inspire you to cast out a metal or two next time you are out. As we move into October and November, the fishing can be slightly harder but the fish tend to be bigger; and those big fish love to be tricked into munching a piece of shiny steel.
If you want a little more information, check out this video made by Weymouth LRF wizard Andy Mytton. It covers a lot of really interesting techniques and tackle.
For anybody interested, my recommended LRF metals would be, in no order:
Majorcraft Jigpara Micro Jigs in regular and slim
Shimana Soare TG ACE
Xesta After Burner Mini
HTO Fugitive
&
The classic Dexter Wedge
.
As always thanks for reading and check out my Facebook and Instagram pages if you haven't already, search benbassettfishing.
The ol' stinky snake! Tempted by a Majorcraft Jigpara.
As with every fishing technique, I'm no expert and that's always a pretty fun position to be in. You can never stop learning and the finish line should always be moving further away from you, all the time setting new goals. My first experience with lures was with a small spinner, targeting perch. We would catch hundreds of little 'stripeys' on my local river as a kid. It kicked off a love affair of fishing with artificials; although I couldn't have guessed how intense that love would get in my adult years! Since then I have gone from dabbling with lures to being completely obsessed, as you can probably guess if you have read any of my blogs over the years.
Schoolies are great admirers of all things shiny.
That brings me to metals, being a keen LRF'er I'm mostly talking about small, metal shore casting jigs up to around 7 grams. These range from cheap £1.50 Dexter Wedges to over £7 for something by Shimano or Xesta. Now what you fish with is your business, unfortunately my inner tackle tart is easily tempted and ouch, my bank balance does feel the burn! Do more expensive lures catch you more fish? Probably not but they sure are pretty. I digress though, the point of this little blog isn't to persuade you to buy fancy lures, it's to talk about the different techniques I enjoy and the variety of fish species I catch on them.
The scad were everywhere that evening, smashing the lures on the drop.
Probably my most successful, is also the simplest: the cast and retrieve. By this I mean casting out your lure, letting it sink to the required depth and straight retrieving it back with pauses and lots of twitches. There are few pelagic fish that will ignore a metal whizzing past their face seductively. As with pretty much all my spinning (I use that as a blanket term for fishing with metal lures but it's not my favourite), I prefer not to use a solid tip rod as I get far more action from a tubular model.
When you think metals, you can't help but think mackerel. I just can't understand why you would ever use feathers to catch these incredible fish.
The next is the classic sink and draw. This where you cast out, let the lure sink, then reel in the slack, then let it sink again, reeling in the slack and repeating, lifting the rod as you retrieve. This provides bites on 'the drop'; essentially as the lure flutters down a fish snaps it up. This can be a killer with species like scad and mackerel. For garfish, I like to use a shallower, slower version of this where I don't let it sink as long, so it's constantly fluttering up and down on the retrieve. They will hit it on the drop and hopefully you lift into the fish and strike, in theory...
Assist hooks can boost your catch rates, especially when scad are hitting the lures on the drop.
By far my favourite though, mainly because I don't get to do it that often, is the 'bounce along the bottom'. This is so simple and is just as it reads. You find a mark that is pretty snag free, let the metal hit the bottom then either straight retrieve it across the sand, hopefully leaving an intriguing dust trail in your wake. Or, even better, add jumps, pauses and twitches to this, bouncing it up so predators can see it flutter back to the bottom. Little flatties cant resist this technique and you will likely catch other sand dwellers like gurnards too.
Little turbot are as pretty as they are ravenous. Use small skinny metals for these guys.
This is all nothing new, but it hopefully might inspire you to cast out a metal or two next time you are out. As we move into October and November, the fishing can be slightly harder but the fish tend to be bigger; and those big fish love to be tricked into munching a piece of shiny steel.
My fishing buddy Richard Salter (check out his YouTube channel HERE) caught this lovely tub gurnard on a cheap 6 gram Fladen Mini Jig, just going to show you don't need the expensive lures to catch beautiful fish.
If you want a little more information, check out this video made by Weymouth LRF wizard Andy Mytton. It covers a lot of really interesting techniques and tackle.
For anybody interested, my recommended LRF metals would be, in no order:
Majorcraft Jigpara Micro Jigs in regular and slim
Shimana Soare TG ACE
Xesta After Burner Mini
HTO Fugitive
&
The classic Dexter Wedge
.
As always thanks for reading and check out my Facebook and Instagram pages if you haven't already, search benbassettfishing.
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