Weekly round up 5 : Flounder and Trout

It's been a busy couple of weeks but I managed a couple of sessions after work trying for brownies. One had been eluding me in a particular pool and it took three sessions to catch him. At just under a pound he wasn't the biggest fish in the river but he was certainly one of the most satisfying.

This Brownie gave me the run around but it couldn't resist a Xesta Stick Star in glitter pink!

The weekend took an age to come but eventually I found myself at the sea with the intention of harbour hopping down the coast looking for flounders. Now the humble flounder is one of my prize summer species, aggressive in taking lures and hard fighters, especially when they get over a couple of pounds. With my PB flounder on LRF gear standing at 3lb and with the opportunity to best that fish you can hopefully see why I am so intent on fishing for them.

Armed with my LRF gear I stalked around the first harbour. Low water meant that fishing was limited to the main channel at the harbour. I worked a dropshot rig around, bouncing gulp sandworm across the sea bed but to no avail. I gave it about half an hour before deciding to head further down the coast.

After a 20 minute drive I arrived at the next harbour. An onshore wind had quite a swell going but the harbour was fairly sheltered and the water was crystal clear. For the weekend the harbour was actually fairly quiet. With the large swell preventing the dive boats going out it gave me some space to hunt flatties.

Using my dropshotted gulp sandworm mounted on a #8 hook suspended a foot off the bottom I cast and worked the lure across the sandy patches in the harbour. It was very quiet for the first half hour and the surprising lack of coalfish had me scratching my head. I would normally expect the harbour to be teaming with the wee brutes but they were conspicuous by their absence.

I soldiered on with the lure and as the tide began to flood in earnest I felt a couple of soft plucks at the lure and struck into the first flattie of the session. The flattie once hooked raced towards me before making a couple of spirited dives under the rod tip. I swung the fish in and was really happy to see a fat 28cm flounder of around the pound mark. I grabbed a couple of photos and dropped the fish back with a grin on my face.

He is not as happy as me!

28cm Flounder

I quickly re-rigged another gulp sandworm and went straight back to working the sea bed. With one flattie under the belt I was expecting they would really switch on to feed as the tide was flooding. This wasn't quite the case though as I had to wait another half an hour for the next fish. During this time I was joined by another group of anglers with a collection of rods and handlines. They were using bait and set up a multitude of rods all around the harbour mouth. This limited my flattie hunting somewhat, so I concentrated my casting further into the harbour.

I was working the lure quite fast along the sea bed when I was hit suddenly by a good fish. One savage bite and the fish had hooked itself, the fish ran towards me and I had to reel to keep up. It was a good fish and it was a struggle to get it up through the water column. The fish fought hard and clever, every time it came up to the top it would porpoise on the surface a bit before trying to dive into the kelp band that ran along the edge of the harbour walls. As I let the rod wear the fish down I had a bit of a dilemma as to how to land it. I could climb down the ladder and land the fish by hand, which would involve a one handed climb back up with the rod in my teeth, or I could attempt to swing it in. In the end I went with the grunt and lift approach and, despite the alarming curve in the rod, the fish made it to my eager hands. It was a beautiful fish, all be it a bit spawned out, and was my biggest flounder this year going 38cm on the ruler and weighing 2lb - a proper Scottish specimen. The beastly flattie had gathered quite a crowd of anglers and tourists and rather nicely one of them offered to take a trophy shot before I released him. I dropped the fish back and felt genuinely elated. It was such a dramatic take and fight and I will remember that fish for a long while.

38cm flounder!

This makes me a very happy angler!

I carried on fishing and by this stage the other anglers were really taking an interest in what I was doing. They found it difficult to believe it wasn't a fluke (so to speak). I was busy explaining the technique to them whilst working the lure when I was hit by another nice flattie of about a pound which put a good bend in the rod before it was swung in. How's that for a perfect demonstration!

The final flounder of the session

This long spined scorpion also made an appearance.

The other anglers changed their rigs to smaller hooks and began to cast around where I was fishing pushing me further off my flattie grounds. I was still on a high from the last fish so I didn't mind too much and I was genuinely pleased when one manged to hook a wee flattie. This however turned to disappointment when I came over to see it; the fish was so deeply hooked and I watched with horror as the angler pulled on his snood to free the hook. He pulled so much that he snapped the line before delving in its mouth with the forceps to retrieve his wee spoon, leaving the hook embedded somewhere in its gut. He did release the fish but it soured my fishing and I had a chat with him to try and educate him on how flounders actually feed. I made the point that if he wanted to return the fish then he must hold his rod and feel for the bites, then strike quickly to avoid deep hooking.

