LURIN EM IN

Hello to all

My have things changed since my last blog post, the last time i put fingers to keys it was boiling hot and light til 10pm....not any more you, can feel winter is on its way. Plus I have a few days afloat on Chew this week so its bound to proper shite it down, not that I'm a pessimist but being prepared for the worst can offer us a bonus if it doesn't right?

My ultra light lure rod is still firmly glued to my hand,I even managed to qualify for the B,L,A,C ( British lure angling championship) final's that were held at Chew valley.

After failing to qualify locally on the Exeter canal and River Tone I had one last chance to fix that,a long drive up to Peterborough to fish Ferry meadows was my last option,since fishing the other qually's I had learnt alot about the art of lure fishing so my confidence was  higher.I had never fished or seen the venue before arrival  but what I did know was that the lake had a big head of Perch.whilst spying on the other competitors I noticed the bulk of them were throwing large plastics and spin baits targeting Pike and Zander.

my plan was to fish tiny shads ( micro fry or 1 inch kopyto's on 1-3.5 g jig heads to target the shoals of small Perca's, it seemed me and my partner for the day Rick Mitchell were the only ones doing this.From the off I was into sprak sized perch and was soon filling the catch form,I also netted a bonus jack which put me in good contention to qualification.

I finished the competition in 2nd place which I was really pleased with,first place eluded me by 1 cm,the winner being Asia Davies with a catch of 6 jacks which just pipped me to the podium.

for me the final was a complete contrast of ferry medows,I went big and even bigger! in the hopes of a donkey Pike.I wasnt at Chew to win the compition,sure it would be nice to be crowned champion but the calibre of lure anglers that I was up against would surly not let such a thing happen.plus the fact I have been lure angling all of 6 months, if I were to win such a title I think I would feel a bit stupid.

Anyway I blanked like a gooden,but still it was nice to be involved in such a great event.I must thank Julian Chidgey for his hard work , vision and organisation.Plenty other lure exploits have gone on including some double figure pike on the ultra light which is always fun.

the species count is now up to 20 with the recent capture of lure caught roach and rudd. With a bit of thinking and the right lures it seems that most coarse fish can be tempted through the use of artificial's

Til next time

good luck

WALKING AND WAITING

Hello to all

As the heatwave draws to an end I hope you have been out making the most it, while of course still moaning about how hot and sweaty it is along the way. Long walks with lots of luggage are not a good idea as I found out the hard way after misplacing the handles of my barrow, but anyway enough waffle and on to some fishing.

The Carp are still on my brain so I have been out on a few jaunts in a bid to capture a few.The results haven't been amazing but I have still managed to put a few on the bank none the less,a quick session on a local still-water gifted me with a stunner of a ghost carp caught on the same tactics I explained in my last blog post.

                             

Mean while I have very much struggled in my pursuit of a running water carp, a few of my mates have caught some belter's this season but not me. My time will come, and I like to think if I hadn't have spent so much of my recent time lure angling I'm sure I could have tripped a few up.But then again, I wouldn't of caught all the fish I have had on the lures would I?

I guess it boils down to the fact of there being too many fishes and not enough time to make it all happen as quickly as I want it to, but never mind that back to the lure stuff.

In the last week I have added 5 new species to my ultra light hit list bringing the tally up to 18. the new fish are as follows, Bass , Mullet , Chub , Brown trout , Horse mackerel

 The most significant capture on that list has to be the Mullet,I have been watching these funny creatures for year's now but never have I found myself targeting these tricky feeder's;until now that is.The ultra light fishing has really opened up a whole world of excitement and adventure. I must thank the likes of Julian Chidgey,Adam Moxey and Steve Moore for opening my eyes to the method and giving me a few pointer's along the way.Now ,about these Mullet, As a species these fish are very unexploited.As some of you may know they are very picky when it comes to what they eat, in most cases they will be feeding on tiny items that would require a magnifying glass and a size 50 hook.They are also very alert fish and will spook off at the sight of a intruding baseball cap or the slightest flail of an arm.During the warmer months you will find them mooching way up from the sea and into the fresh water of the rivers, this is where I have observed this behaviour but until I had caught the ultra light bug I have always  been content just to watch them whilst targeting other species,god had I been missing a trick!

