Anglesey : High spirits and LRF ghosts.

On Friday I had a job delivering antiques to North Wales and as always my fishing gear was first into the van! I had permission from the family to stay a couple of nights and so I hastily arranged to meet up with Ross Johnson who would put up with me and hopefully put me onto some fish! I had also hoped to meet up with fellow The Lure Forum member Lee Goddard, but unfortunately  Lee couldn't get any time off so that plan was scuppered before it started. After a six hour drive I unloaded the van and was free to start my time off in Wales. I have fished a bit in Anglesey before and was really looking forward to exploring it again with my lure gear. I met Ross after he had finished work and rather than do a night session we decided it would be much more civilised to have some dinner and chill with a few ciders, so we could be focused and ready for fishing on Saturday. A few turned into lots and I awoke feeling rather wretched, however after trip to the cafe to grab breakfast I felt human enough to head to my first port of call, Lyn Y Gors fishery. The plan would be to have a fish there for three or four hours then head north to the coast to hit a mini species mark at high tide.

I went into the excellent tackle shop and checked it would be OK to dropshot for perch, they were fine with this and suggested I try the pleasure lake and the reed lake. I managed to escape without entirely emptying my wallet, merely  buying some new sunglasses, and headed to the pleasure lake first. I have fished the lakes a fair bit in the past using various coarse tactics and indeed I hold the venue record for crucian carp (2lb 12oz, from the reed lake), however I have never lure fished there. I would be using my standard LRF gear 7'10" Graphiteleader Corto EX rod, Shimano Technium 3000SFC reel, 6lb Sunline Super PE. I tied a dropshot rig comprising of a four foot length of 8lb flurocarbon leader, two foot down I attached a #12 Decoy offset worm hook, with the barbs crushed, via a palomar knot and 5g dropshot weight which could be positioned from 1inch to two feet away from the hook.

Conditions were ideal for me but not ideal for perch being bright and sunny with not a drop of wind. I rigged up a two inch tail section of Gulp! Sandworm in natural colour and began to cast about the lake but it wasn't until I had reached some overhanging trees hat I had some interest. As the lure came past the tree there was a couple of bites but I couldn't connect with the culprit. Then as I was surveying the tree I noticed several large white shapes milling about under the branches, ghost carp! I cast again and brought the lure past where they were, hopping the lure across the bottom and pausing in front of them. I shook the rod tip with a little slack line which allows the worm to jerk and wriggle before lowering the rod tip and letting the lure float down to the bottom. Sure enough a couple of the carp came over to investigate and one picked up the lure, I struck and pulled it out of its mouth! This spooked them and the shoal disappeared, but it was very interesting that they were trying to take the lure.

I carried on making my way around the lake, exploring around trees and overhangs with the lure. I got halfway round the lake when I noticed a large ghost carp, with his head down and tail up grubbing about right by my feet. With shaking hands I dropped the rig right in front of him, straight away he came over to investigate and just sucked the lure into his mouth! A flick of the wrist set the hook and the fish powered off towards the floating islands making the reel sing and the rod arch over in a powerful curve. He felt heavy but the rod was quickly sapping his strength, he turned and started coming back towards me, trying to get into the tree roots beside me. A bit of side strain turned him and soon he was swimming in ever decreasing circles and before long he was at my feet. I didn't have my net with me so I gently cradled the fishes belly and lifted him out before laying him on some nice soft,damp reeds to unhook. It was a real chunk of a fish and I estimated it to be  between seven and eight pounds and probably the heaviest fish landed on my Corto Ex to date. I quickly unhooked it and grabbed a few photos before slipping him back, getting a face full of water from his tail as he powered off.

What a result! A fine ghost carp on the lure.

Even carp can't resist Gulp! Sandworm.

I estimated it at between 7 and 8lbs, as you can see he's a real chunk!

Love it, probably my biggest Ghost carp to date and on a lure too!

I felt elated. I had thought there was an outside chance of a carp but really I thought the possibility of them being interested in lures was tiny, hence no mat or net! I was also pretty impressed with the control I had over the fish with my ultra light rod. Once it goes into a good curve , it really drains the fish without yanking its mouth off and the rod soaks up the runs so it doesn't take that much line even off a fairly lightly set drag. I started to work my way back towards the reed lake as I wanted a crack at the perch in there but soon again I ran into another shoal of carp grubbing about in the margins. I made a couple of casts  and they came over to investigate the lure but they were just nudging the line before turning away unimpressed. I then decided to ditch the weight and just cast the weightless tail of gulp, this worked a charm and as I watched the lure slowly sink through the water then I saw a carp rise up and engulf it! I struck and quickly turned it to run away from the shoal before playing it in the open water. After a nice tussle he was soon landed, another nice ghostie about a couple of pounds.

