Reflections & Resolutions

Congratulations everyone! We survived the quite murderous 2016.

Regretfully the Fish Challenge is over and it's time to move on to new challenges, new fish and new adventures. Over the next year I will be changing the format of the blog, to become less of a diary and more of a sharing platform for thoughts and ideas. The inevitable target for an aspiring writer is to get their work published and printed, so I won't be sharing everything I do. I want to keep the blog fun and interesting, so will use it for the ideas and fishing sessions that are more in that vein. It's impossible to close the year out though without looking back on the Challenge itself and a few lessons learned..

It's vividly clear that as the year went on, I was the person taking the Challenge the most seriously. This being mainly because my passion for fishing is bordering on addiction! But both Olly and Ellie finished with totals most anglers would be proud of. A large number of the species we all caught were brand new to us all and although they were not all large, the variety on offer in British waters is staggering. Personally it's given me a whole new viewpoint on the angling on offer in the UK, making it all the more clear how crucial it is to protect this wonderful abundance we have on our doorstep.

A year ago today, I had little experience of sea fishing or LRF. I now consider myself an adept and faithful convert to the salty cousin of my traditional rivers and lakes, There is still so much to learn and hundreds more species to catch. That is what keeps us all coming back, pitting our wits and newly discovered techniques against our scaly quarry.

Though I could type on for ages about my favourite catches of the year (there's quite a lot!), it's worth saying the memories I will treasure fondest will be the times spent fishing with friends and family. Whether that be soggy trips to Somerset canals or sun drenched Cornish cliff descents, the act of angling can be a fantastic excuse to bring people together. It's important to remember that when you find yourself taking it much too seriously!

It's worth reiterating a previous point on social media too. Too often it is used for negativity and the darker side of the human psyche, when it is supposed to be a tool for connection and friendship. I have luckily experienced the more positive side of it this year, meeting talented anglers who I now consider friends. The Plymouth LRF group on Facebook being a key component of this. It's also allowed me to share my experiences, thoughts and ramblings to a vast number of people. So it's not all doom and gloom.

I would also like to give thanks to Simon Kingdom at Osborne and Cragg tackle shop, not only for running such a friendly and helpful business, but for putting on fantastic competitions and being overall very generous with prizes, hoodies(!) and knowledge. I also have Andrew and Pamela Copley to thank for providing such a fantastic prize for the pen rod competition, put on by the ever reliable Age Lundstrom. The Majorcraft LRF rod I won in that competition is quite possibly the finest I've ever used, it's tackled everything from the tiniest gobies to seven pound pike, it's a stunner of a rod and will see plenty of action of the next year.

Finally, there was one late entry last month for the Challenge, myself and Shane set out to catch some pike at a local reservoir. To be honest it was seriously tough going but Shane was great company as always. He also managed his first ever brace of esox lucius, only small jacks but his eighteenth species of the year, his final total.

So after 365 days, the final results are:

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 - 18 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 & Pike

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

Long, Streamlined & Full Of Teeth

Garfish and pike, two species that, from a design perspective, are very similar. They both have long slim bodies, are aggressive predators with mouths full of teeth and they are exciting sport on lures. If only the gar grew to pike sizes! In the last month I have mostly focused on these two fish, with varying degrees of success! We'll start with the day that was much less successful for me, but was a personal best for Ellie.

Exeter canal always captures my imagination. It is not an easy water. It's quite likely one of the most highly pressured pike venues in the South West. But that's for a reason, the place always throws up twenty pound plus pike every year. If you live down this way, it's impossible to resist.

Me and Ellie met up with Adam one morning, to fish the Turf Locks end of the canal, my favourite stretch. It's deep and quite awkward fishing at times, mainly due to the warm autumn not killing off summer's weed and bank vegetation growth. There were still many areas completely unfishable due to excessive surface weed, so we were slightly limited. That didn't stop Ellie though, who soon had a fish on only a few metres from where we parked. Though it was no monster it fought gallantly, diving into cover at every opportunity, Ellie could not hide her excitement as I scooped it into the net. Her previous biggest pike was little over a pound so this fish was a new personal best, weighing in at just over three.

So it was a good start. Ellie kept up the strong form only fifteen minutes later where she just missed another slightly bigger fish. Adam soon had a Jack of his own and the pressure turned on me to catch. I had a couple of near misses with a small fish then a much larger girl that took more weed than my lure unfortunately, leaving me to blank. But Ellie's best moment was to come. In the deeper waters of the marina she decided to use her Savage Gear Spinnerbait, her favourite lure, mainly due to the way it feels as the blades vibrate the line on the retrieve. On the first cast in a new spot she had a fish, larger this time. Again, the fight was superb, these autumn fish have so much more energy than when you catch them in deep winter. A few hairy moments aside, Ellie played it well and although it wasn't quite as big as we hoped, at just under six pounds it was a fantastic fish for Ellie. We all hope for personal best fish when we set off in the morning, that day she landed two, and it was a pleasure to help her catch, although I got the deserved ripping for being the only one who blanked!

I had planned to have another go at the canal but work had other plans, so with only the morning free I joined Maurice on a short local LRF session. I'm glad I did because the weather was glorious and so was the fishing. We arrived at Millbay to find it out of action, the giant mound of earth that worked as as a wind break was being demolished (shame!), so to West Hoe Pier we went.

I had fished it recently with Olly on low water, after garfish with the traditional float fished mackerel strip, I had hooked a couple but quite typically they shook the hook. This time me and Maurice were using small jigheads with various soft lures. We had plenty of hits, knowing the gar were there in force, it was exciting if not slightly frustrating. The experience of Maurice soon showed as he raced into the lead with both a gar and a mackerel in quick succession. His secret was to stop reeling once you had the first hit, then strike after a second or so. The theory being that the gar stun the fish first then eat them on the second go. This technique, combined with the switch to an Ecogear Aqua Shirasu lure was the game changer for me, as I landed my first ever lure caught garfish and forty eighth species of the year.

