Save Our Wrasse - The Dark Side Of Farmed Salmon

There is a great robbery happening beneath our noses. The fish we take for granted are being stolen in huge numbers, destined for salmon farms in the waters of Scotland. The South-West has become the 'Wild West', with opportunistic commercial fishermen taking advantage of a dire need of 'cleaner wrasse' for the salmon industry. This is a problem that will affect both anglers and non-anglers alike. Is there hope for our local wrasse species and the predators that feed on them? Or will our seas continue to be plundered for a quick buck?

These fish have been the lifeblood of my fishing since the age of eight.

Firstly, a disclaimer. I wish to make it clear I am not taking shots at the local commercial fishermen here. Although I have come across some supremely ignorant and small minded individuals in that profession whilst researching the topic, I realise they make up a small minority. The majority are just trying to make good money, like any of us in other careers. I cannot blame them for taking an opportunity when it arises.

So let's talk wrasse. All of the inshore species of wrasse are currently being targeted for the farmed salmon industry. These include the ballan, goldsinny and corkwring varieties. The ballan is both the largest, the most heavily targeted and most recognisable (when people talk about 'wrasse' they normally mean the ballan). The goldsinny and corkwring are much smaller species, yet are also key components of the ecosystem and welcome catches to pleasure anglers, who admire the tropical beauty of them.

A stunning male corkwring wrasse in all it's colourful glory.

All of the wrasse species are not particularly hard to catch and fight incredibly hard for their size, catching a four pound plus ballan being a real test even for heavier fishing tackle. This makes them hugely popular to sea anglers. From complete novices to experienced pros, I guarantee a wrasse has brightened up their day at some point. This value cannot have a monetary figure placed on to it, because in the end it is priceless. Purely from a personal perspective, my first foray into sea fishing was catching small ballan wrasse from a local pontoon at the age of eight. That fishing taught me about fish care and respect for the ocean, it also paved the way for an absolute obsession with angling that had persisted for almost twenty years. I can't put a price on that.

The quintessential summer fish

So why now is there such a high price for wrasse? Well it's to do with their use as a 'cleaner fish', eating the sea lice from farmed salmon without damaging the infested fish. This, in principle, sounds fantastic. The farmers no longer need to use pesticides, the salmon stay relatively healthy and the wrasse get a consistent meal. It is also a superb market for hard off fishermen, hit by quota restriction after restriction, with companies paying up to fourteen pound a fish. To the casual observer, it's a win for all involved.  Except of course this isn't the only side of the story.

Firstly, hundreds of wrasse need to be taken from their natural environment - most likely a rocky area that the local population have lived in for generations. They are then transferred to aerated tanks and driven or flown over seven hundred miles to the farms in Scotland. During this time there are obviously losses, stressed wild fish do not do well with being transferred in crowded enclosed tanks. The survivors are then placed into the nets with the salmon. It's worth saying that a wild wrasse's diet will include everything from crustaceans, to small fish and worms, a captive 'cleaner fish' has only a diet of sea lice to survive on, plus whatever scraps they can find from the fishmeal fed to the salmon, hardly a natural diet. They then live their lives until the salmon are ready to be harvested. This is the end of the wrasse's life, they are killed and replaced by new fish in order to prevent contamination to new salmon stock. This shockingly wasteful system is created and it requires constant new live wrasse, mostly coming from the south coast of England.

A fish this size may be five years old or more.

Wrasse are slow growing, taking up to six years to sexually mature and living to over thirty years old. As mentioned before they are territorial and habitual, regularly coming into the same bays and gulleys with the tide most of the year. Removing local fish very quickly creates a vacuum that takes years to recover, with very few 'migrant' fish coming in to fill the void. They also struggle to metabolize food items in water temperatures lower than ten degrees Celsius, a fact that makes them a poor choice for constant feeding in the cooler waters off the Scottish coast!

The variety of a ballan's colours are part of their enduring appeal.

