Light Metal Fishing

There are few types of lure fishing that feel as simple and pure as spinning with metals. The act of casting out a shiny thing with hooks in it, yet somehow persuading a fish it's food, has fascinated anglers for generations. In the end it's a piece of metal: no frills, no scent, just a fish catcher. But that's not always the case is it? There's so much more to the world of jigging and that's what's had me fascinated recently.

The ol' stinky snake! Tempted by a Majorcraft Jigpara.

As with every fishing technique, I'm no expert and that's always a pretty fun position to be in. You can never stop learning and the finish line should always be moving further away from you, all the time setting new goals. My first experience with lures was with a small spinner, targeting perch. We would catch hundreds of little 'stripeys' on my local river as a kid. It kicked off a love affair of fishing with artificials; although I couldn't have guessed how intense that love would get in my adult years! Since then I have gone from dabbling with lures to being completely obsessed, as you can probably guess if you have read any of my blogs over the years.

Schoolies are great admirers of all things shiny.

That brings me to metals, being a keen LRF'er I'm mostly talking about small, metal shore casting jigs up to around 7 grams. These range from cheap £1.50 Dexter Wedges to over £7 for something by Shimano or Xesta. Now what you fish with is your business, unfortunately my inner tackle tart is easily tempted and ouch, my bank balance does feel the burn! Do more expensive lures catch you more fish? Probably not but they sure are pretty. I digress though, the point of this little blog isn't to persuade you to buy fancy lures, it's to talk about the different techniques I enjoy and the variety of fish species I catch on them.

The scad were everywhere that evening, smashing the lures on the drop.

Probably my most successful, is also the simplest: the cast and retrieve. By this I mean casting out your lure, letting it sink to the required depth and straight retrieving it back with pauses and lots of twitches. There are few pelagic fish that will ignore a metal whizzing past their face seductively. As with pretty much all my spinning (I use that as a blanket term for fishing with metal lures but it's not my favourite), I prefer not to use a solid tip rod as I get far more action from a tubular model.

When you think metals, you can't help but think mackerel. I just can't understand why you would ever use feathers to catch these incredible fish.

The next is the classic sink and draw. This where you cast out, let the lure sink, then reel in the slack, then let it sink again, reeling in the slack and repeating, lifting the rod as you retrieve. This provides bites on 'the drop'; essentially as the lure flutters down a fish snaps it up. This can be a killer with species like scad and mackerel. For garfish, I like to use a shallower, slower version of this where I don't let it sink as long, so it's constantly fluttering up and down on the retrieve. They will hit it on the drop and hopefully you lift into the fish and strike, in theory...

Assist hooks can boost your catch rates, especially when scad are hitting the lures on the drop.

By far my favourite though, mainly because I don't get to do it that often, is the 'bounce along the bottom'. This is so simple and is just as it reads. You find a mark that is pretty snag free, let the metal hit the bottom then either straight retrieve it across the sand, hopefully leaving an intriguing dust trail in your wake. Or, even better, add jumps, pauses and twitches to this, bouncing it up so predators can see it flutter back to the bottom. Little flatties cant resist this technique and you will likely catch other sand dwellers like gurnards too.

Little turbot are as pretty as they are ravenous. Use small skinny metals for these guys.

This is all nothing new, but it hopefully might inspire you to cast out a metal or two next time you are out. As we move into October and November, the fishing can be slightly harder but the fish tend to be bigger; and those big fish love to be tricked into munching a piece of shiny steel.

My fishing buddy Richard Salter (check out his YouTube channel HERE) caught this lovely tub gurnard on a cheap 6 gram Fladen Mini Jig, just going to show you don't need the expensive lures to catch beautiful fish.

If you want a little more information, check out this video made by Weymouth LRF wizard Andy Mytton. It covers a lot of really interesting techniques and tackle.

For anybody interested, my recommended LRF metals would be, in no order:

Majorcraft Jigpara Micro Jigs in regular and slim

Shimana Soare TG ACE

Xesta After Burner Mini

HTO Fugitive

&

The classic Dexter Wedge

.


