May on the Fly

Before the World Catfish Classics, above, I'd been enjoying fishing for trout - whether in matches or just pleasure fishing on Grafham, Elinor and Farmoor. My Dad and I also had a recent trip to Walthamstow, which I love, as it's normally always a challenge - the fish in there are top quality. We caught 7 between us fishing buzzers under the bung, all hard fighters that never gave up. They were all good fish over 3lb!

At the end of April, I was supposed to be fishing in the Lexus European Championships heat on Grafham, however, this was postponed due to very high winds. Some of the practice days my Dad and I fished though, were brillliant. We had 20+ rainbows each time we went, on a methods such as - the washing-line on a Di5 line with a blob, cormorant and booby, or straight line nymphing with a team of buzzers and a diawl bach on the top dropper, which I really enjoyed as some of the bites were hard hitters!

The next match both my Dad and I fished was the Thames Water Shield, a fundraiser for the EYF team. Most of the anglers decided to fish from the sailing club down to the first car park, as the strong wind was coming off their backs, making it easier to get a line out. I decided to gamble and fished more into the wind a bit further down the bank. By fishing boobies on a Di7 shooting head with a static or slow retrieve, I bagged up at 1.45pm with the biggest bag of the day at 19lb 10oz, and with the biggest fish of the match at 3lb 9oz. It was only enough to take second place though, as Kieran Bonas won with 26lb including time bonus as he had finished earlier than me. My weight with time bonus was only 25lb 10oz - well done mate. My Dad caught 6 too to come 10th out of around 30 anglers.

The following day, I was meant to be fishing a qualifier for the Airflo World Bank Masters catch-and-release match on Farmoor 1. However, due to being invited by my College to marshall the World Catfish Classics in Spain on the same day as the AWBM Final, it meant I would not be able to fish it if I got through, as my plane was leaving in the afternoon of the same day. My Dad offered to take my place and fished the qualifier instead. He had a slow start on his first couple of pegs, but chopping and changing between fishing the bung on a floating line or the sink tip with a team of buzzers, he started to catch, and by the end of the day he'd caught 9 and lost 4. It was enough to win the qualifier for the final!

Before the final, we did manage to slot in our first proper session of the year flyfishing for Zander and Perch at Grafham. The fishing wasn't easy but we caught a few Zander in the end around the 7-8lb bracket, including my first double of the year at just over 10lbs.

What was surprising was the amount of big bream that took our Zander flies and were hooked cleanly in the mouth when we boated them - 4 doubles including two other smaller ones that fell for our large baitfish imitations, including a new P.B for me at 10lb 5oz. This could have been because the fish were spawning and may have been attacking the flies out of aggression, but, I'm sure they eat baitfish though, as we've caught them on shads and curltails whilst jigging in reservoirs and on fenland drains!

 

Our main focus of attention after this was the Airflo World Bank Masters Final my Dad had qualified for on Elinor. We had a great practice trip there 6 days before, catching 26 rainbows on buzzers, diawl bachs, and boobies on a washing line set up. I even caught 4 off the top on popper hoppers and CDC shuttlecock buzzers as the day progressed.

 Match day was very different though and didn't go very well for him. He had 9 bites, hooked and lost four but only managed to land one. He was frustrated to say the least, but it was just one of those days. He said some of the England Youths fished really well, a couple landing four or five fish. He realised he should have practised the previous day as pulling blobs seemed the way to go, not nymphing as had been 6 days previously. Unfortunately, he hadn't had the time to practise the day before the match though. Congratulations to Chris Jones who won it.

30/05/12 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 59lb 7oz (10lb 2oz - silvers)
Catch - 12 Carp, 8 Perch, 2 Skimmers, 2 Roach, 1 Ide, 1 F1, 1 Crucian, 1 Chub, 1 Rudd
Weather - Warm, mostly sunny. Late short shower.
Water Temp - 25.2c - 26.6c
Match - Avon Angling Open - 4th out of 15

I managed to get a day off to practice for Sundays 2nd round of the float only, although looking at the weather forecast for Sunday, conditions will be completely different with low temperatures and heavy rains.