We had great fun in the sunshine watching these bizarre looking fish chase and harry the lures right to the wall. We lost so many more than we caught but it didn't matter. These fish do everything, they jump, they dive, they head-shake, they are just excellent sport on LRF tackle. I will say though that they are awful smelling, and shed their scales easily, so try to handle them carefully and bring a rag with you when fishing for them.

Adam joined us for the last hour as we moved onto targeting the bottom dwelling species. I quickly caught a goldsinny but again Maurice showed his nous. Switching onto dropshot he had a corkwring, tompot blennies and his own goldsinny. It was a real pleasure fishing with him properly for the first time, he's full of interesting knowledge and tactics, and modest with it. LRF might look strange to some people (angler's included!), but the way it has got me fishing with new people, in new ways, cannot be understated in it's importance to me. It's a great hobby to be a part of.

I went down the next day with Ellie, to see if she could get a gar too, but the wind was up and it was difficult fishing. I managed to get one bigger gar that put up quite probably the best fight I've ever had from a fish of it's size. It went ballistic! Stripping line from my reel for fun, I thought it was a decent mackerel, so I was impressed to see what it really was when I got it to the surface. Having a small audience of passers-by made it all more fun. A few people having never seen a garfish before. We left soon after though as the wind proved impossible to cast into.

After one more blank on the canal, terrible weather cutting my session short. I was in the mood for easier fishing and Olly was too. We decided on Simpson Valley, with a view to catch trout and then try for pike. I like Simpson Valley and the people who run it, but sometimes it can be a little uninspiring. Though myself and Olly caught a few trout, giving excellent fights as always, there's only so many times you can catch similar sized fish again and again, with the chance of a bigger fish unlikely. We moved onto Upper Fuzzy, where last year I had caught a seventeen pound pike. Unfortunately the lake was mostly taken up with carp angler's so our fishing was limited. I still managed two pike but both were small. We cut the trip short and went to see Robbie at a different venue instead, where he managed to catch a nice perch of just under two pound.

I had the next day off too and fished Bake Lakes with Ellie. Trying out deadbaiting for eels. The eels didn't show but I did manage to catch a few decent carp by freelining Power Isome on the surface amongst floating casters. The thrill when you see the carp slurp down the imitation worm then strike is fantastic. Three to four pound carp give such a great account of themselves on LRF tackle too. After that short session we headed off to get some food.

During the whole of November is the Osborne & Cragg LRF Lure competition. With this in mind I will be trying to write shorter blogs, but more often to cover where I'm fishing and sharing hints and tips for various marks and harbours that I fish. Hopefully you will join me with this and hopefully I can catch some new species along the way.

Totals after that are:

Ben - 48 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

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 - 25 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

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

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

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

As always, thanks for reading

Gotta Catch 'Em All! Only 369 Left To Go!

As the year passes by, I'm constantly reminded how many fantastic fish species there are to catch in the UK. Over 400 species of fish in fresh and saltwater can possibly be caught, obviously some much more easily than others. So after half a year that makes my 28 look very modest. Though it is still an amount to be proud of,  there are so many more to catch. Which leads to this post being about appreciating the smaller (and also slimier) things in life.

Robbie recently wrote a post (in his own irreverent style) about the 'app-eel' of the European Eel, so I won't go too much into that here, I'm writing a full article on this for Fishingtails at the moment. The key moments though from those two nights included: Eels for Me, Robbie and Olly - he also caught Gudgeon, Crucian Carp and a Ghost Carp, boosting his total by four species. Not bad going at all.

We had caught the freshwater equivalent so now we wanted the mighty Conger. We tried a couple of night sessions, one where ridiculous winds forced us into trying the more sheltered Millbay for them. Olly caught a Crab and I had a fish on briefly then lost it, luckily it was only a few hours so didn't feel like a massive waste of time. The next session was more productive for me but not for Conger. With the winds a lot less severe and the water calmer, we tried Mount Batten Pier, knowing it had the potential for being productive for these oversized Eels. Me and Olly also brought along our LRF gear to keep us occupied while we waited. I'm very glad I did as about 30 minutes in I had a take, it then felt like I had hooked a snag, I gave it a bit more pressure and it came loose with a strange fight. I pulled it out of the water to reveal it was a very large Topknot! I'm obviously talking large for a Topknot, it was about 35cm long which is well above average. They are certainly not a pretty fish but fascinating all the same. A rough mottled skin on the top and a smooth, almost sticky underside. They live their lives fastened to rocks and harbour walls hunting prawns and small fish. Unusual for a Flatfish species, making them one of the higher prized LRF Species. Olly was certainly trying to get one of his own but could only land Shannys. He then had what looked a take on his Conger rod, he struck only to find a snag though. At the same time I managed to get another (more average sized) Topknot, much to Olly's frustration. It got truly dark and nothing was biting, we only found the rocks to be particularly 'tackle hungry', which quickly grew annoying. In the dead of night and cold air settling in we headed home. Conger fishing is going to take a lot more practice.

