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

Jake's School of Fish.

Over the past couple of months I have had the pleasure of teaching my friend's twin boys how to fish. The boys had got a couple of LRF starter sets from Art of Fishing and were keen to use them. So after showing them how to set up their rods and reels we headed off to Dunbar harbour to try them out.

The weather whilst dry was overcast with a strong onshore wind. This made fishing the main harbour with light jigheads nigh on impossible as the wind would catch the line and blow the jig heads about uncontrollably. I went through to the old harbour as this offered some protection from the strongly gusting wind and after a discussion about safety we tackled up. The boys each had a Ecogear pocket in kit so we rigged a 2.5g shirasu fine jighead on each of their rods and rigged a small section of gulp sandworm.

Whenever I teach someone to fish from scratch it's imperative that they actually catch a fish as this shows them what it's all about and sows the seeds of confidence for future trips. With this in mind I was confident that the local hoards of coalfish would oblige. We started by simply opening the bail arm and dropping the lure down the wall a rod length out. Once the lure touches the sea bed a couple of turns of the reel handle hops it off the bottom and a few twitches of the rod tip gets the lure working.

That was all it took and straight away the boys each hooked a coalfish which was hauled out to shouts of jubilation and big grins!

First cast, first fish, ever!

The next couple of hours flew by with a steady stream of wee coalies for the boys who were really enjoying the non-stop action. Together they caught and released over 60 fish between them and with the resident seal making an appearance they were really enjoying their first go at fishing.

Finn and Joe caught fish after fish

A brief pause to check out the local seal.

Sammy made short work of any coalies that were slow to go back.

Bonus flounder, whilst showing the guys how to do it I managed to winkle out this little flattie.

In between helping the boys I also managed to wet a line and using my go to dropshot rig I soon caught a host of coalies and a bonus flounder. The boys were impressed with the flounder and they wanted to catch one too, so we decided to head down the coast to my favourite flounder spot. On the way we grabbed some lunch which for the boys seemed to consist of biscuits and Mountain Dew. By the time we reached St Abbs the "dew" had kicked in and the boys were bouncing madly about garbling nonsense and bickering with each other. However the icy blast of gail force winds soon calmed them down, or at least drowned out there dewed gibbering so I couldn't hear it! Unfortunately the strong swirling wind made it impossible to fish as well as being eye wateringly unpleasant, so we quickly piled back into the motor and headed back to Dunbar.

We only had about 20 minutes of fishing time before we had to go but the boys were straight in again, catching the little coalies. We did a bit of casting practice and while I was helping Joe his brother Finn shouted out " got one, got one!"

I looked round to see Finn's rod buckled over into a fish and watched with horror as he cranked the fish right to the top eye and lifted the flapping flounder out onto the land. The rod stood up amazingly well to this brutal treatment and Finn clutched at a really good flounder. It must have weighed over a pound. Needless to say Finn was really pleased, what a great first flounder! It also gave him bragging rights over his brother which we had to put up with all the way home!

First flounder and biggest fish of the day for Finn.

The next lesson was a few weeks later and I picked the boys up with the instruction of "no Mountain Dew" we set off to try St Abbs .The boys were as keen as mustard to try and catch more flounder and with that in mind we headed to my flounder hotspot. Unfortunately for us a family of anglers had set up right where I wanted to fish. We had a wee chat and they informed us that despite being there for hours they hadn't caught anything.

I couldn't believe it, had the ravening hoards of coalies disappeared? It hardly seemed possible as a couple of weeks before they were shoaling so thickly you couldn't get a lure past them to reach the bottom dwelling flatties. I warned the boys not to expect a fish every cast like the last time as fishing wasn't always as good as their first session.

We all went with the same set up as before, although this time I encouraged the boys to rig up the lure on the jighead themselves and we set about casting around to find the fish. This took me about 30 seconds much to the suprise of the other anglers as my dropshotted Gulp! sandworm was pounced on by a wee coalie. This was unceremoniously hauled out and put back and I quickly followed it up with a couple more whilst Finn and Joe also caught and released their first fish of the session.

From then on the fishing completely dried up and try as we might we couldn't find any actively feeding flounder. A couple of hours passed and the boys were getting pretty demoralised by the lack of fish the wind had got up too, so we decided to call time and head to Dunbar to see if the fishing was any better.

We arrived at the old harbour with the tide quite far into the ebb, which meant we wouldn't have much time to fish before the water levels got too low. I set about casting and searching for the fish whilst the boys practised their casting. It didn't take long to find some wee coalies and I caught and released a couple whilst getting the boys to fish the same area where I was catching.  I encouraged them to fish the area for coalies whilst I moved off trying to work the sea bed for flounders. This paid off after only a few casts as I felt the characteristic plucking of a flounder bite and struck into a beefy flattie which put a good bend in the light action rod. I landed this to much excitement from the boys and they took a couple of glory shots .

A nice flounder always puts a grin on my face and I had two in quick succession

Whilst I released the fish the boys got back on with excitedly fishing, however their excitement and over-keenness soon resulted in a healthy wind knot for Finn. I did my best to sort it out whilst Joe steadily fished on he was keeping calm and methodical with his approach, doing his best to cast and work the lure. I advised Finn to copy his brother and not rush with his casting and I began to search for more flounder. I was working the channel that leads out the harbour when again I felt the bite of a flounder and struck into another nice one. After a good wee tussle I landed a nice flounder of about a pound which I quickly released and recast to the same area. This resulted in another flattie again around the pound mark!

Another flounder for me, love it , love it ,love it!

