Fantastic Pembroke Part 2 : Lure fishing adventures

Day 2 on my visit to Pembroke started with a trip to one of Ben's plugging marks. He'd only fished it on one previous occasion and had winkled out a few bass, so with the lovely weather we both thought we were in with a good chance. We arrived shortly before the midday high water and were greeted by a number of fish hitting the surface, some of them being fairly hefty. We guessed they were sea trout and maybe even salmon with some of the smaller fish jumping a good 3-4ft clear of the water. Full of excitement we both clipped on surface lures, myself opting for a free-bee I was given to test, the
Seaspin Pro-Q 120 in flashing plate whilst Ben opted for a range of poppers including the ever faithful chugbug. The lure I was

 using had a fantastic walk the dog action and after 10 minutes or so I

 had my first rise, the fish unfortunately not committing to the take. A few casts later though and I was in business. After a short fight I got it a couple of metres from the rocks only to see the fish spit the lure, was this going to be one of those days. I continued with the Pro -Q 120 and it did pay off eventually when a bass of around 1.75lb was safely landed, photographed and released (top right). The surface action went quiet for me, but Ben was getting a few rises, finally managing a hook up but as with my first fish it threw the lure a few metres from the rocks. I did manage an action photo though before the fish escaped (right). The sea trout were now leaping freely so instead of targeting the bass I

 clipped on the trusty toby and began working it with some pace trying to induce a take, that failed lol. Then it was the turn of the dexter wedge. With the dexter being a little heavier I was able to cast far further and work a much greater area. Just as I'd switched lure, a couple of Bens mates joined us, one of them being Rob who I met last time I visited. I had a quick chat and chucked my lure out in the proccess. 5 turns of the handle and a solid take, it was as if the fish could sense their arrival lol. It was giving a great acount for itself taking me round a rock in front of me and continually pulling my line with some lovely strong lunging runs. It did not want to be landed, but after tightening the drag a little I started gaining a bit more line back, eventually getting the fish close enough for Ben to grab it. It was not the beast I was hoping for but a fine conditioned silver bar of just over the 3lb mark ( above left) It had a huge mouth for its size and a gut to match. We all continued to plug away for a further half hour before calling it quits and returning back to the car.

Mini-bashing on the LRF gear

With some great success on the mini species front on bait at another close by mark, we decided to give the mark a go with some LRF tactics. I lent Ben some size 12 jigheads and Ben lent me the Power Isome. We were in to fish as soon as the lures hit bottom, with me catching around 15 rock gobies and half a dozen black gobies (left) which is a new one for the TLF species hunt. Ben was having much the same but he'd opted to try bait first, getting gobies and the odd wrasse and pollock. Seeing the number of fish I was catching though he soon changed and managed a number of rock gobies himself (a new species for his species tally - up right). We stayed for around 2 hours in total calling it quits when the local kids decided that the spot we were fishing was a good one for jumping in off. Not to mention the idiot jetskiers that thought it was clever to drive straight through some other anglers lines. A fun session was had though and we left rather chuffed.

Hope you enjoyed the read,
Tight Lines,
Ross