GONE FISHING

Hello to all

I cant believe that its nearly August already!!! where does time go?

If you have been following the British lure fishing championships you will know that a salt water series has been added to the roster for 2015.

I attended the very first BLAC salt water event which was held at Portland near Weymouth,I have always wanted to have a go there as I have seen many awesome pictures of big Wrasse as well as some hefty Bass posted up on facepaint.The rules for the saltwater comp differ to the freshwater heats as it is all about the number of different species caught rather than overall length,Which I think makes for a much fairer and interesting challenge!

It was a scorching day with a light breeze blowing, perfect Wrasse conditions I thought.My plan was to try and bag a Ballan at the start of the match then search around rockpools and slacks to try and maximise my species count,I had both LRF and HRF rods to hand but it was the latter that I started with in the hopes of a pig of a Wrasse.The terrain looked amazing and certainly wasn't for the faint hearted.after spending around an hour casting slug like soft plastics on the Texas rig, I had caught bugger all and was staring at a blank scorecard,I couldn't find a Ballan or a Pollock, so it was time to break out the spracking setup and go scratching.

I setup a size 14 hook on a leader of 6lb fluro carbon to which I mount a sliding 4g olivette sinker,I dropped a small peice of Isome worm into a dark slack spot which instantly scored me a long spined sea scorpion.

Happy days I love those little creatures,after exploring a few more spots I had caught 4 Corkwing Wrasse which I was really pleased with but wondered where the hell the Ballans had got to? (the capture of the Corkwing puts me on 32 ultra light lure caught species) 

With only 2 species on my score-sheet I decided to target the rockpools,the trouble was that most of them had already been plundered by other anglers but eventually I found Tyrone Norah winkling a few Shanny out of a secret pool he had discovered,I sneaked in and managed to poach a Shanny of my own which put me on 3 species just in time to make it back to the car park for the results.

I was pipped of the podium finish on the biggest fish rule as me and Julian Chidgey had both caught 3 species each,he caught a Ballan Wrasse that was 2 cm larger than my biggest Corkwing.That twice now,last time it was a matter of a single centimetre that done me out of a top spot at Ferry meadow last year,still a place in the final will do nicely at this stage.

 Devon boyz rule!

On other exploits I have been back after the Bass and Mullet on light tackle, a truly marvellous way to kill a few hours.I also caught my first Spotted Ray thanks to the guidance of my buddy Jon Goodfella's Pattern so thanks for that mate,was a good crack and a hell of a hike.

Til next time

Good luck