The local match circuit is delighted to see Des (Shipp) has given up full time work to concentrate on his fishing and his midweek mugging sessions! Peg 15 was my destination for the day, which can have its good days, however Tony turned up on 13 and I knew he wouldn't let me have the island to myself. With Des on 5 and Tom Thick on 19 (don't think I've seen him on a bad peg) a challenging day was ahead.

When I arrived there was plenty of carp sat on the surface, basking in the sun recovering from the riggers of spawning and with no ripple I fully expected they would disappear as soon as the pole was waved above their heads and that's what happened.

I only set up 1 rig to fish the deck with meat and despite feeding for 5hrs at 6m never had a bite, although I did manage 1 big skimmer by the tree to my right late on. So all other rigs revolved around fishing caster, 8mm pellet and meat on top of the far shelf or in the margin.

On the all-in I went out the shallow pellet rig to mug an early carp, but nothing although Tony had 1 straight away. After 5mins the fish disappeared, so switched to my caster rig, originally cupping in caster and a little meat on the far shelf. But unlike the last couple times I've tried this the fish weren't playing ball and actually found it better to toss pot the bait in. After a 2hrs I had 4 carp and about 5lb of silvers, but it really was a case of waiting for a bite, even from the silvers.

All the while I had been flicking pellet to my left on the island, to try and take some of Tony's fish away from him and also give me somewhere else to go. I had a few carp mostly by resting the 8mm pellet rig on a patch of bare bank.

With 2hrs to go, the polish angler on 16 started to pack up and although I could see Tony and Tom catching I got the impression most were struggling. The rest of match was a case of rotating swims, because I couldn't catch more than 2 fish before needing to swap. My main caster swim seemed to have completely died, so set up a new swim to the right on the island with meat/caster. I had 1 fish on meat, but more on double caster.

As for the margin. Really frustrated since I had fed from the start, yet only had 1 crucian whilst Tony managed to get a few from his margin.

I was pleasantly surprised to finish 4th and today it was always going to be difficult to beat Des, Tony and Tom from their pegs.

1st 124-8 - Des Shipp - peg 5 (incl 75lb silvers - awesome)
2nd 106-2 - Tom Thick - peg 19
3rd 86-8 - Tony Rixon - peg 13
4th 59-7 - Ken Rayner - peg 15
5th 58-15 - Chris Davis - peg 24
6th 49-13 - Ed Wynne - peg 3

Snook top the list and should improve in June

Eric Porter of Denver, Colo., is all smiles after landing his largest snook ever on fly.

May was snook month for clients of Southern Drawl Kayak Fishing.

Snook, arguably Florida’s most popular inshore gamefish, were hurt by the severe freeze of 2010. That’s when fisheries biologists estimated that 10 percent of the snook along Florida’s west coast may have perished because of the cold.

However, the species seems to have rebounded and is doing well.

We’ve been targeting snook around lighted docks at night or before dawn, on the flats at sunrise and along the beaches. Best action has been around the docks lights, but beach snook action is improving daily.

Eric Porter of Denver, Colo., and his brother, Jeff of Oklahoma City, Okla., both repeat clients, scored on fly rods early in the month, fishing around lighted docks. Using my night snook fly, they each caught snook and had shots at others. Eric Porter’s 27-inch snook was the outing’s top fish.

In addition, Eric Porter landed a 3-pound spotted seatrout on Gibby’s Duster.

His snook and trout were the largest that he’d ever caught on fly.

New kayak angler Dan Benbasset of Riverview, Fla., had a nice introduction. We fished the Buttonwood Harbor area and did well. Dan caught a number of spotted seatrout on D.O.A. CAL Jigs with gold paddles tails and on Zara Super Spook Jrs. He also caught a bonnethead shark and several ladyfish.

Jeff Voigt of Spokane, Wash., and Lloyd Dyer of Saskatchewan had a fair outing. The fly anglers caught snook and spotted seatrout around lighted docks and nearby grass flats on my night snook fly, Gibby’s Duster and Clouser Deep Minnows.

Mike Green of Cartersville, Ga., caught a load of spotted seatrout and a few ladyfish on D.O.A. Deadly Combinations (popping cork and D.O.A. Shrimp) while fishing Buttonwood Harbor north and east of Whale Key.