But, the opposition might say, wrasse have previously had no commercial value and had been left alone (besides being bait for the crab pots!). Surely this is a species that is plentiful and unimportant, a perfect target in a an increasingly fraught and delicate marketplace? To that I would say this, wrasse are not pelagic, fast spawning fish like mackerel or herring. They cannot take this kind of pressure on their numbers. This is not the 'eco-friendly' option. Removing this kind of tonnage of fish from our waters will hurt everything, but in particular species like the grey seal, who need these fish to survive.

One of the UK's most popular seaside inhabitants, the grey seal. Wrasse are a large part of their diet. 

They might also say that this has been going on for at least two years, why all the uproar now? The answer to that is easy - because we have noticed. Speak to any wrasse angler that fishes the potted areas and ask them if there's a difference. They will of course say yes, unanimously. Wrasse catches are down and the fish are smaller. This is despite more anglers than ever targeting them on lures, the majority practicing catch and release. On what could be an unrelated note, numbers of goldsinny in certain areas counter actively seem to be up. My theory being that the commercial fishermen do not see these as the target species and are releasing them, back in a habitat with less competition from their larger cousins. This is ironic considering the goldsinny is the perfect cleaner fish, small and fast growing, feeding in both low temperatures and in darkness.

The diminutive goldsinny, a species more suited for lice removal, but we still can't afford to lose them in such numbers. 

So, what is the answer? A species of fish called the lumpfish or lumpsucker could be one. They are a cold water species that are much more efficient in lice removal. Unfortunately they too shouldn't be wild harvested, but countries such as Norway are working on farming them - as they are struggling with the exact same problem. There's definitely no quick fix to the lice issue, but this 'Wild-West' attitude to wrasse removal will only result one thing, the decimation of our local bio-diversity.

The bizarre looking lumpsucker could be the answer, only time will tell. Photo source. 

On a local level though we can actually make quick and lasting fixes, firstly by banding together and pushing our local MPs to ban this type of exploitation right now. Please click on this link and sign the petition, it literally takes under a minute to do.
http://action.wildlifetrusts.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1823&ea.campaign.id=73231

Let's not make this a thing of the past, it's time to Save Our Wrasse!

Please also share this blog post and make people aware of the dark side of farmed salmon. A small gesture I have made is to give up Scottish farmed salmon, until the industry can prove it's working on a more sustainable model. In the grand scheme of things it may seem futile, but never underestimate the power we have as consumers.

Thank you so much for reading. If you want to talk about any concerns or ideas you have, contact me through my Facebook page - Ben Bassett Fishing.

Here's more reading from other sources both local and nationwide.

http://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/wrasse-campaign-2017

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/10/salmon-farmers-put-wild-wrasse-at-risk--sea-lice-scotland-anglers

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/scottish-salmon-farmers-accused-of-raiding-plymouth-beauty-spots/story-30407738-detail/story.html

Osborne & Cragg Easter LRF Species Hunt

Two weeks ago it was that special time of the year again, the Osborne & Cragg Easter LRF species hunt. This being the third competition I had participated in, I was eager to beat my previous attempts and finish at least in a top three place. So how did I get on?

It started on April 1st and I had no plans to play the fool, getting out nice and early to get my first species on the board. The fish had other ideas though and my two favourite marks completely blanked on me! It was time to bring out the big guns just so I wasn't wasting the day, so I headed to Rame. I knew the spring tide would reveal loads of new rockpools that could hold a few species, even if the open sea was being a foaming angry beast. The first large rockpool gave up it's resident giant goby in a couple of casts - not a blank, phew! It was then to find the ever reliable shanny, which again did not take long and I then couldn't stop catching them all day.

I had two species ticked off, not too bad but I had hoped for at least one more. I walked around the entirety of Rame, hot and sweaty but still admiring the ravens cawing above me and the spectacular views. I then saw a gulley that had been cut off by the low tide. It was a sketchy climb down amongst sharp rocks that obviously don't see many anglers. The water was cloudy from the waves that had been battering it previously, but it looked fishy. I had a couple of hits just under the rod tip, then struck into a very strong fish. It caught me by surprise after all the blennies and it nearly snagged me up. After a brief moment of strong arm persuasion it came to the surface, revealing itself as one of the most beautiful corkwring wrasse I've ever seen! Day one was done and I had three species ticked off. 

