The Worst Fishing Months are out of the way!

Good Day All! Sorry i have been slacking with the Blog posts, but i have not been out Fishing much!

(Alex Plaster trying to get a Bass on the light gear!)

Now that things are warming up (a little) it just gets me all exited and i thought id just keep you up to date of what i have had since my last blog post!

Saturday 2nd March Aboard Anna 2 Charter Boat

I was looking forward to this trip for some while, after having a few cancellations on previous weekends due to bad weather i had to make the most of it! It was pretty cold out there as well as being pretty choppy!

A Nice Turbot :)

Pollock of around 8lbs Took my 42 Gram Savage Gear

Jay Jarvie managed a nice one!

Here is Ben Moody with a well deserved 10lb+ Pollock, he tried very hard throughout the day and ended up landing the Biggest Fish!

Gareth with a lump of a Pollock caught on a Red Gill Lure! 

                                              All in all it was a fun day out, with a fair few Pollock :) ! 

Well the following weekend Tony Heart asked me to Crew for him! Much nicer day than the previous trip out with him, the plan was to try and catch an early season Bream, and also put a couple of Big Baits out for a chance of a Conger Eel or a Bullhuss 

First spot produced Bullhuss of around 5/6lb . Poor Cod, Dogfish not a great start but still a couple of fish

Myself with a Turbot which took a live Sand-eel fished on a flowing 12 ft Trace using a 8oz Watch weight and a boom to spread things out :) 

Sam Daniels with the Best Whiting of the day weighing bang on 4lb

Time was almost up we only had time for 1 Last drop down & what do you know a Turbot :D

I have tried Shore fishing a couple of times, but its really hard going out there at the moment! Here is me attempting to catch a fish in a spot which was sheltered from the wind (Rozel Bay) 

And Typically the only thing that was Caught was Dogfish!

I have put 2 sessions in on St Catherine Breakwater with little luck also :( Just Rockling, Pouting & Lots of Dogfish) The amount of times a have prayed for my rods to get a decent bite is now in the Hundreds lol!!

I am very keen to try and get some decent fish landed soon! So make sure you keep an eye out on my blog. To keep up to date with us like this page on FB - Fishing Fanatix
Maybe next time we will see some more fish :)

November Report! Yet another Good Month!

November Fishing Report :)

I took Scott Hutchinson fishing as he was over from Scotland. We only went for couple hours and he had around 10 dogfish and his first ever Blonde Ray :)

Myself & Alex Plaster did a session one evening and i managed a Conger :)

Cheeky Baby Mullet

14th November Fishing 

Had a good evenings fishing my best dogfish so far this year of bang on 2lb finally!! Head light battery died and had to walk up a cliff blind! as i packed the wrong size Batteries! Had my first few Whiting of the year biggest 9oz and then i managed to get a Thick Lipped Mullet of 4lb 2oz which is actually my best of the year too :) This was caught on a 2 Hook Paternoster at night using Bread for bait! 

Weekend 16/11/2012 - 19th/11/2012 - Angler Ross Johnson Visits Jersey

Friday Night - Red Mullet, Sole, Ray Fishing

So after having met Ross a couple of times but not really got the chance to have a good fish with him, i was pretty exited for this weekend. I had planned to fish it hard with him and try and make it a good weekend for him, as he has made the effort coming all the way here. Mainly he was here to tick of some more species for his species hunt (65 Species so far this year! http://fishingfanatic2012.blogspot.com/p/species-tally-2012.html) He was mainly keen on getting a Red Mullet or a Sole!