As always thanks for reading and check out my Facebook and Instagram pages if you haven't already, search benbassettfishing.

Half A Century Of Fish

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Ellie - 26 Species - Golden Rudd, Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Perch, Pike, Corkwring Wrasse, Pollock, Mirror Carp, Ghost Carp, Black Goby, Tompot Blenny, Long Spined Sea Scorpion, Ballan Wrasse, Common Blenny, Golden Tench, Golden Orfe, Bronze Bream, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Giant Goby, Bull Huss, Three Spined Stickleback, Mackerel, Sea Bass & Goldsinny Wrasse

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

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

Will - 14 Species - Rudd, Roach, Gudgeon, Pike, Tompot Blenny, Corkwring Wrasse, Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Common Goby, Ballan Wrasse, Dogfish, Golden Rudd, Golden Tench & Golden Orfe


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

As always, thanks for reading

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

Bream's Do Come True

Social media is a famously double edged sword, it's fantastic connectivity being used to both bring people together and tear people apart. This post (luckily enough) is about the more positive side of the internet and how it can bring like minded people together.

You might have seen me mention the Plymouth LRF group page on here before, if you are unaware of it then its a page on Facebook that originally started off as an LRF page for the Plymouth area (of course), it then morphed into something a lot more broad and its membership is now nationwide. Will added me to the group and it has been a source of great knowledge and inspiration ever since, a lot of the members being very forthcoming in advice. For someone like me trying to catch as many species as possible it's been a godsend, my experience of sea fishing before this year was almost completely based on wrasse and the occasional mullet, so with the wealth of information available from this group I have grown much more confident and understanding of certain elements of sea fishing, particularly LRF. There is still lots to learn as always though, that's why we love fishing. Another benefit of this group is connecting with like minded anglers and actually going fishing with them. I was approached on Instagram by Adam Morris, a guy I had seen a lot on the Facebook page and knew was having a species competition of his own. He lives in Exmouth and wanted to give the Plymouth area a go, he seemed like someone on my wavelength and I hardly need any excuse to fish more! So we arranged a meet and I agreed to find him his first goby species.

We met up at Marsh Mills roundabout and headed off to Heybrook Bay. I knew a couple of spots there where giant gobies are plentiful. Adam wanted to catch one as he had never caught any type of goby before. Giants are actually very rare across the UK and we are very lucky to have them so near to Plymouth, though the average size is quite small there are the occasional brutes of nearly thirty centimetres. We arrived and made our way to the spot. In conversation I found out that Adam has only been fishing properly this year and in that time has caught over 30 species of Sea fish, he is a self confessed fishing addict, something I can certainly understand. We set up and using small pieces of Isome and Ecogear grubs we quickly had our gobies, that spot is definitely reliable! With the tide receding we had a chance to fish the gulleys on the large rock formation in front of us, access to it normally being blocked by the tide. Fishing there I had a couple of good sized corkwring (possibly my biggest of the year) and a ballan of around a pound and a half. We fished around the area then it was time to move. Mount Batten was next, although with the tide still low it was only Shanny's that wanted to bite. So off we went to Millbay, I knew it was where we'd most likely get the greatest variety of species. I moved on to my trusted baited spinner technique and had the usual mix of wrasse species, mackerel and gobies, nothing new though. Adam had a better run of it, fishing dropshot, he caught his first rock goby and goldsinny plus quite a few ballan wrasse. We moved around as the sun started setting and the mackerel were going crazy on the other side, we watched and tried to tempt them but they weren't being as forthcoming as usual, though Adam managed to land a nice schoolie and a monster scad, a fish that was definitely on my wish list. Unfortunately I didn't get one but I was happy with Adam's results and a decent haul of over 10 species that day.

My next trip was a short one with Ellie after work, it was more of an excuse to get out on the rocks in the sunshine than fishing to be honest, but ballans and blennies never fail to put a smile on your face.