John Anderson of Portland, Ore., did well on spotted seatrout, flounder and ladyfish on the D.O.A. Deadly Combination at Buttonwood Harbor. He fished two days in a row and did well. We tried for redfish on the second day, but didn’t hook up.

The Deadly Combination is a great lure this time of year. Simply tie a fluorocarbon leader below the float (clacker) and adjust it for the depth you’re fishing. Add a D.O.A. Shrimp or jig below it and you’re set.

It’s an easy and productive rig to use. I cast it out, allow the shrimp to sink, and then reel in the slack and give the float/clacker and couple of sharp tugs. The noise attracts predator fish. When they swim up to investigate, they see the shrimp and usually inhale it.

When the float/clacker goes under, reel up any slack and set the hook.

This rig has produced trout to 7 pounds for me.

Jeff Voigt and Lloyd Dyer joined me again after their trek to southern Florida. This time, they fished the beach for snook. They each caught or hooked snook on Gibby’s Hare of the Snook Fly.

Even Burck of Washington and A.J. Gottschalk of Buffalo, N.Y. fished the beaches with me and caught small snook on D.T. Variations.

Snook are plentiful along the beaches, but the bite hasn’t been great – yet. The action should pick up as we move into summer.

Those booking beach snook outings usually get a shot at 200 snook or more, including some whoppers.

We’ve been encountering schools of 15 to 30-pound snook. The big fish do not eat very often, but they can be taken on fly. Largest fly-rod snook we’ve hooked and landed over the years is a 40-incher.

In addition to snook, we sometimes encounter spotted seatrout, flounder, ladyfish, jack crevalle, redfish, mangrove snapper, houndfish and (occasionally) tarpon.

The June outlook calls for continued increase in snook along the beaches, good to excellent fishing for snook at night around dock lights, good topwater action on redfish in shallow water and plenty of spotted seatrout over the deep grass areas of Sarasota Bay.

As always, I want to thank my sponsors: Native Watercraft, D.O.A. Lures, Temple Fork Outfitters, Aqua-Bound Paddles, Economy Tackle and Peak Fishing.

Call or email me to book a trip.

Steve Gibson

Southern Drawl Kayak Fishing

www.kayakfishingsarasota.com

http://gibbysfishingblog.blogspot.com/

(941) 284-3406

MADISON ??

.. Just a brief note:
-- Surprise of the early season: the Madison River is low, slow and clear  --  for now. Soft hackles, PMD's,(??,) and olive green Woolly Buggers, (rumors of very small caddis keep surfacing!) It's a good thing.

Z Fish Report (5/31/12)

The roosters are here for sure!

The 84° water extends from the beaches out to 50 miles, with the blue water only a couple of miles off the beach. The conditions should be ideal for sailfish and dorado, but they are not here.

We often see frigates doing their arial dance

This last Sunday was the Calentona , which is a tournament among the captains of the port. Santiago on the super panga Gitana, who took third place, reported 58 boats fishing for a total of only about 15 sailfish caught, and 10 weighed. Hiram, on the panga Hawaiiana took the top honors, but only with a 65 pound sailfish. There was one nice 310 pound blue marlin weighted.

My friends, this is not good. In the near past it had to be a 100 pound or better sailfish to get the win. Every year, the size and quantity reduces.

Yesterday, (Wednesday) Cheva, on the panga Dos Hermanos II, fished the blue water and never had a strike. He went 20 miles.

Drew with Francisco and his rooster

Last week I reported “I have a fly fishing client next week…can’t wait” This was for roosters. And yesterday we fulfilled that order. Drew Postal from South Carolina and his wife were here on their honeymoon. Drew has taken redfish on the fly from the flats in the Carolinas, but had never experienced a rooster. As all 1st time rooster fly anglers, they are never ready for the incredible speed, slashing, and aggressiveness of a roosterfish when teased to the boat. But, this aggressiveness does not translate to an easy hookup. It fact it is the opposite. So many factors come in to play it is incredible to how many ways a fly caster can screw up.

The first day is usually a learning curve. It is kind of like a high school football player going to college. The increase of speed in the game is incredible.