Having all the bait ready for the session ahead (Thanks to Robert Dingle for the digging) we was set to get fishing, meeting him at the harbor we then drove out to the Mark. It wasn't long before we was into fish started off with usual Dogfish & Pouting. I had my rods out for Ray as wanted Ross to get his target species & if i was catching them then less chance he would, & then some line started screaming off my Reel. I knew it was a Ray after a great fight it was landed by Ross. I was very very happy with this fish as is a new P.B from the shore by a long long way! Weighing 12lb 12oz and a Blonde Ray

Thanks to Ross who convinced to me use a Pully Rig & gave me a special weight to use for long distance casting, it seemed to pay off :) 

Few pictures and back in the water :) Re-baited and back out same place. Ross's rods were being very quite apart from another Dogfish i decided to chance one rod over to worm baits just simple running ledger and flicked it out, within mins i had a Pouting. My bait looked fine so flicked it back out in same spot, 5 mins after again worm bait rod screamed off! Reeled in a Sole of around 1lb. 

Okay now i feel bad as this was Ross's target species literally just took the sole of my hook and my Ray Rod started screaming off again!! So stuck into it and i could feel was another Ray! Okay now i feel bad as this was Ross's target species literally just took the sole of my hook and my Ray Rod started screaming off again!! So stuck into it and i could feel was another Ray..... 12lb 5 Blonde Ray Female Fish was very very chuffed with all the fish i just had. But still really wanted Ross to get a fish the luck was just not on his side. His rod did scream off but it was a Pollock getting us all exited! We called it a night as was planning to go early morning for a bit of Boat fishing :)

Saturday Morning - Boat Fishing - Bass

Okay so alarm goes off at 6.15am oh how i wanted to stay in that warm Bed soo soo much. But that just cant not happen! Woke up Ross and went up to North Coast Harbor to meet David Sullivan who was our skipper for the Day. We Geared up and out to sea we went, wasn't long before we was at our first inshore Mark and think it was 2nd or 3rd cast of the Day and Ross was into a Schoolie Bass on the Blue Savage Gear. 

Soon after he was into another one! 

David then managed to hook up a fish and was a Garfish and came off as he was lifting into the Boat.

Then he Managed to get a Bass

We then moved around the Coast in search of some fish, i got my first BITE of the day, whilst Ross continued to pull in more Bass!! Think he was getting his own back on me from the night before lol!

Literally last cast i Hooked into a Foul Hooked Tiny Wrasse! At least i didn't Blank!

Challenge Match

So the Challenge match was now beginning between Sinkers Sea Fishing Club, Specimen Hunters & St Aubins Angling Club. I started of with a bit of Wrassing after getting to my spot too late because of tide it wasn't going to happen for me there. Ross pulled one out on SP though around 2lb. We made a Decision to go to a rock mark & was going to target some Congers. With Cuttle fresh defrosting nicely and gear at the Ready we ventured down to our Rock. Out went the rods and its waiting game now. Darkness came quickly and not getting many bites i think i had the first fish of the evening a Dogfish! & Ross managed a Dogfish too. my Mate Ritchie and his Girlfriend also popped along to join us :). action started to pick up a little few pots in the way was very annoying! it got to 8.40pm and i was in world of my own staring at my rod lights hoping one would pull down sometime soon and my god it did! Screamed off, picked rod up and hit it thinking was a Conger i was pumping it in it went light for a little but must have been swimming towards me and popped up on surface! F*** Me Big Pollock i didn't want to loose this one so grabbed the Gaff my self and got wet for it in swell and Gaffed it in the Head! YESS! 

P.B Shore Caught Pollock 7lb 12oz Took a Cuttle fish and Mackerel Wrap on 10/0 Meat Hook

Then soon after a few pictures with my Pollock, before i even got that rod back out my conger rod had a bite . After a few good pull downs i struck and managed to have a good Hook-up with an Eel. After bullying him in and Ross went down and Gaffed him looked bigger than i though he was gonna be. Weighing 20lb 8oz still a decent Shore Caught Conger Eel :) :  

After now it went dead quiet for a while! Me and Ross decided to go try a different Rock close by as Ritchie Stayed on in same spot. At this new spot we had Bites instantly they seemed like conger bites too! i struck into one which was on for only secs before it spat the hook! (Dam Hook was Twisted round the line) so popped it back out and i hooked into another conger only a small one this time id say it was around 5lbs. Because i tried winching it up the rocks it did come off on the rocks and made its own way back into the Sea (saved me a job of unhooking him lol) We soon packed up and called it a night! 