If my previous trip was a pleasurable jaunt, my next was much more eventful. I had seen a spot in the Yealm estuary that was full of mullet so Me, Olly and Robbie thought we'd give it a go, with Adam once again joining us later. We had gone too early though and the tide was much too far out, even walking far down the estuary we couldn't find the incoming tide, we had arrived too early. It was difficult and muddy work, so we decided to climb up into the woods above us to find a path back. During this walk through the woods we came across a buzzard on the ground. Unable to fly it was limping around and I knew it was surely fox food, I couldn't have that. So using the net and my hoodie we caught it and I managed to walk it back the (quite considerable) distance to my car. By this time Adam had arrived and was obviously a little thrown by the circumstances. Calling a vet we found out they would take it and heal it if possible, so we headed there. It was during this time I could really appreciate what an awesome bird it was, it's sharp claws and powerful beak deserving respect. Arriving at the vets Olly had to leave for work, so me, Robbie and Adam left the buzzard with the vets and went to Millbay again as it was closest. I later received a call informing me that the bird wasn't too badly injured and would be healed in the Raptor Rehabilitation Centre near Newton Abbot, which was amazing news. We set up as usual and Robbie caught his first corkwring of the year, Adam caught a mackerel and a black goby, his first ever. Quite a few tiny whiting also started making an appearance too, they are always very welcome. Robbie had to leave for work after an hour though so it was time for a new mark. Adam wanted to fish the Tamar so that's where we headed. It really was a great choice. The spot we fished produced countless mackerel, a couple of pound-plus wrasse and a lovely schoolie bass of around two pound for me, the fish taking a Savage Gear Mini Sandeel right beneath my feet in crystal clear water! It was fantastic and the fight a bass can produce when the current is pushing hard is epic. The best fish though was caught by Adam. His 'sleeper rod', set up with ragworm legered on the bottom, started bouncing manically and it was clear a good fish was on the line. I've never seen a man move so quick as he handed me his LRF rod and leapt towards the frantically bending one in front of him. We waited in anticipation as the fish drew nearer. What would it be? A flash of red shot threw the blue water, 'it's a bream!' we both exclaimed in unison. Thirty seconds later it was in the net. Neither of us had seen one in the flesh before, it was such an exotic looking beauty, a couches bream. The colour's are exceptional on these fish, pinky red, with light blue spots and stripes, they look so out of place in our waters. We got the required photographs and returned it to the sea. That fish capping off a fine session and ending a more unusual day.

I had a couple of short sessions after that, I find summer so full of opportunity that any chance to get out I will, even if its only for an hour or two. This led me to catching a beautiful little brown trout, pretty much on Seaton beach, where the river meets the beach and is still fairly deep and fresh. Using a split shot rig with a tiny piece of isome (my weapon for catching all the truly mini-species), I had to contend with an audience, quite a few bushes and very spooky trout! But eventually I got my fish, a perfect little red-spotted brownie, then headed swiftly to work.

A couple of days later I tried again on the Tamar for a bream but only caught a ballan wrasse of around a pound, not content with that I drove up to Milemead Fishery near Tavistock. I fished their heavily stocked 'mini match' water in hope of a tench. Though the tench wouldn't play I caught a lot of small carp, bream, roach, rudd and a new species for me, a koi carp. I know that the carp strains are not truly different species but for the purpose of the challenge, they are. Though it was a lovely day's fishing, it was a bit frustrating to not catch a tench again, considering I've never struggled to catch them in the past.

I spent the next couple of nights chasing scad (or horse mackerel) in the dark after work. It was quite eventful mainly because, due to some kids fooling around near the entrance of the marina, fishing had been banned at Millbay. It was a strange experience being kicked out of the marina for fishing, by a security guard who'd been employed purely for that purpose. Though I was annoyed I carried on round the other side and caught mackerel, pollock, a schoolie and my target fish... the scad! A decent haul in the darkness, knowing scad love a bit of light on the water in the dark, I fished near a streetlight and it paid off handsomely.
Olly and his girlfriend Louise wanted to try it themselves so the next night I picked them up after work and we went down to the same spot. The same species made an appearance and we all caught scad, which was a new species for Olly too.

