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!

I'm a Sole Man!

First things first i got my Sole! After many many sessions trying over last couple years it came on my 2nd session of the year for them only weighed 1lb 6oz took Lug worm on a 1 up 1 down rig :)

Dont need to cast far for these, had this right under my feet pretty much. (Think i was singing im a sole man for 30 mins after i caught it hahaa)

My first Red Mullet of the year went 1lb 4oz took lug-worm again on a running ledger :)

Me & Alex went Congering, so with the conger competition coming up was in need of a bit of practice to went to new mark we never have fished at night only for 2 hours and we managed 1 Eel each :) 

Here is Alex with the best Conger of the night going 16lb+

Then i managed a whip too!

Myself and Ben der Bates targeted some Sole & Red Mullet on the Worms and he wanted to bring his lure rod down and did! (as we got to the car park i had a phone call of Callum Robertson wanting to know if i was fishing i told him where i was and he met us down there).

I had a spot in mind but when we got there Anglers was already there, so fished a rock near by i also knew there was chance for my sole and reds  So before i even set up 1 Bait rod Ben has had 2 follows and hooks into a fish i run over with the net as he screams with excitement and scooped up a Bass Quick Picture then off to right another day:

Here is a Close up for Mick Ward as he sold him this lure lol  

So Callum got down, i said to him that a couple of Bass around & Ben has had one and couple follows. So he sets up and hooks into them straight away after loosing a couple on first few casts... he got one in! Best one of the session too!  (I wont mention anything about him using smelly worms on the Tenryu when it got dark  hehe )

So now i am sitting there with shame on my face for not bringing my lure rod down  So after this session i was driving home around 10.30pm and i was thinking to my self ah i want a quick bass on lure too, so had a few casts down a spot on way home and manged a small one 

Conger Competition :) 

Myself, Leyton, Ritchie was the 3 Man Team in the above event, 72 Anglers Entered the competition. We was geared up for strong winds and thanks to Leyton who managed to catch us aload of Cuttle fish was geared up with Bait! Weighed my Rucksack before i went down it was 40lbs (Graft) oh well off we went and got fishing. Leyton on the Mackerel Feathers managed the first fish of the session which was a Pollock came in handy for our rubby dubby sack :) ! 

I went on the Bream at first and i had x2 Bream and 1 mackerel . Leyton also got Mackerel so a bit of fresh bait cant hurt anyone :) Leyton then gets a phone call saying that the weather getting real bad! like force 6/7s and heavy rain. At this point Ritchie wasn't keen to stick out the night so he left the mark before dark. So now me and Leyton got on the Beers and waited for Darkness.....Rods went out......waiting game now i said. And what you know on Leyton 1st cast his rod started to bend over!

(Not exactly the monster we were after but gained a bit of confidence as it was first cast!)

Still on the first cast i also managed one around the same size. No piccie going on here i cba lol :)

Then after a bit longer of a wait my rod had a good bite, picked the rod up it was pulling down ...pulling down....pulling down STRIKE fish on :) good scrap and was on the Gaff. Yeah Buddy! its a Weigher weighed on scales around 24lb i was happy with that in the bag it went! 

Then another one came in for me. This one 14lb, Leyton also had another one under 15lb. God we have had a few now it not even 11pm i was thinking! 5 Eels so far Bloody good session really.  

The Texts where going on winding up my mates about how many Eels we have had and my rod Started screaming off! I was thinking bloody hell i whacked this one out very far (like nearly emptied my spool) anyway picked rod up and double striked this fish as could feel some power to it. Wanted to make sure i had hook set! Was coming up pretty easy at first but as soon as i got it towards rocks F*** Me did it pull down, i was not letting it go no where keep drag fully locked and just letting rod bend, trying to tire it out. As it was against the rocks but still deep i could feel line rubbing! This is the point i was like i gotta bully this So Pumping time! Very heavy fish and up came the Head...my words was "Holy S***" Leyton down on the rocks was saying the same i was like omg that head looks like a 50lber (as you do). As trying to gaff the fish  i felt like the line snapped....i think i was ready to cry...but then i hear a voice saying "Yeeeep Yeeeep" Got it!!! My face soon changed to Panic still dont think i have slided down rocks so quick in my life grabbed the Gaff off him and got it on the rocks. i knew i was not in a safe position to carry it around to wear my gear was so i just held it. Leyton brings the bag over, and after struggling trying to get it in it woke up! as i took it of gaff...oh bollocks its going back towards sea (repeat of last year) Leyton starts kicking it haha, i was either depating give it a Bear hug or just use the gaff...gaff it was again in its head. "Leyton go empty my Rucksack" managed to curl it up in there and Zipped up its safe now! :) WHohohooo i weighed it in rucksack with still few bits in it and went 44lbs i was like GET IN (i knew wouldn't be that much at weigh in i was hoping to just brake the 40lb mark tho.  Here it is at the weigh-in going 39lb 12oz :) 

Then i chilled out for a bit Leyton needs one now. He had a couple which got away but then he Strikes he is onto one. i knew this was a weigher by bend in his rod! down i went with gaff and up it came :) Whohoo shake of the hands is required, cut the lines packed up the rods. Waited around till weigh in and rocked up with the fish. Leyton weighing 23lb 14oz.

Final results was: 

1st Daniel ferguson 39lb 12ozs

2nd Simon Gavey 24lb 12ozs

3rd Leyton Hunnisett 23lb 14ozs

4th Steve Mullins 22lb 8ozs

5th Colin Shales & Martin Shales (tie) 19lb 12ozs

Winning team was Daniel Ferguson,Leyton Hunnisett & Ritchie Campion 63lb 10ozs 
Well done also to Lee Jarvis wh managed a pb conger of 19lb 6ozs and just missed out on the prizes.

Anyway enough of those slimmy things :) ...1lb 8oz Flounder i had the other day as well as couple Bass, & a couple Smooth Hounds :)

My new P.B Small Eye 9lb 9oz :) Took whole squid on Running Ledger :)  Literally had the bite 2 mins of the bait being in the water! 

Here is another Sole which i had took lug-worm on a 1 up one down rig, hopefully more of these to come :) 

CHOW 4 NOW