Sunday Morning - Wrasse

Went down to the spot i am sure would have got a big wrasse from on the crabs but the tide was still too high. The weigh in was at 12pm and i only managed a couple of Wrasse nothing over 3lb really Ross just took his lure rod down and managed another Bass on the Savage Gear from the Shore. 

We went to the weigh in were i weighed in my Fish and saw a few other good fish hit the Scales including couple 5lb + Thick Lipped Mullet, Sole, Red Mullet, Undualte Ray, Rockling, Wrasse and probably some more. Sinkers won the competition any way! We then went onto Dig some Bait and Eat some food 

Sunday Evening - Target - Red Mullet, Sole, Rays 

Myself, Rob Dingle & Ross was gonna hit a spot were Rob had been getting a few Red Mullet recently and were my self & rob have had Sole in the past as well as Rays.  So we thought getting Ross a Red or Sole or Both would be Guaranteed this night.

So with Ross casting on the inside of this Bay, Rob in the Middle and me on left of it all over bit more rough ground. We put the rods out i put a worm bait out on one rod and one out for a Ray my first cast i had a Pouting & 2nd cast i had a sole of around 1lb :) on the worm bait (Red Cat)

Then i was pretty happy that there was fish there because really wanted Ross to get a sole and now seeing that come up the confidence went up a little too. So casted back out in same spot and what do you know my Rod goes again!! could i get any more lucky???!  another sole around the same size as first one. I do find Glow beads make a difference for these fish :)

So we continued to catch nothing else and called it a night!

Monday Morning - Thick Lipped Mullet

So i had this day booked off work! With the weather not really on our side today we thought we would do a bit of Mulleting down a Sheltered Spot! We had a bit of a lie in (9am i think) haha so off to the shop to buy a loaf of bread and off we went for a Mullet, literally 15 mins after a bit of shirvying i hooked into one and landed it my self wasn't a big one maybe 1lb 8 something like that :) 

Then after 1 hour more we changed over tactics and started to fish for them on the Bottom straight away this proved to be the best method getting bite every cast! Ross managed to loose one on the surface by the net & then he got one in around the same size as mine :) then he went onto catching yet another mullet. 

I then stopped getting bites and decided to change over to a Soft plastic on my 13ft Mullet rod and didn't take long before i landed a lovely Wrasse. Great Fight! (picture to come) Ross went onto catching his first ever Wrasse on Bread (Picture to come). Then we called it a morning.

Wrasse Took a Bass Assassin Lure fished on a 12 Gram Jig Head bouncing along the bottom!

Monday Afternoon - Digging Bait and a Pint! 

We managed to get enough worms for a good session! We needed to catch tonight running out of time for Ross. We discussed plans over a Pint and off we went to brave the force 5/6 Winds with Swell & Rain!

Monday Evening - Target -  Red Mullet, Sole

Got down to the Mark just after Dark ... waiting game for tide to come in. When it did thankfully so did Ross Johnson's luck & he managed his P.B and first ever Red Mullet its what he came all the way to Jersey for and after fishing our arse's off for this fish it was my high light of his trip over here & i am sure it was his! The relief that he is 1 fish closer to his goal of 70 Species that he would really struggle with back in England. 67 fish now though mate. Plenty of time to get 3 more ;)

3 Hook Paternoster Glow Beads the Lot attracted this bad boy onto his bait! 1lb 3oz

Ater Ross had his fish i automatically start feeling more confident that more fish will be feeding! Which indeed they was as i managed my best Red Mullet of the year so far of 1lb 11oz took Red Cat Worm on a pennel running ledger! 

Bass took the worm bait!

Ross Johnson & Myself with our Red Mullet

All in all was a great long weekend fishing with a great guy and great angler! We have already made plans for  the Alderney Festival next year to be in 2 man Team so watch out Green Army if your reading this ;) 

Shows you that fishing jersey channel islands can produce some good fish! 