After this I popped down the coast to sea trout town and racked up another 1/2 dozen or so sea trout on mini metals before calling it a day and heading back.

All in all it was a great week, big flounder, trout and sea trout, pure distilled LRF fun!

I managed to put together another short film of the flounder session so have a wee look if you are interested.

Tackle used:

Rod :GraphiteLeader Corto EX 7'9" 0.5-8gram Tubular tipped.

Reel :Shimano Technium 3000

Line :Duel Hardcore X4 PE0.6

Leader :8lb Greylon  Fluorocarbon.

Thanks for reading!

Tight Lines

Jake

Weekly round up #3 : LRF a versatile week!

Sunday and I headed to the coast again and this time I was looking for Bass. It was good to be back on the reef and although I didn't catch any bass I saw one or two so I will concentrate a bit on them soon. Truth be told that after a couple of hours working the reef I turned my attention to delights of the rock pools and spent a fun hour or so winkling blennys and long spined sea scorpions out of them before moving off to hook up with Ritchie for a harbour session.This predictably turned into another rampant sea trout frenzy with loads of trout falling for Xesta After Burners as well as Ice jigs. What was especially weird was that we were vertically jigging the mini metals in a style normally reserved for coalfish, the trout seemed to love this style of retrieve as much as the coalies! It was silly fishing but fun none the less, I can't help wondering where the coalfish are as they are normally the predominant species.

Another week another load of wee sea trout!

Tiny but pretty, this one fell to a vertically jigged Ice jig

It's been a year since I last spooled up my reel with line and my Pontoon Exteer PE.1 braid was needing to be replaced. Now I am aware that technically PE.1 braid is a bit heavy for LRF purists but due to having no money I had bought a spool as it was the lowest diameter, quality braid that I could get for £10! I have decided this year to go lighter when I can so when I saw that Art of Fishing had some new braid in from Duel I was really keen to get some to try. I have always been a sucker for Duel and Yo Zuri products and I associate the brand with usable high quality products. I do admit to being a Duel fanboy though!
After a brief discussion with Ben I settled on some Duel Hardcore x4 PE0.6 as the breaking strain was the same as my previous line but nearly half the diameter! Now I generally don't believe the stated breaking strain on most braids as they very rarely live up to their claims when used in the field. All I was interested in was if the new line was as strong as my old line.

New Line,Duel Hardcore X4

When it arrived a couple of days later I was straight into it for a comparison test. I took a meter section of each line and tied a figure of 8 loop on each end of the line. I then attached one end to a set of scales and pulled on the other till the line snapped. A primitive and brutal test but both lines broke at the same breaking strain despite the new line being nearly half the diameter, perfect.

The colour is Milky Green and is certainly way more visible than my previous dark grey line, whilst still being on the subtle side of hi vis lines. The feel of the braid is comparable to other high end Japanese braid being very soft and smooth .

when I came to use it it was brilliant, the lower diameter added yards to the cast when it came to using 1gram jig heads. It was smooth and tough and even though I put it through various snags , trees and fish it performed faultlessly and I didn't have to adapt my fishing style to cope with the lower diameter as it was just as strong as my old PE.1 line.

In short, I love it!

As well as re stocking various dropshot weights and hooks I also bought a packet of Xesta 1.6" Stick Star lures as they look custom made for trout and they came in my favourite colour,pink/pearl glitter (LPBS).

I nipped down to the river to try them out and mounted on a 1gram #8 Xesta Slow Down Star head they were dynamite! Within a couple of hours I had landed two good trout both going 27cms  and lost a couple of others. The fish really hammered the lures and despite getting two fish, a few trees and numerous rocks the soft lure was still in tact. They really are surprisingly durable for something so soft.

Trout dynamite, Xesta Stick Star 1.6" lure mounted on a 1g #8 Xesta Slow Down Star Head

Wild urban brown trout , brilliant!

I love catching them!

Trout number 2 was a real leopard spotted one,both fish were 27cms.

A couple of days later I headed off to the perch loch with Skippy (my boat) and first mate Ritchie Bewsey. Having bought our Permits we launched into the loch eagerly wishing to see one of the stripey denizens of the deep. It was hard fishing ,using our light rock fishing gear we concentrated around the normal haunts but there was hardly any perch activity. There were however plenty of brownies and Ritchie soon succumbed to temptation and rigged up a Xesta After Burner having replaced the hook with a #8 fly ( forgive me I can't remember the pattern!).