The next trip we decided on was another late night jaunt around the popular marks in Plymouth, starting back at Mount Batten. Pokemon Go had just been released and this made the pier unusually busy, It also led to Olly colliding with a post as he was trying to catch a Horsea! Which completely slayed me with laughter, well it does say 'pay attention to your surroundings when playing the game'! He had the last laugh though with a fish I have been looking forward to catching. I was casting out a Shore Jig in hope of some Mackerel or Gar whilst Olly tried again for a Topknot. The tide was pretty low so he was down amongst the boulders that surround the pier. It was getting dark and the tide was coming in. Nothing was interested in my lure but Olly gave a shout that he had caught a fish, I ran across the boulders to have a look. It was a Poor Cod, a relative to the Pouting and (distantly) Cod. It was the first one I had seen out of the water and it was a beautiful copper red. Very similar looking to a Pouting. Whoever named it though was doing the species a disservice, Olly thought this fish as no 'poor' relation to anything, his first of the species and another new one for him. After returning it we decided to try the Barbican, it was getting much to dark to be on the boulders. With more Pokemon hunters walking past us every few minutes, we tried to tick mini-monsters of our own lists. In Sutton Harbour the tiny Pollock were ravenous, suicidely leaping on to our baits at every opportunity. It's promising to see so many though, they are a key prey fish at that size and also a top predator in their own right once they reach adulthood. I wanted to try the sandy area in front of Mayflower Steps, it was there that another Poor Cod missed my lure three times! I could see it as it followed my bait right to the surface then turned away, leaving it static received no interest. The fish then lost interest and left me casting into the dark with no results. A next move onto the pontoon led to a couple more Mini-Pollock but nothing else of interest. With work in the morning it was time to head home.

Call me crazy, but I have always wanted to catch a Minnow. You know them, those tiny, common fish you find in most streams and rivers. Yet I had never caught one. I knew the Plym River had some, along with Brown Trout and Eels, so I headed there, armed with size 20 hooks and Isome. I'm not sure if you're allowed to fish there, and certainly the many, many dog walkers give you strange looks, but I was hoping I would only need a brief visit, with work later playing on my mind. Plus I figured, who's going to mind me trying to catch Minnows? They're hardly a prized sports fish. I went underneath a bridge where I had seen them before, small Brown Trout were the obvious fish in the water but looking closer I could see the Minnows. I cast out the tiniest piece of Isome, weighed down with an SSG shot, across the river. Immediately I had follows from my target species, but they mostly were trying to eat the weight! I snagged on a rock on my next cast and my light hooklink snapped easily. During the time it took to set up, a big Eel moved into the swim and spooked my precious Minnows. I was ready to go again but a lot of the little buggers had gone. Eventually I found one and he took my Isome greedily, I had him in my hand and felt great satisfaction, even if it was a tiny fish. I know, you probably think I'm mad. After a brief flirtation with the Eel (not such a fan of Isome) I headed home to get ready for work.

Just to completely top off the mad hunt for the miniest of mini-species. A trip to see Ellie's family in North Devon led to an opportunity to catch Sticklebacks. I had seen them in a large ditch near Ellie's Mum's house last time I was there, not knowing of another water with Sticklebacks, I wasn't going to miss the chance. So whilst out walking the dog with Ellie, we came across the ditch. It was absolutely full of them! I've never seen so many Sticklebacks in one place. I was already armed with a simple Splitshot Set-up with a Size 22 Hook, with a tiny piece of red Isome again. I lowered it into the water to an instant reaction, they all dived on the bait but most were too small to take it, then I saw a larger (larger being a very generous word) one take it and lifted it out. It was a little armoured marvel, if they grew to a couple of pound or so they would be a top target for fishermen, alas they only grow to a couple of inches, but I appreciated mine all the same. Ellie wanted to try and quickly had one of her own, slightly smaller but ravenous all the same. We then carried on our walk. The next day we headed to the beach, I obviously took my rod - just in case. Whilst rockpooling I managed to catch a small Scorpion Fish which came out of nowhere to snatch my Isome. I love the way they vibrate in your hand, they would be a decent replacement for a mobile phone if they would ever accept calls! With nothing else biting I spent the rest of the day enjoying the warm weather and good company.

Totals after that are:

Ben - 32 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, Dogfish, Bull Huss, European Eel, Topknot, Common Minnow & Three Spined Stickleback

Olly - 24 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

Ellie - 23 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

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 - 12 Species - Perch, Mirror Carp, Roach, Rudd, Eel, Ballan Wrasse, Topknot, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe & Pollock

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

Head to Fishingtails.co.uk for up to date fishing reports and top articles. 

What's The App-eel? by Robbie Spencer

Firstly a word from Ben - As the Fish Challenge is not just myself competing, I've encouraged others involved to write their thoughts too. Robbie has a wealth of fishing knowledge, with a unique insight into Fishery management too. He's also an incredibly funny guy and one of my best friends. So it's with pleasure I present his first ever blog post, about the slimy business of Eel Fishing.


Why do we hate catching eels?
The freshwater eel, so slimy, so ugly, yet such a good sport. So why do the majority of British anglers baulk at the idea of catching eels? Well as a fishery manager for over 7 years very rarely do I get customers asking ‘which lake is the best for catching eels? ’ personally I enjoy catching them, sure when you get them on the bank trying to unhook them is like trying to get your ex to stay with you after she has just found out you have been fired from your job and will no longer be able to lavish her with some fancy gifts that she needs to achieve multiple instagram likes. But many of the eels I have caught have given me a fight far more superior to that of a bream, who after a half-hearted run will just give up without a battle as if it’s playing for the England football team. Many people claim their dislike is also due to the fact trying to handle them when unhooking leaves you looking like you have just been shooting a scene from the newest ghostbusters film, but let’s face it as fisherman we don’t expect to come back from a day’s fishing looking like we have just come from a job interview at Buckingham palace. Eels are an extremely hardy fish, they travel from halfway across the world only to be labelled a nuisance by an angler who insists on driving to his platform as he doesn’t want to walk because he pulled a calf muscle having a kickabout with Johnny and the lads. Eels are not fast growing, some can take 10 years to get to 1lb but that just makes it all the better catching a 2lb plus eel. So far this year I have only had one but what a fish it was. 4lb 10oz, caught on a jig head a complete surprise catch! On first inspection I thought I had hooked into a sunken branch until this thing starting moving like a drunk bloke at a party doing the worm to impress a girl who’s clearly going to end up going back with his less embarrassing mate. So last night I was in high spirits because I knew a few had been coming out from all the different lakes up to about 4lb. With the bake brigade out in force, and Ben with a rare day off work (!) we opted to fish Dunes, which probably produces the best eel catches. We decided to fish the deep water using one ledgered dead bait and one float fished live bait, feeding maggot to draw the roach to the swim. Within 20 minutes the rod went, one big take and a run. After a good 5 minute fight it came to the net, easily 3 and a half pound and angry as Ronnie Pickering in a traffic jam! Nevertheless a cracking fish! After that we had plenty of big runs on the ledgered deadbait but they were proving extremely hard to hook, much owing to their stiff jaw line which adapts to the environment they reside in. Will had another big take only to find nothing but a tail left on the hook. It started to get dark and soon the leger rod was off again, this time managing to hook into it firmly. Once again proving photo shy this fella at 2 and a half pound would not stay still, a slippery customer indeed. All in all a great evenings fishing, and two spectacular fish. These guys are the R-eel D-eel lol.

