Tough Times

I have only managed two or three sessions since my last post and they have been tough to fruitless to be honest. I have managed Weever and only Weever on my local beach lately and find it strange I can no longer find the Turbot. 

It's been a tough year for me on the Bass front too and I am way down on previous years, even though I was expecting a better than average year after catching my first on lure on April the 1st. I was out on Thursday and fished four Miles of coast with only one rise to my surface lure, which I suspect was only a curious Mullet. A disappointing session to say the least.

It is enjoyable to be out though and beats working.

Today was another extremely tough day. I had travelled again to the North West of the Lleyn Peninsula to try some new ground. I was hoping to catch some decent Wrasse and the ground looked perfect, a nice stretch of broken up coast with good sized boulders and Kelp beds. The swell however was larger than I had expected and despite trying a myriad of lures and differing techniques I was only getting bites from small Wrasse.

I persisted with the larger lures until the last half hour of my session, then I gave in to the small bites and broke out my light game rod in order to avoid a blank.  A solo Corkwing Wrasse was happy to oblige, taking a pink Power Isome, texas rigged with a 2g weight and a size 4 hook.

I hope things pick up and I have better things to report soon.

Thanks for reading and tight lines!

Goals accomplished

Wednesday was another cracking day weather wise and I was at the beach during the day with my Wife and Children. When at the beach I can't help viewing the sea and whats going on for fishing information, viewing a few good signs I decided to hit the beach for an evening session.

If I am honest I was hoping for a Bass or two, I have yet to catch a Bass on my Blue Current and would like to know how it feels. Moving from feature to feature though I was only picking up Weever fish and was getting a bit sick of them. I tried various lures to avoid them and varying retrieves, but they are persistent buggers and I did not manage to avoid them totally.
I did however hit into a larger fish as it started to get dark and lost it, then another and lost that! I couldn't work out what they were, as it felt like Mackerel but have never seen them on my local. After a very frustrating half hour I hooked into another and was surprised as I lifted it out of the water, it was a Garfish!

Caught on a Maria paddle tail and ima Turtlehead.

It was a very welcome surprise! I have been unsuccessfully targeting them at another mark and had no idea they would turn up here. I now know why I lost the other two, as Garfish are renown for chucking a lure last minute. I returned home buzzing!
I did go out the next night armed with silk hooks and spinners but had no more, I did catch more Weever.

Saturday was my next time out and I had arranged to meet fellow Lure Forum member Gary Hay and go for a fish on the Lleyn Peninsula. Gary had never caught a Bass or a Wrasse on lure so I decided to show him a mark where a few species can be caught.
Hitting the Shore about 4:30am on an ebbing tide, I knew we were in good chance of a Bass or two. I gave Gary my best spot and instructed him on where to cast, Gary chose to use his ima Salt Skimmer and it wasn't long before la fish was putting a bend in his new Tenryu Rod Bar.

The fish were small but hitting the lures at range made it some serious fun! Gary had another three before the sun came up fully and the action died off, I was very pleased for him and a weight was off my shoulders too.

I managed two, one on a Xorus Patchinko 100 and one also on a Salt Skimmer. Here's a picture of the second.

After the action had died I changed to Fishing for Wrasse HRF style, a 3" texas rigged Senko at the business end and I soon winkled out this Wrasse.

He put up quite a scrap and is my biggest lure caught Wrasse to date, I usually catch smaller fish using my LRF setup. I was quite pleased and it was another goal accomplished.
Gary was fishing with small lures in more of an LRF style and was busy catching a lot of Pollock, though it wasn't long before he had his first lure caught Wrasse.

Gary's smile says it all and he smiled all day whilst absolutely hammering the area. Gary way out fished me, having around 60 Pollock, 20 Ballan Wrasse, a few Corkwing Wrasse and 4 Bass. It was insane, I have never seen someone begin lrf this way. I couldn't work it out and when I asked Gary said "I am only doing what you told me." I have never caught that many Wrasse in one session! He did brilliantly.

I was tempted at times to fish lrf, especially seeing the amount he was catching, but I was determined to get to grips with HRF a bit more and I did manage a few more fish. Heres a some of the fish I caught.

It proved to me that fishing bigger lures does get you bigger fish, but it would seem fishing smaller does get you more, well at least that was the case from this mark!

