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

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

Video Roundup #2 : Flounder, Sea Trout and Brownies.

Another week and the fishing is really starting to pick up now. First session of the week saw me back at the coast with the intention of LRF flounder and bass. Conditions were pretty good, nice and calm with a slowly flooding tide and I rigged up a dropshot rig with a section of Gulp! sandworm. It probably only took about 10 minutes before I was into my first fish. It was a strange soft take and then the fish ran towards me making it hard to be sure I had even hooked it! When it did break the surface I was relieved to see a hand-sized flounder. I made the schoolboy error of thinking there would be better fish about so I decided to not take pictures and let the video tell the tale. A foolish move on my part as there were no more flounders biting and after an hour I headed off to the bass mark. This too proved fruitless and after a couple of hours I headed further down the coast to hook up with Ritchie and hopefully beat the blank by hitting the sea trout again. Never in a million years would I have thought that sea trout would be a blank-saving choice but sure enough they were there in numbers and we had some ridiculous sport with them. This time to confound things the video camera's battery had run out and I went back to good old stills for the sea trout, balancing both types of media is hard to do, especially when in full-fevered fishing mode!

This "finnock" took a 5gram Xesta After Burner...

and this one took a Ecogearaqua Katsu Aji Straight mounted on a Xesta Starhead Slowdown 1 gram jighead...

as did this one...

River to Sea tungsten 2.5gram trout spoon did for this one.

As the week ground on I had limited time to fish and when I was presented with a spare hour before tea I grabbed it and bolted to the river. One of the many joys of light rock fishing tackle is the ability to just grab my rod and lures and I can be fishing the moment I reach the water. As I only had an hour I decided to fish three pools and rather brilliantly I managed a trout from each of the pools before heading home for tea. Yet again I messed up with the camera stupidly leaving the memory card at home and  again I had to rely on the Veho MUVI action cam to capture the action. I am still finding it difficult to focus on filming , taking photos and fishing but barring silly mistakes I am getting the hang of it!

I have put together a short film 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: Pontoon Exteer braid PE. 1

Leader: 6lb Greylon Fluorocarbon

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

Second time lucky!

The day after my Oban visit I was still thinking about sea trout, especially since there had been some overnight rain as I was sure this would encourage more sea trout to head up the Water of Leith. My wife had sensed me twitching and fretting at the window and she took pity on me granting me 45 minutes of child free time before tea. With shameless speed I bolted out the door LRF gear in hand and headed down to the river.

When I arrived at my chosen two pools the river was running higher and was carrying some colour, in short it looked great. I rigged up a pink Ecogear Grass Minnow size SS on a 1.4g #10 Shirasu Fine
jighead and began to work the pools. In what seems to be a familiar pattern the first pool yielded nothing. I stalked my way to the second pool and kneeling down began to cast and work the lure across the little river. Every couple of casts I would shuffle a couple of feet down stream to work the lure through the whole pool.

I had got towards the tail end of the pool and was watching the lure making its way up the margins when a trout flew out of nowhere and attacked it! It hit it once and I struck, this caused the lure to jerk forward and settle on the bottom at which point the trout pounced and snatched the lure from the river bed. I struck and set the hooks and it instantly kited back into the current. It gave a classic trout fight, thrashing and cavorting on the surface before kiting back out into the current. Soon I had it in my net and as far as I can tell it's another Water of Leith sea trout.

Sea trout from the Water of Leith.

Such a pretty fish!

Even with the slight tail damage the fish was in excellent condition.

This one appears to have been in the river some time as it's quite coloured and its lower tail fin was slightly damaged  possibly from lying in the low water. Brilliant! I took a few snaps then released the fish, hopefully to get on with populating the water with its progeny. I headed back home thoroughly pleased with what 45 minutes in the right place at the right time can yield!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

No doubt : Sea trout!