Sunshine, Bass & Mullet Mind Games

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. 

Ghost Story

Everyone has a ghost story. The spectre hiding just out of sight, vanishing in the blink of an eye. They make you doubt your entire belief system. I'm of course talking about Ghost Carp.

'Ghosties' are notoriously fickle fish, especially on busy commercial fisheries. Due to their spirit-white colouration they are normally the first fish you spot and hence the first you cast at. This tends to make them an expert at rig spotting. So many times I have surface fished for Carp and watched as a big Ghost takes every floating bait except the one with a hook in it! Though I will concede this isn't just a Ghost trait, they are more prone to it than their darker scaled brethren. If you are not familiar with Ghost Carp you might be wondering why they have such a morbid name? It is largely down to their image in the water, the pearly white markings on the head give an impression of a skull and the pale colour of the body creates a 'ghostly' profile, so the name seems quite natural. Obviously the fish themselves are not natural at all. They are a hybrid of White Koi Strains with either Common or Mirror Carp, specifically bred by humans. A practice dating back thousands of years to Japan. This Ghost Story took place significantly closer to home than the far east though.

Bake Lakes - where I do the vast majority of my Coarse Fishing - has a reasonable head of Ghosts and ghost hybrids (fish that are descendants of pure Ghosts mixed with regular Carp, leading to slightly more golden colours), but I wasn't thinking about them at all when I set off with Ellie in tow, late on Thursday Morning. My intention was to see how many species I could catch on LRF tactics (mostly Dropshotted Isome) in a day. The weather was superb and I had high hopes of it being a successful trip. We arrived and received two small disappointments - firstly, there was a match on the only lake with Crucian Carp in and secondly Robbie had no Maggots available, a vital component to get the fish in a feeding frenzy. The sunshine kept us optimistic though so we moved on down to Treasure Island, a lake that I had had great success on before. The Lakes were busy and some good carp were showing to the many pleasure anglers. Unfortunately the fish seemed to drop off the feed as soon as we were set up. After about 45 minutes we decided it was time for a move.
Time to move on to the venue's most popular lake Luxor, a lake with Carp up to 25lb and plenty of low doubles. With work going on relaying the right side of the lake's path we moved up to the shallow end. Finally we found a peg that had real signs of fish - a large Mirror leaped out of the water in front of us, arrogantly daring us to catch him. A couple of generous handfuls of Bloodworm Pellets later and we had a feeding frenzy in front of us. It's fantastically encouraging when you see mushroom clouds of silt exploding in front you when Carp fishing, the fish are bold and hungry in Luxor and it was perfect to try dropshotting for them. Ellie was fishing much more traditional - float fishing with sweetcorn as bait. It didn't take long for the Isome to show it's worth as a fish ripped the line off my reel, with 7lb rated braid I couldn't bully it much and it showed... The fish quickly took me under two trees and shook the hook, leaving me in wrapped up in the myriad of branches! Frustrated but also awed by the power of that fish I set up again. Ellie was getting very frustrated by this point, the Carp were completely ignoring her sweetcorn. I dropped my freshly tied rig back in and within a minute it shot off again, much to Ellie's chagrin! This fish was smaller and I played it significantly better, landing it within 5 minutes. A solid 7 and a half pounds, my biggest fish on that rod so far. I had a couple more smaller fish and another lost one. Great fun though and all on either small pink Isome or medium red cut up into smaller sections. Ellie really wanted a go so of course I let her, though slightly reservedly considering the delicate nature of the rod. Fortunately she handled herself superbly when the inevitable take came, playing the fish with glee as the fish fought stubbornly. Finally on the bank and a respectable 5lb. Robbie then joined us, intrigued by this different method of catching his fish. I quickly showed him as the rod took off again, a dogged and determined fight kept the fish out of sight for a while, until a skull-patterned head appeared through the murky waters, both me and Robbie exclaimed ''Ghostie!''. I was ecstatic when it graced the bank, only a moderate sized fish at around 5lb but a gorgeous looking creature, a Golden Ghost hybrid. Things got distinctively more ghostly as I played my next fish, after nearly ten minutes fighting it I nearly had it beaten, as it neared the bank a large Ghost Carp came up next to it as if to see what was happening to its friend, this made us laugh and my smile widened further when we weighed the Fully Scaled Mirror Carp I had caught, at over 10lbs it was easily my biggest fish on my LRF rod and also my biggest of the year too. Nearly time to go, Ellie had one last cast. This cast resulted in another fantastic take and turned out to be that curious Ghost Carp that had shown up during landing the previous fish. Obviously wishing to get in on the action! It turned out to be Ellie's biggest fish ever at 8lb 4oz and her first Ghost. Overjoyed, we left satisfied after a good end to the fishing.

