Back home, back to business!

After the Cornish Lure Festival I had a couple of days of no fishing before I had to get out again! My youngest son Isaac had been asking to go fishing so we headed off to the Water of Leith to try and find some minnows for his fish tank. I rigged up a #16 hook to nylon, 1g split shot and rigged up a small section of pink Isome. We messed about for half an hour and soon we had three fat minnows swimming around in his jam jar. These were quickly taken home and put into Isaac's fish tank where they are now doing very well indeed. It was a lovely way to spend an hour but it didn't quite cure my fishing desire!

An Isome caught Water of Leith minnow.

That's ma boy!

I completed my fatherly duties for the afternoon and I had a couple of hours before the kids bedtime, just enough time to fish the high tide at Corkwing corner. It didn't take long to get down to the mark and I quickly rigged up my LRF gear with a dropshot rig, #8 offset worm hook tied via a palomar knot and a 7g dropshot weight clipped on a foot from the hook. This was rigged with a small section of bloody Gulp! Sandworm and dropped straight down beneath my feet. I started to twitch and shake the lure and very soon I could see some fish swimming over the white rock below me. As I watched I could see some pretty big pollock cruising around as well as some smaller fish that I hoped were wrasse. I kept gently twitching the lure and noticed the silhouette of a fish approach the lure. It made a couple of electric pecks at the lure alerting me to the fact it was a wrasse, before it grabbed it and tried to get into the kelp beds. I struck and quickly manged to steer it away from them and as it rose up through the clear water my heart skipped a beat, if it was a corkwing it was huge! I quickly swung the fish up and it quickly became apparent that it was a small ballan, not the target species but a lovely fish none the less.

Not the corkwing I was after but a great fish none the less.

I quickly took a photo, unhooked it and released the fish before rigging another section of Gulp! and dropping it back down again. As the rig dropped down through the clear water a big pollock came up and intercepted my dropshot lead, grabbing it with a sharp tug before spitting it out! My heart was in my mouth and it came back for a second go at the gulp before turning lazily away. To be honest I was slightly relieved as it was a good size and due to my high vantage point it would have been a real pain to land. I carried on dropshotting my corkwing hotspot but I could see there were another couple of big pollock patrolling the area. I thought there wouldn't be much chance of the little corkwings being about as they would probably be keeping a low profile with the big pollock on the feed. I quickly rigged up a Lunker City Swimmin Ribster on a #2/0 10g football jighead, cast out and began to work the lure back with a jigged retrieve. Pretty much straight away a pollock rose up and grabbed the lure, but when I struck I pulled the lure right out of its mouth! I should have waited till I felt the fish but I got over excited. I tried again and it made a couple of half hearted attempts but I couldn't persuade it to take a second time. I decided to spend the last half hour looking for mackerel so I rigged up a 12g Savage Gear Fat Pencil Prey and began casting out and working it back towards me using a sink and draw retrieve. It didn't take long to hit and soon there was a nice big mackerel charging about on the end of my line.

First mackerel this year!

This was to be eaten for tea so it was promptly dispatched and I carried on fishing. I managed to hook and lose another before I hooked a half decent coalie. This was landed and returned and then it was time to head back.

It was a fun couple of hours but slightly disappointing to find the mark populated with big pollock, the ballan wrasse was a nice find though and I hope to get back soon to see if those big corkwings have returned!

The next day I had some time in the morning so I popped down the coast hoping for a crack at the bass. I was at the mark by 08:30 and for once I had it to myself, the conditions looked good with a slight swell running and a slowly flooding tide. I rigged up a Lunker City Ribster in Arkansas Shiner on a #2/0 10g jighead and began working the lure in the channel. Things were very slow for the first hour and it was hard to work the lure back without it picking up loads of suspended weed. As the tide began to flood stronger the weed began to clear and I was soon into a small bass which took the lure very close in. A brief fight and it was quickly landed, photographed and released and I quickly followed it up with another around the 40cm mark.

First bass of the session fell to a Lunker City Ribster...