About a week ago I had a job collecting some furniture from Oban to deliver to Dunbar and as always I had built some time into the job to allow me to fish! I took my LRF gear as well as my heavier setup and hoped to have a poke about Oban harbour and maybe try some of the rock marks along the way back.

Sure enough after I had loaded the van I dropped into Oban harbour to a bit we fished last summer. After forty five minutes of bouncing some dropshotted gulp sandworm about with no action I decided to move on to some rock marks to try for pollock. This also proved completely devoid of any fish that wanted to play so I decided that I would pop into Loch Etive on the way back. My primary target would be sea trout as we have had a few from Loch Etive before and I have a bit of a trout fixation at the moment!

It's spring but Loch Etive still looks wintery.

I decided to hit the small estuary where the river flows in to Loch Etive, so it was out with the LRF gear and on with a 7g hansen pilgrim. I began to work the tide races and currents searching for my target. The tide races out of Loch Etive like a river and I began to treat it like one, casting across current and allowing the lure to swing around before twitching it back in. After about half an hour of fishing my initial excitement had been replaced with a feeling that today would be an outright blank and I began to prepare myself for a fishless day. Suddenly from out of nowhere the lure was seized and a nice sized sea trout tore off in the current, thrashing on the surface then trying to head off down tide. With a loose drag and the rod tip low I gently played the fish into my waiting landing net.

A lunch hour sea trout, perfect!

Success, I was elated and a bit shocked too as I really had resigned myself to a blank, I quickly unhooked it and took a few shots before releasing the fish back to the sea. I carried on fishing and it wasn't long before I hooked a second which fought really well for its size before I had it in the net. This was a different looking fish and still had elements of its brown trout colouration but as it was caught in saltwater I can only assume it's a sea trout!

Another nice sea trout with its head still showing brown trout colouration.

I carried on fishing and made a few casts up the estuary retrieving the lure back down stream a little faster than the current while giving rapid jerks on the rod. This yielded almost instantaneous results with another trout grabbing the lure and tearing off in the current. The fish was quickly landed and again it showed another variation in colour. This one seemed to have some of its parr colouration but was starting to turn silver on its flanks. A beautiful looking fish but it leaves me scratching my head as to whether its a sea trout or not, even though it was caught in saltwater!

A brownie or a sea trout? Either way it was great to catch!

I carried on fishing for another thirty minutes or so and managed to hook and lose another two trout before I had to call time and get on with my delivery job. I drove back with a grin from ear to ear, to catch sea trout from such a magnificent sea loch is an amazing experience and to catch them whilst on a job just added to the satisfaction! Salmo Trutta is an amazing fish and whether I catch them in loch, sea, or river they always prove a worthy challenge. A challenge that is sometimes matched by trying to decide whether they are brown trout, sea trout, slob trout,or ferox trout. One thing is for certain I love catching them and can't wait to do it again!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

Silver suprise!

Last week Scott and I managed to get together for a quick fish on the Water of Leith. The plan was for Scott to fish up the river until he got to my house then we would explore further upstream. As I lazed in my house waiting for him to arrive I got a text from Scott saying he had just lost a big fish that he thought was a sea trout. He was using a Gulp 1" Minnow mounted on a Decoy Rocket jighead when the fish struck and it ended up bending the hook out with two massive head shakes. I had to pop down to see, he showed me the jig head and it was absolutely destroyed, it must have been a strong fish!

We scrapped the plan for a recce up river and concentrated on the area where Scott had hooked his fish. He had seen another smaller trout with the big fish but try as we might we just couldn't tempt them again. The next day I had an hour free so I grabbed my gear and headed back to the same pool. I rigged up a super small Ecogear Grass Minnow in pink glitter on a 1.4g Shirasu fine jighead and began to work my way down the pools. The first stretch I fished yielded absolutely nothing, a bit disappointing as this is where Scott's fish was. Oh well, I continued to work my way downstream flicking the lure across current and allowing it to swing around below me before twitching it back upstream.