I've been away in India for 2 weeks and during that time Robbie managed to catch a Crucian Carp, whilst Shane joined the challenge with three species on his first ever coarse fishing trip - a Crucian Carp, Rudd & Roach. I also managed to get a Rock Goby on an opportunistic hour fishing before work.

Totals now are:

Ben - 15 Species - Perch, Roach, Rudd, Gudgeon, Common Carp, Roach/Bream Hybrid, Mirror Carp, Pike, Rainbow Trout, Common Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Tompot Blenny, Ballan Wrasse, Rock Goby & Ghost Carp

Robbie - 9 Species - Perch, Mirror Carp, Roach, Rudd, Eel, Ballan Wrasse, Topknot, Crucian carp, Common Carp

Ellie - 9 Species - Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Perch, Pike, Corkwring Wrasse & Pollock, Mirror Carp & Ghost Carp

Will - 8 Species - Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Pike, Tompot Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Carp & Mirror Carp

Olly - 7 Species - Rainbow Trout, Perch, Pike, Rudd, Roach, Mirror Carp, Common Carp

Shane - 3 Species - Rudd, Roach & Crucian Carp

Zoe - 2 Species - Pike & Goldsinny Wrasse

Phil - 1 Species - Pike (to be fair to him he's barely been fishing)

Crazy Carp & The Power Of Isome

It's been quite a busy week or so, with that in mind I'll try not to make this post too much of an essay.

One of the many pluses of a multi-species challenge is it mixes up your fishing significantly. One day you are clambering over jagged rocks over a foaming sea and the next you are sat serenely beside a flat calm lake. This story started with the sea...
If you have been reading my blog you will be aware that I have been attempting to grasp the fundamentals of LRF and I made some better progress this week. As has been a theme so far, four of us - Myself, Ellie, Zoe & Olly - decided that since the success of the Light Bait Fishing on Mount Batten earlier in the Month we would try it again. Only this time I was Dropshotting a piece of Marukya Green Isome and the others pieces of Lugworm (no Ragworm available in the Tackle Shop unfortunately). With the sea cloudy and choppy around Mount Batten we decided to try the Barbican Car park near the Sailing Club. It's fantastic parking there and you can pretty much cast from your car, so perfect if the chilly wind proved too much for the girls. Zoe is just starting to get into her fishing and had the most immediate bites, starting what turned out to be an hour long war of attrition with a tiny bait stealing fish, we presumed either a small Blenny or Wrasse. I had the first and what proved to be my only fish, a lovely little Ballan Wrasse, my first of the year and the smallest I've ever caught! It was significant though because it was my first ever fish on Isome worm and a big confidence boost, as great as it is to see pictures and hear of the brilliance of Isome you need to catch on it yourself to get over those last doubts in your head. Zoe persevered with the Lug though and had her first ever Goldsinny Wrasse - in all it's goofy needle teeth and spiky finned glory. We had endless bites but even with size 14 hooks they would not take the bait completely. Not a massive success by any means but a good way to spend a couple of hours.

Whilst I was focusing on the small stuff, Will took his two brothers out to Bake Lakes to catch some Carp. They did exceptionally well, with over 25 fish landed up to around 7lb. Great work considering Will is the only one of them that really calls fishing his hobby. Inexperience did show though when Will's Brother Ellis left his rod unattended to help his son unhook a fish. As can always happen when Carp fishing, the rod shot off and was pulled into the water by a fish! Out of reach it looked like the rod (and fish) were lost when Robbie ran over to save the day. He not only managed to catch the rod with another line, he managed to catch the good sized Common Carp that had dragged the rod in! I'm just gutted I wasn't there to see that as I bet there would have been tears of laughter. Brilliant from the Glassup boys and another two species for Will.

A couple of days later I went out to Wembury Point with Ellie & Zoe to do some rockpooling in the sunshine. With myself & Ellie being massive nature geeks we quite often do this when the weather is good. I find from a fishing perspective it also gives you the best idea of which areas are the richest in fish and the prey items they feed upon. I had an idea though to try a bit of LRF around the shallow gulley's as well, since I knew what abundance of small fish species lived there - Clingfish, Blennies & Gobies are very common residents of the many rockpools that form at low tide. I stopped off at Osborne & Cragg Tackle Shop (superb range of LRF tackle there) and had an argument with a traffic warden. Good start, I was parked illegally but he didn't have to be such a sanctimonious dick about it! Excuse my language. Just escaping a ticket we made our way to Wembury. I didn't have any luck on the rod but the rockpooling proved very distracting. We found a fantastic array of species, the highlights being Pipefish, Rockling, a giant Velvet Swimming Crab & a couple of Squat Lobsters. Hungry and escaping the now incoming tide we made our way to The Mount Batten Pub, they serve decent portions of chips there and not a bad selection of beers & ales. Refreshed I couldn't resist a cast off the pier. I'm glad I did as my first ever Tompot Blenny took my piece of Green XL Isome. Only stopping briefly I didn't manage another, not that I minded too much.