I managed to grab a couple of shots of the second carp as he made his way to my hand.

Another carp falls to my lure, this time a ghost mirror around the 2lb mark.

I slipped him back and had chance to repeat the same process catching another chunky ghost of about 5lbs before I headed over to Reed Lake. I really only had about 10 minutes on there before I had to leave as it was approaching high tide so I headed back to tell the staff about my exploits before heading north to the coast.

My third carp of the session put a great bend in my LRF rod.

I unhooked this guy without landing him, and put him at about the 5lb mark.

Reed lake was so calm it was like casting into the sky.

After a short drive and a lot of climbing about I reached the mark. The plan here would be to try and target a tompot blenny as well as try and pick up some early wrasse. I stuck with the same dropshot rig I had been using at the fishery and soon enough I had landed a common blenny, then another ,then another! In total I had fifteen common blennys and not one tompot between them, Doh! I wasn't too disappointed though as a nice little ballan wrasse and a few corkwings also made an appearance and after a winter of not seeing any wrasse it was great to catch some again! Pretty soon the tide began to drop and the light began to fade signalling the end of the action, so I packed up and made my way back to the van.

Hooray! My first Ballan of 2013 and probably my smallest ever.

The first corkwing of 2013, a brightly coloured male and quite a chunk too!

I have really missed wrasse over the winter, so it was great to catch them again.

The last fish of my Anglesey adventure, a nice female corkwing wrasse.

I drove back to meet Ross, who had just started to recover from the previous nights' exploits and we headed to grab a take away. We scoffed the food then grabbed our beachcasters and set off to the north west coast to try for conger and bull huss. Night fishing is always very atmospheric and was even more so for me as we climbed around on the rocks in the dark. We weaved our way over dark deep gullies and down slippy glass like weed covered rocks to the mark. We were fishing fairly at close range targeting the rock ledges and gullies with mackerel baits. Ross was first in with a nice huss which he allowed to self release at his feet. I had a couple of dropped runs but Ross's fish was to be the only one we saw before we had to call it a night and head back.

What a day! I was really chuffed I had manged to pack so much fishing into such a short space of time and I was still buzzing about the carp all the way back to Edinburgh! All in all it was another great trip to Anglesey and made much more fun because of Ross' great hospitality. I now owe Ross a fishing trip up here so when he gets a chance I really want to show him our north west coast, who knows what we can turn up there!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

NB : Whilst I am experienced in catching and handling carp I would never advocate fishing for them without a landing net or a unhooking mat.

Markle magic!

On Saturday I had a job in Dunbar delivering some furniture, as always I managed to fit my LRF gear in the van and I hoped to have a fish around the harbour once the job was done. Sure enough after the job I had plenty of time for a fish and rigged up a dropshot rig comprising of a 7g weight, #12 offset worm hook rigged with a section of Gulp! Sandworm. I fished around the harbour in all our usual haunts but it was devoid of any fish. It was not unexpected as the harbour goes really quiet over the winter but still a bit disappointing. I needed to catch something so I decided to pop into Markle Fisheries on my way back into Edinburgh. I know Markle very well as it's my go to fishery for trout on the fly, however on this occasion I would be fishing the Kin Loch using my LRF gear. I popped into speak to John, the fishery owner, to just double check that this would be OK by the rules. He was fine with this so I paid for my permit and hurried down to the loch.

Markle is a very well run fishery and is clean and litter free so I was really disappointed to see a lurid blue crisp bag stuck in the willows where I was intended to fish. I was muttering about irresponsible anglers when the "crisp bag" suddenly sprouted wings and flew off in a flash of iridescent blue and red. Doh! I really want to get some nice photos of kingfishers and that was a chance missed but it was brilliant to see such an iconic bird happy and well at my favourite fishery! As the rod was already set up with a tail section of gulp sandworm I decided to start with this and see how the trout reacted. I followed the wind and chose to fish the end of the loch where the wind was blowing onshore. My first cast was along the shore about ten feet out and I began to twitch and shake the rod causing the lure to shiver and writhe. I then hopped the lead back along the bottom a couple of feet then paused and began shaking the rod tip again. I had worked the lure back about twelve feet when I felt a couple of plucks at the lure before the soft tip arched over as the fish grabbed the lure and made off with it. A flick of the wrist set the hook and I was into my first rainbow of the day. The fish took off making some strong darting runs and the marvellous progressive playing action of the rod came into effect, softly curving when the fish darted away soaking up its power without having to give line. The fish was quickly subdued and as it came towards me I managed to get a few shots of it breaking the surface before it was landed. Brilliant! A first cast fish always leaves me grinning like an idiot and it was a nicely conditioned rainbow of about 1.5lb .