Ross Has his own Blog too http://fishingfanatic2012.blogspot.com/ so his report will be on soon too :) Check that out!

October What a Great Months Fishing!

I really dont know where to start this month i have caught alot of good fish, but i have been fishing a fair bit too! But you really do have to fish like 3 or 4 times a week even if its for 2 Hours and your in with a chance of catching some really good fish :)

33lb Eel took the tail end of a Mackerel at a new spot i have never fished before with Scott. Was pretty hard condition was hard to hold bottom due to the Tide and Deep water put none the less it put up a Great scrap we left soon after very short session felt good :) 

This next fish is my 2nd Best Eel of the year and my 3rd eel over 35lb from the Shore on the scales went 35lb and tail was still on ground was a very very long fish! i managed to gaff this Eel myself too and there was a bit of swell. It was my First Cast again using Cuttle fish for bait! was 20 mins into darkness! (Jammy git eh ;) ) Was only only fish of session was home and in bed by 9pm lol! 

This was yet another great session met up with Gareth and ventured on down to a new spot for me that i have always wanted to fish just never got round to it. And as Gareth Suggested it i was very keen :)
and way around 1 hour into the session i managed a Small Eye Ray around 5lb took sand-eel & squid on running ledger.  

I put a Conger rod out and withing 10 mins i had one playing around with my bait. After a good solid pull down i Striked to find my self into a Snag! Bugger in the end i lost my gear on that cast.

another 2 hours went by with not much action and Screaming run on Gareths Rod Strikes it and knew it was decent, as was on Ray gear thought might be a Blonde Ray. But after very very good fight he was playing very well and it did mess us around alot. Gaffing it was quite difficult but we did it in the end :) 

His P.B Conger of 38lb 

And one day after work me and Gareth tried to find some more Eels and we got a couple. 

Popped out after work met up with Scott, Ritchie & Hannah for a spot of Wrasse Bashing i was eager to get down the rocks everything looked perfect! i got the first cast in water and before you know it within 30 secs of fishing ZZZZzzz screaming run i locked up thinking big Wrasse and turned it, now i can feel head shakes (this aint no Wrasse) got it closer and saw the head on it and flash of Silver its a Bass, got it in the net and in a safe place to Measure and get a Picture. It had something wrong with it by its Head maybe got spear fished and got away or netted. But it was hungry for my Reins Pumpkin Shad :)

Weighed 5lb 9oz and measured 67cm not a bad start! 

All in all between us managed around 10 Wrasse on SPs my luck wasn't so great after that Bass just had the 1 Wrasse haha. & Managed to snap Hannah's pink rod pulling it out a snag WOOPS :)

So Myself and Gareth decided to go for Eels on a Friday night. We arrived at the spot and it looked perfect it was still light so i whacked out a sand-eel on a running ledger and after 10 mins had a screaming run, ran over striked and wasn't there. Gutted oh well getting dark now time for the conger traces to come on! and out they went with some Cuttle out and sand-eel. Wasn't long before my rod started to pull down and i was into my first Eel of the night as i was playing this fish Gareth also hooked into one on his rod with the Ray gear on, Double hook up!! so as i was playing my one in i got down to waters edge and managed to Trace the eel and pulled it up on the rocks and ran over to help Gareth with the gaff. as this was happening my other Rod screamed off nearly went in! Ran Over to that one Striked that and had to get that one in too! bloody hell any way we landed all 3 eels in the space of 5/10mins! all of them in-between 15lb and 20lb :)

So after the pics and releasing all 3 Eels it was time to get rods back out sweating like Jimmy Saville in a Nusery i was as was wearing that many layers of clothes lol! any way about 1 hour passed with out i bite (Whats going on) and as soon as i was thinking that Boom Eel on again. But was on Gareth Ray gear again! It was a very big fish he was saying i could see it was stripping the line of his reel, but couldn't put to much pressure on it as using the weaker line. After 5 mins of fighting this one unforgettably snapped the line :( 