Gary was great company and a fish catching machine. I was so pleased to be able to put him on to the fish, I just had never anticipated him doing so well and completely wiping the floor with me numbers wise! Here's another picture of Gary with one of his many Pollock.

All in all it was a good end to my two weeks off work. I finally managed to land a Garfish, finally caught some bigger Wrasse using heavier gear and Gary managed to pop his Bass and Wrasse cherry.

'Til next time, Tight lines!

Mid Week Report.

Last week I have spent some much needed time with my family, I had my Mother and Niece visiting from back home in Suffolk. Proper nice time and a reminder that life is more than fishing.

That being said, I did pop out for a short session with my friend Tim on Saturday night. There are no fish to report, aside from a couple of lame rises to my Patchinko 100 there was little action. But fishing is more than fish, the company was great and the scenery stunning.

Sunday morning and my Mum and Niece sadly departed for home. 

My daughter was also going to a friends on the peninsula, so after checking the weather I decided to go on a little solo camp in Uwchmynydd. I have had a lot of fish there this year and the scenery is awesome. 

I found a Campsite called Ty Newydd and at 10 quid I night I decided to stay two nights. Lovely, just me, my tent, rods, reels and lures.

After setting up my tent I headed down the cliffs to a familiar mark.

The weird thing though, was the fishing was unusually slow! I usually have a lot of Pollock here at least, yet Sunday I had a few Pollock and small Wrasse. Nothing like the numbers of Pollock I am used to though.

I went for a walk to explore the coastline and just take in the breathtaking scenery.

Bardsey Island

Nice looking Mark! 

The fringes of Mark 1

There were all the right features, yet so few fish!? I persevered for a while before returning to my tent.

After a sketchy nights sleep, I headed out around 04:30 and fished with my Megabass XOR Shadow 85L rod and a Megabass Bubble Header jig on the business end. Fishing a very deep spot I had a few Mackerel.

I really enjoy shore jigging for Mackerel, I know they're easy to catch but they are a nice looking fish and they fight very well for their size. Fishing for them with jigs is also fun and wish that tinsel chuckers would cotton on to that fact, they'd have a much better time.

I was joined by a Seal and the fishing died off, I therefore decided to move to another spot.
Texas rigging a X-layer I was hoping for a Wrasse, although I have never caught on a X-Layer before and think they are overpriced rubbish.
Well I couldn't find any Wrasse but did finally catch on the X-Layer.

Could've caught that on my LRF stuff and my view of the X-Layer hasn't changed!

Changing to a cheap 3" Wave GrassCraw, I caught a better fish. At first I thought it was a Wrasse, as it was choosing to stay deep and holed up under a submerged ledge. I let out some slack and the fish took a run before I got it to the surface.

For its size it put up one heck of a scrap and though looking a bit tired, he swam off strongly.

I had a few more smaller Pollock before moving to another spot.

Again I was hoping for bigger Wrasse than I usually get and tried out a variety of lures. I ended up fishing a Texas Rigged 6" Gulp Sandworm and started getting small pecks, I knew it was a Wrasse but also knew it was small. Out came the LRF gear and I fished a variety of lures before scaling right down to the faithful ima Trilobite (ss), on a decoy size 8.

Got him!

 A beautifully coloured Wrasse and well worth the effort! Even though small, I really like lrf Wrasse,  they each have such individual character and are a lot of fun on the light gear.

The Sun had gotten to me by this stage and I returned to the tent for a cat nap and some refreshment before heading out again around sixish.

I only took the lrf gear this time and after scaling the rocks again, I caught a couple more Wrasse and a few more Pollock.

The above three were all caught on Texas rigged softies and below a Quantum Mahi jig tipped with Power Isome, a trick I learned from watching Ben Field on his Sky Video.

I left for the tent thinking the days fishing should have been better and perhaps I need to fish with some Rockfishing experts, who can show me a trick or two. I can't complain though, I didn't blank and am learning slowly.

I did get out this morning for a half hearted fish before returning home, but have nothing to report there.

I have enjoyed this week so far and still love the Lleyn Peninsula's tip. Even though the fishing was slow, It's a truly brilliant place with great views and plenty of wildlife to stimulate the senses, a great place to watch the sunset too!

I still have 'til Monday off work and will hopefully bring another report by then.

Tight lines!