Journeyman LRF

I've been here, there and everywhere recently. Fishing a lot but without truly having a full day's session. This is the reality of modern life combined with winter weather, those days you are free have rain beating the windows, the days that are calm you have work. It's up to the angler to find the precious hour or two needed to catch fish. With week two of the LRF competition over, progress has been slow, madly frustrating at times, but also productive.

I mentioned in my last post a desire to target corkwring, ballan and topknot. With this in mind and two hours to spare, I decided on Mount Batten Pier. It was a typically blustery day with the south facing (and most productive) side difficult to fish. The water clarity was good though and by fishing a slightly heavier dropshot set-up. it wasn't too difficult to discern bites, of which there were many. I love the pier when it is like that, every fish in the area seems intent on finding your lure, it can be fantastic sport. Though I will concede the majority of the bites were the resident aggressive shannys!

After about fifteen minutes of the tell tale 'lift' bites from the shannys, I had a proper knock, then another, on the next I struck into a wrasse. It's such an excellent feeling to hook a wrasse after endless blennies and gobies, the power is in a different class. You really have to watch them too as they try to dive into the boulders below, light braid is so delicate in these situations. I could quickly see it was a corkwring, one of my target species. As I landed the fish, I turned around to find I had gathered a small audience of women, who couldn't quite believe the colours on a fish from our waters. With the usual question of ''are you going to eat that?'', I returned the fish back to the boulder filled depths, quite uneaten!

I struggled to find any other wrasse after that and decided to try the much calmer opposite side. It wasn't long before I was catching pollack after pollack, no real size to them, but enough to keep the spirits up as I searched for other species. In a deep hole and after many missed takes I managed a nice tompot blenny, certainly the more exciting of the blenny species, but not a species I needed. I moved on and found another likely looking crevice. To my surprise I had a big take and hooked into a fish that was certainly no blenny. It stayed deep briefly and I figured it was a small wrasse, as it surfaced I was surprised to see it was a poor cod. A complete first for me and my fifty first species of the year.

If you don't know what a poor cod is, it is aesthetically very similar to a pouting. The main differences being that the poor cod is a more bronze fish and sheds it's scales very easily. It's also slightly longer than a pout and doesn't grow quite as large. I was a nice result. Unfortunately it attracted the attention of two, I would say slightly novice, anglers who proceeded to cast over me in hope of fish. The rudeness of these two is sadly quite common on this pier, it gives us all a bad name. I moved up slightly and used the opportunity to speak to an angler on the end. He was catching garfish and supplied some excellent conversation, cancelling out the two idiots further down. With my time up and two more species ticked off, I headed home.

As I mentioned before, most of my trips have been very short. Trying to take opportunities as they come. I won't write about the less productive ones, but we've all been there, when gobies and pollack have been thankful blank-savers. It's safe to say I've had a few of those recently!

Me and Ellie planned months ago to have a few days away in Bristol. Somehow I managed to persuade her that we could go via Weymouth (a two hour detour). I've heard great things about this harbour and have been looking for an excuse to fish it. We had a full day free and both were looking forward to giving it a try. The A38 had other ideas. Just before Newton Abbot we found a wall of traffic stretching as far as we could see. The road was completely closed and we were forced on a major detour around Newton Abbot in stop-start traffic.

A full two hours later than we planned we arrived in Weymouth, not quite as chipper as expected. I parked up quayside and watched a cormorant wolf down a small flatfish. A good omen perhaps? The tide was going out but bites were not hard to come by, though I quickly found out the harbour was full of tiny sand gobies, not a fish worth travelling four hours for, but at least a new species for Ellie. As we searched I did manage a small whiting, my eleventh species in the competition. The pier was full of anglers so we couldn't make the most of that, which was a shame and things were looking a bit glum to be honest.

We stopped into the Weymouth Angling Centre for some advice. Quite shamefully I had ignored the stretch almost right next to my car, we were informed that was a great spot for LRF. With a fresh packet of Power Isome (in medium pink, my favourite), we fished the previously ignored mark. It started slow so I tried casting out into the main river, right by the bridge. Straight away I started catching palm sized whiting, these fish put up a real fight on the incoming tide. Confidence was renewed but the weather tried to quash that. It hammered it down! A spell of freezing rain cutting right to the core of us.