A few casts later and he hooked and landed the first fish of the session a beautifully golden wild brown trout which was released after a couple of pictures. 

Ritchie shows off what tipping a metal jig with a fly can produce, what a magnificently golden trout!

I stuck to diligently dropshotting for perch and I took the boat into various bays and weed beds to try to find them. Ritchie found them before me and manged a couple of nice perch on a soft lure/jighead approach. Eventually I manged to hook a good fish on dropshotted Lake Fork Live Baby Shad, looked about a pound but I will never know as I bumped it off the hook whilst trying to land it!

It was disappointing but I was truly heartened to see the perch back feeding in the loch and figured I would find some more feeding. It wasn't until the last half hour when I found them and managed 3 perch all falling to the lake fork with the biggest going maybe 0.75lbs.

This was the biggest of the 3 perch I had, I am just so relieved to see them active in the loch again!

So there you have it a fairly fun week with all fishing done on my LRF gear and I hope it shows how versatile this style of fishing can be as well as how much fun it is.

I have also made a video compilation of the weeks fishing, I hope you enjoy watching.

It can be viewed in 1080p.

Tackle used

Rod: GraphiteLeader Corto EX 7'9" 0.5-8gram Tubular tipped.

Reel: Shimano Technium 3000

Line: Duel Hardcore x4 PE 0.6

Leader: 6lb Greylon Fluorocarbon

Tight Lines!
Jake

The "Wanderer" returns...

Hi folks, well I was back down south in Wakefield for Easter and I managed to get another year's membership to Wakefield Angling Club.

This gave me access to fish the nearby canal and I spent two or three days fishing it mainly with dropshot techniques. I ended up having some great sport with perch up to 1 1/4 lbs, I also had 10 mini pike and a common bream weighing 4lb! I was dropshotting with various lures but the top three were:

3" tail section of Gulp Sandworm in natural colour

3" Fish Arrow Flash J split tail

2.5" Evergreen C4 shrimp

I knew there were some good bream present in the canal but I didn't think I had much chance of catching one on a lure, I was secretly hoping for a chub though. It was the thought of various coarse species that made me stick with the gulp sandworm as I have had some great coarse fish on it before. What I found interesting about the bream was that it struck just after a barge had gone past and the ship's passage had really kicked up a big cloud of sediment. I was working my lure slowly through the muddy water when I was walloped by a fish, which nearly wrenched the rod out of my hand such was the ferocity of the take.

I was sure it was a pike as it hit so hard, then tore off up the canal on a blistering run. When the fish breached the surface I was shocked to see a large and feisty bream which fought hard all the way to the bank. I have caught bream before with carp gear but never on LRF tackle and it really was excellent sport. I weighed the fish which came in at 4lbs a new PB as well as being my first lure caught bream.

The perch fishing was wonderfully consistent and although I only manged a couple of fish above 1lb it was really fun fishing.

I will be back for a chub later in the year I hope!

Here are a few pics from the sessions

Mini Pike were present...

And they liked Gulp sandworm...

Who ate all the pies?...

The fattest perch of the trip...

Evergreen C4 shrimp at work...

A nice size for a surprise...

The Bream took Gulp! Sandworm in natural colour...

As did the biggest perch of the trip...

Evergreen C4 shrimps were utterly devoured...

As were dropshotted Ecogear Aqua Bream Prawns...

They loved 3" Fish Arrow Flash J split tails too...

The weirdest catch goes to this swan mussel, I must have dropped my weight right into its shell, which promptly closed onto my weight!

I made a short film while I was there too and this time I had no problems with the editing software!

Tackle used -

Rod: GraphiteLeader Corto EX 7'9" 0.5-8gram Tubular tipped.

Reel: Shimano Technium 3000

Line: Pontoon Exteer braid PE. 1

Leader: 6lb Greylon Fluorocarbon

Thanks for watching!
Tight Lines
Jake

Urban trout and LRF sea trout

April 1st heralded the start of trout season in Edinburgh and as far as I was concerned it couldn't come soon enough. On day one I fired down to the river armed with my trusty Ecogear Pocket in kit and although it is meant for Mebaru (Japanese Rockfish) the lures are truly Trout dynamite.The joke however was on me as I managed to hook and lose 2 fish, my trout skills were a bit rusty!

I was really pleased to see the trout though and planned to go back the next day. It rained overnight and the river became too high to fish.

