Weekly round up #4 : LRF bass, HRF Pollock.

Last week saw me heading to the coast armed with my LRF gear hoping to find some silver spikey fish. The weather has been problematic for fishing this mark but a combination of flat calm and a rising tide filled me with hope. I worked the reef firstly with my HRF gear, bottom bouncing sluggos around but apart from one or two knocks the fish were fairly unresponsive. As the tide flooded the reef I switched to my LRF gear as I could run a light metal jig over the top of the reef. I went with a 7gram Xesta After Burner and began casting around with a jerky retrieve. I covered the gulleys and newly flooded rock pools with the mini metal and it really didn't take long before I was hit by a feisty wee bass. I enjoyed the feel of a bass on the line and quickly landed, unhooked and photographed the fish before releasing it back.

Not big but the first bass of the year is always special

I carried on with the same approach and about 20 minutes later I was hit again, this time by a slightly bigger bass. Whilst the bass wasn't very big it was caught at range so I got to enjoy the fight for a wee bit longer than its previous shoal mate. Again it was unhooked and quickly photographed before being released back.

Bass on LRF gear = Fun!

The only other fish on the session came in the form of another sea trout, a species that seem addicted to Xesta after burners! Even though I have caught a silly amount of them already this season I still really enjoy catching sea trout in the sea and after a couple of pics I released him back to the reef.

Yet another sea trout falls for a Xesta After Burner mini jig

Next session saw me head out to fish the harbours from low to mid tide before hitting the rocks at Eyemouth. Conditions at the harbour weren't great, the water was very cloudy from the recent rains and a strong gusting wind meandered around the harbour, seemingly unable to decide which direction to blow. The wind made using light jigheads too problematic so I went with my trusty Dropshot rig. A size 8 Owner mini offset hook was tied, via a palomar knot, about halfway up a 3ft Fluorocarbon leader and a 7 gram dropshot weight was clipped onto the end of the line. I rigged a 3" tail section of gulp sandworm and began to cast about the harbour's sandy patches. With a slow retrieve I let the weight trundle along the seabed puffing up little clouds of sand and a constant shaking of the rod caused the lure to wriggle and writhe, what flattie could resist?

The answer the to that question was all of them! After an hour or so of fishing I had felt no evidence of feeding flounder, although there were plenty of wee coalies and after catching half a dozen I continued my way down the coast.

At Eyemouth I met up with Ritchie and we headed off down to a new mark which Ritchie had been fishing. The mark is situated really close to Ritchie's house and after a short walk and a scramble down the rocks we were there. Ritchie had managed some red cod from here the last time he fished it and we were hoping for more of the same. The mark we were fishing is a big kelp forest which gives way to clean sand about 50 yards out, prime pollock and cod territory, so with this in mind it was out with the slug-gos and HRF gear. We began to fish the mark; I concentrated on casting to beyond the kelp bed then bouncing the slug back over the top of the kelp. As the tide began to flood in earnest the bites began to come and I was into some nice pollock, the biggest being about 3.5lb. Keeping the powerful pollock from diving back into the kelp is always a challenge and certainly adds a bit more spice to the fight. Over the session I managed 3 and Ritchie had a few coalies but, as so often happens to me, the cod were not about. Again on this session I had problems with the video camera with the battery running out as I arrived at the mark. This went totally unnoticed by me and I preceded to get some "great shots " of the fish going back before discovering that they didn't exist when I got home!

A great fish for a fight, this one weighed 3.5lb

Hard fighting fish always put a smile on my face!

He does not look quite as happy as me though!

Despite that I still had a not bad snapshot of the week's fishing in video format so I managed to put together a short film.

Tackle used:

HRF tackle

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 7'9" 0.5-8gram Tubular tipped.

Reel :Shimano Technium 3000

Line :Duel Hardcore X4 PE0.6

Leader :4lb Scierra C-thru Fluorocarbon.

It's been a great week and the return of the bass signals the start of our summer species returning and its very exciting to think that the fishing is going to improve week on week, I can't wait to get out again!

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

Metal Rocks!

Yesterday, after a night of being shouted at by my nine month old daughter Eva, I found myself in the car at 7am clutching a mug of tea with one thought on my mind, bass! After scraping the ice off the windscreen I had another thought on my mind, gloves, or rather my inability to locate a pair when I needed them. Heaters on full I headed down the A1 blasting myself awake with some nice, loud Fishbone and by the time I arrived at the mark my tiredness had been overtaken by the anxious excitement I always feel before I fish. I loaded my self up with my bass gear and my LRF gear and forgoing an extra jacket headed down to the mark.

It was cold but calm with a slight offshore wind and I went straight for my go to lure, a Lunker City Ribster in Arkansas Shiner mounted on a 10.5g #2/0 Football jighead. I began working the lure around the reef, bouncing  it along the sea bed as well as jigging and twitching it through open water. After about 45 minutes I swapped over to my LRF kit and rigged up a Lunker City Swimmin' Ribster on a 3g #2/0 jighead, to see if the added vibration of the paddle tail would illicit a response. I spent about half an hour working the lure through the current, allowing it to sink nose down waggling its tail before jigging it back up again to repeat the process, I had a couple of tentative bumps but nothing I could actually strike into. I then decided to try at range with a 30g Bombarda with an eight foot trace, rigged with a tiny pearl redgill. This was launched out a considerable distance then really slowly retrieved allowing the little weightless eel to flutter provocatively in the tide. I worked this set up for a while before I switched over to a silver Toby to see if some flash would work on the bass. Sure enough as I worked the lure back in the surface layers with a medium retrieve a bass hit the lure hard and everything went solid. The fish fought well for its size and kited about a bit as well as doing the usual bass surface splashing before it was landed! I was pleased with this bass as it had been frankly quite hard work to catch, especially as all my usual methods weren't doing the job.

Old school lures still rock!

A quick picture and I slipped the 41cm of silver back to the sea. I noticed that when it was landed it coughed up a tiny sandeeel of about 1" which would be perfectly matched by a Gulp! 1" Minnow.  I quickly reached into the rod holdall to grab the LRF gear in order to cash in on the feeding bass. It was at this point that disaster struck, in my haste to get the rod I had forgotten that it still had a lure attached and as I lifted it quickly out the hook found a juice box in the bag. I watched in a sort of dumb horror as the tip folded double then with a sad little crack parted company with the rest of the rod.

Bugger!

After 5 minutes of mourning I packed up and headed back as I was keen to order another tip section from Ben at Art of Fishing, which I hope will arrive soon as I am keen to get back to some LRF bass!

Tight lines, Schogsky.