Despite the weather and now impending darkness, we carried on. In between the wall and the pontoons I found plenty of fish, mostly black and rock gobies with the occasional tompot. I couldn't find anything new though and I also couldn't bring myself to test Ellie any more. She had been incredibly patient but even I wasn't enjoying it anymore in those conditions. It was time to head to Bristol, though I'm looking forward to trying Weymouth again with more time and fairer weather.

I had one more short session on return from Bristol after a ballan. With the tide low I headed to Heybrook Bay to fish the rock gulleys out there. I managed to hook two and lost both! I have never struggled with this fish before, yet I can't seem to land one. I think a dedicated session with calmer weather is on the cards, if that weather arrives. As I write now the wind and rain is battering the house! I did manage a nice giant goby that day though and missed one twice the size. They are truly the most aggressive mini-species out there, if only they were more common.

I headed to Millbay afterwards and bumped into Frankie Costello who was out fishing for the competition himself. It was great to finally meet such an active and popular figure in the local scene, living up to his reputation with fine conversation and lots of interesting information. Quite to the detriment of my fishing to be honest as darkness set in pretty quickly. I tried for scad afterwards but couldn't find any in the usual spots. The water being coloured up by the rough weather was my excuse to myself as I headed home.

That leaves me on eleven species so far in the LRF competition. Still many more out there to catch, let's hope for finer weather.

Ben - 51 Species - Perch, Roach, Gudgeon, Rudd, Bream/Roach hybrid, Mirror Carp, Pike, Rainbow Trout, Common Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Tompot Blenny, Ballan Wrasse, Rock Goby, Common Carp, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Pollock, Goldsinny Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Golden Orfe, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench, Crucian Carp, Sand Smelt, Giant Goby, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Lesser-Spotted Dogfish, Bull Huss, European Eel, Topknot, Common Minnow, Three Spined Stickleback, Sea Bass, Mackerel, Bronze Bream, Whiting, Dragonet, Brown Trout, Koi Carp, Scad, Pouting, Couches Bream, Herring, Thick Lipped Mullet, Chub, Dace, Bleak, Garfish, Sand Goby, Flounder & Poor Cod

Olly - 34 Species - Perch, Rainbow Trout, Pike, Rudd, Roach, Mirror Carp, Common Carp, Pollock, Ballan Wrasse, Goldsinny Wrasse, Common Blenny, Shore Rockling, Corkwring Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench, Sea Bass, Giant Goby, Bull Huss, Gudgeon, Crucian Carp, European Eel, Ghost Carp, Poor Cod, Mackerel, Scad, Couches Bream, Conger Eel, Rock Goby, Tompot Blenny, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Minnow, Bleak & Garfish

Ellie - 27 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, Giant Goby, Bull Huss, Three Spined Stickleback, Mackerel, Sea Bass, Goldsinny Wrasse & Sand Goby

Shane - 17 Species - Rudd, Roach/Bream Hybrid, Crucian Carp, Pollock, Shore Rockling, Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Roach, Bull Huss, Lesser-Spotted Dogfish, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Blenny, Mackerel, Giant Goby, Dace, Bleak & Minnow

Robbie - 15 Species - Perch, Mirror Carp, Roach, Rudd, Eel, Ballan Wrasse, Topknot, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Pollock, Mackerel, Thick Lipped Mullet & Pike

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


Follow me on Facebook by searching Ben Bassett Fishing.

Head over to www.fishingtails.co.uk for quality articles and fishing reports.

As always, thanks for reading

Half A Century Of Fish

Week one of the Osborne & Cragg LRF competition is done, just three more to go and the weather is turning quintessentially November-like. So how am I getting on?

The first morning of the competition was a bit of a failure to be honest. Although I did manage a goldsinny wrasse at West Hoe Pier, I was hoping for a garfish, but the tide was receding and so were the fish. There was a small highlight though, my first sand goby, an absolutely tiny fish but a new species, taking me up to forty nine and two in the LRF competition.

My next trip wasn't LRF related, instead I was joined by Robbie and Adam on Tiverton Canal in search of pike. The weather had turned very cold and the pike wouldn't play ball, the crystal clear waters making them easy to spot, yet difficult to tempt. We had to go really small in the end to catch. Fox Micro Fry doing the trick at last light, the perch and mini pike going on a half hour feeding spell, making the trip worthwhile in the end, with Robbie finally getting his first pike of the year

The next morning was back to competition business. The tides were better and weather was slightly more bearable. It didn't take me long to catch my first gar of the day, a small fish but an excellent fight as always. I had many more of these high flying acrobats in a fun filled hour, most of them shaking the hook by leaping into the air, I have to say I've really enjoyed fishing for them recently, they are quickly becoming a favourite of mine. A pollack even decided to crash the party, which I had half hoped was a mackerel, but it was another species ticked off. I then moved on to Millbay where I had a nice black goby and a shanny to take my total up to five. A modest haul before work.