...as did the second!

The fishing went quiet again for another hour and I swapped rods to my shimano Yasei dropshot rod as I was keen to experiment with it to see how sensitive it was. While my savage gear dropshot is definitely more sensitive I could still feel the lure working as I bounced it back along the sea bed. I was then joined by another angler who on his first cast manged to hook my lure, both of us got annoyed and we argued over whose fault it was. After a while we resolved our differences and had a chat about the fishing, John said he had found one of my lost Slug-Gos complete with jighead, he had tried using it but hadn't had any joy so he gave it back to me which was a nice gesture. I rigged it up and cast it out while saying to john that my biggest bass had fallen to a Slug-Go here. I then got a tip wrap and had to put the rod down while I released the line from the tip ring and when it was freed I picked up the rod and a bass grabbed the lure. This accidental dead sticking of the lure had done the business and a nice bass of 45cm was landed after a good fight. This fish was taken for the table and with that I called it a day and said cheerio to John and headed back to town.

A long lost reclaimed Slug-Go worked its magic on this 45cm bass.

The fishing may have been quite slow to start with but it was great to get some bass again, I just wish they had made an appearance during the Cornish Lure Festival!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

Cornish Lure Festival : 1700 miles, a British record, a couple of monsters and a podium finish.

Due to lack of work over the summer I had resigned myself to missing out on the Cornish Lure Festival at the start of last month, however I recently turned 40 and my wife surprised me by not only offering to pay for the trip but also offering to single handedly look after my two children while I was away. What a magnificent birthday present as not only do I love fishing in Cornwall where it's relatively easy to catch fish but it would also let me pit my wits against like minded lure fishermen to see who came out on top. With Scott being a very organised bugger, having decided to go months ago, planning on doing his own thing on the south coast for ten days and deciding not to take part in the festival I decided to give my friend Dan Sales a ring to see if he had heard about it and to see if he would be interested in coming down with me to Cornwall to join in.

Dan is an extremely accomplished angler, a former Ebro guide who has caught literally thousands of big catfish and carp and his UK exploits with monster perch have earned him a sponsorship from Fox Rage. Dan is one of the very few anglers that have matched my passion for fishing and although his saltwater experience was limited his skills are certainly not! When I explained the concept of the festival Dan was already there and we hastily organised to meet at his home in Stevenage. I arrived on Wednesday after a drive of 387 miles and we spent the evening playing with lures and discussing tackle and tactics. The next day we wouldn't be leaving until Dans partner Krystal had finished work, as she wanted to come too, so that gave us a day to play and we hatched a plan to fish the nearby canals for perch.

The next day we got up early and joined the rush hour traffic heading towards London and after a brief stop so I could pay for a rod license and grab a sandwich we arrived at the first section of the canal. I was kitted out with my LRF gear and rigged up a 3" white Ecogear Paramax on a Ecogear Shirasu jighead. With the sun so bright it wasn't ideal perching weather and with the summers increased boat traffic the canal was pretty muddy. We focused our casts around the moored barges as that's where the perch would normally hang around. It didn't take long to get some attention, all be it from a large carp that grabbed the tail of the paramax, but rather annoyingly when I struck I pulled it right out of its mouth!

I swapped to a smaller 1.5" Grass minnow again in pearl colour and began to hop it across the bottom of the canal. I could feel the tail of the lure vibrating with each lift of the rod tip and so could the perch and as the lure came into the margins a nice little perch grabbed the lure before being unceremoniously hauled out into my hands. I unhooked it and released it without taking a pic as I really believed there would be much bigger! I carried on catching a further six small perch and had another follow by the carp and again I left the camera in the bag as I hunted for one of Dan's lunkers. After twenty minutes Dan called time at this section as if the big perch were around we would have had one, so we hopped in the car and nipped off to another part of the canal.

