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

Never mind the Podleys, here's a video!

At the beginning of April I got hold of a VEHO MUVI action camera, with the aim of filming some of the sessions. I foolishly thought that it would help me cope with the ever increasing amount of catch reports , cutting down time, but here I am writing about it as well!

At the beginning of April I managed to get a couple of sessions in back at St Abbs.On the first session we were both using our LRF gear and various tactics, dropshot, jig head rig and small metals. I had bastardised a dropshot rig replacing the weight with a 5g Xesta after burner mini jig, and an Ecogear Aqua straw tail lure on the dropshot hook.This teaser lure proved to be irresistible to the hoards of coalies and it was very hard to drag myself away. I have really missed them even though they are small they attack lures and fight like little demons. I wished I had got the first cast in though as Ritchie beat me to it landing a nice Jumbo coalie.It was hectic sport and brilliant to be getting hit every cast agin, even if it was freezing!

Gear 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

The next session was much harder, I think I managed about 6 fish but they were all better sized. Ritchie drew a very rare blank and it just goes to show how hit and miss it can be early in the year.

The videos will get better as I get used to the camera and editing software, thanks for 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