I have heard them being dubbed as the poor mans bone fish, and after hooking my first of the species I could see why. talk about pound for pound, my first must have just about scraped the 3 mark but my god did it scrap.Proper smoked my baby reel out whilst bending the rod like it was made out of rubber,you get the picture,Mullet are the nuts!

tacticly we had to be a bit clever to get the bites,Myslf and Mox had noticed a group of Mullet milling about in shallow water,they could be seen mouthing streams of weed and feeding on algea.We didnt have any algea on us so instead we mounted the tiney-est pieces of green isome worm on a 1g size 12 jig head tied to a 6lb flurocarbon trace,the odd fish would show interest but as quickly  as the lure was sucked in it would be blown back out leaving you a split second to set the hook.Awesome stuff!

Chub have also been great sport on the light lures, a trip to the River Tone saw me score a butt load of fish to the 3lb mark on micro crankbaits fished on or slightly below the surface,the takes are explosive and very sudden,most fish nailed the lure so hard there was no need to lift or strike,these fish wanted it.

Credit to Marcin Kwasniewski for showing us round his stomping ground and guiding us all to lots of hook-ups,good times.

I,m trying to work out where I can add some more species to the ultra light hit list for now.

Til next time

Good luck

CATCHING UP

Hello to all

this months fishing has been very different to the last, its been a very busy month and I am pleased to say that I have caught a number of species with some reaching what is deemed as specimen proportions.Some say that variety is the spice of life,now I do tend to agree with that somewhat, but if you are addicted or in love with something, or maybe someone; it can be hard to look beyond that and see what else is out there.

Many angler's fall foul of pursuing only one type of fish, and even limiting themselves to one method in extreme cases.I have been doing a spot of still water carping lately and the amount of " I only fish for carp mate " is shocking in my eyes.Some of these Carp water's have allot more than a 30 plus carp to go for but it seems the one tracked mindedness of some are willing to completely over look alternative pleasures.

I'm not knocking such people, as it is completely up to them how they get their kicks but I personally like to fish a variaty of waters and find fresh challenges when it comes to mine.

I have been doing a bit of  brushing up my carp skills and putting some of the new Edges range to the test on a very pressured water not to far from home.
drop off in-line system with 3oz leads to an 8 inch length of 15lb reflex tied knot-less knot style to a size 6 ssbp snared me 4 stunning carp to 21lbs, snow man hook baits over a light scattering of cell boileys was all that was needed to trip them up.

Running water adventures have also proved fruitful, my first session of the season gifted me a specimen chub of 6lbs 8oz,Devon ain't exactly big chub central so to say I was rather chuffed would be fair.3 others over the 5lb mark have also graced my landing net,one fish was so feisty he kicked off whilst I was unhooking him leaving a barbed size 4 jammed right into my middle finger under the nail itself. Fair play I thought, after all I had just dragged the fella out of his watery home by his lips!.A four hour wait in A&E was my punishment for doing so.

I must thank my mate Del boy for taking me out smoothy fishing the other night,
Whilst talking about a rock mark I have been LRF fishing recently he informed me of resident Conger eel, Bull huss and even a run of pretty smooth hounds " really" was my reaction. "yes Chrissy" he replied,
 I love sharks and have never caught either a Huss nor a smoothy. Del promised me both and if there's ever a fisherman that I can count on its Del,after-all man catches fish to live.

A couple hours of night fishing from a small boat was enough to catch numerous hard fighting smoothy's to around the 5lb mark  plus the cutest little bull huss,
 job done! all the fish were caught on basic running ledgers with a long trace of 30lb amnesia to a long shank 1\0 sea hook baited with fresh peeler crab.

unfortunately I left my camera behind but there will always be a next time.

Big up Mox and Mario for qualifying for the British lure fishing championship finals,good effort lad's you both deserve it.

Til next time

Try something different, and most importantly enjoy your fishing

SPRAK HUNTING

Hello to all

I hope you are out enjoying this glorious warm weather and catching a few fishes along the way.
Finally the world cup is here! lets hope England  go all the way and win it! but lest face it, there's more chance of catching a Great White from the the canal than that happening.