He had another one anyway:

I ended up getting 1 more Eel too so 5 Eels between us..Pretty Good session :)

Went with Alex for a couple hours on a Sunday night here is him with his First Shore Caught Blonde Ray he wont shut up about as i have never had one of shore lol ;)

He had a Tiny Small Eye too! his 2nd one ever (he thought both these fish was like 30lb! haha)

Went on a session with Leigh Mullins to a spot he suggested he told me where ti was and i had never fished this spot either but always wanted to give it ago. So as i finished work earlier than him i found my own way down and hoped it was the right spot lol! I was still my first cast with a Sand-eel on for Bait when my rod screamed off and i landed this fine Bass of 6lb 15oz :) Lee rocked up just before i had this.

After a hour or 2 of not much action i went to check my bait as i noticed my line was not in the direction i casted it and thought it was tide which pulled my gripper out of bottom. half way through reeling it in thinking i had a lump of weed on i felt a bit of a head shake from a fish . got it to Surface and saw it was decent bass tried netting it but was hard in the swell so just winched it up the rocks :) This one was 8lb 1oz currently my best Bass so far this year :) 

David took me out for a Bass :) Ventured out with David on Sunday afternoon for few Hours fishing was hard after catching few Snipe and Pollock we found the Bass on way back into the Harbor ..his was decent weight 4lb 12oz on a hard lure :) mine was wee baby. 1lb 9oz on Savage gear lucky i had small stinger on it seemed to be hooking most the fish.

Highlight of the afternoon was still getting towed in though haha :)

After a day of struggling to find a Bass me and Gareth decided to do a bit of Wrassing they wasn't touching the lures so tried a little secret trick when they aint biting the lures they will bite the Bait knocked limpets of the rocks and put them onto our jig heads straight away started catching fish :)
Gareth with a Wrasse weighing 4lb 12oz :)

Here is my Best fish of the short session going 4lb 

Bass Competition 2012 

Had this one all Planned out my plan was i needed to win it simple as not going to lie haha :) So the Friday night was very hard going with the strong winds the tides was not great either very hard to fish! Maybe made the wrong move with the fishing spot but we had to try, I managed a small Rockling and Gareth had Pollock just under 3lb, Packed up and got to sleep at home for 2.30am after around 3 hours sleep we had to get lure fishing! the wind was outrages! cut a long story short was a rubbish day only had wrasse on lures and Gareth lost a Bass on the Lure! went to sleep at 7pm and went back out for 12.30am. And luckily we did as Gareth managed to pull out the Biggest fish of the Competition which went 9lb 15oz at the weigh in 15 hours after he had it. Giving him 10lb 3oz for this fish :) Well done mate! 

Sunday weather was alot better we went up and down alot of spots with the lures just couldn't find any Bass at the 4th Spot i had a Pollock of 2lb 10oz

 and Gareth lost a Bass trying to pull it up on rocks with the swell but it came off lol! Gareth getting too old for all this climbing ;) so he called it a day around 11/12am ! My mission was still to get one of like 7lb so we had chance winning the Team prize..went down one final spot for the incoming for 2/3 hours as soon as that tide turned the fish started biting had around 7 Wrasse on the savage gears getting pissed off with them as thought they were Bass haha! and Finally managed a Bass of 2lb 9oz when i saw it i was very happy! was quite far away from my bag where my scales where my bait rod was with big bait on it so ran over and weighed it for moment of truth bugger! carried on having 2 more follows from bass (one looked 4lbish GRRR) didn't get any pictures of last session as left my camera in the van in most of the sessions i did when there was a bit of a trek involved i cba to carry it around its quite chunky lol! I had to call it a weekend. Enjoyed a few drinks at the Shakespeare later on that evening :)

So thanks for reading once again ignore all the grammar and spelling mistakes no one is perfect. I aint the kind of guy to waste my time reading it back to check for them haha. Tight lines all, see you next time. I am having a bit of time off fishing & to relax and chill at home like normal people do lol!