A blustery day in January......

With what seems like an unending barrage of terrible weather
battering the whole country, turning the sea to what can only be
described as 'coffee soup' and every river around in full flood.

My mate Phil suggested that we could try the canals for Perch and maybe the odd
rogue Pike.

So we made a plan to hit the canals today which meant an early start and a two hour drive
I met up with Phil this morning and we hit the water , He fished a dropshot rig and I was fishing
a jig head we moved up and down the canal fishing all around the various boats and other bits of
structure but no Perch so we moved on to another mark.

We arrived at the mark and split up with me fishing one side and Phil fishing the other side of
the canal. I saw that he had a nice little perch and another so I decided to move over and swop
from jighead to dropshot rig with a HTO mini stick in pearl blue and second cast I was also into a little perch

This particular lure seemed to work really well with another few perch falling to it

Philip was also catching fish but he no sooner had the fish in and it was back in the water so no time for
photos.

I then got hit by a better fish ....

a new PB of about 1lb not big but I was very happy. After that the fish soon went off the feed and we
decided to move again

With us both sticking to dropshot and Phil still remaining camera shy we continued to get fish

It continued like this with the fish coming on and off the feed until I got hit by a real train of a fish
which stripped line and really put up a great scrap

A new PB fish of over 1.5lb ....with which I was thrilled

A super days fishing one which I thouroughly enjoyed especially considering the conditons
which were at times almost gale force winds with a good mix of hail , showers and thunder all thrown in for
good measure

I have to also say a big thank you to Philip Fox who invited me up and very kindly showed me around his various perch marks.

Philip looking extremely pleased with his new enormous PB pike in the only photo I got
of him for the day........


Anyway I hope you enjoyed the read as much as I enjoyed my day

Tight lines

Jay

A night on the pier.....

I got out last night fopr a few hours LRF and decided to use my
Solpara, a rod which I have much neglected lately.
I arrived shortly after dark and condition were lovely the only thing
that I thought was against me was the falling tide which had about
midway out.

There were some other anglers fishing bait in my usual spot nice bunch of
lads but I decided to move as the space on the pier was taken up by their
gear.

So I tried a different spot and rigged up a jig head with a new lure that
I recently got. I could feel the bites but couldnt get a hook up so I decided
to change tactic to a drop-shot rig with a size 12 hook and one AAA splitshot
as a weight. Instead of dropping down the wall, I cast and allowed the lure
to slowly fall throught the water coloumn. It made a big difference and it wasnt long
until I got my frst fish of the session.

A nice little herring a steady stream of these followed all of them were in and around the
same size as the on above.

I decided to try down the walls of the pier using the same rig and started to pick up pollock

I had loads of these small they may be but on the solpara they can put up a great account of
themselves.

I moved around the harbour to another dark little corner and I had left my head torch on.
I was scanning along the waters edge looking at prawns flitting around in the shallow water
having a smoke, when I spotted a little fish darting in and out from under a rock everytime a prawn
came to close it chased the prawn off.
 I re-rigged this time to a splitshot rig , size 12 and a little piece of gulp rag in white. I cast  down to the
area the little fish was in and started to dance the little piece of lure around, which instantly got attention
it chased the lure and made several attempts at it before finally hooking up and to my surprise.......

a little poor cod, which was the first time I had picked up this species from this particular pier.

Feeling very pleased with myself about this I continued to fish in around the rocks hoping
for maybe a long spined sea scorpion or a blenny.
It wasnt long until I felt a sharp tug on the line and then nothing. It was like the hook was snagged
but before I could start to try and unsnag myself the ''snag'' began to move across away from the rocks
I began to reel in the fish and it went on a few little runs with plenty of head shakes, I presumed it was
a decent size pollock or coalie but to my surprise out came a nice fat little codling.

A very welcome surprise on a very cold night. It was probably this time last year when I had my
last lrf codling so I'm very happy about getting another.

There were other fish swimming about in good numbers just cruising under the surface I think that they were smelt but not a hundred percent certain they made plenty of goes at the lure. I just couldnt manage to get one on the hook. I'll try again another day.


A thoroughly enjoyable session with a couple of surprises thrown in.
It was also my first night session in a while with most of my LRFing done during the day and my first
proper lrf session of 2013.

The gear that I used was

Major craft Solpara 0.5-5g solid tip
Daiwa Caldia 2506
Mikado  'Dino Dynamic' monofilament 0.08mm 1.9kg



Tight lines all and welcome to 2013
Hope you enjoyed the read,


Jay

A Dab Hand.....

I got out today and headed up to a pier a couple of hours
from where I live. I had heard there was whiting and herring
going with a possibility of a dab.