On the brief journey we discussed the carp attacking the lure, Dan said he had never actually had one take a lure before, which was interesting considering the amount of time he had spent hunting these stretches of canal. We arrived and made our way to fish around some pontoons and moored boats all the time hoping for some big perch. After twenty minutes or so we noticed a few carp milling about and Dan managed to plop a lure right in front of one them. Quick as a flash it greedily sucked the lure in and Dan set the hook as the carp went roaring off. Dan put his Fox Rage rod through its paces and really lent into the fish curtailing its run and quickly guiding it back to where we could land it. Dan is an expert with carp and the fish was quickly landed, photographed and released before it knew what was going on. It was a nice looking mirror around 10lbs and remarkably his first lure caught one from the canal. I carried on trying for a perch before trying for the carp which were still milling about. Dan followed his first with another two carp both mid to low doubles, whilst I tried for perch but soon it was time to go and get ready for Cornwall.

Dan expertly plays this carp, his first on a lure from the canal.

A brilliant start, Dan then went on to land a further three carp on lures!

After sorting our gear and packing it in the car we picked up Krystal, made the awful journey along the M25 during rush hour and eventually arrived at the campsite in Cornwall at around midnight. We hastily got our bivvies and mattresses set up and promptly fell asleep.

Friday dawned and we were up early keen to get our bearings and start fishing, we grabbed some breakfast then headed down to the beach next to the campsite.

Full of excitement, Dan and I make our way down to the first Cornish mark.

It was another glorious day, sunshine, blue skys and a flat calm sea so we excitedly made our way to the rocks and gullies at the end of the beach. First stop were the large rockpools to show Dan and Krystal what lurked in them and my LRF gear was rigged with a #10 2g jighead and tail section of Gulp Sandworm. I lowered the lure into a rockpool and gently jigged the lure alongside a boulder. Right on cue a blenny popped out and promptly nailed the lure, Dan was amused at how aggressive they were especially how bitey they could be when being handled! He and Krystal both had a go and quickly winkled out a couple more before we turned our attention to other areas nearby.

Dan headed off to fish into the open water and he rigged up a Slug-Go on a 10g #2/0 jighead while I stuck with my LRF gear and searched the slowly flooding gullies. As I searched it didn't take long to get some interest from the resident wrasse and I watched as the small fish came out of the weeds to check out the lure. A couple of little ones came out and pecked at the lure before a bigger one muscled its way in and grabbed it. It did its best to get into the weeds but was soon landed and Krystal was on hand to take a photo. It turned out to be a clonking corkwing wrasse which weighed 195g and was a specimen fish. Back it went leaving me to continue searching the gulley. Dan was in next with a nice 2.5lb pollock which was landed after a fun fight, putting a great bend in Dan's rod! We fished on for another half an hour before we made our way back to get to St Austell to sign in for the Cornish Lure Festival.

Searching the gulley soon put a bend in my rod.

A clonking corkwing weighing in at 195g.

After we signed in we quickly slipped into competition mode and headed straight down to our first harbour mark. The plan was to fish this until evening when we would head back to the beach to see what else we could catch from it. Tactics wise I thought that if Dan and I fished together we should end up on the same amount of species, barring freak captures! Dan's limited saltwater experience mattered not a jot as all I had to do was recommend a jighead and and lure and he was able to work it to catch the target fish. Krystal acted as our fishing caddy and was always on hand to grab a camera or make vital shop runs, when she wasn't too busy catching pollock! Fishing wasn't great but we decided to stay and by the time Scott arrived to spend a few hours fishing with us we had racked up a reasonable amount of species.

Species #1 : Pollock.

Species #2 : Sand smelt.

Species #3 : Long spined sea scorpion.

Species #4 : Common blenny.

Krystal also got in on the act with four species. Pollock, common blenny, giant goby and this long spined sea scorpion.

One of Dan's many long spined sea scorpions.

Urrgh! Scott hooked this ling carcass from the harbour. It provided some much needed light relief.

Species #5 :  Poor cod.

Species #6 : Dragonet.

