A little update from Jersey

The past month or so in the channel islands can be summed up by four words 'crap weather, good fishing.' We've had to cancel 12 fishing trips in the past fortnight due to strong winds, which although is bad for my savings, means I've had plenty of free time to have a good search around the island for new marks and of course catch a few fish.

One of my main targets recently has been black bream, a fish that until mid last year I had never caught. Well it's fair to say that since then, I've had more than my fair share, in fact, when we have managed to get out on the boat, we've been getting regular hauls of 60-100 bream in a 2-3hour session and not very many of these fish have been sub 1lb. You will have guessed that most of these fish have been caught by the anglers we've had on board, but when given the all clear by the skipper, I have managed to bag a few quality fish myself, the best so far going 3lb 9oz (pictured top left), another PB. Not all my bream have come from the boat though and over the past few days I managed to locate a shoal of them, well at least for an hour or so, the best two from an 8 fish haul going 1lb 14oz and 2lb 3oz (top right)

Another fish I've had a good go at are the mullet. Although I've failed miserably to even tempt a bite from the golden greys thus far, I've had a few thick lips to a rather nice 4lb 6oz whilst my mate Chris has also managed to land a new PB of 3lb 14oz. Dan who I have also been targeting the mullet with has like me had no luck with the golden greys as yet but has had some wrasse to a cracking 5lb 4oz in the process.

Species 74 - Shore Clingfish

One of the things I have been doing whilst waiting for the mullet is using my light gear. Baiting up small hooks with white rag section, I've kept myself occupied landing a number of different species that include ballan and corkwing wrasse, various goby and blenny species and best of all, my 3rd new species of 2013, a shore clingfish! Although this is no monster, it was extremely welcome, its a species I had never seen in the flesh before so it came as a real surprise.

I suppose I'd better mention the bass as well for all you silver lovers out there. It has been very tough to locate them of late but I have had a couple, nothing big but it sure puts a smile on my face when I feel that lure stop and watch the rod arch over. I have also picked up a few Pollack in the process and even a few wrasse to around the 3lb mark. My mates Dan and Ben on the other hand had a couple of nice fish during one of our sessions that both went around the 5lb mark, one just under, one just over.

The last thing I'll mention is a little video I put together. It was done as a little bit of fun and follows me LRF rockpool fishing for Giant Gobies, there is even a little bit of underwater footage thrown in there that was shot using my gopro. Here is a link to the video though, I hope you like it!

Giant Goby Video - Click this text

Well, that's all for now, the next few weeks I'll be hoping for that golden grey mullet and also some tope and smoothhounds!
Thanks for reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross

Jersey: The final chapter

Well it's been a while since I returned from Jersey and it's only just come to my attention that I forgot to finish my write up.... my bad! Anyway, for those interested here is the final part, enjoy :)

Trigger Fish : Species 57

With only a few days left and Ed's birthday fast approaching, we took a vote to book a boat trip out with Tony Heart on the Anna II for our final day. Before that happened though, we had a free day to do as we pleased. After a phonecall to Dan and a visit to MrFish, we decided to try in St Helier harbour to see what we could winkle out. The main target was a silver eel although we knew that there were plenty of mini's in the margins we could boost our species tally with. After hammering through 20 or so pouting and sand smelt on either unbaited sabikis or home made 1up 1down rigs with small bits of mackerel and size 6 hooks, I decided to have a move and placed myself in a darkened corner behind one of the trawler boats. My hopes were that the discard from the boat was thrown in this area and would attract a better stamp of fish, maybe even that eel I was after. Again, I had a few pouting first but then I had a much stranger and more positive bite, a slow but powerful pull. I let off a few inches of slack and waited for it to tighten. As it did I lifted into the fish and felt a good weight, my initial instinct thinking wrasse. As I played it up from the depths, I suddenly noticed that it was not a wrasse but a rather large trigger fish so as you do, I quickly lightened the drag...... this was not a fish I wanted to lose. It took this opportunity to take a number of rather fast and powerful lunges back down out of view. When it finally hit the surface I started to panic a little and thinking to myself, will I be able to pull this onto the pontoon with my 6lb snood :s In the end I had no option but to reach down the rig as far as I could and pulled it up as quickly as possible. Much to my delight, the fish remained hooked and was safely landed on the pontoon
A quick shout to the others and they were soon over to have a look and take a photo for me. At a guess I would say it was around the 2lb mark and maybe a tad bigger but it certainly put a wide smile on my face and  more importantly raised my species tally to 57 for the year. Jon was soon pinching my spot though and before darkness fell he managed to get his first ever black bream from the shore. Here he is on the right showing off his catch. Sam and Ed were also catching plenty of small fish as well landing a number of black and rock gobies, loads of sand smelt pouting and a single herring.

