Anyway, as there was 4 of us this time round (myself, younger bro Sam, and my uni mates Jon and Ed) and I was the only driver, I had to revolve the fishing sessions around everyone, so although there was a good few sessions lure fishing the majority of our fishing was done using bait, which for obvious reasons will not be involved in this report or part 2. If you do want to have a read of my full report (both lure and bait fishing) it will be on my blog for reading soon. To the fishing......
We arrived in Jersey on 13th August full of optimism, but first thing on the list was a trip to see Mick to pick up a few bits and bobs and a new LRF rod (Sakura Shukan Neo - cracking rod if anyone is looking at one). After a good chat we left the shop and headed straight to the campsite at Rozel to set up base camp. Rushing to get the tents up, we were soon back in the car and heading out to a mark where me and Sam had had some brilliant wrasse fishing on the SP's last year. For Jon and Ed this was there first Jersey trip and having filled there heads with stories of great fishing, the excitement on there faces when they layed eyes on the mark was priceless. It seemed to take no time at all to get the gear out and down onto the rocks and on just his first cast Jon had his SP mauled by a wrasse, a very promising start. Now in truth, we were at this spot to get everyone off the mark and it did produce the goods just as expected, with everyone opening there Jersey accounts with wrasse to just over a couple of pounds.
On our third day we once again headed out with the lures hopeful for a bass or two and a few macky on the LRF gear. The ground was shallow and reefy and looked ideal for bass, but after a few hours of trying we had to admit defeat and started patrolling the pools and gulleys closer by in search of some mini's on the LRF gear. We walked around for a while searching out the deeper pools and after spotting a few fish I was first off the mark with a giant goby, although this one didn't live up to its name at around 14cm. I had a few more smaller ones before after a while scouting a pool, I saw a more substantial sized one popping its head out of a small cave. I stuck the rod tip in, using my fingers to jiggle the line and work the lure and sure enough the fish pounced on it almost instantly. I won't lie and say it fought like a beast but it did put a nice bend in the rod nevertheless and was an equal size to my previous PB at 21cm but was much more thick set than my other one. Having seen that I was having some success, Ed and Jon joined me in the pools leaving just Sam to work the reef. It wasn't too long either before the pair of them, after a little instruction, managed to land their first ever giant 
goby's. Between the three of us we were landing a good number of these, but it was my keen eye that was filtering out the better fish. After much searching, I spotted a much better fish in a large pool hiding under one of the larger boulders. After luring out a number of its smaller co-inhabitants the big fella came into view at the edge of its hiding hole and it looked huge, its head the size of a snooker ball. I dropped the isome right beside him and he took it, dived straight back into his hole and started thrashing. Unable to see what lay under the boulder I let him take a few inches of line before setting the hook and letting all hell break loose. This time I did have a fight on my hands but as I felt the 4lb fluoro leader grating on the underside of this boulder, the outcome was innevitable....... Yes that's right, I'd been snapped off by a goby! I was not going to let this fish get the better of me though so after re-tying a slightly stronger 6lb leader on I again worked the pool, now joined by both Jon and Ed. We took another dozen or so of his mates but the beast was nowhere to be seen now and beginning to frustrate me. Sam now thoroughly accepting defeat on the bass front decided enough was enough and came to join the hunt for the goby's. Giving the beasts pool a rest, I lent sam my rod and headed off with him to try and get him his first giant goby. Sam wasted no time in picking a nice pool and after showing him the ropes, he was soon banging the gobies out along with his first LS scorpion fish which soon 
brightened his spirits. After giving the pool a good hour to rest, I went back to find my nemesis, again joined by Ed who was trying to poach him from me. Ed did hook him as well but just as I had, he left it too long and was taken to ground and had to accept the tackle loss. We must have taken around 20 giant gobies from this pool but none had compared to the beast and I wasn't giving up. A last ditch attempt saw my rod tip stuck into the darkness under the boulder.... dangerous? stupid? I think so but I was not letting him mock me and I soon felt a nice pull. I left my bail arm off, pulled the tip out and struck into the fish. The tip stayed put as I pulled the rod round and I knew I had the beast again. This time I had the advantage and he was soon in the open and powerless to stop himself being brought to the shallows where I could get my hands on him. He was rather large at 23.5cm and a new PB, a cracking 'mini' species. 
That concludes part 1, thanks for reading,
Tight Lines,
Ross
Nice catch there. you've got different kinds of fish that you caught and don't even know the other names of the fish that you got. I think I can catch some of those here.
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