In amongst the usual species I also manged to catch my first tompot blenny and when I first hooked it I thought it was a small wrasse such was its size! I knew it was a big fish so after a quick measure it was 19cm long and weighed 205g. It was only when I got home that I discovered that was heavier than the British record, which stands is 156g and was caught at the same venue!

My first tompot blenny was well over the British record which is 156g.

Once I got the fish to lie still it measured 19cm, it wouldn't lie still for the camera though!

205g of tompot blenny sits in my hands, my first tompot blenny and the first time I've bettered a British record!

Fairly late in the evening we went back to base to get a bite to eat before meeting up with Scott again at the beach near the campsite to try for bass. I left the harbour with six species not including my British record beating tompot blenny as all blennies were classed as one species for the competition. Dan was on five as he was missing a dragonet after becoming the pied piper of poor cod, even though he was trying for a dragonet the poorcod were throwing themselves at Dans lure. After fishing the beach with Scott for a while it became dark and we fancied trying the rocks where we'd caught a few fish on Friday morning. Scott, not being in the competition, feeling very tired and having made plans for the following day already to go wrassing in the morning before leaving Cornwall in the afternoon wished us luck for the rest of the competition and headed off. Our midnight foray in the rockpools and gullies provided us with a nice surprise and saw us catching our first ever giant gobies. We got back to the campsite at about 1am and hastily grabbed some shut eye.

Species #7 : Giant goby.

On Saturday we woke up later than we hoped but were back fishing the harbour by 8am and Dan was first in. He had rigged a #14 hook to 3lb nylon with a chunk of Isome and weighted with a 3g olivette. He was working the weed line along the wall when he got a couple of taps so he struck and all hell broke loose. At first we thought he was snagged but the rod kept lunging down. Dan managed to get the beast out of the weeds and we saw the most enormous lobster rising up from the depths. With disbelief we managed to get it into the dropnet before landing it to hysterical laughter! The relief and sheer size had us in stitches, a truly amazing capture. We estimated the Lobster to be about 8lbs and despite offers from people to buy it Dan decided to release the old girl back to her home, much to the disbelief of the locals!

Dan grapples with a real monster!

We couldn't believe the size of it

At around 8lb and landed on a #14 hook to 3lb nylon, this lobster is a lucky beast as Dan returned it to the water!

The fishing was tough as we fished the tide down but I managed to add a launce to my tally and also managed to get a goldsinny after Dan had found a little shoal of them. Dan had kept pace well but had failed to get the elusive dragonet and the launce were proving elusive for him too.

Species #8 : Launce.

Species #9 : Goldsinny wrasse.

We then headed to the south coast to a sandy harbour mark where we hoped to pick up some sand dwelling species. Dan was pretty surprised when I said to fish the shallow incoming tide, the water would only have been a foot or two deep. He was even more surprised when I pointed out the hugely aggressive flounder chasing after my lure. I then went on to catch about ten or so of them before I added a lesser weever to my tally. Dan soon had the hang of it and added a couple of weevers and some flounder to his count. Dan had also spied a load of launce hanging out behind the harbour and after ten minutes finally managed to get one on a 1.5gram #10 decoy rocket jighead and pink isome combo!

Species # 10 : Flounder.

Species #11 : Lesser weever.