The next day were the prearranged meets for the comp'. I could only attend the evening one on the Barbican. Luckily it turned out to be one of the best meets I have been part of, with lots of new faces and a fair few fish caught. I've become much more appreciative of Sutton Harbour's value as a fishing venue recently, with that night being one of the reasons. The water was teeming with fish, with huge mullet teasing everyone (well, mostly just Kieran!) at the surface and shoals of mackerel sleepily cruising by every ten minutes. I managed four species, a small ballan wrasse caught in daylight at Elphinstone, a rock goby, a goldsinny and one of those mackerel. The mackerel being a massive relief as I couldn't catch one in the last competition. So by the end of the night I was on seven species, feeling pretty confident about my chances this time.

With the weekend over, my fishing opportunities would be limited to evenings only. This was no bad thing, LRF is quite often even more effective at night, with a lot of mini-species being semi-nocturnal. In no species is that more true than the tompot blenny, they really come onto the feed once the sun starts setting, and it didn't take me long to catch one from a reliable mark. Species number eight. 

I had a little more time the next evening and set about catching a black goby and a scorpion fish. Quite unbelievably I caught both! Which, considering I struggle with scorpions in the competitions, was a huge relief. The black gobies were in their usual haunts around Millbay, aggressively attacking the Ecogear Shirasu Aqua lures. The tide was low and I had the rare pleasure of watching a small scorpion fish ambush the lure in front of me. I say it a lot but I absolutely love these fish, I never get sick of catching them. Those two species had taken me onto ten species.

I wasn't done that night though, with a late high tide I ventured out to Mount Wise. What lay before me was the single most inspiring sight an angler can experience - fish topping everywhere! The water was alive with fish and I knew they'd be herring. It took me three casts and three hook ups to land one, it was turning out to be an amazing evening. I had plenty more 'Tamar tarpon' before I decided that I better try for a pollack. I begrudgingly tore myself away from the herring and was rewarded with a chunky little pollack. Day five was done and I had a very respectable twelve species, which had completely exceeded my expectations. 

The next night I went out with Kieran. After watching him get snagged up by a mystery brute of a fish we decided to try for the herring again, Kieran having only ever caught one in his life. The herring were still there even though the tide was low. What then proceeded was a hilarious game of 'shake the hook' between the herring and Kieran. He really struggled at first to land any, which wasn't helped by me landing mine quite easily - no doubt my practice the night before had put me in good stead. He got there in the end though and I managed a bonus sand smelt to add to my total, a great night's fishing in good company. Day six and thirteen species.

Not until day ten did I get my next species and it was another huge favourite of mine, the garfish. These fish frustrate the hell out of me but I'm a sucker for the punishment, they are just so much fun on light gear. I turned up to a very sunny and therefore busy West Hoe Pier. What's handy about that though is it's very easy to see if the gar are about, as the pleasure anglers will definitely have caught a few if they are around. One of the chaps fishing had a bag covered in green scales that gave me the answer I needed. I cast around and quickly had four sand smelt. I moved around the pier and then had a mackerel. It was clear the gar were present but not in numbers, I had numerous hits that were undoubtedly them but it wasn't easy going. With time rapidly running out on the hour parking ticket I had bought, I had a take! The relief when I felt the fish rush for the surface and shake its head was palpable. I landed it finally and celebrated my fourteenth fish of the competition.

Day eleven arrived and I wanted a topknot or a poor cod to boost my total. I was fishing with Shane who is a casual LRF'er to say the least. I managed four species - shanny, pollack, corkwring and goldsinny, all lovely fish but not needed. We decided to try the harbour for bass instead as Shane had never caught one and I hadn't caught one for the comp' yet. As we fished around we bumped into Chris Price who had already caught a bass, a good sign. As we cast around the back wall we couldn't believe our eyes as hundreds of schoolie bass and mackerel swam in a ball in front of us. The stunning silver scales reflected the streetlights above us and I was temporarily in awe of such a sight. I quickly regained my senses and pulled my lure through the shoal, I had a big hit and after an energetic battle I subdued the bass I needed. Shane then followed mine up with one of his own and you could not knock the smile off his face, it was a great moment to be a part of. Day eleven and my fifteenth species.