Soon it was my turn to fish Bake Lakes again, with Ellie & Olly in tow. The weather turned out to be beautiful once the afternoon came around. We arrived and greeted Robbie who was helping to lay the last few bits of gravel down around the new Specimen Carp Lake - Caesar's Palace, which opens soon. Unable to fish with us Robbie continued his work and we made our way down to Luxor. Deciding on fishing the shallower end of the lake where the fish tend to be when it warms up. The fish were jumping everywhere around us and it just felt like it was going to be a great session and it began in ridiculous fashion. With Olly not having fished with a light float set up before I helped him. I dropped the float into the water in front of us to check it was weighted correctly and as I lifted it out of the water I hooked a Carp! Now the set up Olly was using was light and only had a very cheap and tiny Fladen 100 reel loaded with 6lb line, it was lucky I had set the drag correctly as the fish shot off. It fought like a demon and took me 10 minutes to get it in. Ellie couldn't believe it and was bemoaning my jammy luck. I could hardly believe it either! When it finally was on the bank I could see I had hooked it in the cheek near its mouth, poor thing. Unhooked it swam back calmly with only a bruised ego and a sore cheek as evidence of its capture. It was a bizarre start and set a standard for the afternoon. Olly spent most of it pulling out endless Rudd of all sizes on Red Maggot, I seemed to get a run from Carp no matter where I put my Boilie, one even taking it before I even had a chance to place it on the Bait Alarm! Ellie & Olly moved onto the Carp Fishing also and had a lovely double hook-up which made for a great photo. The funniest thing happened again to me though, as true to form I completely stacked it whilst running to get my rod as the alarm went off. I slipped over, landed on my back but managed to play the fish from the ground, with Ellie and Olly laughing at me of course! I gathered my composure and landed my biggest fish of the year so far, a Mirror Carp that had the length of a 5lb fish but twice the girth of one. It tipped the scales at just over 10lb and is probably the most pudding-like fish I have ever caught. Boilies & pellets are obviously no good for the figure. Covered in mud and slime I was a happy angler. After that debacle I left the bait alarms and strong rods to my accomplices. I had another technique on my mind and a burning question. Could I catch a Carp on my LRF set up? I set up a short Dropshot rig with a barbless size 12 hook threaded with a whole small pink isome worm. Baiting up a shallow area with pellets and maggots I soon had a frenzy of Carp and smaller species feeding in front of me. gently I lowered my set up into the now cloudy water and felt for bites, they were instantaneous from the small fish plucking at the imitation worm, but I had larger targets. If you have ever felt was a Carp bite feels like on 7lb braid you know what I experienced, if you haven't you should get out there and try it. I struck into a freight train, my Shakespeare Agility Series Reel spinning furiously as the fish did its best impression of a motor vehicle. I spent the first five minutes just trying to stop the fish from darting around the island in front of me, the next five minutes were spent slowly getting it to the bank. Finally in the landing net, a beautiful fin-perfect Common Carp, a modest 4-5lbs but a stunning display of strength. I placed him back and managed to land one more Carp, Two Gudgeon and a Rudd all on LRF tackle before it was time to go home. Probably my favourite day's fishing this year so far.

Totals after that are:

Ben - 13 Species - Perch, Roach, Rudd, Gudgeon, Common Carp, Roach/Bream Hybrid, Mirror Carp, Pike, Rainbow Trout, Common Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Ballan Wrasse & Tompot Blenny.

Robbie - 8 Species - Perch, Mirror Carp, Common Carp, Roach, Rudd, Eel, Ballan Wrasse & Topknot

Ellie - 8 Species - Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Mirror Carp, Perch, Pike, Corkwring Wrasse & Pollock

Will - 8 Species - Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Pike, Mirror Carp, Common Carp, Tompot Blenny & Corkwring Wrasse

Olly - 7 Species - Rainbow Trout, Rudd, Roach, Mirror Carp, Common Carp, Perch & Pike

Zoe - 2 Species - Pike & Goldsinny Wrasse

Phil - 1 Species - Pike (to be fair to him he's barely been fishing)

Hail Mary

As a member of 'The Bake Brigade' (Robbie's imaginatively gifted name for our group of fishing friends), I naturally have great love and affinity for Bake Lakes in Trerulefoot, Cornwall. Robbie runs the place as a family venture with his Dad. It's a simple commercial Fishery really that gives the tourists, who travel down to East Cornwall in their thousands in the summer, something to do when not getting their pasty nicked by a seagull. It's a place not known for 30lb Carp or 8lb Tench (yet) but it's a place where if you do things right you will always catch a fish.
It has a variety of lakes ranging from the large - Luxor, to the small - Canal. It caters for the child on his first ever cast and the experienced old hand who's making his hundred thousandth. Personally I have caught all the species there to catch including some lovely Tench and a personal favourite - Gudgeon. The Gudgeon in Luxor particularly grow to near record size, admittedly that isn't a large fish but to anyone who's caught these delightful fish in a natural river as a child, these fish that gorge on the feed intended for Carp are of a superb average size.

So, to my most recent fishing trip on home ground so to speak.
I had a rare half day at work and finishing early I was determined to go fishing. I had been really quite ill for a week or so and another day in front of the TV was not a desirable option. I packed up the carp and float gear and made my way to Bake along with my long suffering girlfriend Ellie. We arrived just as a very heavy rainstorm was passing through, not inspirational. Blue sky was on the horizon though so we set up on Luxor as the rain dried up. I baited up the margins either side of our peg with pellets and boilies and put one rod in each spot. Ellie had the left and I had the right. I see a lot of people cast out miles on Luxor and catch very little, the fish are not shy in there and feed more readily from about a metre out. I find this is the case with many commercial fisheries. Probably as a side effect of so many anglers chucking left over bait in the edges when they finish. We also had a float set up each with Red Maggot to keep us occupied in the cold. Soon we were catching lots of Rudd and Roach as predicted, warming up our chilly limbs. The weather decided we weren't quite cold enough though and hammered it down with hail. Ellie ran to the car, I decided to stay and see it out (persistent if not very clever!). Just as the hail reached its peak the left rod's alarm made that beautiful sound of a running fish, I picked it up and with the hail bouncing off my jacket and making the water boil, I played my first Mirror Carp of the year. It was a humorous exercise, I laughed out loud at myself for how crazy I looked, soaked and freezing cold with a plump little Carp tearing around in the water before me. I got the net under it after a spirited fight and with the fish still in the water I called Ellie. The hail was easing now and she came up to take a photo. Frozen, me and the fish posed, it was around the 5lb mark, not a remarkable size but the conditions had made it very memorable and I was a happy man.