Silver Eel : Species 58

As the evening drew in and light turned to dark, we decided to have a quick hour at a different spot. I tied up a new rig armed with a pair of size 8 wide gape hooks and chunks of mackerel and chucked it out into the darkness. After 20 minutes of nothing, the baits were changed and back out went the rigs. My rod had as good solid knock so I picked it up and felt for another tap. Almost instantly the fish arched my rod round and I was now playing it. Straight from the off I knew exactly what it was going to be, the line grating against the fish was a huge giveaway and into the headtorch light came my prize, a silver/common eel. Mission accomplished. We stuck it out for another cast but apart from a hanful of crabs there was no further action.

So came our final day and as we waved fairwell to the campsite, it was with great anticipation we headed back to St Helier harbout to find the charter boat we had booked onto. After meeting our skipper Tony and the others that were coming with us we set off steaming out out to the mark. 50 minutes after leaving the harbour we were at our first mark where we'd be drifting for bream. Action was instant and almost everyone on the boat landed a couple within the first hour.... except Ed (Captain Calamity) who somehow failed to get off the mark. Jon took this opportunity to brag a little but this would come back to haunt him later in the day. After catching a couple of bream, myself, Jon and another bloke on the boat decided we would try for something bigger. The deckhand sorted us out with some heavier duty gear and out we went with a bream fillet in the search for a tope or conger eel. This proved useless for each of us though and after 90 minutes or so with no bites, the skipper moved us over to a mark where we'd be targeting flatties and rays. Whilst Jon was know struggling to get a take, Ed managed to get himself his first decent fish of the day and his first ever ray, a small eyed of around 5lb (up right). Sam, my younger brother soon followed

Species 59 : Small Eyed Ray

suite and bagged his first ever ray which for the time being gave him bragging rights over me. The other people on the boat had also managed to land a few rays and also a nice brill, the first one I have ever seen, what a cool fish. I was not about to let Sam beat me though and after a re-bait, I was soon back down on the bottom and had my first decent bite. Leaving plenty of slack, I waited until the fish tightened up to me and struck, fish on. This fish was giving an extremely good account for itself but after a while it started to come up a little easier. Up through the water came another new species for my 2012 species hunt, a small eyed ray. At 6lb 11oz it was no monster but it was species 59 leaving me with just one more to reach my yearly target. Ed was the last to catch with his second ray of the day which suddenly silenced the once cocky Jon and turned the bragging rights right around. The time had come though to steam back to port. A fully enjoyable day out and thanks to Tony and crew for some good fishing to end our 2012 Jersey raid. With another 5 day trip planned in November though, I'll soon be back with a new crowd to have another Bash at the fishing on offer in Jersey...... I can't wait!

Thanks for reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross

Two 4lb+ Wrasse on SP's and my bream mission is finally at an end! :D

Quite a bit of action to report from the last fortnight. I'll start off with a session on the wrasse and pollock on the ranges. Myself, Ad and Jon headed off to catch the tide from mid-water up to high. We had opted to fish with a deep spinning method for the pollock using weedless hooks to avoid snags, but had brought a pack of rag as back-up just in case the fish weren't taking lures. I gave Ad and Jon a few tips on how to best rig up and off we went. I was into pollock from the off with this 3lb 5oz fish coming on just my 2nd cast. We had a little wager between us which involved the last man to catch a 40cm + fish on lures would have to eat a ragworm :s Luckily my 1st fish went over 50cm so I was safe early on. The best laugh I've had for a while came courtesy of Jon though shortly after, when on his first cast his rod snapped in half. The noise and his reaction were absolutely priceless and left myself and Ad in stitches whilst he stood rather devastated staring at his shattered butt section lol. I lent him my LRF rod and let him go off with some baited feathers to try for some wrasse though to keep him occupied. After the first half hour I'd managed  6 pollock whilst the others remained fishless (we like to call this situation pulling a 'federer') but before I managed number 7 Ad finally managed to get off the mark with a pollock of his own. Jon was then into his first fish of the session on my fairy-wand of a rod, 0-5g casting weight :) which is always fun to watch and eventually this ballan popped up. I caught a few more pollock before deciding I'd have a go on bait and stole back my LRF rod from Jon. I left my plugging rod set up for Jon with the deep spinning gear and he got his first pollock first cast on my set-up lol. Meanwhie, I'd moved round the corner and was getting a wrasse a chuck on rag with Ad watching on looking confused as to how I was catching so many lol. The best catch on the bait though was this double header of rock-cooks, my only double of the day. Ad eventually succumbed to my tactics and started getting a few wrasse of his own. We called it a day though just after high in order to get back in time to watch the England game.