Francisco and Drew's wife, Dargan, with a huge needle fish we also got

Fishing with Francisco on the panga Huntress II, after we teased 15 roosters to the boat without a solid hookup, I switched things around from Drew’s 9wt redfish rod to my 10wt rod, and even changed the fly. Up sizing on the rod was not the factor. It was more about having the right sized line to match the rod and the fly. It took another 5 more fish to the boat, but Drew got it done. It was a smaller rooster than many which had come to the boat earlier, but he will now do very well in the future.
But, the fact remains, we brought over 20 roosters to the boat by 10:00 in the morning. They are now here and we can enjoy them for the next several months.

Ed Kunze (IGFA Representative

hot dog

The dog days of summer are quickly approaching. Aside from Rocco’s daily dip in the pool, AF brings you the hottest headlines. Another Flats Blue travel rod was set adrift last weekend. The Mogan Man got a closer look at the new microscope at MAP. Capt. Blair is on his way to West Palm Beach for the next stop on the Dick’s Mogan Tour. If that’s not enough, triple your fun with this week’s episode of Addictive Fishing!

Mogan of the Week - Topwater redfish

Flats Blues Travelers

Capt. Blair sent #4 out the door! Last weekend, Kenny came out to Dick’s in Brandon, FL to see the AF crew and went home with a Flats Blue travel rod from Wright & McGill. As part of the Flats Blues Traveler promotion, he will have a couple of weeks to try out the new rod and catch as many fish as he can, while documenting his trip with photos or video, before sending the rod on to be used by another angler. Check out the FlatsBlues Traveler Map to see if there is a Flats Blues Traveler near you.

Piecing It Together

Carlos showing off 4 day old snook under the new microscope.

The Mogan Man visited Mote Aquaculture Park this week for an update on Project Snook. Capt. Blair took a closer look at some newly hatched snook thanks to the use of a powerful new microscope that was purchased with donations generated by Project Snook. We’re very proud of this segment because it pulls it all together. The piece shows what has been accomplished through donations from our partners/sponsors, fans, friends and family. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The research is ongoing and more funding is needed. Visit Project Snook on the web to learn more and to make your contribution today!

Dick’s Mogan Tour - West Palm Beach

Hey, Erick, get ready because you asked for it! The Dick’s Mogan Tour rolls into West Palm Beach this Saturday, June 2^nd, 11am – 4 pm. Come out and meet Capt. Blair Wiggins from the hottest fishing show on television. While you’re there, pick up a $10 off coupon and purchase one of the NEW Blair Wiggins Signature Series Flats Blue rods, FINS braid, Mogan Series MirrOlures and more. Beat the heat this weekend but keep your eyes opened for sizzling savings because every fishing trip starts at Dick’s.

Coming Up on Addictive Fishing

Triple the pleasure with triple the tails. Capt. Blair headed to St. Augustine, Florida for the cobia run but Capt. Jason Keating called up Plan B while waiting for the clouds to burn off. Catch the excitement Friday @ 10:30 am, Sunday @ 9:30 pm and again on Tuesday @ 6:00 am on SunSports. Can’t get enough Addictive Fishing on the tube? Subscribe to the AFYouTube channel. It’s FREE and airs any episode at the click of a mouse 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As an added bonus, Mr. Producer will throw in this week’s episode in its entirety on Tuesday!

But wait, there's more! If you act now, Mr. Producer will throw in this web exclusive as an added bonus. Get a feel for how the shoot went down as host, Capt. Blair Wiggins, and Executive Producer, Kevin McCabe, recap the episode in this week's "After the Fight". Members of the Mogan Lounge always get the sneak peek first. Come lounge with us.

Mogan of the Week

Young Matthew Bartlett from Niceville, FL is bringing home the bacon and maybe a couple of nice redfish fillets to go with it. Redfish on topwater is always exciting and you can tell by the smile on his face that this catch put up a nice fight. Matthew has also been terrorizing some nice trout on one of his favorite plugs; the MirrOlure MirrOmullet. Very nice! Log into the Mogan Lounge and drop Matthew a nice comment or two because he is our Mogan of the Week! Did we mention he is from Niceville? Nice…

Relishing the mustard,

BillBird

Great Fishing Today!