The first rainbow of the session makes an appearance.

I love the colours on this fish as it breaks through the dark winter water.

A freezing winters day prize, a rainbow of about 1.5lbs.

Next cast, again the same happened, another fish seized the lure and began to tear about sending the rod into that satisfying bend as it was played towards me. This one was a bit bigger at 2lbs and again was a great conditioned fish. Annoyingly I had not charged the battery on my camera and I could only get some pics of it in the water before the battery ran out.

This rainbow was a bit bigger at 2lb and again in great condition.

I fished on for another twenty minutes and had a further five fish up to 2lb and they were all great fun to catch on my LRF gear. The final fish I caught made me rue not charging my battery as it went aerial and made some really high jumps as it was being played in.

Still it was an eventful short session and a real eye opener as far as drop shotting for trout goes. I had no idea it would be so successful and I had felt that it lacked finesse, the trout thought otherwise though and gave me some excellent sport. I will have to go back to Markle soon and next time with a fully charged battery, the kingfisher and leaping trout await!

Tight lines, Schogsky.

Fun with Scorpions.

After what seems like an age my time off work finally coincided with some settled weather and I managed to get to the coast to take advantage of it. The past few weeks has provided meagre pickings and we have suffered a few blanks whilst hunting the canals, so I was just really keen to catch something. With this in mind I headed down to East Lothian to a scorpion and blenny hotspot. I was keen to continue my searching of the deep rock pools and gulleys at this mark as it can hold a surprise or two! It was low tide, calm and sunny  when I arrived I started fishing a Slug-Go mounted on a football jighead and began to jig it alongside the kelp. I was hoping to find some pollock lurking but after half an hour I decided to target the rock pools in the hope of some scorpions. I broke out my LRF kit, 7'10" Graphiteleader Corto EX rod, Shimano Technium 3000SFC reel, 6lb Sunline Super PE, 2' fluorocarbon leader and on the business end a 1.5g #10 Decoy Rocket jighead with a small tail section of pink Isome. I bounced the Isome along side the big boulders and crevices in the rocks and within minutes a long spined sea scorpion had dashed out and engulfed the lure. It was promptly landed and after a bit of spiky defiance it was released after a quick photo.

The first long spined sea scorpion of the day

It was great to get off the mark and with the sun on my back it was actually quite warm! I carried on searching the gulley and managed to tempt a succession of scorpions to attack my Isome section and with the weather so pleasant it was the perfect chance to play with my camera . A polarized lens filter got rid of the surface glare which allowed me to see down into the rockpools and I managed to get some nice photos of the fish in the water.

The polarized filter really helped see into the clear rockpools.

Such stunning colours on this fish, I would love a guitar painted in scorpion purple!

A close up of the little devil.

What a marvelous little fish!

Another scorpion seizes the lure, a real red finned beauty.

I love the gold highlights on this scorpion.

As I worked my way down the gulley I saw a fish about 8" in length gently cruising round the pool. At first I thought it was a small pollack but as I stalked it I could see it was actually a little ling! The smallest one I have ever seen and it was with fevered anticipation that I gently lowered my Isome into its lair. The fish turned around and came over to inspect the lure as it was gently twitching on the bottom, where upon it spied me and just totally disappeared into the rock strewn pool. It was a bit frustrating but exciting none the less as it was another unusual fish the mark has thrown up.

I then decided to move further down the coast to see if there were any bass about, this turned out as fruitless as my earlier pollock hunting and again after about an hour of working the slug go I turned my attention to the local blenny population.

The blennys were as obliging as ever and I had soon racked up a dozen or so on the Isome / jighead combo before I called it a day and headed back to Edinburgh.

Blennys, they always seem to have such a cheeky look about them!

Raaaahhhh! Watch your fingers!

It was great to be back fishing the sea again and even better to catch such wonderfully coloured fish , proving that they don't have to be big to be fun. As always I can't wait to get out again!

Tight lines, Schogsky.