After a couple of days the river came good and I was straight back out again and over the course of two short sessions I managed five trout with the biggest going 25cm. The fish were taken on a couple of different lures mainly Ecogear Grass Minnow SS and Ecogear Power Shirasu, mounted on a #12 -1.5 gram jighead.

OK, so the fish were not huge but the pleasure I get from being able to pop down the river after work and street fish for wild brown trout can be measured in buckets!

The first trout of 2014!

The biggest urban trout so far this year...

As the weekend rolled up my mate Callum Conner got in touch to see if I fancied hitting the coast for a spot of Light Rock Fishing, the answer to that was a big fat YES! Callum had got some serious cabin fever, despite guiding clients to some fantastic catches he hadn't been able to wet a line for an age (being a conscientious guide he never fishes when he is with his clients!).

We headed down the coast from town and we were both excited at the prospect of catching something other than the salmonoid species that had been filling our time.

First port of call and we arrived to find it pretty gusty. I went with a dropshot rig and gulp sandworm as the lure. I thought we may have an outside chance of a flounder but I was really expecting coalfish. After about 10 minutes I felt a some sharp plucking at the lure as I was slowly retrieving. That sort of bite meant one thing only, flounder and I struck into a hand sized flattie.

We quickly landed it and after a couple of pics released the fish, I was over the moon as it was the first flounder of the year.

This is the earliest harbour flounder I have had and another 2014 first...

We tried for a bit longer but nothing else was forthcoming.

We bounced further down the coast but our usual marks were devoid of fish and we tried lots of methods to no avail. I decided to push a bit further south to the next harbour again hoping for coalies. When we arrived I still had my coalie rig on, which is really just a bastardised dropshot rig only in place of a weight I rigged a small metal jig. This allows me to fish tandem lures and I rigged an Ecogear Aqua strawtail as a teaser on the dropshot hook.

After only a couple of casts I hooked into a small fish and thinking it was a coalie I quickly reeled it in. As the fish came closer I suddenly realised it was a small sea trout!

Instead of the normal coalies the harbour was teeming with these guys...

Callum displays his first sea trout of the session...

Ritchie displays his first ever sea trout...

Callum captured the biggest fish, I love the black fringe to the trouts tail

So much fun on our LRF gear.

We were not expecting that at all, nor were we expecting the decidedly daft fishing that happened afterwards! We had stumbled across what can only be described as a hoard of ravenous sea trout and we spent the last few hours catching trout after trout from the harbour. Ritchie also popped down and managed to bag his first sea trout as well as about a dozen others.
Such wonderful irony to be chasing brownies all week then head out for sea species only to only to end up catching trout in the sea.

In the end it went from a hard day to a crazy red letter day with Callum catching the biggest fish and it's these sessions, filled with mates and laughter and lots of fish that really live long in the memory.

Tackle used -

Rod: GraphiteLeader Corto EX 7'9" 0.5-8gram Tubular tipped.

Reel: Shimano Technium 3000

Line: Pontoon Exteer braid PE. 1

Leader: 6lb Greylon Fluorocarbon

I have also managed to do a compilation of the week's fishing on film, something I hope to be able to bring to the blog on a regular basis. Although I am finding it hard to balance taking stills and video footage. Rather annoyingly the editing software got the best of me on this one, there is a weird flickering at one point but it does go away! Also there are some random black and white footage that the editing software added of its own accord. Either way I hope you enjoy the footage.

Thanks for reading and watching!
Tight Lines
Jake

A brownback beats the blues

As The weekend rolled up I had made plans with Ritchie to head down to his yard at Eyemouth and try some of the nearby rock marks. We knew it was still quite early to be hitting the mark but with a good spring tide and the ebb coinciding with evening it gave us our best chance of some winter fish.

With cod, pollock and coalfish the target I decided to take my HRF gear and my LRF gear.

My HRF gear comprises

Rod : Shimano Yasei Red Drop Shot 2.7M

Reel :Shimano 3000

Line :Sunline Super PE 20lb

Leader :16lb Greylon Fluorocarbon

and my LRF gear comprises.

Rod :GraphiteLeader Corto EX 7'10" 0.5-8gram Tubular tipped.

Reel :Shimano Technium 3000

Line :Pontoon Exteer braid PE. 1

Leader :6lb Greylon Fluorocarbon

Tactics wise I decided to go with a drop shot set up on my heavier gear which is something I rarely do as I tend to go with a jighead/soft lure approach for most of my pollocking. I had been really impressed with the wriggly nature of the ZMan finnesse Shadz, which look really good on a dropshot rig and as I had them in a classic cod colour (white) I was pretty confident no self respecting codling could resist!