Today we had some fantastic catches which was nice to see, as the water had turned a bit cold and we did not do that well last week, but today was a whole different ball game. We saw the biggest dorado that we have seen in months come in aboard La Brisa, caught by Robert Katusak from Brownsville, Texas. The fish was caught a long way up the coast at Destiladeres on a guacamaya lure and was around the 40 lb mark. Shown in the photo also is Captain Rey Winkler, on the left, who has been with Pisces since he was young and skinny, 29 years ago.

Another boat that did really well was Rebecca, who caught and released five striped marlin and a jack crevalle, making them our top boat today. The lucky angler was Jon Svendson, from Scottsdale, Arizon. They caught the marlin on ballyhoo and the jack crevalle on a lure; the water temperature was 78 degrees. Captain J.R is on the left, angler in the center and deckhand Luis Cota on the right.

Creighton Lawhead is one of Pisces most faithful clients and probably caught more marlin with us than any other single angler. Creighton from Carlsbad, California fishing with Brandon Yount each released a marlin today. Shown in the photo is Creighton holding a 150 lb striped marlin with deckhand Martin Gonzalez in the foreground.







wisconsin's northwoods brook trout streams

In the land of monster musky, slab smallmouth, and mouthwatering walleye it’s quite possible that the trout streams of Northern Wisconsin are often overlooked. Tourism promotes the plethora of lakes and flowages so heavy that finding information on the trout fishing is near impossible. Internet searches result in nothing concrete and it just may be that the best source of information could be the local fly shop or tavern.

northern wisconsin brook trout water

With hundreds of miles of classified trout water in the area the best bet is to put tire to pavement and come up with your our own hot spots. It’s quite possible to go through a couple “duds” before stumbling across a “stud” but the scenery alone is well worth all the effort.

northwoods brook trout

The streams of the Northwoods are much more temperamental when it comes to weather. Many of these aren't spring fed so summer’s temperatures will impact the fishery tremendously causing the water to become hot enough to shut the bite down. The best bet is the spring and fall. Harsh winters and summers also impact the fish numbers tremendously so look for best fishing after years with more mild seasons.

scenic water to say the least...

Great Opportunity to Take Kids Fishing This Saturday!

By Jeff Lampe of www.heartlandoutdoors.com



The call comes often. “Where can I take a kid fishing?” The answer will never be easier than this Saturday from 8-11 a.m. at Hooked on Fishing Park in East Peoria, located just north of Dixon’s Seafood Shoppe along the Illinois River. Saturday marks the second Presleys Outdoors Free Fishing Derby for kids. Youngsters ages 15 and under are welcome to fish for free. And while you can bring your own gear if you want, there will be rods, reels, bait and other gear available for use at the park.



 If you’ve never been to the much-remodeled Hooked on Fishing park, you should take time for a visit. This really is a nicely kept fishing facility. For one thing, the ponds are fully stocked, so that kids have a good chance of catching something. Then too, access is easy. No weeds to navigate or ticks to fear. “Every kid fishes for free. Not only that, but they fish in the comfort of white rock and concrete. No ticks and chiggers. Not that there’s anything wrong with ticks and chiggers. They’re part of nature and that’s all cool. But this is easier,” said Kelly Presley, whose family sponsors the event. “It’s close. It’s in town. It’s comfortable and it’s clean.” Plus, each kid who participates gets a prize. There are even volunteers on hand to help bait hooks, remove fish and give tips in case you aren’t a fishing expert. And if you can’t make this weekend’s derby, there will be more chances to enjoy the park. Fishing derbies will also be held the first Saturday in July, August and September, courtesy of Presleys Outdoors. All in all it’s a great combination. Easy access to plenty of fish plus a prize. Tell me a kid who wouldn’t like that?

Pond Waterslides, Algae, and Fish

Memorial Day Weekend was definitely a highlight for the year! I absopositivealutely love hot weather (when I am near water that is). Well, this weekend was hot and I was very near the water! We built waterslides all weekend so that was kind of fun to figure out.

Anyhow Friday morning we were in the water at Ravina on The Lakes in Peoria by 6:15 am. They had several weddings this weekend and a nice fresh batch of filamentous algae covering their lake. When they called Thursday night in despair I was so close to saying there was nothing I could do about it on this short notice going into the weekend, but for some reason I just have a soft spot in my heart that still needs hardened up a bit....