After about forty minutes I finally had a bite and hooked into a feisty little trout, with a loose drag and some gentle side strain I quickly guided it into my net and there lay what could be my first sea trout of 2013! At just 25cm it was only a small one (a finnock?) and I think it was probably one of the ones that Scott had spied the day before. It may just be a silvery coloured brownie however the only way to truly establish whether it is an immature sea trout that has over wintered in the river is by testing the scales for strontium! Either way it's a salmo trutta. With a grin from ear to ear I grabbed the camera and took a few shots before releasing the fish which shot off like a bullet downstream!

Yes! The first sea trout of 2013 graces my net, or is it a brownie?

 Urban trout, brilliant!

Ecogear Grass Minnow SS proved irresistible to this trout.

Back you go...

...thanks for the shower!

Job done and time up as I only had an hour to spare, I would have to leave my pursuit of the bigger trout for another day. Its not every day when you can decide you want to go and catch a trout, head out for an hour and catch one so I was one immensely happy angler.

I will have to get more of the little pink glittery grass minnows though as the trout love them so much they have destroyed my supply!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

Note: due to conflicting opinions on whether this is a sea trout or not I have edited the post. I still believe it is a finnock that has overwintered in the river. But without the strontium test I will never be sure, still it was fun to catch though!

An extraordinary week of fishing. Part 1 : Sea trout.

On Tuesday last week we were joined by friend and fellow The Lure Forum member Ross Johnson for a week of fishing together at various marks around Scotland. Ross has been doing exceptionally well with his mission to catch as many different species as he can on lure and bait, however he still had a few species he was keen to target whilst up in Scotland! The first on his hit list was sea trout, a species which can be hard to catch at the best of times, so I wasn't sure of our chances. Scott was lacking my scepticism and had got some good advice from Martin Allison on likely spots and lures to try. After an hour and a half's drive, stopping on the way at the council offices to attain permits, we met Ross at the mark.

After a brief look about we all rigged up with a Hansen Pilgrim, a fairly traditional spoon lure. Scott and I went with silver with a blue flash and Ross went with silver with a red flash. We began to explore the shoreline of the estuary working the lures in the crease of water where tidal flow met the river current. I was keeping the lure quite high in the water with a straight medium retrieve when after ten minutes it was hit by a fish! The fish darted off and paused to shake its head in that unmistakable sea trout fashion before darting off again. I looked round to shout to Scott and Ross and no sooner had I uttered the words "fish on" it was "fish off " as the trout threw the hooks! I was disappointed but also excited as it meant there were some trout about. Ross came down to where I was fishing and I told him where I had hooked the fish. Needing no encouragement he began casting his lure and two or three casts later his rod was suddenly held high with the tip juddering as a trout had seized the lure and was madly shaking its head! Ross had wisely set his drag very loosely and gently played the fish in, cushioning its head shakes and little darting runs. Before long he had managed to beach it and a grinning Ross had landed his first ever sea trout.

Mission accomplished and pressure off the hosts! I though Sea trout were supposed to be hard to catch!

It was quickly returned and we carried on working our way down the shore. Scott had a couple of knocks and very briefly had a fish on and too I hooked and lost another fish before Ross was in again, although this time it was a mackerel! We carried on fishing and searching and before long I had another fish on which again managed to throw the hooks before Ross gave a shout and promptly landed his second sea trout of the session. Things then went quiet for a while and we headed upstream. Scott spotted a fish jumping up ahead and Ross and I quickly made our way up to where he was. At this point I decided to try and match Ross's lure so out came my spike it coloured marker and a red stripe was duly added to the lure. Literally two casts later I had a bite and struck into a sea trout. This time my drag was set very loosely and I kept the rod tip low and applied side strain. This stopped the fish from coming to the surface and thrashing which is normally where I find they can expertly throw the hooks. After a very tentative fight my first sea trout of the session was landed!

A lovely chunky fish which still had some of its brownie colouring.

Note my red colouring effort on the lure. Worked a treat!