We then headed to another part of the south coast, with the intention of finding some nice ballan wrasse marks. This was one of the fish that Dan had been really looking forward to catching as the tales of their hard fighting and beauty had really whetted his appetite! Unfortunately our visit turned into disaster when I got a parking ticket from some random bitter old man hiding in a car. Rather than waste time trying to find a new mark we decided to head back up to the beach by the campsite as I knew there were probably some good wrasse to be had there. Upon arrival the tide was just starting to ebb and I gave Dan a Lunker City Ribster in Arkansas Shiner, mounted on a 10g #2/0 football jighead. I advised him to work the lure in the gullies tapping on the rocks and bouncing it over and through the kelp. While I was still tying up my drop shot rig Dan had bounded off leaping over gullies to get to a good looking skeer of rock. While I rummaged in my tackle bag casually chatting with Krystal I heard Dan call out and looked up to see his rod doubled over as he fought a big fish. It was a wrasse and a really good one too and Dan had to fight it hard as it tried to get under the ledge he was on. It was a tough fight but Dan is a master at landing big fish and he soon had the better of it. I grabbed the camera, ruler and scales and quickly made my way over to see Dans beast. When I got to Dan he was grinning from ear to ear and rightly so as his fish turned out to be an utter kelp donkey! We measured and weighed it and it came in at 49cm and 4lb 10oz, a really great fish and Dan's first ever ballan wrasse and would no doubt see him in the running for the longest wrasse section of the festival. I was really pleased as I really wanted Dan to experience the joys of wrasse, their beautiful colours, aggressive lure taking and their powerful fight, Dan was blown away. He ranked it as one of his most memorable captures and it was a truly magnificent fish. Dan released the fish and it  went off like a chubby rocket with a big tail splash. Dan had used a landing mat and this made sure it went back in pristine condition and this has really made me think about using one too in future more often to protect fish.

What a fish! Dan's first ballan wrasse was an absolute cracker!

I grabbed my rod and rigged up a swimming ribster and straight away I started to get interest from the resident ballans. A stream of wrasse fell to Dan as I lost a couple before eventually landing one of about 37cm which took my tally to twelve species. We carried on fishing for more wrasse but as the tide dropped they went off the feed so we turned our attention to bass. We spent a few hours working various lures and I managed to hook a fish at range which certainly felt like a bass. Unfortunately it manged to throw the hook about half way in so I never got to see it, I tried to console myself by thinking it was just a pollock, but deep down I knew it was probably a bass. It had got late by this point so we called it a day as we had to go and get some sleep in order to get up early the next morning.

Sunday dawned and with it our last few hours of the competition so we headed back to the harbour mark to try and grab Dan a dragonet as well as hunting for the elusive corkwing wrasse. The fishing was even tougher than the day before but after a couple of hours Dan finally managed to winkle out a dragonet bringing his species tally to twelve as well. We carried on but after another hour of no corkwings we decided to head back to the gulley where I had caught one on Friday. We were running out of time so after we parked up we ran down the hill to the mark. We had about fifty minutes to fish before we would literally have to run back up the hill again to pack up the camp and head to Wadebridge for the sign out. We searched the gulley and after half an hour Dan managed to tempt a tiny corkwing to take his lure and I managed to winkle one out with about five minutes to go before we had to leave.

Species #13 : Corkwing wrasse.

We ran up the hill and got to the car utterly exhausted before tearing off to get back to the campsite to pack up. The roads were full of Sunday drivers and it seemed to take an eternity to get back, we decided we would just have to grab Krystal and come back later to pack up camp. However on arrival Krystal had everything packed and ready to go, she even dealt with my horrible dirty socks which she deserved a medal alone for! Unbelievably we packed the car in under five minutes and made a mad dash to the Royal Cornish Showground where we would register our efforts and attend the prize giving. We eventually arrived at the showground at about 11.50am only to be informed that sign out was on till 1pm! Doh, we could have spent another hour at the beach mark which could well have yielded some Cornish silver in the form of the elusive bass!

The prize giving was set up by a small lake, a small lake that held blue trout and after double checking we could fish it we grabbed our gear. I rigged up a Berkley Gulp 1" Minnow on a 1.5g #10 Decoy Rocket jighead and Dan did like wise. We made our way to one of the fishing platforms and within minutes Dan and I had both had one Blue trout each, much to the surprise of the other anglers! After ten minutes we had both caught another two before we called it a day but it was fun to do especially with an audience watching.

Dans first blue trout, taken while we were waiting for the end of the competition sign off.

We both ended up with two each on our impromptu trout session!