After being at a festival all bank holiday weekend, me and Ellie were invited on a boat trip with Adam out of Lyme Regis, unfortunately the festival had bankrupted us and we couldn't afford it, though we were both still very fragile and perhaps a boat wouldn't have been a good idea! So instead we had a couple of hours LRF'ing around Plymouth, Mount Batten producing a giant tompot blenny for Ellie and just shanny's for me, then at the Barbican (Ellie feeling quite ill at this point so wasn't fishing) I caught my first little pouting of the year, in front of quite a large audience - I think they were expecting a larger fish! We left shortly after as the results of our weekend exploits got the better of us.

And finally... (Apologies for the length of this post, between work, fishing and festivals I really haven't had time to write!)

My boss Dan is a keen fishermen but rarely gets the time to indulge himself, so I agreed to take him out on an evening. I still really wanted a bream so took him to the same spot as before. The tide can be brutally strong through there so I invested in some gripper leads and a heavier set up. I use an old carp rod for most of my heavier bait fishing from the shore, knowing it will happily cast three ounces without complaining, yet still provide decent bait indication. Baiting a size six long shank hook with a small whole ragworm I felt confident. I cast that out about sixty yards and left it to do its work. During this time I introduced Dan to the world of LRF, he was getting lots of bites on Isome but I think they were finicky goldsinny wrasse, as they wouldn't hook up. We switched over to the mini sandeel lures to see if we could get a mackerel or bass. During this time three other anglers turned up, they were a decent group of guys who were after bass. I recast my heavier set up and within a minute the rod was pulling round, I am not over-exaggerating when I say it looked like I had a decent carp on the end! Excited I ran to the rod and connected with the fish, though the gear was heavy you could feel the power of the fish even though I could tell it wasn't large. I was over the moon when it revealed itself to be my target fish - a couches bream. I got the pictures and then rested it in the net so it could recover, admiring this tropical looking fish as it got its breath back in the water. I find it's so important to do this, fish get caught in strong currents and in their weakened state easily die, its crucial if you're intending to release your fish that you care for them. After it was clearly back to its best, I released it out of the net and watched it swim back into the depths. Although small, definitely one of my favourite fish I've caught all year and my forty second species. I had one small wrasse after that and nothing else. I offered to take Dan to a different spot but we were both hungry so went for food and a celebratory pint instead.

Totals after that are:

Ben - 42 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

Olly - 26 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

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

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

Shane - 14 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

Robbie - 13 Species - Perch, Mirror Carp, Roach, Rudd, Eel, Ballan Wrasse, Topknot, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Pollock & Mackerel

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

As always, thanks for reading

Leicester Pike & Plymouth Dragons

I have chosen recently to wind myself up targeting mullet again. It's like winding back to my teenage years, chasing girls who I know in the end will just reject me, it's bloody agonising! I will get the better of these fish eventually, but I'm not expecting miracles. Luckily enough I have had some small successes targeting other species too, which keeps the spirits up. This post is about them.