We proceeded to catch numerous small fish including a couple of those specimen Gudgeon I love so much. My right rod then went and a slightly larger fish was landed, I lost another soon after. The hail soon returned though and after a couple of hours fishing we headed home, truly frozen and dripping wet. It was a hugely entertaining afternoon though and added another sub-species to my Challenge list, taking me up to 9 now.

Thanks for reading as always.

Rainbows & Specimen Gudgeon

My last post waxed lyrical about the greed and the beauty of Perch, going as far to say they are the prettiest and greediest of fish in the UK. On Friday I reminded myself of a fish far bolder and arguably even better looking - The Rainbow Trout.
I have always preferred the classic wild Brown Trout to its magenta-hued American Cousin but there is no denying their attraction. They are lightening quick, acrobatic and just plain stunning to look at. A myriad of spots, silver and pink. Olly had never caught one before and I knew the perfect place to get him his first, Simpson Valley in Holsworthy.
Simpson Valley Fishery is a well run and progressive Fishery that caters to all aspects of freshwater lake fishing. They have all the classic Coarse species plus Large Pike and three species of Trout. Recently they had opened up a new Lure & Fly lake which has Trout, Perch & Pike in it. I had fished it before and had reasonable success, a couple of Rainbows and a couple of Jacks, nothing astounding but good fun. So on a damp but not particularly dreary Friday morning we made the trip from Plymouth to Holsworthy. I brought my two favourite set ups with me, my Lrf and my baitcaster. Fishing LRF style was my plan for most of the day and within 20 minutes I had a fish on. An exceptionally strong Rainbow that took a little Spoon. On the light rod it was a fantastic fight but it managed to fling the hook out as it leaped clear of the water. I wasn't disheartened as Olly had one on about 2 minutes later, that too throwing the hook near the end of the fight. That is the trouble with Barbless Hooks, much better for the fish but not so great for your catch rate. I quickly learned that you had to keep the line very tight to the fish during the fight, any run towards you or leap had to compensated with fast reeling and suitable drag. I had lost two fish before I landed my first, this fish wasn't large but put up a great account of itself on the light tackle. To Olly's amusement I managed to slip over on the mud mid fight, planting my arse on the soggy ground whilst trying to keep in contact with the fish. Luckily he stayed on and though wet and muddy I was a happy man with my first Rainbow of the year, taking me up to two species so far.

Me and Olly swapped lures and he was quickly in on the tiny spoon (Trout can't resist small flashing lures), his fish was slightly more subdued but was very interesting once we had it in the net. It quite obviously had survived a Pike attack, a bite mark from a fish of perhaps 5-6lbs was clearly on its side. Trout are incredibly agile and this one had showcased that. 

It did raise the question of how well the Pike are doing in the lake though? The Pike had been moved into the lake from a smaller cloudy one just down from it that was full of Coarse fish. They now found themselves in a crystal clear lake full of lightening fast Trout and the odd perch. It will be interesting to see how they fare in the future as the small Pike have extremely little to feed on and I can only imagine will end up as food for the larger girls who struggle to catch the Trout. With this in mind I used my baitcaster to fish both large Trout and Pike imitation lures to no avail. Perhaps they weren't in the mood, perhaps they wanted something else, either way I'm still yet to catch a Pike this year. I had two other Trout, one on a Fox Rage Mini Fry which has been my favourite lure so far this year, then we went home satisfied with a another fish species and some superb fights. 

On Saturday (seriously hungover from my Dad's 50th birthday celebrations) me, Will and Robbie made our way to our home ground - Bake Lakes. Planning to nail a few different species on float fished Maggot. Simple fishing for hungover minds. I was slightly late getting there and Will and Robbie had already had 2 species by then. Will, a couple of roach, Robbie, a roach and a Mirror Carp. His Soviet Headwear obviously working it's charm! 

I set up and quickly had a couple of small Roach plus a lovely bonus Hybrid Roach/Bream (which for the purpose of the Challenge we are counting as a different species). We stopped for a quick lunch break, headaches still in full effect. Then headed on to Luxor to get even more species. Feeding the swim with Red Maggot we soon had a feeding frenzy going on, with a fish a chuck. Will could barely get his bait in the water without some Roach or Rudd jumping on his hook! Then a magical moment for myself...  A specimen Gudgeon! We were in fits of laughter as we appreciated the monster at the end of my hook. 

In all seriousness a special fish for myself as I haven't caught one since I was a young boy and it was a little silver and blue flanked beauty! Will quickly followed mine up with one of his own, a brace of Specimens. We had numerous fish afterwards and it was a truly memorable way to spend a hangover. One where you are glad to be a Fisherman. 

The leaderboard after those two sessions is as follows: 

Ben - 7 species - Perch, Rainbow Trout, Roach, Rudd, Roach/Bream Hybrid, Common Carp & Gudgeon.

Robbie - 5 species - European Eel, Perch, Mirror Carp, Roach & Rudd.

Will - 3 species - Roach, Rudd & Gudgeon.

Olly - 2 species - Perch & Rainbow Trout.

Phil - 1 Species - Pike. 

First Fish Of The Challenge

Congratulations to Robbie who has taken the lead in the Challenge with a fantastic Eel weighing in a 4lb 10oz caught on home ground at Bake Lakes in Cornwall. Rumours of large eels that take lures inspired him to give it a go and a slow jigged rubber shad did the trick just bouncing off the bottom. In Bake Lakes it seems the Eels have taken up the predator niche and are making good use of the plentiful small fish in the lakes. It's amazing the surprises commercial fisheries can throw up sometimes.
Robbie 1 - rest of the team - nil

January Blues

Lets just say that so far January hasn't been great.