We chilled out in the sun, chatting happily with our fellow anglers before registering our catches. It turned out that we had done really well, Dan's Wrasse was the 3rd biggest landed over the weekend and our impressive species tally of thirteen each put us both on the podium in joint second! I was over the moon, Dan and I had been a great team and although his sea experience was limited he really helped us achieve a quite impressive species count. It was also very pleasing to fish against the local anglers who have an extensive array of marks that they fish a lot, whereas Dan and I had to use our instincts and skill to find the fish without relying so much on local knowledge. The places were announced and we both got a great cheer as we went up to collect our prizes!

Winners from left to right, Kyle Robinson winner of Junior section, Joint first were Dean Pilgrim (standing) and Josh Fletcher and joint second were Ben Church with myself and Dan!

Joint second on thirteen species each, Dan Sales, myslef and Ben Church.

We chilled and chatted and felt thoroughly exhausted but really, really pleased, the fishing was excellent, and the company was too. It really was a great experience and one I will not forget. We met a lot of like minded anglers and  made some vague plans to get them up here for a crack at some wilderness fishing. Ben and Jo from Art of Fishing put on a fantastic competition and their generosity with prizes as well as the whole organisation of the competition was truly awesome. They really have made it the premier lure fishing event in the UK. You can read Ben's write up of the event here. Finally it was time to head back to Stevenage to drop off Dan and Krystal and the journey although long was completed in a very happy daze. This trip was one of my favourite fishing experiences, great fishing, a British record tompot blenny, a massive lobster, huge wrasse and spent with a good friend who is right up there with the top anglers in the country. I can't thank Dan and Krystal enough, what a result! Dan and I are already planning the return next year, although I hope we can get them up here for a fish before then!

Tight lines,Schogsky.

Summer species start to show.

A couple of days after our Scott and I went perch fishing I managed to get back to the coast, this time I was hoping to find the perch's spiky cousin, the bass. Conditions seemed perfect as it was calm, warm and the tide was just starting to flood. I rigged up my 7-25g rod with a 4.5" Slug-Go in Arkansas Shiner and mounted it on a #2/0 10.5g football jighead and began to search the slowly flooding tide. I tried bouncing the lure along the bottom as well as swimming it through the water column but it proved a  fruitless exercise. I then swapped to a Ribster as they are a little bit smaller and if the bass are feeling picky then a smaller lure can sometimes illicit a response. I must have worked the lure about for an hour before I swapped to a Swimmin' Ribster as again it is a bit smaller than the Ribster and also throws out more vibration. I worked the lure with a sink and draw retrieve allowing the lure to fall with its tail wiggling enticingly through the current. After about twenty minutes of searching I felt a small tug on the lure as it was dropping through the water, I struck then had to reel like mad as the fish ran towards me. The fish came in very quickly and I was delighted to see a silvery, spiky shape break the surface, my first bass of the year. It was very small but at least it was another species added to my 2013 tally and after a quick photo I slipped it back.

First bass of 2013, small but fun!

I carried on for another half hour or so before I got bored with the lack of action and reached for my LRF gear. I rigged up a dropshot rig with a #8 offset worm hook, 8lb leader and attached a 7g weight. This was rigged with some gulp sandworm and I began to cast out and bounce and jiggle the sandworm back to me. It didn't take long before I was getting some interest and a few small rattles quickly turned into a hookup and I landed a small nicely marked pollock, another addition for my 2013 species hunt!

Rather unbelivably this is my first pollock of 2013! Nice vivid honeycomb marking.

I released the fish and began to fish the same area and again it didn't take long before a felt a sharp pecking at the lure. This bite excited me as I could instantly tell it was wrasse, I let it peck away at the lure and waited for it to pull the rod tip over before I set the hook. Sure enough the rod tip arched down and I was hooked into a feisty little ballan wrasse which did its best to get into the weedy ledge below me before it was landed.

The ballan wrasse patiently waited in a small rockpool whilst I got my camera ready!

I love wrasse and this small ballan had me grinning from ear to ear!

I quickly unhooked and photographed the fish before releasing it and quickly went back to the same spot. A couple of casts later I felt the same pecking at the lure and hooked into another little wrasse and as it came up I could see it was a corkwing.