It was getting tight at the top and I was level with Rob Eastman, who seemed to be matching me day by day. We were like two evenly matched football teams who kept coming back to equalise once the other had got into the lead. I needed something special and I couldn't rely on a flatfish (I seem to be absolutely useless at finding them! Much more practice is needed). I had tried and failed to catch a clingfish in the past but I knew that could be the bonus species I needed. I headed to a rockpool filled mark where I knew they were plentiful, equipped with isome and a size eighteen hook on a split shot rig. It was not easy! I searched rockpools everywhere for them but due to their small size and shy nature, it was hard going. I finally found a crevice where one was hiding, lucky for me this one was hungry! It quickly sucked in my minuscule piece of isome but I pulled it out of it's mouth, it took me three more times to hook it! The feeling when I held this tiny fish in my hand was equal to any species I have caught this year, such was the satisfaction in catching it. I had looked like a mad man and almost convinced myself that I was, but I had my sixteenth species.

The next day was Easter Sunday and day sixteen of the lure competition. I had the idea to fish the sandier waters of Polruan and Fowey with my dad, in the hope of something unusual. It started off so well, I quickly landed a sand goby, my seventeenth species of the comp' and I nearly had a tiny plaice! I couldn't get one though, although we bumped into Matt Downing who I knew through Instagram, he managed to tease one out and although I wished it was mine, I just admired it's miniature beauty and congratulated him. The rest of the morning was a bit of a write off unfortunately, no other fish for myself or my dad. So we headed home for some food and Easter eggs instead.

Due to a severe hangover on bank holiday Monday (when will I learn?), I didn't go out again until the evening. It turned out to be a pleasant session with a lovely pollack of just over a pound being the best fish. I also finally got to meet my rival for the title, Rob Eastman. Turns out he's a lovely guy and it made for enjoyable banter and stories as we fished together. My alcohol-caused tiredness soon beat me though and I called it a night and settled on my total of seventeen species. I just hoped Rob wouldn't catch the one more species required to catch me up!

At eleven o'clock the next day the bell was tolled and the comp' came to a close. I had won! What a fantastic feeling and a great achievement. I've learned a huge amount in the last year and a half fishing LRF, so rarely has a fishing technique captured my imagination as it has, and it's always a great pleasure to have all the hours put in rewarded in the end. Rob Eastman and Glenn Triscott are also excellent anglers so finishing above them is a fine honour. A huge thanks to Simon for putting on the competition and a huge well done to all the anglers who took part. We are lucky to have a awesome community of lure fisherman in the Plymouth area, which hopefully will continue to grow.

As always, thanks for reading and please check out my Facebook page for regular updates and blog posts.  

Rockpool LRF Part 1

This post will be part one of two, where I will share a few tips about species hunting in rockpools. Whether you are taking part in a competition or just want to add more species to your personal tally, ignore the rockpools at your peril, they can be full of surprises.

When the open sea is particularly finesse unfriendly, I will often try the more sheltered gulleys and rockpools. It can be tempting to just find a quiet spot in the harbour and try there, but then you are missing out on some truly entertaining fishing. In this brief feature, I will cover tackling the deeper pools, in the second instalment I will talk about the slightly trickier shallow ones.

What species are you likely to find in these rockpools? Certainly the most common I've found would be the shanny or common blenny; other species that are frequent in my neck of the woods are giant gobies, long spined sea scorpions, most of the wrasse species, shore rockling and clingfish. In theory though any rock dwelling or shore hugging fish types can get trapped in rockpools, sometimes making them easier to catch. Small mullet can also often be caught out by the receding tide, but try not to get too side tracked by them, a calm mullet is difficult to catch, a frightened and trapped one is impossible.

Tactics wise, split shot rigs and very light jigheads are the order of the day. Being so close to the water and the depth normally being less than a couple of feet, heavy weights are not necessary. Personally I don't use anything over two grams, my preferred weight being around one and a half. For the larger, more aggressive inhabitants, one or two inch unscented straw or ball tail lures can be excellent, especially in crystal clear water. If the water is coloured, particularly if the waves have been battering it at high tide, then Isome is definitely a winner, as it so often is.