With the deaths of David Bowie & Alan Rickman, coupled with bizarre ever changing weather & the financial pinch you feel after Christmas, it has been a poor start to 2016 for me & that's without getting to the Fishing Challenge I have set myself & my friends!
I have only had a chance to have two full days fishing as I write this on the 20th January, both of those being either disappointing or straight up awful! I think its important I detail everything good and not so good on this fishing blog/diary though, half the addiction of fishing is fighting through those awful days when you should have stayed in bed, on the half chance the fish you have been dreaming of makes it appearance. So without further adieu...

My plan was to fish on the 7th January with my girlfriend Ellie (Im blessed with a girlfriend who mostly understands and endures my love for fishing), there is a small lake near Plymouth that holds Pike (my first target species) to around 10lb & I intended to use my new Shakespeare LRF Agility Rod & Reel I received at Christmas to catch some Jacks on light lures, I imagined it would be fantastic sport & a fish to tick off the Challenge. The weather had other ideas though. Due to torrential rain the normally crystal clear lake had been transformed into a muddy soup. Lure fishing would be a serious challenge but not impossible - forever the optimist! But then just after we had set up, icy rain poured down on us coupled with strong freezing winds. After the downpour had passed the wind swept my Fox Mini Fry lure into the nearest tree on my first cast! I turned around to look at a truly frozen Ellie & realised this had quickly turned from a nice day out into something more likely to make us ill than provide fish. We packed up & left as the heavens opened again.
My good friend Robbie Spencer is part of the Fishing Challenge & is one of the people who runs Bake Lakes near Liskeard in Cornwall. He had told me he was draining one of his stock ponds to transfer fish into the new Specimen Lake & I had had to have a look at some of the fish that are going into this fantastic new venture. Luckily Ellie agreed to go with me on the promise of keeping the heating on full blast in the car, something I was all too happy to provide! Thawed out, we got down there to see numerous double figure fish going into their new home, it was truly fascinating to see them weighed, photographed & swim away into the depths. I cant wait to fish it when it opens.

Here's Robbie with a beautiful fully scaled mirror that weighed in at 17lb & surely is gonna be a giant in years to come.

So it hadn't been a productive day fishing but I remained optimistic due to me & fellow Challengers Will Glassup & Phil Bassett (my Dad) going Pike fishing on Exeter Canal the following Sunday.
It turned out to be another interesting but frustrating day.
Our intentions were to fish Turf Locks first & work our way up to Lime Kilms with various Lures and see if any of us could get attached to one of Exeter's famous 20lb plus Fish (smaller fish also very welcome). We ran into trouble firstly due to the only road to the car park being completely flooded & impassable for Will's Vauxhall Astra. We decided to turn around and park near the Kilms entrance road. Walking down this road we found it again to be flooded but shallow enough to walk through with wellies - only Dad had been smart enough to wear wellingtons! Me and Will resigned to taking off our boots and socks and wading through the freezing floodwater barefoot.. Christ it was cold! Chilled to the bone we dried off and continued to the Canal. Upon reaching it it took me by surprise the sheer amount of Pike fishermen there, either fishing with static deadbaits or lure fishing like ourselves. We're quite used to being the odd ones Pike Fishing so this was surprise but also a challenge. How to fish better than everybody else? The word on the Canal was also that it was fishing poorly, a few Jacks were being caught but nothing substantial. me and my Dad tried many different lures and styles but it was in vain, I didnt see a single fish that day except for a jack pike being eaten by a greedy Cormorant! Will on the other hand had a more entertaining day, he managed to catch two rowing Skiffs, one being an 8 man which I believe is a specimen! He also lost a decent fish and had a truly colossal fish follow and miss his lure near the bank. Will is not one to over exaggerate and his description was of something in the Mid-Twenties, I was gutted for him as that would have been a fantastic start to 2016. Defeated we made the journey back down the A38.

The second full day fishing was the day it really went wrong for me.

My Autumn 11lb Lady I caught on my last visit to Tiverton Canal - I was hoping for similar results...

So to 'Tivvy' Canal, a water me and Robbie had serious confidence in as we set off in the early hours of Thursday Morning. The morning was warmer than expected & we felt optimistic. Speaking to the guy in Cullompton Tackle Shop it seemed we were making a mistake in not trying Exeter Canal again, it was fishing well apparently, not what I heard the Sunday before, typical! Still we went onto the spot that had given us success before and immediately saw signs of fish. The canal is very shallow and weedy even in winter, the Pike can be quite obvious at times if you know the signs - Swirls & scattering fish really give the predators away. we certainly saw swirls & a tiny Jack hit my Eel imitation lure very quickly. Unfortunately nothing else was interested, as we moved along spots we hadnt fished before we saw a couple of Pike to around 5lb but they were extremely spooky and not interested in our lures. On a positive note I will say we saw some fantastic examples of other species, Specimen Roach, 4lb plus Tench & a huge shoal of fry show how fantastically rich the Canal is. To come back with light float tackle in the summer would provide fantastic fishing I'm sure. The weather was not so fantastic though, we had everything from bright sunshine to sleet and biting winds. It was certainly off-putting & we fished many miles of the canal to no avail. We moved spots and drove a few miles down the road, I parked up & got the tackle out when disaster struck. I locked my keys in my car! I called every Auto-Locksmith in the area & the only company available involved parting with £150 & waiting 3 hours! Freezing cold we debated it and decided that smashing the rear side window was the cheapest efficient option - brilliant! So with a black bag for a window and dented pride we drove home defeated again. An expensive & frustrating day.

Lucky I am an optimist always and next up for me is a birthday present from Ellie, two days of fishing at Angler's Paradise in North Devon, one day on Valhalla - Their Pike Lake & a second on the various lakes they have that should really give me a chance to catch some different species...

Thank you for reading, I hope your January has been more successful than mine!