I picked Ritchie up and we made our way down the rocks to the lovingly called "Dollop" which has been the home of some memorable big pollock catches in the past. While relatively easy to get to it does involve a climb up and over some large pinnacles of rock. Whilst I lumbered over them clad in my breathable waders a flailing buttock caught on a chunk of rock. I decided that brute force was the way out of this minor predicament and strode free from the snaggy chunk to be rewarded with a sad little "scroinch" noise. Hey presto I had made my waders considerably more breathable with a handy six inch tear at the said buttock area.

Cursing my foolish approach and newly installed bum flap I made my way down to find Ritchie, with his trousers in tact busting out some LRF moves.

We were fishing a deep kelp fringed channel between two wee islands and had planned to move onto one of the islands when the tide dropped enough for us to do so. I began to fish the shoreside entrance to the channel casting into it and working the lure back along the kelp fringes. My retrieve was very slow with lots of pauses allowing the lure to act weightless , tiny twitches and shakes of the rod make it wriggle and writhe.

After about 10 Minutes Ritchie had caught a wee coalie on a 2.5g jighead and Tict Lizard tail. I continued to avoid the temptation to break out the LRF gear and concentrated on working the channel in the hope of a bigger fish.

After about 45 minutes I managed to snag up and lost my end tackle, not really a problem as this is par for the course on this mark. I quickly tied up another dropshot rig using the rather clever Savage Gear Inline dropshot hooks ,16lb Fluorocarbon leader and 14gram dropshot weight. While rummaging through my tackle bag I stumbled across an unopened packet of XL Isome in peach colour. I thought I would rig one up as they were the closest to hand  and recast along side the seaward edge of the gulley.

As I slowly worked the lure back I felt a tap followed by a sensation of weightlessness, I dropped the rod tip momentarily before striking into the fish. The fish instantly swam towards me and I had to reel like crazy to catch up with it, then as I applied some power it made a crash dive towards a ledge of rock. It was pretty obvious to me from the fight that it was a pollock and it was soon confirmed as the fish wallowed on the surface allowing me to land it with the help of a wave. Although not a monster it was a decent size around 2.5 - 3lb and one of the earliest pollock we had caught from this mark.

An early pollock for this mark, could the winter be over?

The first pollock of 2014 fell to dropshotted XL Isome

After a couple of pictures we released the fish and got on with searching the gulley again. By now the tide had dropped enough to allow Ritchie to scarmble on to the Dollop itself. I rigged up another Z-Man Finnesse Shadz and continued to work the channel.

Not long after Ritchie gave a shout and I watched him play and land a nice size coalie , quickly following it up with another couple of fish. I didn't need any more encouragement and made my way over to the dollop whereupon I lost yet another dropshot rig.

Ritchie shows off a fat coalie from a distance.

 I decided to change over to my LRF gear as it was already set up , all be it with a grayling rig! This consisted of a 6ft leader with a single dropper I rigged a 5g Xesta After Burner on the "point" and kept the size14 pink shrimp fly on the dropper.

The mini metal punched through the freshening breeze allowing me to get good distance on the cast. When the lure touches down I allow it to sink  before jigging it back with a slow retrieve. It only took a few casts before I was hit at range by what felt like a good fish. It felt heavy but fought very strangely it was easy enough to play it back to me but it kept getting lighter and heavier and felt altogether weird. As the fish came into view it quickly became apparent as to why it felt so weird, it was a double shot of decent coalies, with the bigger fish having taken the tiniest fly, typical.

Double shot on my jig/fly rig,the larger fish having taken the smallest fly.

I grabbed a couple of shots and released the fish but with the light fading fast this was to be my last fish of the session.

All in all we were really pleased to be getting in amongst the fish at this time of year as it can be so hit and miss and it was unusual to get the pollock so early in the year on this mark.I hope the pattern continues and the pollock are back in residence as its been a tough old winter without them!

Tight Lines

Jake

Back on the big Loch

Scott and I schedules managed to coincide for once and we arranged to meet up and head west to the big loch. I was on a mission to try some new lures and Scott was still chasing the elusive Ruffe.