Ellie is originally from Leicestershire and last Thursday I finally got to meet her extended family. We had set aside a day to try some fishing too, targeting zander and pike. Staying in Hinckley, I found out that the Ashby Canal nearby was free fishing and had a population of 'zeds', so figured it was worth a try. We soon learned why it was free fishing, the canal is the colour of rich brown soup, churned up constantly by boat traffic. We didn't feel confident. After blanking for two hours in a couple of different spots we left it and had some lunch with Ellie's grandparents instead. A much more worthwhile endeavour.
After more entertaining family greetings (and fantastic home made indian food!), we decided to give a stretch of the the River Soar in the east of Leicester a go (after asking advice in a local tackle shop, always a good idea when you don't know the area). It was early evening and if there was any time we could potentially get a zander it was then. We arrived at a very inviting stretch, where a marina inlet caused a fork in the river. Though it was weedy it looked like a great fish holding area, and so it proved to be. I was using my LRF gear, casting a five gram jig head with a Crazy Fish Vibro Worm in peach and custard colours, it looked fantastic in the clear water. On my third retrieve I saw a pike miss my lure then snatch it at the second attempt. It went off like a rocket, diving in and out of the weeds, taking line. I've had pike on light tackle before but, even though this wasn't a large fish, it pulled like few pike I've ever had the pleasure of hooking. After about a minute of adrenaline fuelled action it was in the net, at between three to four pounds, not a monster, but certainly my favourite pike of the year so far. The funniest part was, in Ellie's excitement to get the net, she had reeled in her rod quickly and netted my fish, it was only when we put the fish on the landing mat, that she realised she had caught a pike too! On the end of her plug was a pike only just bigger than it, she quickly put it back in the water, feeling terrible she hadn't realised she had hooked it. We got the pictures of both though and they swam away fine, we both laughed at how we had a double hook-up without even realising it! After that entertaining start we were hoping for more, but as is often the way in fishing, those proved to be the only fish of the evening. We didn't mind though, we were truly knackered after a long day and headed back to the hotel in fine spirits.

I certainly would like to try around the Leicester area again, it has some fantastic fishing available, but money, time and the reality of a full time job are always against me unfortunately, but I was happy with the result of a cumulative of three hours fishing that day.

My next trip was after those dastardly mullet again. I know there's probably somebody reading this who's really adept at catching mullet of both types, I'm not there yet, but with all this practice I hope to soon be. One thing I've taken away from it so far is location is everything, spinning for thin lips is much easier if you can see the groups of them and is in slightly deeper water, where they are more confident. Whilst thick lips just require patience and a large amount of groundbait.
Ellie has been desperate to catch a schoolie bass, not even a big one, just a schoolie, apparently she just loves the name. I knew exactly where to take her, Kingsbridge. It turned out to be a good idea, as baited spinners proved lethal for them, Ellie caught one on her first cast and as the tide came in we must of had nearly forty by the end. Only tiny fish really, but it ticked off the schoolie bass for her and it was great fun, even if the strong winds made casting sometimes very difficult. I also managed to hook a thick lipped mullet in the back accidentally in the shallows, it then did its best impression of a bonefish as it shot off, I managed to get it in eventually but as I reached for it in the mud, it snapped my line! Completely my own fault, I left my net with Ellie and rushed it, at least I could feel better that the hook was barbless and would easily fall out of the fish. I cursed myself for being an impatient idiot though, a rush of blood to the head happens to everyone at some point I suppose. Catching bass after bass got a little monotonous in the end and we had one last try at the top of the creek, where I watched a large thin lip bite the end of my ragworm but miss the hook... After a couple more bass giving me false hope, I decided I had tortured myself enough and it was time to head home.

A couple of days later I fancied winding myself up some more. I figured Tamerton Creek in Tamerton Foliot could have some potential for mullet. I arrived near high tide to find the place pretty much deserted, only a few small fish cruising around. I float fished some bread for a while but realised I was wasting my time, somewhere else had to be more fruitful. Millbay would be my next target, usually there are hundreds of mullet there. When I got there though I couldn't see one! These fish don't play by any rules. There were quite a few anglers about float fishing and chucking feathers and I figured I could always try on the bottom for a flatfish or gurnard. I had a spinner set up for mullet just in case and a few ragworm (that mostly were a little too big for the tactic), so I decided to try along the bottom, using the spinner as an attractant for the trailing live ragworm. Finding a quiet spot I quickly caught two hard fighting pollock, no great size but they really go well on LRF tackle. A young lad came along asking for advice so I stopped for a bit to help him out, he was after mackerel, he only stayed for about fifteen minutes though and as soon as he left they arrived! Baitfish leaping clear of the water as they chased them to the surface. I cast to them and immediately had a fish on, only a small one but I love the way they zip around even at that size. Unfortunately with the mackerel there it didn't take long for the feather chuckers to start casting over my head, a couple of them were pretty decent guys who were very interested in the technique I was using, but another seemed to be trying his best to stamp all over my gear, which as you can imagine got annoying quick. He soon left though and the other guys stuck around with some decent conversation. I was very slowly dragging the spinner along the bottom, stopping occasionally. It really worked well and I had a fish nearly every cast including a couple of new ones for me, The usual suspects were there, pollock , rock goby, and ballan wrasse, but some surprised me like a small silver eel (luckily it was easy to unhook), a couple of small whiting (which I was completely unexpecting) and a fish I have been trying to catch for a while now, a dragonet. When I caught the dragonet I probably looked quite silly in front of the guys, getting very excited about such a small unassuming fish, but after targeting them a couple of times I had caught one, which felt great. It had turned out to be a very productive hour or so, seven species, still no mullet, but there's always next time.