What I love about tackling the rockpools is the fact it is low tide fishing. When your favourite mark is bone dry, the rocks near it can be saviours. I recently made the most of a very large spring low tide, the amount of rockpools it revealed was amazing, with whole gulleys and their inhabitants being temporarily cut from the sea. With a stealthy approach it means you have a captive audience of hungry fish, giving you a real chance of catching them.

I definitely have found a correlation, quite unsurprisingly, in how remote the pool is and how large the fish are that dwell within it. It makes perfect sense that the areas that see less humans have the highest density of fish species. We are after all a very scary sight to even the largest goby! If you are more focused on your HRF then you have an excuse to recce new marks at low tide, survey them then fish the rockpools near it. Not only will your HRF fishing improve because you know the mark more in depth, you also will have a better understanding of the prey fish living in that habitat - it's a win win.

But what makes a good rockpool? Firstly, as I've mentioned you need depth of around a foot or deeper. It should also be full of rocks, boulders or crevices to hide in. If there is an over-abundance of seaweed I try another, the fish might be there but you will quickly get frustrated with snagging on thick weed.

My favourite technique in clear water, is to flick the lure to the other side of the rockpool, slowly bouncing it across the rocks. You will quickly get the attention of whatever mini-predator is lying in wait. Scorpion fish in particular can be ultra aggressive and chase your lure, in one bite from their cavernous mouth they're on! It can be very compelling. Another excellent result in deeper pools can be the surprise strike into a wrasse, with nowhere to go they just go ballistic, trying to squeeze into any crevice they can. When you've been hauling out blennies, a wrasse can feel ten times it's size.

Hopefully this has given you some inspiration to try it out. In part two, I will talk more about the stranger fish species you can catch and how to tempt them, clingfish and sticklebacks being two examples.

As always, thanks for reading and supporting the blog. Check out Fishing Tails for more articles from myself and others.

Back To School

On Tuesday night I had an impulsive drive to go fishing. The kind of impulse it would be foolish to ignore, especially with the knowledge that a few of the regular LRF faithful were out too. There had been lots of talk of schoolie bass around recently and I didn't want to miss out. What followed was about the best fun you can have in a hour with your clothes on, topped up with excellent banter and some wise teachings by our very own LRF Gandalf, otherwise known as Maurice!

I'm not ashamed to admit when I'm cashing in on other people's hard work, the guy's had already put the graft in that night and found the fish. A quick message to Joe had confirmed everyone had caught so far and I was welcome to join. No self respecting angler can refuse that offer. I arrived to find that Simon, Kieran and Maurice were there too, which was a pleasant surprise. After five minutes of catching up and spinning the yarn it was time to get to business.

I've recently bought a couple of packs of the two inch Crazy Fish Vibro Worms and I was eager to try them. Mounting one on a three gram Savage Gear Darting Jighead it looked excellent in the water. Using a bright luminescent yellow colour I was very confident I'd at least get hits. It's worth saying how fantastic this range of lures are, they are heavily scented with squid, are ultra soft and have an incredible movement through the water. I can't recommend them enough.

My first few exploratory casts were near Joe and he managed three fish in just a few minutes. It was great to hear his drag start screaming off as these spirited little bass ran off. I had a couple of hits but missed them, to be honest I was paying too much attention to Joe's escapades. It was obvious the fish were stalking about underneath the pontoon and boats in front of us, accurate casts near these features were producing hits regularly. Finally a cast produced a fantastic run of my own, the fish aggressively trying to shake the lure out. Fishing in fairly shallow water meant it could only do one thing - run. This led to lots of line being taken for such a modest fish. Joe had also managed to hook one at the same time as mine. We landed them both together, creating a great photo opportunity and one of my favourite photos I've taken this year,

The fishing really took off from there, every few casts brought a fish in a hectic twenty minute spell. With the right setting on the drag you can get such an entertaining fight from these fish. The takes were quite interesting too, you would feel more of a weight then a classic bass smack. I presume this is because of the slow retrieve and the fish engulfing the lure in it's large mouth, so that by the time you feel the hit the fish is almost already hooked. By the time Simon came along to join us I had had ten. Unfortunately his arrival seemed to lead to all the fish disappearing, something we took great pleasure in letting him know! We moved back down to where Maurice and Kieran were to find the fish.