Jared and Phil had no clue what was in store for them Friday morning, all they knew was 6 am at Ravina with swim trunks. We had the pond cleaned up by 8:30 and were in route to Cuba, IL to work on the coolest floating dock in Illinois. This dock is 120' long connnected to the lodge, then the stairs are also 120' long going down to the 120' long floating dock with extra cool wood bark railing. We had to calibrate the floats for the weekend!

Then we finally ended up at the lake and set out the rest of our fish feeders. I use tiny 1/16" high protein fish pellets in Texas Hunter tripod scatter feeders in 3-4' of water to feed all my small fish! Most people use feed programs to feed their adult fish, but its even more important to feed your little fish!! I have been doing lots and lots of experimentation and research on fish food diets and am getting amazing results on species of fish that dont even eat fish food because of the feed programs geared for growing forage.

Ok so then on Saturday morning we got started on our main project for the weekend. You see my family's idea of a great weekend is to work on a project. Seems like there sure has been alot of great weekends lately, project after project after project. Anyhow this one was really cool. We built a waterslide 8 feet wide by 92 feet long with 29 feet of elevation down into the lake. We got a 2" pump and plumbed a pipe from 15' down in the lake and rigged it up to come out of both sides of the slide for an awesome ride down! Here are some pics of that project going together, it turned out AWESOME!!!

Took us a day and a half from start to finish the waterslide. Then once we got that done we caught a bunch of fish for a fish fry Sunday night. Also we made sure to save a little time each evening to catch a few fish. Here are some of the fish pics from the weekend. These pics dont even scratch the surface of the fishing that went on. Kids were fishing nonstop, I just had a bit too much going on to snap photos, these are what I got typically with the last few minutes of light:

We fed 55 people Sunday night fresh fish (oh yeah, I had the priviledge of cleaning lots of fish, burned through two electric knives this weekend.)  Guests coming out for the weekend were like you dont even have the fish caught yet??? No worries, we can catch fish for a hundred people lickity split! 50 people is nothin. Anyhow we tried out a new batter from a fish breading company in Florida that they shipped up to us to try out for a sample. Was amazing! Will make a seperate blog post for that breading once we use it again and I remember the name. Everyone loved it and it fried up nice!! So then Monday comes along and we decide to squeeze in yet another project. Only this time my smarter brothers and sisters headed home to relax and just Justin, Jared, and I were left to tackle this one. We bought a fiberglass slide from craigslist or ebay or a garage sale last fall for pennies on the dollar, but it didnt have any directions or hardware, etc. We just started coming up with ideas and places and ways to use this thing and by the end of the day we were pretty proud to have this baby put together and operational!! Still have to get a pump and some plumbing and some railing up top, but the kids sure loved it with just using buckets of water for the trial runs....

So I get home about 7 pm monday night just sunburned and beat. I took a short 2 hour nap in my chair and then went to bed about 9:30 pm. I could of actually slept in Tuesday, but like an idiot I had an electrofishing survey scheduled for 8 stinking am in the morning. Was a very neat 17 acre property a guy had just purchased and it had a nice looking 5 acre strip mine lake. I knew instantly it was full of carp since the water was so cloudy, but was very surprised to only find the maximum depth at 7 feet deep. Next time you guys want to buy a new lake or property, have me come out before closing on it!

Anyhow, I am currently figuring out a way to pump water from the creek to bring the lake level up a few feet....I have set up several pumps along the shoreline pulling water directly out of creeks and other ponds piped to other ponds, but this particular situation will require some sort of wet well or bored well or concrete enclosure for a submersible pump. Anyone out there have any experience with this sort of application?

So life is speeding along at 180 miles per hour and I cant even depict a small portion of whats going on in these blog pages. Got several big announcements coming up in the months ahead involving real estate, tv stuff, and our business is transforming and evolving literally daily, been pluggin away at building my house every spare moment, been helping my brothers/in laws on their houses every other spare moment, and been working on my parents house/addition all the other spare moments. This is all in addition to working on over 170 local properties just in the last 4 months. On top of all this I am trying to do the best job humanly possible raising my young family. June is booked up to capacity and I am finishing up the month by going deep sea fishing down in Venice with my brothers and some friends! I have a few minor announcements and events to post coming up, but it might be awhile before I get a chance to personally post a blog entry....