Totals after that are:

Ben - 37 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

Olly - 25 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

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

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

Shane - 14 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

Robbie - 13 Species - Perch, Mirror Carp, Roach, Rudd, Eel, Ballan Wrasse, Topknot, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Pollock & Mackerel

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

As always, thanks for reading.

Return Of The Mac

Since my last post I've been lucky to experience some incredibly fun fishing, as always it's not all been smooth sailing, but with mackerel here in vast numbers and schoolie bass plentiful, I can't remember when I last blanked, and as all fishermen know, that is a huge weight off your shoulders.

When it comes to blanking and frustration, there is one fish species that comes to mind... Mullet. They are famously difficult to catch and I would love to say I got the better of one this week, but I didn't. Though it did lead to me catching my first few bass of the year.
Thin-lipped are the much more forgiving of our two common mullet species, they don't grow as large as thick-lips but they will take spinners baited with ragworm or isome. I had heard and read that they can be quite forthcoming on this technique so had to give it a try. After asking around Facebook, a fellow angler called Adam Sharp told me there were plenty of them in Kingsbridge, he was also so sure I wouldn't catch one he wagered £100! With money like that on the table it would be rude not to try, so I finished work and drove the 45 minutes to Kingsbridge. Although the harbour looked inviting, I had my eye on a spot around the corner on a different inlet, it was shallow but absolutely stacked with fish. I don't think I've ever seen so many fish in one place, which makes my inability to catch a mullet all the more ridiculous. I was fishing a modified spinner with a 6 inch trace of fluorocarbon, with a size 12 hook, using isome as the trailer bait. Within five minutes I had a thin-lip on! I saw the flash of the fish sideways as it shook the hook, an annoying but promising start. I had numerous follows but couldn't get another. I did have 9 tiny bass though and lost about 10 more too, they were really pre-school bass, but I didn't mind, they saved the blank and were a new species for me. I knew I had to try again though for those frustrating mullet.
A couple of days later myself and Dad had a joint day off, due some Father-Son time we decided to try again in Kingsbridge. The tide was later in the day so we stopped off for some food first at the Crabshell, fully recommend that place, the fish was superb. Full and ready to go we watched the tide come in up the inlet, with fish topping everywhere. Dad was first to catch, the expected toddler bass. He lost a couple more before I got one, we caught another one each as the tide came in fast around us. I had another set-up with bread for the Thick-lips too, though as usual I couldn't get a bite from them! What had started quite promisingly had petered out a bit really, I regretted not buying some ragworm, isome was fine for bass but not for the tricky mullet. Still, as the old saying goes, 'if you're not catching, you're learning' and that couldn't be more true in this case.