There is something else I have been quietly looking forward to and that is the opening of the new river fishing season.I took a stroll along my local bit of running water with my trusty dog to see if we could spot any fish and wet our appetite.

It was a boiling hot morning and having spent a long spell of my angling career on the river I had a good idea of where I might find a Carp or two. sure enough my experience  had proved me correct,the first location we visited held two carp.They both were only small fish maybe just touching double figures , I sat there watching them for around half an hour,both fish were feeding and the thought of doing a bob james was very tempting but I have never fished a river out of season and nor was I about to do so.

Only a few days now before we can enjoy the river's legally.

Fishing-wise I'm still firmly on the ultra light lure fishing, for all you reader's that prefer the big fish stuff don't worry I have a few trips for grande's locked in the near future.But for now I'm playing species hunter on the sprak bashing gear.

I'm now up to 13 species,with 9 of them coming from the sea.

Most of the mini species have been snared on Isome sections mounted on a 1-3.5g jig head,I love the look of these mini beasts that lurk beneath the rocks and kelps.Proper little monster's that are very aggressive biter's considering there small stature.

Lets hope I can add to my species list and also catch some big fish.

Til next time

Good luck

ULTRA LIGHT DELIGHT

Hello to all

My fishing has taken somewhat of a twist as of late, a few months ago I wouldn't of dreamt of spending almost a month of my summer fishing time exclusively lure fishing, but that's exactly what has happened,What can I say? I'm hooked.

The last few weeks have produced hundreds of fish for me. Sure, there not all 20 lb er's nor are they 20 ouncer's , hell; some would scrape it to make 20 drams but this ultra light lure fishing is just so much fun and with a balanced set up even the smallest of fish can give a good sporting account of its self making for very enjoyable angling.

The visual aspect of lure fishing is also a big draw for me, seeing your quarry smash the lure is awesome.I was out with Mox and Mario the other day casting small floating frogs for Pike, that bow wave follow before the strike had us cheering the fish on like we were at the local dog track.On another adventure myself and Moxy set out to catch some Perch on our local canal, From the off we were into the ever reliable sprack Perch on 1 inch soft plastics mounted on a 1-2 gram jig heads.Half an hour or so into the session Moxy's rod hooped over double,I hoped it to be a perch but it seemed old jack had crashed the party! after an epic battle with some proper clutch smoking runs Mox gently chinned the lil fella for a quick snap before sending him on his way.

After a swift bevvy we moved up to a new swim, on the first cast I connected into a solid weight.I under armed the lure out and felt it down on a tight line when out of the blue it was plucked from my fingers mid drop, I lifted the rod igniting a melter of a run! this fish was ploughing deep and I could not do a sausage to persuade her otherwise.

"I gotta big ol croc on here buddy" or so I thought, man alive; this fish was leading me a merry dance, we were laughing at the whole ordeal as I had my left hand two thirds up the rod trying to give the fish a little back.I just had to do the run around, hang on and pray the fish didn't find a snag. After ten or so minutes we still had not seen the the fish, more madness passed before the creature rose from the depths.Naturally we expected to see the flank of a large Esox thrashing through the clear water but would I be !"£$+% "Did you see that?"I enthused.Carp onnn! I assumed that it had been foul hooked but as the fight wound to a tiresome end we could clearly see the little white jig hanging from the lip of a beautiful old canal Common.

What a jammy git we joked,she went potty when netted giving us a proper soaking,upon removing the hook I noticed it had straightened slightly.If the rod had been any heavier I don't think I would have landed the fish

What a fluke! 18lb 1oz of predatory Carp lol. As I mentioned in the last blog I have also been dabbling with that big old pond that the call the Sea.Salt water fishing has never really been at the for-front of my angling,but as the fishing goes on I'm looking to branch out a bit and take advantage of all the the coast we have available here in Devon.

