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

Go small or go home.

Just before the Cornish Lure Festival I had a call from a mate who was coming up from Sunderland to do some bass fishing, so I managed to get down to meet him for a fish. The tide was just starting to flood when we started fishing and I went with my tried and trusted 4.5" Arkansas Shiner Slug-Go mounted on a 10g #2/0 jighead. I fished the lure with various retrieves, bouncing across the bottom, darted mid water, slow sink and draw, but there were no takers. I swapped over to a Ribster in the same colours but despite working both lures for over an hour I still had no bites. I then put on a Swimmin Ribster and about ten minutes later I finally manged to hook and land a small bass of about 35cm, which was quickly photographed before being released.

Lunker City Swimmin Ribster strikes again.

I went straight back to the same spot and began working the lure again but I could only get a couple of small bumps and no hook ups, the bass just didn't want to commit to taking the lure. This was very similar to the last time I fished this mark and it would seem that the bass were only interested in taking the tiny sandeels which were shoaling in numbers.

This gave me the excuse I needed to grab my LRF gear and rig up a 5g Mini Jackson Mameta casting jig. I already had a dropshot rig on so I just tied the jig on in place of a dropshot weight and rigged a small teaser on the hook above the lure. It only took a couple of casts before the rod was nearly wrenched out of my hand as a good bass seized the lure and tore off in the current. I began to play the fish back towards me letting the rod do the work when I noticed my mate cast over my line. To my horror he snagged my line then became convinced he had hooked a bass too. He only seemed to become aware of what was happening when he caught sight of my fish with his lure attached to the teaser hook. I tried to shout at him to wait and take it easy so we could land the fish, however he didn't hear and tried to dead lift the fish ( which was about 3lb), without the help of a wave, and the inevitable happened snapping my 8lb leader on the razor sharp barnacle encrusted rocks and the bass was gone. Rather annoyed I rigged up another leader and tied on a 7g IMA Gun casting jig and began to work it back in the top couple of feet of water. After about five minutes a bass grabbed the lure and made a hell of a run before I manged to play it back. After a nice fight a smaller bass of 41cm was landed.

A swap to a 7g IMA Gun soon fooled this nice Bass

I quickly got back to fishing and the very next cast I hooked another fish and this one tried to bore down deep with a powerful dive. If it was a bass it was a good one but because he kept trying to dive I didn't think it was one. As I played the fish up it became apparent that it was a rather chunky coalfish, something which is pretty rare from this mark. A quick measure put it at 39cm, my biggest coalie this year, great fun on my ultra light tackle.

This 39cm Coalie also couldn't resist!

I released the fish and caught another couple of coalies before landing another couple of small bass. It was approaching my kids teatime so I had to call it a day, something that was very hard to do with the bass on the feed. Still it was great to get into some fish I was glad I worked out it was only small lures that they were interested in.

Tight lines, Schogsky.

An XLNT afternoon.

The other week I made a trip to Stirling to check out Angling Active, a large tackle shop that I had never visited before. My main reason to visit was to get my hands on a new Savage Gear XLNT dropshot rod. I have grown tired of poor customer service and the lack of a warranty on Japanese rods so when I saw this rod at 9' with a casting range of 7-25g that perfectly fits my requirements for fishing soft plastics for a multitude of species I had to have one! With a reputation for quality and good customer service in the event of any problems with the rod and a bargain at £60 it represents excellent value!

I was desperate to go and play with my new toy so the following day I grabbed Scott and we headed down the coast to our usual bass mark to give it a run through. Scott also had a new rod to play with, his second in the Nories Rockfish Bottom series, this time the slightly heavier light version casting 7-15g. I tackled up with a 4.5" Slug-Go in Arkansas Shiner and mounted it on a 10.5g #2/0 AGM football jighead. Scott rigged up a dropshot rig with a Jackall Clone Fry and we began to work the fast current of the mark. It wasn't long before I got some interest, all be it from mullet, I watched in surprise as a small one of about a pound charged after the slug and started nipping at the tail! Scott too had been getting some attention from the mullet and we tried a multitude of different lures to tempt them. Scott came closest with a small metal tipped with a small piece of Isome which a mullet had a good bite at but he couldn't hook up.

Soon the mullet drifted away and we got back to targeting the resident bass. Sticking with the Slug-Go I began to work the lure deep, little lifts of the rod tip allowed it to hop along the bottom in the fast current. This is where the solid carbon tip was very helpful transmitting the feel of the bottom down the rod to my hand. It was brilliantly sensitive and I could differentiate between kelp and softer weed as well as feel the sharp taps as it bounced over boulders. It didn't take long before I felt a fish tapping at the lure before seizing it causing the rod to arch over into the fish. Bass on and the rod came into its own with the soft tip cushioning its head shakes and the powerful butt section allowing me to apply pressure. Soon a nice bass of 43cm was landed and the rod well and truly christened.

They don't half swallow the lure sometimes!

The fish had totally swallowed the slug with just the tip of the jighead poking out a sure sign that the soft tip also allows the fish to inhale the lure with little resistance. Quick pic and back she went to be followed a few minutes later by another  bass, again with the lure right down its mouth.

Slug-Go wielding Ninja?

It's just me with another bass!

I had just released the fish when Scott came over to try his hand. He rigged up a new 7g IMA Gun in silver and began to effortlessly cast the little metal a country mile before working it back slowly with the odd pause to let it flutter in the current. Pretty soon I watched his rod bend into a fish and soon he had played a small bass into the net. Scott had a big grin on his face and was obviously very pleased at christening his new rod and the lure as well. As he can't help himself he then headed off to the rock pools to find some other species!

Small metals are great sandeel imitations.

I stuck with the bass and had soon landed a few more all taken on the trusty Slug-Go. Scott meanwhile had managed to winkle out a few blennies and a rather chunky sea scorpion that had a partially digested small blenny in it's mouth!

Not satisfied with gobbling blennies this little brute wanted a bit of Gulp! too.

By now light was fading and we had to go and whilst it was a fairly short session it was very productive and packed full of fish, so we both left satisfied at our new rods performance and I for one can't wait to get back and try it again! We'll also be back to target the mullet too no doubt.

Tight lines, Schogsky.