With Monday as my day off and the sun blessing me with its presence, I made my way to Charlestown. This harbour is both stunningly Cornish and delightfully sandy, so different from the rockier, grimier marks I'm used to in Plymouth (not that I don't love my local fishing). I decided on a simple Carolina rig, with a five gram bullet weight and a size fourteen hook to hold the Power Isome. First cast onto the clean ground of this quaint harbour produced a fish! Not only that, but the fish I had came there to catch, a flounder. It wasn't a large one, but it was my fiftieth species of the year, my target at the beginning. I excitedly took it's picture and returned it, a few onlookers looking slightly bemused at my actions. (A small disclaimer - it could be a plaice, but I've gone with flounder now as that's what it most looked like to me, but I'll happily be told I am wrong)

I had plenty of bites as I cast around the harbour but most of these were from sand gobies, of which I caught quite a few. I did hook a better flatfish, a fish big enough to take line but it shook the barbless hook at the surface, a real shame. Another angler was baitfishing the other side of the harbour wall, having little luck, he was keeping himself busy by also casting out a lure. He had numerous follows from garfish but couldn't hook up. During this commotion, I noticed a shoal of silver fish just behind the waves hitting the beach. I lowered my lure to them and was rewarded very quickly with a sand smelt, another new species for the LRF competition.

I fished around the harbour but couldn't find any other new species, I definitely would like to try the harbour again but on an incoming tide, this time, time and tide were against me, so I moved on.
I tried both Par Sands and Fowey afterwards with little success, though Fowey just screams fish to me and has a fantastic reputation, definitely worth another try soon. With the sun rapidly setting and with other less fishy business to attend to, I headed home.

On a couple of short trips to Millbay and Mayflower Marina after work, I caught a tompot blenny taking my total to eight species in the competition, Ellie also managed her twenty sixth species of the year, a goldsinny wrasse.

Next up, I need to catch the two most common wrasse species, the ballan and corkwring. I also will be targeting bass, scad and topknot. Hopefully it's a productive week!


Ben - 50 Species - Perch, Roach, Gudgeon, Rudd, Bream/Roach hybrid, Mirror Carp, Pike, Rainbow Trout, Common Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Tompot Blenny, Ballan Wrasse, Rock Goby, Common Carp, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Pollock, Goldsinny Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Golden Orfe, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench, Crucian Carp, Sand Smelt, Giant Goby, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Lesser-Spotted Dogfish, Bull Huss, European Eel, Topknot, Common Minnow, Three Spined Stickleback, Sea Bass, Mackerel, Bronze Bream, Whiting, Dragonet, Brown Trout, Koi Carp, Scad, Pouting, Couches Bream, Herring, Thick Lipped Mullet, Chub, Dace, Bleak, Garfish, Sand Goby & Flounder

Olly - 34 Species - Perch, Rainbow Trout, Pike, Rudd, Roach, Mirror Carp, Common Carp, Pollock, Ballan Wrasse, Goldsinny Wrasse, Common Blenny, Shore Rockling, Corkwring Wrasse, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Golden Tench, Sea Bass, Giant Goby, Bull Huss, Gudgeon, Crucian Carp, European Eel, Ghost Carp, Poor Cod, Mackerel, Scad, Couches Bream, Conger Eel, Rock Goby, Tompot Blenny, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Minnow, Bleak & Garfish

Ellie - 26 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, Giant Goby, Bull Huss, Three Spined Stickleback, Mackerel, Sea Bass & Goldsinny Wrasse

Shane - 17 Species - Rudd, Roach/Bream Hybrid, Crucian Carp, Pollock, Shore Rockling, Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Roach, Bull Huss, Lesser-Spotted Dogfish, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Blenny, Mackerel, Giant Goby, Dace, Bleak & Minnow

Robbie - 15 Species - Perch, Mirror Carp, Roach, Rudd, Eel, Ballan Wrasse, Topknot, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Pollock, Mackerel, Thick Lipped Mullet & Pike

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


Head over to www.fishingtails.co.uk for quality articles and fishing reports.

As always, thanks for reading