One species that has really caught my attention lately is the Wrasse,these pretty hard fighting fish come in a variety of couler's and patterns, almost chameleon like to there surroundings.I,m yet to catch a decent one but Have caught a few on the drop-shot which Moxy discovered to be deadly method when we were fishing the local dock one evening

Other than the drop shot fishing I have been plopping around with the LRF ( light rock fishing )
Which has proved to right laugh,it amazed me just how many different types of little beasties live down in the dark sanctuary of the near shore rocks, infact pretty much all this sea fishing stuff is new to me which makes it all the more exciting. last weekend I had the whole of the day to try and catch as many species as I could,I started of on the docks using a 1g jig head with a artificial rag worm.This caught me lots of  Gobies and Blennys but there were no signs of the Wrasse or Pollock.After meeting up with Mario and Moxy we headed off to the canal for some fresh water action,We spent the afternoon catching lots of perch on small jigs and a few pike on surface popper's but after a few hours we decided to return to the salt water to fish the incoming tide.

Good job we did too, as it went off! I caught two stunning Wrasse on the Drop shot then switched to the micro jigs and got into some scrappy Pollock,the hits they give on the light tackle are proper wrenchers.A shoal of small fish to the 2lb mark had gathered in front of us to eat all the fry that could clearly be seen balling up in slack water.I also caught a Mackerel which fought like a demon,only a fish of a 1lb but my god do they scrap.

                                      

7 species in a day made for a good result,I think I might do some Cat fishing and a spot of Carping in the near future,perhaps i'll visit my old friends Dave Lidstone and Paul Powers down at Emperor lakes.

Til next time

Good luck

SPANISH LESSONS

Hello to all

These drawn out summer evenings are brilliant! the last few weeks have seen me on the banks almost every day.Mainly local, quick after work sessions on the lures but aside from that, I have also ventured down some steep rocky cliff paths in search of salt water action, a pursuit I rarely ( for some reason ) indulge in.

But firstly, let us not forget my Spanish lessons on the Segre.

As readers of this blog will know,I'm no stranger when it comes to Catfish and Carp; but the fact of it is I had never caught a really large sample of either species.The mighty Spanish river systems of the Segre and Ebro hold enormous creatrure's with the carp touching 70lbs and the Cats in at a bone crunching 240 plus!

If there was ever a place to catch a lump, this was it!

However such waters are not much like the rivers I have tackled here in the UK, oh no! The Segre is a daunting sprawl of river with widths of up to 600 yards and a flow that often requires 3lb of lead to hold bottom.Not the sort of place you would turn up to and fish blind so we opted to book a trip with the help of the good folk at Cat master tours.These guys are like the A-team of Wels hunter's and main man Colin Bunn has caught more giant fish than I've had hot dinner's so it was an easy choice when it came to choosing a guide.

A week long trip in the company of fishing buddy's Danny boy , Al the hurricane and pickle was exactly what the doctor ordered.I don't think I have ever had a week without life's needs and musts getting in the way of a such an angling binge.

The weather was hot,  and the lager's cool, as was our bitch for the week ( Ryan ).who gracefully put up with us lot, and didn't even mention the dead bird we scooped out the water,  then covered in that  carp goo crap and left on his bivvy table as an air freshener.But on a serious note all the guys at Cat masters are top lad's that do their up-most to keep you well fed, comfortable, and most importantly guide you to a fish of a lifetime.

over the course of the week we all had ton up catfish, as did our Swedish friends Henrick and Bo.It was a very social trip with us all pitched together sharing the runs lottery style.This is not essential as you are welcome to fish your own two rods, but by the end of the week it had only been 3 out of the 8 rods that did all the catching so if we were to have fished our own rods there would have been some rather sour looking faces on the journey home.

All the Cats fought like Demons with some of them beating us up a bit. After landing a 141lb fish I had bruises around my groin from digging the butt of the rod to gain more leverage against the heavy flow and a lump on the hook. Awesome stuff!

Aside from our target species we did a spot of feeder fishing and caught some cracking Roach. Zander also featured in our catch which were great fun on ultra light lure fishing tackle.

the majority of Carping was done from a boat which proved very use-full for exploring the many inaccessible ( from land ) area's the river had to offer, however the largest carp we had was caught from the bank. Al the hurricane destroyed his p.b with a strapping 38lb 2oz common so well done that man.