This flurry of flounder had sent the boys into overdrive and again Finn suffered the mother of all wind knots which stopped him from fishing and me too as I had to try and untangle it for him. Joe meanwhile had been watching where I was casting and how I was working the lure and he began to cast accurately to the flattie hotspot.

I was busy untangling when I heard Joe say "I'm getting bites". I told him to just keep reeling slowly and if he felt weight on the line, strike. I had barely got the words out when he gave a little strike and his wee rod hooped over as a big fish tore around on the end of his line. It was actually stripping line off his wee reel during the fight and he worked the fish to the edge of the wall like a true pro. As the fish rose up we could see it was a really good flattie and the size of it had us all babbling with excitement. It was a bit tricky to land but I had seen the punishment Finn's rod had taken with his flattie so I went for bust and swung the fish up the wall with the rod. The rod was in one piece as the fish touched the deck and we all gave a resounding cheer. This was the biggest flattie I had seen this year and was really, really fat. It must have weighed around the 2lb mark, what a first flounder for Joe!

Now that's a flounder!

An excellent first flattie for Joe, it must have been 2lbs.

It had been a tough old session but this really was the perfect end and I felt really happy for Joe as he cradled his first flounder for the camera. A few pics were taken then we released the flattie watching as it scooted away across the sea bed. After this we packed up and headed back with Joe having the bragging rights this time and rightly so! This was to be our last session of the year as the boys were due to head back up to Skye, however they would be doing so with the ability and confidence to fish by them selves.

I can't wait to see how they get on!

Tight Lines

Jake.

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

Slimey surprise.

With Scott away to the mull of Galloway on a boat trip, I headed down to St Abbs again hoping to find the resident wrasse. I had had a couple of brief forays there after my PB wrasse session but the wrasse hadn't been around, although the coalies, codling, flounders and scorpions had been in abundance. Ritchie had had his cast removed so I picked up the newly footed Ritchie and we headed down to the harbour hoping to fish the ebb. The tide was a neap which wasn't ideal for targeting the wrasse but the joys of LRF meant there were plenty of other fish to target. I rigged my LRF gear with a simple dropshot rig, I rigged the #8 hook with a gulp sandworm and clipped a lead on a mere 2" from the hook. This presentation keeps the lure very close to the bottom and it would seem the wrasse like this set up.

The Coalfish were everywhere!

The coalies were everywhere as usual and I was soon into double figures while searching the fringes of the kelp. While I was working the lure I had noticed some dark shapes moving through the kelp, wrasse! I concentrated my efforts where the fish had been and it wasn't long before I was into a proper fish. As soon as it was hooked the fish tried to dive between a rope and the wall. I managed to turn it and  then let the rod soak up its dives for cover. It soon tired and I guided it into the waiting dropnet, bingo first wrasse of the session, target achieved!

Another fine Scottish ballan wrasse

I released the fish and began to target the flatties which was quite hard as the scorpions were really on the feed and we had loads of them! Ritchie was busy hunting for wrasse when I noticed a cod carcass moving about in the clear water. The carcass was jerking and twitching as three eels writhed around it. There were two dark ones and a pale big one, I presumed that the pale one was a small conger. I cast over the top of the carcass and gently twitched the lure over where they were feeding, I saw a dark eel snake up and grab the lure. I struck and quickly got it up off the bottom whereby the eel hit reverse and hung snaking in the water. A bit more pressure and it was quickly swung up into my eager hands. Brilliant, a common eel on a lure for the second year in a row and sight fished too! After wrestling with the eel to get a photo I released it back to the harbour.

For the second year in a row I managed to bag a common eel on a lure.

It wouldn't behave for its photograph though!

I tried back for the conger but it had spooked when the eel had been hooked. We kept seeing it though and soon I manged to get a lure in front of it. I was twitching the rod gently causing the sandworm to flutter invitingly above the fish. I saw the eel slowly come up off the bottom and approach the lure. My heart was in my mouth as it got closer suddenly a small scorpion tore on front of the eel, gobbled up the lure and dived back into the kelp. Argggh, to make matters worse the wee thing would not open its little mouth and was biting down on the hook shank. It must have taken at least a couple of minutes before it actually opened its gob for long enough to unhook it and by the time I dropped the fish back the eel had disappeared.

The tide had dropped quite considerably so I moved back to some deeper water. Fishing right alongside the kelp a felt a couple of electric taps instantly recognisable as wrasse bites. I let the tapping develop and when I noticed the line move I struck and manged to bully another lovely wrasse out from its kelpy lair.

I love catching wrasse on LRF gear, even a modest size fish puts up a great fight.

I love the colours too!

We then concentrated on some more flatties and had a few, one out of the kelp itself! Ritchie manged to get a wee pollock and another nice wee wrasse from the kelp before bagging a really fat flounder that must of weighed well over a pound .

St Abbs produces some great flounders!

Wrasse and flounder in the same session, brilliant!

Ritchie displays one of the many flounder he  had caught.

A jig head and large Isome lured this handsome flounder

I have never seen as many codling as this year, winter should be fun!

My last flounder of the session.

That signalled the end of the session as I had to get back for the kids tea time, so we packed up and headed back. Both of us were really chuffed the action had been constant and the bonus eel added extra excitement. Not only had we managed to catch wrasse and flatties but we had sight fished the majority of fish, which just made the whole experience even more intense. It won't be long now before the wrasse become dormant for the winter, however with the vast amount of tiny codling about I can only surmise that winter may well provide a lot of sport with them. Here's hoping!

Tight lines, Schogsky.