An early start had us by the pier at the loch by 9am only to find the pier under  a foot of water! Luckily we had our waders on and Scott had extending legs on his seatbox so we set up in the wet on the pier.While we were setting up another angler joined us from his nearby camper van, it turns out we had talked via email about dropshotting, indeed he had caught some fine perch the day before and was looking forward to another crack at them.

We all quickly set up our gear and I went with my standard dropshot rig, 8lb fluro leader, #8 hook ,7g weight and I rigged a Lake Fork Live baby shad on the hook. Scott set up with maggot feeder tactics and was into roach within about 5 minutes.

Scott displays another nice roach

After about 25 minutes I still hadn't had a bite so I decided to swap lures and rigged up a 4" Z -Man Finesse Shadz in pearl white.

I hadn't had a chance to try the lure before so I was surprised at how good it looked when worked on a dropshot rig. Due to the buoyant nature of the lure I could really get the lure to shiver and shake with tiny twitches of the rod.

I began to work the same areas as before concentrating on the steep shelf into deeper water. I was concentrating on feeling the weight bumbling along the bottom as it followed the shelf up to shallower water when suddenly I felt nothing. A couple of turns of the handle and a flick of the wrist set the hook into a fish that had taken the lure and swam towards me, which was why I felt the absence of weight on the line. As I set the hooks the fish powered back down the shelf and I instantly knew it was a pike. I held the fish letting the rod do the work and it quickly suppressed the feisty jack with its fighting curve. As the pike rose up through the murky depths Scott readied the net  and I guided the pike into it.

It was a nice looking fish of around 3 to 4lb and while not a big fish for a pike it was great fun to catch on my light tackle. The last fish I had caught had been a blenny so it was very satisfying to catch a fish that was capable of putting a good bend in the rod.

I unhooked the fish and Scott helped me grab a couple of trophy shots before releasing the pike back to terrorise the local roach population.

Drop shotting a ZMan Finnesse shadZ did for this pike.

I carried on fishing , working various lures all around the area but the only action was coming from Scott and his never ending stream of pristine roach. The hours passed and the cold really started to hamper my fishing, luckily Jim magically produced some cups of tea followed by the worlds greatest bacon roll which manged to revive me somewhat. The weather grew darker and still us hardy dropshotters continued to blank.

Scott was still catching roach when he gave a shout and I looked to see his feeder rod with a good bend in it. Could the perch be making an appearance? As the fish rose up in the water I readied the net and was surprised to see a big Powan slipping into the welcoming landing net.

Scott was rather pleased with this lovely fish and quite rightly too, although we found it quite amusing that he had been trying to target one of the most prolific species in the loch only to catch one of the rarest!

Scott manged to catch a rare Powan,a nice size too!

Soon it had grown too dark too fish so we began to pack up, it had been a tough day for us all which really made me appreciate my solitary jack even more. As we drove back with the heater on full blast and the feeling returned to my extremities I couldn't help but feel excited for my next trip back to the big loch. I hope I can get back soon!

Tight Lines
Jake

Car Topping, Cherry popping, Perch fun!

After the first loch session on the boat, I had been itching to get back and so I made plans to fish the following weekend with Ritchie Bewsey. Ritchie had never tried for perch before and he was keen to try to get his first one. I had also managed to get a 30lb thrust electric motor for the boat so was looking forward to some powered perching.

Ritchie met me at my house in town bright and early and together we loaded the boat into his van. The forecast was cloudy but otherwise fine, although the wind would get up a bit in the afternoon.

An hour's drive later and we were at the loch after buying our permits and getting the key to the slipway. We unloaded the boat, got our gear stowed and launched into the loch. The old engine, which is held together mostly by gaffa tape, performed perfectly and we silently cruised to our first destination.

Tackle-wise we were both using our LRF gear and mine consists of a 7' 9" GraphiteLeader Corto EX rod, Shimano Technium 3000 reel, PE 1 Pontoon Exteer braid. On the business end it was my standard drop shot rig 3' 8lb Fluorocarbon leader and about half way up I tie a #8 offset worm hook via a palomar knot and I clipped on a 7g dropshot weight 30cm from the hook. I went with my go to lure, a Lake Fork Live baby Shad in watermelon red flake.

We anchored and began to cast 360 degrees around the boat. I worked the lure back very slowly with little twitches, hops and pauses. Our first couple of spots yielded nothing but it was easy to engage the engine and silently motor to our next spot.

After about 30 minutes of fishing we started to get interest from the fish and Ritchie managed to bag his first ever perch. The fish gave a good scrap and as he played it towards the boat . I duly did my landing net duties and a very happy Ritchie held his first ever perch, a nice fish of around three quarters of a pound.