We all had a proper hoot and got some pb's smashed, if your thinking about a trip to Spain I can't recommend Cat master tours enough!Thank you Colin Ryan and Ash and big up Henrick and Bo Bo,We'll be over shoon to catch your pikes and zanders.

Til next time

Good luck

IN A SPIN

Hello to all

As I sit and write, I can feel that warm tingle on my face from all the sun I have exposed myself too.I gotta stop forgetting the sun cream, Anyway my angling exploits have taken me some miles this month and I'm starting to really feel the lack of sleep catching up with me.

There is a lot of catching up to do as I have very busy on the banks but have found little time to put it to pen, to start of with let me just confess my new found love of lure fishing. I sneaked a couple of sessions on the river before the close season hit us tacking a few good doubles on the trusty shad hammer,whilst slowly bouncing  perch replicants  through slack water.

over the last few weeks I have made thousands of casts, firstly I fished a BLAC (British lure angling championships) qualifier on the Exeter canal, Lets just say that was some what of an eye opener. Just like my pal Julian predicted it was the perch anglers that really stole the show. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm complete novice in the art of lure fishing but the guy I was paired with (Dan Sissons) most defiantly was not.The first thing I noticed was how small the lures (20mm shad with a 1g jig-head) he had rigged up on his rods were. after a chat he explained to me he intended on using tiny cute little lures to bag up on small perch, after all a big fish can also take a small lure can't it?

I took us to an area I knew held some perch as they had been following a large spinner bait I had been using there a few days before.We arrived in the swim and I put on a nice shiny replicant twist in a roach pattern fresh out the packet, there on the far margin stood a nice overhanging bush which most often houses a pike or two, lets get the lure right under it I thought.....Wrong, like a complete bell-end I lobbed it straight into the bush and had to crack the lot off.

I don't think Dan noticed or perhaps he was to polite to laugh,either way I had quite literally got off to a cracking start.But enough about my noddy exploits,this dude from Portsmouth was slaying it. He was working  micro lure's close to the near bank, consistently catching small perch along with the odd micro jack. his impressive catch earned him a qualifying position in the final which will be held at the mighty Chew valley reservoir.

I finished the match with a perch of 15 cm which saved me from an embarrassing blank on my own turf, still I learned a lot from my time watching Dan and yes I now have my own ultra light set up (a 6ft 3-12g casting rate rod coupled with an ultron 1500 loaded with 10lb braid) and I'm pleased to say In the short time I have owned it I have caught lots of  Perch, some jack pike which really go like stink when they realise there hooked and a few Zander to the 5lb mark.

This method of fishing I have found to be very absorbing and addictive, and best of all lots of fun.

The next lure fishing adventure had no place for the ultra light tackle or baby lures, a qualifier on Chew saw lots of familiar faces from the pike fishing scene and beyond all gathered outside the lodge like excited children waiting for the sweet shop to open.The prospect of a bit of unseasonal lure angling on what is considered the best Pike water in Europe had us all going stir crazy.

I was hoping for it to be a bit of a turkey shoot but on the day we found the pike to be very inquisitive in that we had lots of follows from big and small pike, but they just weren't feeling angry let alone hungry.however some pike were willing to have a go and during the 6 hours we had afloat I managed 2 pike and a rainbow trout of the surface, which went totally ballistic giving me a proper scrap. However trout did not count towards the total so I finished with a un- qualifying length of 115 cm, else where on the water John Horsey's boat partner landed a 20lb plus Pike which I believe was the only big Pike of the heat. But fish of the day had to go to local lad Danny Parkins who had a 9 inch swim bait engulfed by a 3lb 8oz Perch, what a jammy git! 

Aside from the lures I have also been doing some serious bait and wait fishing, a trip to the awesome river Segre in Spain saw me and the boys embark on a epic adventure in search of silly sized Cat fish and Carp.And yeah I did take my ultra light lure set-up as I believe there to be some good Zander fishing also.

But that's a whole different story.

Until next time

Good luck