South Devon Part 1

 

Challaborough & Gara Rock Area

Myself and my younger brother Sam headed to Challaborough to catch the low tide on our first day in South Devon. We got there for around 6am just as first light began to show and worked our lures off the rocks to the right of the beach. It was very flat unlike the last time we were here and the water was gin-clear. After spending an hour there with no luck we moved around to the right to fish off a few rocky outcrops and channels. This picture (right) being the furthest we went round. Again we spent a few hours trying various spots with all different depths covered with the lures to no avail. My brother carried on fishing the channels in hope of his first 2012 bass whilst I admitted defeat and got the LRF gear out for a bit of fun. I had a good haul of minis including this shanny and tompot blenny below. All the fish were caught on a 1g size 12 jighead fished with red Power Isome. Irresistable to these little monsters.

 I also caught a few scorpion fish but I'm not sure if one of them is a short spined. I had 3/4 of them and this one was a little different but I'm not an expert with scorpion fish so if anyone can tell from these pictures please let me know. The bottom picture is definitely a long spined but I'm not so sure with the top one.

 

Gara Rock Area

The next day we decided to try for a few wrasse around Gara Rock. Heading out to hit the tide half way up we were greeted by lovely sunshine and some favourable conditions. We picked a rocky ledge about 400 yards right of the beach towards the estuary and started lure chucking. After 30mins of nothing my brother changed over to a Savage gear sandeel with a sink and draw method. 1st cast and bang, he was in. Gave him a cracking scrap on his new AFAW rod and eventually landed weighed in at 2lb 13oz and measured 40cm. A good start! This was to be the start of an epic few hours. I soon changed over to my LRF gear and chucked out a 3" sawamura one-up shad. After a few casts I was in to my first fish. Not a biggie at around 1lb but alot of fun on a rod that casts 0-5g. We continued to bang out the SP's bringing in a constant flow of wrasse between 3/4lb and 2lb until Sam got another at around the 2.5lb mark. After a few hours, the tide reached high and we were starting to get wet feet from the slight swell that was covering the rcoks we were stood on. My best fish of the afternoon came shortly after high at 3lb dead. Again on the sawamura one-up shad. It took me a while to land as I only had 6lb fluoro leader and this fish was bullying me into the snags. Its my best wrasse of the year so far and measured 42cm, picture below. Other lures we caught on

were Reins rock vibe shads, fiiish black minnows and x-layers in 2 sizes and colours. We finished the day with 14 wrasse, all ballans I may add. 9 for myself, 5 for Sam. Alot of fun on the lures when these bass are proving difficult to catch.

Hope you enjoyed the read,

Tight Lines,

Ross