Job done! Ritchie displays his first ever Perch.

I was quick to follow suit, all be it with a smaller fish which was quickly unhooked, photographed and put back. We managed a few more before the action dried up and we had to motor off to find them again.

Mine was considerably smaller!

We silently cruised around to a point where a burn entered the loch and began our casting around the boat. Yet again Ritchie was first into a fish and it was another nice perch again nudging the pound mark. I managed a couple of smaller ones before we decided to head out into deeper water.

Ritchie's new PB a beautifully marked one pounder

I was enjoying some great fishing too

The moved proved ridiculously successful. I had cruised out to maybe 100 meters from shore and anchored up to stop us drifting. First cast was nailed by a perch as the lure dropped to the bottom of the loch. It was not a big fish but was very wild and I had to play it back some distance to land it. Meanwhile Ritchie was also into a fish, again not big, being around the half pound mark but likewise was great fun on our light rods. We quickly unhooked the fish and recast to exactly the same result, double hook up and a fun fight.

The fishing went silly at this point and we caught perch after perch after perch. Ritchie and I were really having a laugh, it was just like coalie bashing with hoards of ravenous perch mercilessly attacking our lures.

We began to have fun by trying lures that we had never caught on before. These consisted mostly of creature-type baits and we whipped through a fair old selection, all of which were getting hammered by the perch.

Fish Arrow Flash J pintail, the perch loved these!

 Ecogear Bug Ants were also readily attacked by this golden mouthed specimen.

As the weather began to deteriorate we began to prepare ourselves to motor back to the slipway, having a goodly number of " last casts" before we upped anchor and headed back. The short run back was rather unpleasant with a squally head wind making it quite choppy and cold. The engine was running low on battery power and this and the headwind combined to make it a slow, arduous journey. Instead of taking 15 minutes to do the run back it took an hour, with swans overtaking us such was our slow pace.

Eventually we got back and got the boat loaded into Ritchie's van and, although cold and tired, we were both completely blown away by the number of perch caught. As always the perch were pristine and although we caught nothing larger than a pound the non stop action had us buzzing all the way home. One thing's for sure, I do need to get a petrol outboard for the boat as it will open up more of the loch to us and make the journey back to the slipway bearable!

Tight Lines
Schogsky

James and the giant perch

A couple of weeks ago my friend Jamie came up to visit from Wakefield, he had brought his lure fishing gear and was very keen to get out and give it a blast.Jamie and I have fished some far flung places, Cyprus for largemouth Bass, Spain for carp and around Yorkshire for various coarse species. He was quite keen to go light rock fishing and I was more than happy to oblige!

His visit also  coincided with my newest purchase, an 8' car toppable dinghy and I was itching to get out and see how it performed. Our plan for the weekend was to head down to St Abbs on the Friday to play in the harbour then head to the perch loch on Saturday for the perch and the new boat test.

we headed to St Abbs and I lent Jamie my Cormoran ULF rod  as it was more sensitive than his heavier spinning rod.We rigged up simple dropshot rigs #8 hook tied via a palomar knot on 8lb fluro and clipped on a 7g weight 30cm from the hook.Gulp sandworm was the lure of choice and as soon as the lure hit the water it was swarmed on by wee coalies. Ritchie had also joined us and we  caught coalie after coalie with the odd codling thrown in for good measure. Jamie was really enjoying himself, he had never experienced the non stop action of a coalie swarm with every cast producing a fish. With Jamie in coalie land Ritchie and I tried our best to target flounders but getting a lure past the coalies was nigh on impossible! In fact Ritchie had fished the past 3 days in various areas around St Abbs and hadn't been able to escape the ravening hoards.

We moved around trying to find other species but it wasn't until near the end of the session we finally manged to bag a couple of flounders each. We were working our lure over the shallow sandy areas and we saw the flounders chasing the lures. It was really tricky to catch them as the coalies kept diving in and intercepting the lure, it was only through sheer persistence that we eventually caught a couple of flatties each. Flounders are one of my favourite species to catch so I was really chuffed we manged to grab a couple, Jamie had never caught a flatfish before so he was doubly pleased to have a new species and on a lure too!

A happy angler, Jamie shows off his first flattie

We really had to work at avoiding the coalfish to get the flounder

One of the two flounder I managed to tempt

Although the session had been fun, I was heavily distracted by the prospect of trying my new boat. At last Saturday morning came and Jamie and I loaded the car up with tackle, life jackets, food and popped the boat on the roof.