Maurice was still catching fairly consistently, it was time for us to go to school and listen to his teachings! His theory is that, just like fly fishing at night, you use a dark lure for dark skies and a bright lure for (you guessed it) bright skies. Simon had changed over to a darker lure on this advice and quickly caught a fish. Never argue with the LRF wizard! Although I had my final fish of the night on my bright Vibro Worm, probably just going to prove that schoolie bass will smash anything given the chance!

Overall I was only out for just over an hour and a half, catching eleven schoolie bass, all averaging around a pound. It was excellent sport in great company, definitely whetting my appetite for the upcoming LRF competition.

Enjoy your fishing everyone and thank you so much for reading, apologies for the lack of photos on this one. Night time fishing and quality photos are not great bedfellows!

Please check out www.fishingtails.co.uk for up to date fishing reports and articles, including some by myself.

You also find me on Facebook and Instagram by searching: Ben Bassett Fishing

Saluting The Shanny

When it comes to maligned fish species, the common blenny or, as it's commonly known, the shanny, is certainly on a lot of angler's lists. These fish are plentiful, small and bait stealing. Yet isn't it time we looked at them a little differently? Appreciated them for the aggressive, tough as nails fish that they are? Today, I'm in the shanny's corner, fighting the good fight. Hopefully you will humour me as I do.

Firstly, it's definitely worth clarifying what is a shanny? The shanny is a member of the blenny family and is one of the most numerous fish species in the inter-tidal zone (the area that is revealed at low tide then covered at high water). It is most commonly confused with the tompot blenny and the various goby species. The easiest way to tell apart a shanny from a tompot is that the tompot has two protruding tentacle like structures above it's eyes, the shanny does not. The tompot also grows larger and is generally more stripey, usually a deep red to brown colour. The shanny is a lot more uniform in colour, either grey, brown or black with speckled markings all over. They are both scaleless and quite slimy, with tall guinea pig-like heads and large eyes. Their dorsal fin is long and runs the entire length of their bodies. Gobies on the other hand, have much flatter heads, a distinct dorsal fin and tiny scales.

A shanny in classic mottled colouration.

A tompot blenny, a much more heavily set fish.

The shanny is an incredibly tough species. It has an impressive ability to remain out of water for hours, as long as it remains damp. This obviously gives it a huge advantage in shallow rockpools and harbours that dry out, all it has to do is find a safe crevice to hide in and wait for the water to return. Their teeth are needle-like and strong, they are true opportunists: eating fish remains, worms, small crustaceans and even barnacles. Being a territorial species means they do not leave their favoured area much, so eating whatever appears in front of them is a sensible tactic.

A large male shanny in full mating colours - dark body with red eyes.

Their opportunistic nature is exactly what makes them so easy to catch. These are a fish that do not have the choice to be fussy, so any bait of any size is fair game. Quite often they are competing with their neighbours too, when this happens they come across as suicidal! If you are targeting a larger species, this trait can be a frustrating one. It's easy to imagine a group of shannys whittling your expensive bait down to the bare hook. Yet if you are struggling to catch, the shanny can be a saviour. Yes, they are small, with an almost non-existent fight. They also will happily bite if you get your fingers too close! But they are also a rock solid, classically British warrior of a mini-species. Always there no matter what the weather, attacking what ever lure or bait you place in front of them, for that they get my respect.

A small shanny, greedily gobbling up a ragworm bait.

There's one last reason why personally, this fish has a special place in my heart. When I was much younger I would visit my grandparents in Looe. I already had a huge passion for angling at that point, but my love was directed at coarse fishing. My Gramps would take us down to the quay at high tide to go crabbing. Obviously I scoffed at the crabbing lines and brought my cheap and very light coarse rod, along with tiny hooks and split shot. My Grandad would point out the shannys peeking out of the harbour wall, snatching at the fish entrails left by the crabbers. I would take a tiny piece of either bacon or mackerel and lower it down the wall, the shannys would shoot out and attack it. It was the simplest form of fishing I'd ever known, yet it brought me such joy. To hold such bizarre and alien looking fish in my hands, surrounded by family, gave me some of my best childhood memories. Little did I know that over seventeen years later I would be repeating the trick, just this time with artificial lures and high tech tackle instead.