A stunning little fish indeed.

I love these colourful little wrasse and this one was no exception with colours that would put a parrot to shame. I quickly unhooked and weighed the fish which came in at just over 4oz, a specimen fish for Scotland. Still it needed to be a bit bigger to break the record, which is one of my goals this year, so I'll just have to keep targeting them. I slipped the fish back and quickly followed it up with a plump much darker  corkwing that may have been a female that also had some wonderful green colouration.

This plump corkwing also came in at just over 4oz.

Drop shotting Gulp! Sandworm did the business again.

That was to be the last fish of the session but I was really pleased to catch my first bass of the year and even more so the wrasse and with them arriving back inshore its a sure sign summer is here!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

Anglesey : High spirits and LRF ghosts.

On Friday I had a job delivering antiques to North Wales and as always my fishing gear was first into the van! I had permission from the family to stay a couple of nights and so I hastily arranged to meet up with Ross Johnson who would put up with me and hopefully put me onto some fish! I had also hoped to meet up with fellow The Lure Forum member Lee Goddard, but unfortunately  Lee couldn't get any time off so that plan was scuppered before it started. After a six hour drive I unloaded the van and was free to start my time off in Wales. I have fished a bit in Anglesey before and was really looking forward to exploring it again with my lure gear. I met Ross after he had finished work and rather than do a night session we decided it would be much more civilised to have some dinner and chill with a few ciders, so we could be focused and ready for fishing on Saturday. A few turned into lots and I awoke feeling rather wretched, however after trip to the cafe to grab breakfast I felt human enough to head to my first port of call, Lyn Y Gors fishery. The plan would be to have a fish there for three or four hours then head north to the coast to hit a mini species mark at high tide.

I went into the excellent tackle shop and checked it would be OK to dropshot for perch, they were fine with this and suggested I try the pleasure lake and the reed lake. I managed to escape without entirely emptying my wallet, merely  buying some new sunglasses, and headed to the pleasure lake first. I have fished the lakes a fair bit in the past using various coarse tactics and indeed I hold the venue record for crucian carp (2lb 12oz, from the reed lake), however I have never lure fished there. I would be using my standard LRF gear 7'10" Graphiteleader Corto EX rod, Shimano Technium 3000SFC reel, 6lb Sunline Super PE. I tied a dropshot rig comprising of a four foot length of 8lb flurocarbon leader, two foot down I attached a #12 Decoy offset worm hook, with the barbs crushed, via a palomar knot and 5g dropshot weight which could be positioned from 1inch to two feet away from the hook.

Conditions were ideal for me but not ideal for perch being bright and sunny with not a drop of wind. I rigged up a two inch tail section of Gulp! Sandworm in natural colour and began to cast about the lake but it wasn't until I had reached some overhanging trees hat I had some interest. As the lure came past the tree there was a couple of bites but I couldn't connect with the culprit. Then as I was surveying the tree I noticed several large white shapes milling about under the branches, ghost carp! I cast again and brought the lure past where they were, hopping the lure across the bottom and pausing in front of them. I shook the rod tip with a little slack line which allows the worm to jerk and wriggle before lowering the rod tip and letting the lure float down to the bottom. Sure enough a couple of the carp came over to investigate and one picked up the lure, I struck and pulled it out of its mouth! This spooked them and the shoal disappeared, but it was very interesting that they were trying to take the lure.

I carried on making my way around the lake, exploring around trees and overhangs with the lure. I got halfway round the lake when I noticed a large ghost carp, with his head down and tail up grubbing about right by my feet. With shaking hands I dropped the rig right in front of him, straight away he came over to investigate and just sucked the lure into his mouth! A flick of the wrist set the hook and the fish powered off towards the floating islands making the reel sing and the rod arch over in a powerful curve. He felt heavy but the rod was quickly sapping his strength, he turned and started coming back towards me, trying to get into the tree roots beside me. A bit of side strain turned him and soon he was swimming in ever decreasing circles and before long he was at my feet. I didn't have my net with me so I gently cradled the fishes belly and lifted him out before laying him on some nice soft,damp reeds to unhook. It was a real chunk of a fish and I estimated it to be  between seven and eight pounds and probably the heaviest fish landed on my Corto Ex to date. I quickly unhooked it and grabbed a few photos before slipping him back, getting a face full of water from his tail as he powered off.