My new toy on the roof and ready to rock

 The journey up was an anxious one as I was constantly worrying about the boat being secure, however apart from it singing like a boiling kettle as we went over 40mph it remained securely strapped to the roof bars.We stopped off at the fishing tackle shop and got our permits and the key to the slipway . At the loch we quickly got the boat to the water and stowed our tackle and supplies before setting off on its first fishing trip. The loch was flat calm with the clear water as smooth as glass and with the warm sun out it really was the perfect day to fish. I had no engine or fishfinder so it was under oar power that we headed off to my normal shore spots for the perch.It took about 1/2 an hour to row into the rocky bay that usually throws up perch from the shore and we anchored about 60 meters offshore. We both still had the same dropshot rigs on from our flounder foray at St Abbs only instead of gulp sandworm we rigged up some lake fork live baby minnows.

Fishing without the aid of a fishfinder/sonar meant I had to locate the fish through a combination of knowledge of fishing it from the shore and instinctive water craft. The tactics once we had reached the rocky bay was to anchor up, then make long casts 360degrees around the boat.We then slowly worked the lures back giving the rod little twitches and pauses. Once we had completed our circle of casts with no bites we upped anchor and moved further up the bay. it was on our third anchor that Jamie started getting a couple of wee taps and a couple of casts later he managed to bag the first perch. He was really pleased to get the first fish and doubly satisfied as it was taken on a new technique he had learned the day before. I did the necessary glory shot and after we released the fish I got back to fishing. It only took a couple of casts and I was into the perch too and while not a big fish it still provided much fun on the LRF gear.

We managed another 2 or 3 fish from the area before bites dried up and we upped anchor and rowed another fifty meters along the bay.

Jamie unhooks his first perch of the session

Lake fork Live baby shad does it again

My first perch of the session

See ya!

Again we went with the same tactics, anchoring the casting right around the boat till we got interest in the lures. It didn't take long and soon we were both into perch again. I managed a couple of better ones close to the pound mark and Jamie had a couple as well. Again when the action dried up we moved up the bay another 50meters or so and repeated the process. Jamie was in first and as he was playing in his fish I had a couple of taps and struck into a better fish. As I played the fish up through the clear water I noticed another fish following it up which turned away as I reached out with the net to land the perch. I unhooked my fish and took a couple of pics as it had a really golden colour especially around its mouth.

Super stripey with a golden sheen, what a lovely combination

It had a really yellow mouth

 I quickly released the fish and flicked the lure out around 12 feet away from the boat , I let it hit the bottom then I began to shake the rod tip a bit whilst giving tiny twitches. Pretty much straight away I felt a tap then the line went slack as the fish grabbed the lure and swam towards me.A flick of the wrist set the hook and the rod went into its fighting curve as the fish powered off stripping some line off a lightly set drag. As I played the fish back towards me I was aware it was a good fish and as it rose up through the water I got my first look at it, a PB for sure! The fish made another couple of spirited dives and these were nerve wrecking  but eventually the fish was wallowing on the surface and we quickly slipped the net under it.

What a fish! A brilliantly coloured, pristine conditioned, fin perfect beast of a wild perch. Jamie and I couldn't believe the size of it, we grabbed some snaps of the outlandish fish and popped it into the net to recover whilst I hunted for my scales. The scales however were conspicuous only by there absence leaving me only able to estimate its weight. We measured the fish which came in at 40cm and I guessed its weight at  between 2.5 and 3lbs. In the end I put it at 2lbs 9oz which was an under estimate but it was an ounce over my previous personal best which had stood for 18 years or so!

My new personal best perch

What an awesome fish

Gorgeous!

The obligatory ruler shot, 40cm of wild loch perch

Out of all the fish I have caught over the years this one is very special to me,awesome.

I released the fish in a state of happy delirium, my new boat on its first fishing mission had broken my long lasting perch PB, I couldn't have been happier!

We fished on for another couple of hours which yielded plenty more perch of around the half to three quarter pound mark before it was time to begin the long row back to the slipway.

Eventually we got back and unloaded the boat before popping it on the roof bars and heading back to town with arms that now felt like boiled noodles!

What a day, both of us had done our PB's and the boat had performed brilliantly and to cap it with such a beast of a perch had made the whole session truly one to remember.

Perch fever is back and I hope to get an engine for the boat for the next session, one that I am really looking forward too!

Tight Lines

Schogsky