THANKS !

bushy's bongo

Bushy's Bongo

Created by the Australian "Bushy" Bush as a saltwater streamer for tarpon. For larger predators in saltwater it is tied up to six inches or more but for a smaller quarry it can be sized down. Just like clousers and deceivers it makes the transition to freshwater easily.

thread- red
tail- 2-6 grizzle hackles and some flash
collar- 2 grizzle hackles
eyes- bead chain

May 2012 the Report!!

So i see that i have not posted anything up since the 2nd of May well alot has happened since then! Too much has happened.... Probably going to miss out somethings but i will try and do it in date order :)

Bank holiday weekend was a really busy one for me, i had my first Bass of the year weighing bang on 4lbs on the Savage Gear!

Ben Bates also had a bass on this trip! ( his didn't half put up a scrap and took him around the rocks! )

Here is the picture of the both fish :)

Close up Shot of Ben's Bass!

So this started off the first of the Bank Holiday weekend! the following day i was determined for more! So had a phone call from a mate John Wallace in the afternoon and we decided to find another Bass!

We fished two spots, the first spot produced some pretty decent Pollock!

Here is John first Wrasse on the SP also!

Didn't take pictures of all of them! but we had a few all around 2 and half pounds 

We moved on from this spot after 1 hour and i knew there was bass at the next one!

what do you know within 10mins i was into one!

This day came to end after another hour with nothing else but Pollock.

So think it was either the following day of the day after i am all confused was all so long ago now! lol

fished down on a spot only accessible on spring water low tides! and was a fun session!

Ended up with quiet a few Wrasse here are some Pictures!

Mackerel on the Hard Plastics!

                                         

More Pollock!

The two best fish of the day was shared between a Lure Caught Wrasse & a Bait Caught

Here is Lure Caught! (looks bigger than it is)

                                                                         Bait Caught Wrasse

All these Wrasse are getting a bit boring aren't they!

Well there is only a few more to deal with!

Okay so now i will just cut all the crap and get to this weekend 

Me & Alex fished Saturday Afternoon & Night 26/5 it started of quiet until Alex landed a bream of 1lb 15oz!

1 hour went by still no more Bream. I had couple of Small Wrasse on the Crabs and SPs then i saw my Bream rod bending over! Got my biggest Bream of the year so far going bang on 2lb! ended up with a couple of them :)

(Speaking of bream i am going to have to mention my mate Adrian's he had earlier on in May i got a text from him saying i have BIG Bream and no scales! so i went out after work to check it out! What a bream was weighing 3lb 12oz! 

He did have a couple actually!

Carrying on with our night fishing! Alex with a Conger weighing 13lb 4oz 

Thunderstorms soon came down and the heavens opened after Alex being very unlucky missing a few good Conger takes after this one and Myself missing Takes too we called it a night/morning!

Despite being very tired after getting home at 4am! i got myself out of bed by 11am i had a new spot in mind i have wanted to try for a while!

Had some crabs left over  and took the lure rod down! looked so Wrassey down there. I knew it was going to be a good day (had that funny feeling) 2nd cast of my crab Boom this Wrasse came to my crab!

Started using the SP's for a bit was hard focusing on two rods as soo much action! Started getting a few Wrasse 1-3lb! Then right in close in a deep Gully Bang real Screamed ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz fuck me straight away i knew was a beast! after a very good fight (my best ever fight i have had with a Wrasse on a lure rod) it was in the net. Smile appeared on my face very soon after that went in the net! Weighing 5lb 4oz and measuring 53cm my biggest Wrasse of the year so far....here it is! 

Ruler Shot!

One more photo wont hurt lol! 

I Stopped taking pictures after this as none was bigger but had so many fish around 30 in total! :) It Took a Bass Assassin btw fished on 12 Gram Jig Head ;) 

After this met up with my Girlfriend who has done a fair bit of fishing with me over the last week catching Pollock and her first Lure Caught Wrasse! here it is:

So thats all for now! Still missed out so many photos, tried doing this as quick as possible still took me a while. Will try and keep everyone updated as i go along from now on! :) Byee