What a result! A fine ghost carp on the lure.

Even carp can't resist Gulp! Sandworm.

I estimated it at between 7 and 8lbs, as you can see he's a real chunk!

Love it, probably my biggest Ghost carp to date and on a lure too!

I felt elated. I had thought there was an outside chance of a carp but really I thought the possibility of them being interested in lures was tiny, hence no mat or net! I was also pretty impressed with the control I had over the fish with my ultra light rod. Once it goes into a good curve , it really drains the fish without yanking its mouth off and the rod soaks up the runs so it doesn't take that much line even off a fairly lightly set drag. I started to work my way back towards the reed lake as I wanted a crack at the perch in there but soon again I ran into another shoal of carp grubbing about in the margins. I made a couple of casts  and they came over to investigate the lure but they were just nudging the line before turning away unimpressed. I then decided to ditch the weight and just cast the weightless tail of gulp, this worked a charm and as I watched the lure slowly sink through the water then I saw a carp rise up and engulf it! I struck and quickly turned it to run away from the shoal before playing it in the open water. After a nice tussle he was soon landed, another nice ghostie about a couple of pounds.

I managed to grab a couple of shots of the second carp as he made his way to my hand.

Another carp falls to my lure, this time a ghost mirror around the 2lb mark.

I slipped him back and had chance to repeat the same process catching another chunky ghost of about 5lbs before I headed over to Reed Lake. I really only had about 10 minutes on there before I had to leave as it was approaching high tide so I headed back to tell the staff about my exploits before heading north to the coast.

My third carp of the session put a great bend in my LRF rod.

I unhooked this guy without landing him, and put him at about the 5lb mark.

Reed lake was so calm it was like casting into the sky.

After a short drive and a lot of climbing about I reached the mark. The plan here would be to try and target a tompot blenny as well as try and pick up some early wrasse. I stuck with the same dropshot rig I had been using at the fishery and soon enough I had landed a common blenny, then another ,then another! In total I had fifteen common blennys and not one tompot between them, Doh! I wasn't too disappointed though as a nice little ballan wrasse and a few corkwings also made an appearance and after a winter of not seeing any wrasse it was great to catch some again! Pretty soon the tide began to drop and the light began to fade signalling the end of the action, so I packed up and made my way back to the van.

Hooray! My first Ballan of 2013 and probably my smallest ever.

The first corkwing of 2013, a brightly coloured male and quite a chunk too!

I have really missed wrasse over the winter, so it was great to catch them again.

The last fish of my Anglesey adventure, a nice female corkwing wrasse.

I drove back to meet Ross, who had just started to recover from the previous nights' exploits and we headed to grab a take away. We scoffed the food then grabbed our beachcasters and set off to the north west coast to try for conger and bull huss. Night fishing is always very atmospheric and was even more so for me as we climbed around on the rocks in the dark. We weaved our way over dark deep gullies and down slippy glass like weed covered rocks to the mark. We were fishing fairly at close range targeting the rock ledges and gullies with mackerel baits. Ross was first in with a nice huss which he allowed to self release at his feet. I had a couple of dropped runs but Ross's fish was to be the only one we saw before we had to call it a night and head back.

What a day! I was really chuffed I had manged to pack so much fishing into such a short space of time and I was still buzzing about the carp all the way back to Edinburgh! All in all it was another great trip to Anglesey and made much more fun because of Ross' great hospitality. I now owe Ross a fishing trip up here so when he gets a chance I really want to show him our north west coast, who knows what we can turn up there!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

NB : Whilst I am experienced in catching and handling carp I would never advocate fishing for them without a landing net or a unhooking mat.