That little tweak to the lure had made all the difference and soon I followed it up with another sea trout. This one despite my best efforts was a real leaper and made four aerial attempts at shedding the lure. Ultimately it was unsuccessful though and my second sea trout was landed and quickly returned. Ross meanwhile had caught another three trout in quick succession, one of which had spat out a live sprat when landed, showing how predatory they can be!

Ross was on a roll with some lovely silver sea trout.

All the fish were returned to continue there hungry hunt for sprats. Scott meanwhile had lost his silver Pilgrim and had been using a copper one which didn't seem to be anywhere near as attractive to the trout having only got him a couple of bumps so Ross gave him his silver and red one to fish with. Unfortunately the action dried up completely at this point and with darkness coming we decided to call it a night. All in all we were very pleased to put Ross onto his first ever sea trout and we certainly didn't expect to hook so many of them! Many thanks to Martin for his advice, I doubt we would have been successful without it!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

Slug-Go delivers yet again including another PB!

With the conditions looking good yesterday Jake and I headed down the coast for an early morning bass session. When we arrived the tide was ebbing and would turn in a few hours time. Armed with bass gear, a load of Slug-Gos and some of the new Hogy Sandeels, we started lobbing them around and it wasn't long before Jake had picked up where he left off last time and soon had the bass munching his Slug-Go as he worked it through the current.

Slug-Go strikes again!

Jake soon landed a second slightly bigger fish.

Next it was my turn. I cast out across the current and worked the Slug-Go back towards a submerged rock feature and as it passed it I felt a solid take. Rod with a nice bend in it I started reeling it in. Apart from a few rather gentle head shakes the fish was guided up into a gully with the aid of a wave and landed very quickly and I was actually quite surprised by its size!

Didn't put up much of a fight but at just over 54cm and 3lb 12oz this was a new PB!

A quick kiss before returning it!

Jake continued catching a steady stream of decent sized bass but as I wasn't, I decided to switch over to a Hogy Sandeel and hooked a bass almost straight away. It put up a great fight and I thought it may be better than my first so was surprised when it turned out to be a very feisty fish of only about 2lb. Shortly afterwards I hooked another fish and thought it fought a bit differently to my first two fish so I didn't know what to expect size wise! I certainly was however expecting to see another bass and was surprised to find out it was in fact a small pollock.

My first ever pollock from this mark fell to a Hogy Sandeel.

Meanwhile Jake was on a roll and clearly has working a Slug-Go down to a fine art and soon had caught his 50th bass of 2012. I carried on practising my technique! Jake then got bored of all the bass he was catching and decided to catch something else.

Jake catches the second pollock of the day.

The tide turned and it was at this point that a large shoal of bass began chasing tiny sandeels very close in and feeding on the surface right in front of us. A few other people fishing with controller floats and small white eels seemed to be catching smaller schoolies whilst Jake's Slug-Go was still sorting out the better fish. Whilst Jake continued catching several bass about the 2lb mark and I was trying to get my Slug-Go to do likewise, Jake hooked another bigger fish and after putting up a very good fight with several spirited runs he landed it with the help of a wave.

Jakes best bass of the day. 53cm and 3lb 14oz.

Sortly afterwards all my persistence with the Slug-Go finally paid off and I caught my third bass of the session. It gave a very good account of itself in the current which had me thinking it was a better fish than it actually was.

My third bass of the session. Despite being the smallest fish we caught at about 1.5lb it put up a good scrap in the current.

My Slug-Go skills are improving steadily!

The action died off considerably after this and after fishing on for a while we called it a day. An absolutely superb session with the Slug-Gos yet again sorting out the better sized fish. A new PB for me and also a fish each over 50cm that we can both enter into the Team Bass 2012 competition being run on The Lure Forum. We also saw a few mullet grazing in the weed beneath our feet and a couple of shoals of small sea trout swimming by so I dare say next trip along with more bass they'll also be in our sights on some ultra light tackle!

Tight lines, Hutch.