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