A Sunday session saw me and Eddie (EddiePara from WSF) have a go on the lures at a few of my marks. Unfortunately the conditions were far from perfect at either of the marks with the clarity and weed being a massive problem and we both ended with a blank despite our best efforts. It was an enjoyable day out none the less and special mention goes to eddies 2 dogs, Jasper whose gas problems on the day left me with no nostrel hairs and Whitby whose little legs had a proper runout on the big boulders and steep descents/ascents to the marks. The day was rounded off nicely though with a quick stop at the pub on the way home but due to the heavy drinking the night before I had to be a big girl and stick to a coke lol. I'm 100% sure the next time will be more productive and look forward to it.


My next session took place up at bull bay. It was another session on the lures, this time with big wrasse in mind. I was using my plugging outfit as usual with a 12lb fluoro leader and a small 3" grub on a weedless hook at the business end. I was getting plenty of plucks for the first hour or so with just a few small pollock and micro-ballans to show for my efforts. As the tide neared high though, the fish started getting bigger and bigger. I had a few around the 2lb mark first before hooking into something a little more substantial. My rod bent over nicely and the fish was taking a good bit of drag, which I had set loosely due to the 12lb leader. After the initial rampage though the fish started moving up in the water and I was poised with the net ready to land it. In it slipped and it was a nice fish, lovely orange and red colours, weighed 4lb 1oz and measured 45cm. Photographed on the measure, back it went and powerfully surged back down to the depths to get larger for next time. It had only been a matter of minutes before I got my next slamming take. This was another quality fish and again fought like a demon on its way to the surface. It gave up though mid-water much to my joy making it far easier to net. It was the biggest so far and was a completely different colour to the other one with green and brown patches all over. It measured just 1cm longer than the previous one at 46cm but it was solid and weighed in at 4lb 7oz, a new lure caught wrasse PB by an ounce. I had six 5lb+ fish from this mark though last year so it won't be long before hopefully I get one that size on the soft plastics.

My last session to report came just yesterday. I set my alarm for 3am in order to get to my Lleyn plugging mark for first light. My plan was to do a few hours lure fishing for bass and then skip to pwllheli beach to have another go at these black bream. The bass session was reasonably succesful with a total of 4 fish being landed in the 2 hours I was there. Nothing to shout about though with the biggest being roughly 1.75lbs. I was in fine spirits though as I moved to the beach and unlike the last time I was there, the water was gin clear and like a mill pond. I used a self-made 3 hook flapper with 12lb fluorocarbon snoods and 3 bright yellow beads positioned above size 6 sakuma hooks. Above the rig I put a small float to pop it up off the bottom, a recommendation I'd had from a few more experienced species hunters :) With the hooks baited with slithers of squid, I cast out around 60 yards and set the rod vertical to avoid the weed. After 15 mins, I saw a little movement on the rod tip followed by a number of rattles and then a couple of much stronger pulls. I took the rod off the stand and after a few more taps I lifted into the fish. There was a heavy weight on the end and I thought I'd missed it and pulled into some weed, but I noticed whilst heaving in the weed in the taps were still there and the fish was still on. I must admit I got a little excited and as it got closer the weed dropped off leaving me with just the fish connected. I was constantly staring at the water for any signs and as the silver flanks appeared in the surf, I knew I had my target at the 3rd attempt (Black bream - species 43) I was extremely happy and did my best to get some photos as I was on my own (not surprising though considering the early start) Managed to get this nice one with the dunes in the background so without further ado I slipped it back into the surf. I was feeling the early start though by now so instead of continuing I left feeling very satisfied with a cracking mornings fishing. The species are getting harder and harder to target now but theres still a small number I am confident of catching. After that though I'm gonna need as much help from the weather and fellow anglers as I can get.

Thanks for reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross