Its Not A Competition, Right?

Myself and young Ben have had a fairly bad run of late, even during days when we have had textbook conditions, the fishing has hardly set the world alight.

We have both remained pretty determined to keep on slogging it out however and today we headed up to the North Peninsula for some Rock-fishing.

Our mark looked promising on arrival; a slight westerly breeze blew as the tide rose. Water clarity was near to perfect and Launce were smashing baitfish in the margins, everything looked a bit better than what we have become accustomed to this year.

We had our day pretty much planned; we decided to fish the natural harbour area with light game gear until the ebb and then move to access the deeper water on the ebb.
Ben has just started out lrf'ing and it has been quite refreshing hearing someone so excited about it, especially given some past comments from him on the subject. :)
Ben was actually first into the fish, catching a couple of greedy Launce, but refused to have his picture taken with one.

I was fishing for Wrasse using a Texas rigged HTO Mini Stick in Ayu, which are my "to go" light Wrasse bait these days. Although I was getting bites pretty instantaneously, a Wrasse would not be my first fish, in fact it was a Launce.

Apologies for the quality of the picture, for some reason I find these fish difficult to photograph, which is a shame because they are a nice looking fish.
I found this capture really strange though, I never thought their jaws would be strong enough to expose a weedless hook let alone pull it through the lure!

It wasn't long before I did get some Wrasse though, one of them even managing to reef me before I got it out, I would have sworn it to be bigger!

As I was fishing for the Wrasse, I spotted a Scorpion fish on a ledge just by me and called Ben over. Ben took a peek and with true lrf stealth, he stalked the fish and offered his white HTO Mini Stick. It was proper kool watching the wee Scorpion dart off the ledge to intercept and engulf Ben's lure, his first Sea Scorpion on lure too!

Shortly after this I also managed a first for me; I cast out my Ayu Mini Stick towards a pot buoy and let the lure fall through the column, when I got hit! I knew it wasn't a Wrasse and thought it to be a Pollock, yet to my surprise after a pretty good scrap I actually landed a Codling, my first ever on lure.

I was and am pretty pleased about that one!

Another Wrasse followed before the bites went off the boil a bit;

 With the bites starting to decrease I scaled down to fishing a 1.5g #10  Jighead and a Berkley Gulp Angleworm. Bites again were pretty instant and I caught a succession of Corkwing Wrasse and Blennies;

The fish that bites back!

Ben also followed suit!

After having our fill with the seriously small stuff, we moved off to try our luck with some HRF tactics in deeper water.
Ben was having trouble with the Ballan Wrasse today and hadn't caught one. Even with the move he struggled to turn his bites into hookups, I really felt for him as I bagged up.

Fair play to Ben though he persevered and switching back to lrf tactics eventually managed to catch a couple of Ballan Wrasse.

Well with that we decided to call it a day; well almost! "Time for one last cast?" I asked Ben, "Yeah OK" Ben replied.

I did give Ben a bit of grief over getting such a battering, but hey, its not a competition right?

Well all in all, a pretty enjoyable days fishing, nothing big, nothing epic, just enjoyable!

Tight lines.

Gear I used;

Rods;
Breaden GTRF85 PE Special Houri Island
HTO Rockfish Revolution 7'10" 7-28g

Reels;
'12 Daiwa Luvias 2506H
Shimano Complex CI4+ F6 2500HGS

Lines;
YGK Jigman X4 0.5PE
Duel X-Wire 0.8PE
Seaguar Ace Fluorocarbon leader
Varivas Fluorocarbon Leader

Lures;
HTO Mini Sticks
Berkley Gulp Angleworm
HTO 3.8" Pro-Worm
HTO 3.8" Real Stick
Nories Ladyfish

Terminal Tackle;
Texas cone weights 2g-14g
Gamakatsu G-Lock hook #2 (more like a 4)
Decoy Rockfish Hook #1/0

A Couple of sessions in Cornwall.

Recently I have been on holiday in Cornwall with my family. I didn't do a lot of fishing and neither did I want to, I intended to spend some quality time with my daughters and that certainly went to plan. We spent time bodyboarding, sightseeing and a bit of shopping, it was all good.

I did hope to meet up wit Josh Fletcher (twice winner of the Cornish lure festival species comp) for a short session, but that didn't arise unfortunately.

I did however manage a short session in Mevagissey.

Mevagissey is well known to the lrf species hunters and a variety of fish are reported to be caught there. Typically, the day I picked to go the fishing was tough and really didn't meet my expectations. Heavy showers and a low tide made things both difficult and unpleasant. I did however manage a few small Pollock, a Long Spined Sea Scorpion (my first of the year) and some Blennies.

My girls especially liked the Blennies and laughed when they bit me!

I had hoped to get a Goldsinney Wrasse, but those wee buggers are still eluding me and its becoming most frustrating!

On my last night in Cornwall it just so happened that Scott happened to be down and after a day on the beach I met up with him. We took a trip down to Fowey which is another spot frequented by light gamers and again the fishing was tough! Even Scott struggled a bit and he was using fresh Ragworm as bait.

I managed a couple of Long Spined Sea Scorpions and Scott caught a Tompot Blenny, A small Plaice, some Long Spined Sea Scorpions and some crabs.

Though the fishing wasn't epic, it was just great to spend some time with Scott again and it was a nice calm moonlit night to be out.

The only pictures I have are of my fish, unfortunately I forgot my camera so the shots were taken on Scotts phone.

The last fish hooked that night was by me and it was a species that has given me nightmares since Jersey last year; the Topnot. I hooked and lost one at Bouley bay in Jersey, I was gutted, it's such an unusual species and I'd have loved to have landed it.

Well at Fowey I managed to hook another and on the retrieve, I managed to get my hook and fish stuck in some weed on the harbour wall and thought I'd lost it for sure! Scott came to help me and after some time we managed to free my hook and fish, I started to celebrate and thought that was it, home free. Still to my disbelief however, as I lifted the fish up the harbour wall, the Topnot managed to shake itself free and I once again was robbed of my prize! Gutted again.

We did laugh about it too, but I have to say it wasn't my most defining angling moment.

Oh well, I just hope its third time lucky with the Topnot, but I do not know where I will again find one. Well it was on that loss that ended my time with Scott and also where I shall end my report.

Tight lines.