ALL THINGS GREAT AND SMALL

Hello to all

Sorry for the lack of posts folks, life outside of fishing has been very complicated as of late. So as you may have noticed? the blogging has been on hold. On a positive note my time spent water-side has been a complete contrast and the fish have been very kind to me.

I know a fella that had the idea of getting a small 14ft rib dinghy to use as a vessel to go Shark fishing....... yes I did just say Shark fishing! the man in question is none other than my ol mate and big fish magnet Julian Chidgey,when Jules has an idea; it will happen and be done with precision and in an organised manner that I'm yet to get my head around......Mans a fishing machine!
I can't thank Jules enough for inviting me to join him on the small but mighty Lamna nasus for a weekends shark fishing off the Cornish coast.

I can tell you now that this was some straight up extreme shit.10 miles off-shore in a tiny rubber boat with sharks swimming round it may sound like a scary prospect and quite stupid really? Nah....this was angling at its finest in my eye's.

My first take was nothing short of breath-taking, a group of sea gulls had clocked us chumming and throwing in fish scraps to draw the sharks to the boat.They settled next to us watching our every move in anticipation of snatching a quick snack, the birds then seemed agitated and quickly made a hasty exit  from the water, sparking up a right row. Then a big blue fin broke the surface, quickly followed by the tail as the shark dipped back under.I turned to Jules and was just about to say something when the bait-runner on the close in rod went into melt down. The adrenaline was flowing as I made a quick strike; she replied with the most aggressive run I have ever felt literally flat rodding me on a clutch one click from being on lock!.The fight these creatures posses is nothing short of arm aching,especially when your using a 3lb tc 10 ft spinning rod ( Fox Terminator ) with a 10,000 size bait runner ( Stratos ) Over the course of our trip we landed a number of blues to over the ton up mark.We also captured the action on video, so rather than going into any more detail you can expect to see a short film in the near future.

Back on dry land I have been back on the running water and have concentrated my efforts towards catching a few Barbel. Ahhh it felt good to be back on the river's, after-all most of my summer has been spent pursuing Carp and Cats on still water's. I didn't realise just how much I had missed the charm and uncertainty of wild river angling until I was actually on the bank, back in the game.
My approach has been to keep mobile, using only one rod and carrying nothing but the bare essentials.This makes for very pleasant fishing and allows the angler to cover ground with minimum fuss, it always amazes me how varied the sport can be when roving a river, there's nout like a mixed bag on a light feeder outfit,
Pleasure fishing at its finest I would say.

I also nabbed a beautiful Common Carp of 25lb 14oz during a quick over nighter on the Main at Anglers paradise....... Which was nice.

Til next time

Good luck