I arrived at the mark and rigged up a new rig that I hadnt used before
but had been shown by my mate David and he had been having some success
with dab and other bottom living species anyway more about that another time.

So I fished on and began to get small taps with the lure and then when I retrieved
the lure was gone so what began as a size 6 hook eventually ended up all the way
down to size 14 and started to turn up some fish

My first ever lure caught dab I was delighted this one had a small chunk out of its side. A coulpe of pics
and back it went I recast and the lure had no sooner hit the bottom and I was in again.

Another dab happy days it continued like this for another while with another 8 or 9 small dabs all falling
to the lure. The wind then picked up and I got pushed off the pier so I decided to try the inside of the
harbour but surprisingly I didnt pick up one fish for the 2 hours or so fishing. The wind had died off and I
decided to head back out to the pier again where the fishing was much better but by now the tide was
really flowing hard out of the harbour. I decided to try for some more Dab and still continue my search for a whiting and or herring....

It wasnt long until I felt a small tap tap and sure enough another dab followed by another few fish all the dab were small

I was really thrilled with the way the day went overall and to top it off I managed to sneak out a lone
whiting

Mission accomplished both my intended targets were caught although i cut it close with the whiting
I thoroughly enjoyed my day and to get 19 dab in total was just fantastic.

I hope you enjoyed the read

Tight lines

Jay

A few photos from my lasts days lrf.....

I met up with my mate David once again the plan this time was to fish up to and into darkness to
see if I could possibly winkle out a Rockling but unfortunately it wasnt to be.

I fished various rigs dropshot, texas and standard jighead but i'm finding lately the dropshot is a fantastic
but sometimes overlooked rig. I know I for one favoured texas rigging lures over it for a long while but its
quickly becoming my go to rig

A nice variety of fish and I was happy enough with the session even if I didnt manage my intended
target. I really cant get over the teeth on the goldsinney wrasse such a vicious set for such a small
fish, I wouldnt fancy being it intended target....

On another note I recently had been on the hunt for some flourocrbon to fish straight through as
opposed to braid and after much deliberation I picked up some
Sunline super FC sniper in 4lb that is 0.165mm in diameter perfect for what I want not so thin so
it will ping off rocks straight away but still thin enough to allow it to be nice and supple

I'll be sure to write up my thoughts on this line in the coming months

Thats all for now I hoped you enjoyed the read and pics.

Tight lines,

Jay

The times they are a changing.....

I decide to take another trip up my mate David last Saturday since things
had clearly started to slow down this way I wanted to see what the fishing
was like up with him after my last trip up a few weeks ago the weather had
changed alot and the cold has really set in coupled with a big drop in air
pressure of late fishing conditions have been less than perfect

I arrived up in the morning and we decided to try the local pier for a bit
David picked up a poorcod but apart from that the water was very coloured
and the fishing was poor

We went back to his place then and David decided he was going to try for conger and
I would continue fishing lrf.

We headed back out a few hours later and I began to fish a dropshotted red gulp sandworm
and was almost straight away into a little rock goby

I continued fishing this way picking up a few little poorcod but not much else

David met up with his mate and headed off a little bit up from me to try for Conger but I'll let you read about
that on his blog ...  East Coast Fishing

I continued fishing dropshot trying various lures but the fishing had gone really quiet which I put down to a big seal which was patrolling the water about 10 yards out from me.

As soon as the seal went I stuck on a gulp sandworm again on a dropshot rig but this time in the natural colour and managed a lovely long spined sea scorpion

I continued along the edge and got the unmistakeable tap of a wrasse which I missed reeled in and bang another much more solid hit and fish on ...

a lovely goldsinney wrasse a welcome surprise on a very cold and slow day. I recast a few yards up and got another few small taps from some tiny fish which turned out to be poorcod

I kept fishing and the poorcod kept coming they were fast becoming a staple at this mark but all were around
the size of the one above

Another nice goldsinney showed it face a few minutes later

which was followed in another few casts by a nice rock goby

A few casts later and I got another really solid thump which I knew was a wrasse but failed to connnect
so I left the lure and gave a few twitches and smack fish on!!

I knew straight away this was a much better fish than any of the previous fish of the day
and after a few good runs and dives much too my surprise up popped this lovely ballan wrasse
of just over 1lb weight

A very nice surprise and very unexpected.

I finished the days fishing with some more poorcod and another little rock goby

and that was that time to head home.

What I noticed from the days fishing that much the same as home the fishing has slowed considerably in the
past few weeks and judging by the distance between myself and David with him being further north than myself I guess the winter change has began in earnest all round...

Right well thanks for reading

Tight lines

Jay