Enjoy your fishing everyone and thank you so much for reading.

Please check out www.fishingtails.co.uk for up to date fishing reports and articles, including some by myself.

You also find me on Facebook and Instagram by searching: Ben Bassett Fishing

Bitter Winter LRF

Lrf is by definition a simple form of fishing. A collection of techniques that make for generally high catch rates. Like most elements of angling though, this is only half the story. The last couple of weeks and the final day of the Osborne and Cragg LRF competition really hammered this thought home.

Almost anybody can put bread on a hook and catch a roach or rudd, yet only a dedicated and passionate few can say they've ever caught one of those species at specimen weights. The same idea applies to LRF species hunts. Knowledge of variables like tide, light levels, season and of course location, can be crucial and make the difference. As I get to know various local anglers (we all know fishermen are famously chatty characters), it occurs to me how much there is still to learn and how much knowledge you can share. Over the course of a competition this knowledge really bears fruit.

In the competition just finished, I started well. The weather was relatively warm and calm for November so my summer experience still held up to scrutiny, yet the last two weeks my catches tailed off dramatically due to the conditions. I still felt I was fishing well technique-wise but I was barely catching anything. It's worth saying now that I didn't get out half as much due to gale force winds and freezing rain, yet other angler's were still out there and catching. It was clear to me that I was in uncharted waters so to speak, my know-how being almost entirely formed this year in fairer weather. It wasn't particularly inspirational fishing I'll admit!

Although it was difficult, there were some highlights and lessons learned that made it worthwhile. A nice pollack showed up during a wrasse hunt and gave me a serious fight on light tackle. I also had an interesting day with Adam in Exmouth chasing scorpion fish (whilst taking a few photos of the local dinosaurs), we had three altogether and my beautifully grumpy fish brought a massive smile to my face. I really do love these aggressive mini-predators. A key piece of knowledge being that the fish move in on the first flood of the tide, feeding heavily as they go. Behaviour I knew of but had not seen such clear evidence of before.

The day after was the final day of the competition, I knew I had no chance of winning but I had to finish with a flourish. I went down to Mount Batten for one last crack at a wrasse. The weather was beautiful for November and I felt really positive. After casting around a few likely areas with a texas rig, I had a few small hits but then, on the drop, that satisfying solid weight of a decent wrasse. It didn't dive like a summer fish, the water being frigidly cold, but it gave a determined and dogged fight all the way to the shore. After all the frustration and failure it was such a relief to land it. The fish was worth the wait too, the classic ballan colours, deep reds, purples and prettiest of all, azure blue spots. Number thirteen in the competition... finally!

I moved onto the pier itself in the hope of a bonus anything, but as expected, only the shannys were interested in my lure. I did have the pleasure of fishing with Joe May briefly, who was on a few species more than me. He had some humorous stories to tell as a competition regular and was going to be out all night to try and catch the leader, Glen Triscott. I had other less fishing based plans but with one last mark on my mind.

I made my way to Devonport to fish the pontoon, a venue I very rarely fish. With the light on the water and the Tamar proving productive recently it was worth a cast or two. The pontoon itself was full of fishermen, so I decided to fish the right hand side under the bridge. It didn't take long for the pollack to find me. Tiny little bronze monsters jumping on my lure almost every cast. It was entertaining if nothing else. Trying different depths in the water (whilst avoiding the horrifically snaggy bottom) I managed to snare a tiny pouting, my fourteenth species. Subsequent casts could not find anything new though. It was time for me to concede, content with a more respectable total.

I learnt a lot from fishing the competition. Mostly that winter conditions can make LRF painfully difficult at times, testing your resolve. As long as you can be patient and really try to understand your target species, it will still be completely worth the frozen fingers and dripping nose! 

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


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