My next fishing trip wasn't really a session at all, it was supposed to be my three year anniversary with Ellie. I planned a nice romantic picnic for her and intended to go to Wembury Point. She told me to take the LRF rod just in case (it's very easy to see how we've lasted three years isn't it?). I had a last minute change of mind and went to Saltram instead. After a walk and some delicious food and wine, we walked up to the salt marsh near the top of the estuary. Mullet are known to gather there and that day was no exception. At the mouth of the river there were thousands of fish at the surface, most likely small thick-lipped mullet. I had the same spinner I had used before, this time baited with Fladen Vermz (still not sold on those, even if they did catch a couple of bass). I managed to spook the shoal and unsurprisingly got no feeding reaction from them. Moving further up the tide-flooded river, the water was murkier and with no obvious signs of fish. Two casts later though I had a massive hit on my lure and a fish was on. After a couple of powerful runs it was tamed and revealed itself to be a lovely sized schoolie bass of around 2lb. I was over the moon, I don't make enough of a habit to fish for bass, and this modest fish was a new personal best! All because Ellie told me to take the rod on our date. Unfortunately she couldn't get one too to top off the day, but we headed home in good spirits nonetheless.

All through the week it had been obvious the mackerel were back in large numbers, social media was alive with talk of them. So on Saturday, myself and Robbie went after them on Mount Batten Pier. I can only say it was crazy. Fish surfacing everywhere and sets of feathers being flown in their direction frantically. I have never seen fishing like it, the majority of it was good natured though and I didn't see many people abusing the fish too much. I started off on feathers but found them to be too effective. I only wanted a couple of fish for bait, so catching six at a time on unsportingly huge rods was not my idea of fun. I quickly changed over to my LRF set up though and proceeded to catch a fish a cast on my favourite HTO Shore Jig. They are immense fighters for their size and it was great fun, but with fishing so easy it quickly became a little monotonous, so we left. Ellie was at home and really wanted to catch one too, so I dropped Robbie home and picked her up. We got there to find, with the tide higher, the mackerel were pushing the baitfish up against the pier wall and it was an incredible sight, all it needed was an Attenborough narration to make it perfect. Ellie quickly caught her mackerel and we headed home away from the chaos. It inspired me to write a short article about the good and bad side of the mackerel 'rush' on Fishing Tails, have a look here -

http://www.fishingtails.co.uk/the-mackerel-rush-the-good-the-great-the-ugly/

After all the excitement and fun of the sea fishing, I felt compelled to even it up and catch some freshwater species that were on my list. Bream and tench being my desired targets. I had caught both species before at Trewandra Coarse Fishery near Landrake, Cornwall, but hadn't fished it for over a year, so that was where I headed. It's a lovely little lake, well established now and with a great head of carp to 25lb, it also boasts some huge roach (to over 3lb) and tench (to over 6lb). You pay at an honesty box in the car park and quite often you are the only angler there. This time though there were two others fishing it, a chap who was after the carp and a father with his daughter and son, fishing for the carp too on the other side of the lake. I wasn't interested in the carp. I really desired a decent tench but knew they would be difficult. I had two set ups to try during the day, a simple float rig - plummeted correctly so the bait rested just on the bottom - and a small 'bolt-rig' with luncheon meat on a hair. On the bolt rig I soon had numerous hard fighting roach/bream hybrids, so many in fact that I wondered if I would ever catch a true bream! It was on my float set-up that I eventually had my bream - all weight and zero fight, just what I was looking for. With that one off my list I really wanted that tench, but all I could seem to catch was hybrids, bream and roach, superb fishing to be honest and in a couple of hours I probably caught over 20lb of fish, yet not a single tench. I didn't have a huge amount of time to fish either and soon I had to head home. I will have to return at an earlier time for those tincas.

Olly and Shane managed to get out over the last week too, catching Mackerel, with Shane also getting his first ever Corkwring Wrasse, Shanny and Giant Goby, which boosted his total considerably. Not bad going at all for them.

Totals after that are:

Ben - 35 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

Olly - 25 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

Ellie - 24 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

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

Shane - 14 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

Robbie - 13 Species - Perch, Mirror Carp, Roach, Rudd, Eel, Ballan Wrasse, Topknot, Crucian Carp, Common Carp, Golden Rudd, Blue Orfe, Pollock & Mackerel

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

As always, thanks for reading.