Fun Times Had By All!

Friday I picked up Mason and Ryan at JFK and we headed down river from the Dam. The water was looking right. They had already turned the water on but it wasn't to us yet! We started off the morning drifting some of the usual nymphs and whatnot.. catching some nice bows along the way. Ryan made the comment he had never caught a brown. Not too long after that he caught his first brown and it was 17 inches! A short while later He caught about a 18 inch rainbow! We continued on fishing. It was a beautiful day, kind of weird, considering that it was 75 degrees in November but its hard to complain about that. Ryan then proceeded to catch this 21 inch pumpkin belly male! It was an awesome day. Mason caught lots of nice bows as well, but Ryan certainly showed out on this trip! As the afternoon progressed, the fishing got a little slower but still we saw some nice fish. All around it was an awesome day on the Little Red River!

Sunday fish in Fiji

I am a little late on this post because of computer problems. Now that those are fixed I can share our last trip out.

I took three friends out for a Sunday fish. The weather was frightful to say the least. Blowing 20-25 knots and threatening rain.

Since I am getting used to fishing in that kind of weather it is no big deal.

First one on board with a nice Bluefin Trevally was Paul.

From Nov 1st Serua reef Paul, Vinod, John, Callan

Next up was John, he and I share the retail store space. He catches a little Bluefin also.

From Nov 1st Serua reef Paul, Vinod, John, Callan

Then Vinod lands a nice GT.

From Nov 1st Serua reef Paul, Vinod, John, Callan

At this point Paul's arms are getting tired from casting a 50lb rod and a big River2Sea dumbell popper. So he gives me a try while he drives the boat. I soon hook up to a nice GT and boat it for a quick photo session.

From Nov 1st Serua reef Paul, Vinod, John, Callan

That was enough for me and I give the rod back to paul who then catches a big Long Tom.

From Nov 1st Serua reef Paul, Vinod, John, Callan

All in all we landed 5 fish and dropped 5. Not bad considering these guys are beginners and the weather was crap.

Until next time.

Tight lines

Surf's Up.

Perfect surf here yesterday. Surfer's delight and as you can see, not too crowded......

Galway Bass - Part 2

The following day I returned to the same location and enjoyed a fine walk surrounded by bird life and with high hopes after the previous day's success. I arrived to find the spring tide at its peak and unable to cast into the areas I felt might hold fish so I bided my time, took a few risks and eventually moved forward with the now falling tide. I targeted the area with large 175mm plugs in and around the surf washed boulders and eventually was rewarded with an almighty hit on the lure followed by the unstoppable run of a big fish. I'd only felt this kind of power from a fish once before in my life whilst fishing in Waterford with Patrick Gallagher and that ended in a lost fish due to inexperience on my part. As the battle commenced the words of Padraig my Father in Law, a very experienced river angler, came in to my head. He had been recalling the tale of a battle with a big Salmon, to me, just the previous day, and how he used patience and guile to subdue and land the fish. These words came back to me just when I needed them because any attempt to bully this fish was going to end in tears. When the fish came to the surface my heart rate went through the roof, this was the biggest Bass I'd seen to date and I was determined to land it successfuly. After what seemed like an age I was able to enter the water, from my rocky perch,and gently tow the beaten fish far from the reach of the foaming waves to unhook and inspect it. This was a brute of a fish and in perfect condition, I quickly unhooked the fish and measured it at 74cm in length which according to my B.A.S.S. tape measure is a 9Lb fish I was over the moon and shaking like a leaf. After a few photos I revived the fish in calm water then released it totally unharmed although maybe a little embarrassed to have been fooled by a piece of shiny plastic....

Berman still telling fish stories

I was the guest on Saturday morning's Capt. Mel Show on Tampa AM radio station 970-WFLA. I guess I've been a guest on Mel's show a dozen times or more over the years.

I always enjoy it.

Host Mel Berman does a great job and his show is No. 1 in its time slot.

Back in the old days, I had to get up at 4 a.m. and drive to WFLA's Tampa studio. There's no drive involved now. Thanks to digital technology, Mel's guests can participate from the comfy confines of their homes.

Berman is a Tampa Bay icon. The former charter skipper has done a little bit of everything in his life. He was one of the first Top 40 disk jockies, spinning the likes of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and many others at a time when it was more controversial than popular.

Berman, 81, and his wife, Ginny, moved to Tampa in 1969. That's when he bought a boat and began chartering. His clients caught their share of grouper, snapper, amberjack and other finny denizens.

I've fished with Berman on a number of occasions. His favorite outing is to cast for spotted seatrout, jack crevalle, ladyfish, bluefish and other species over deep grass flats until noon. Then, he likes to head to lunch.

I was surprised to find out that Berman has actually fished out of a kayak. He said he joined guide Neil Taylor for a morning of kayak fishing.

Next year, the Capt. Mel Show will be 25 years old. Berman said that everywhere he would go, people loved to talk about fishing. That spawned his show. But he had no idea he's still be behind the mic a quarter of a century later.

Unlike many newspapers, 970-WFLA realizes the popularity of Florida's No. 1 participatory sport. The ratings speak loud and clear. And Berman is tops in his time slot. That helps to sell a lot of advertising.

November- Thinking ahead

It’s the usual time of year when I start to think about next year’s objective in terms of what I would like to catch,where the I would like to go and what the available budget will be. The guys in my club are heading back to Kenya in January. This is a fantastic angling destination and pretty much has it all, just about every species of Billfish, GT’s, Amberjacks to name but a very few.

I was lucky enough to be visit in 2007.Willie Kennedy and I shared a boat on the last two days of our two week trip. The fishing went "tonto" and at one point we had five rods in with live frigate mackerel...five fish took each of the baits, Willie had 4 Yellowfin Tuna all about 50 pounds in the boat while I was left struggling with a Striped Marlin. Having done some damage to my elbow deep dropping speed jigs in 200 meters of water it was both painful and superb at the same time. When this latest trip was planned I could not commit to it. As it gets closer I cant help but feel a little jealous that I wont be there, good luck and I'm sure the fishing will be hot.

In fact I’ve been lucky enough to visit a lot of good angling destinations Kenya, Cape Verde, Pacific Mexico, Florida, Portugal and Arctic Norway.

I will get round to posting some pictures throughout the winter. Next year looks like France to lure/fly fish Bass. Having spent more hours than is right to do so I think I have it down to two places so… happy days.

October- Bass,Wrasse & wasp stings

Having been busy with Bass and Mullet I had not done any Wrasse fishing this year. This was pity as last year I had set myself a target of getting a fish of 5 pounds. My intention was to target these all summer but it just never happened. Still, being a decent month to target them Rodney and I got ourselves sorted out. The weather the day prior to our session had been unsettled, wet and windy. When I woke on Sunday morning I peered bleary eyed out the window not sure what I would find.... calm and sunny the trip was on.

Long story short we had 30 or so Wrasse. Surprised the size seemed to be down on our previous trips. To be fair the pair of us seemed to be hopeless for most of trip, missing bites stumbling about the rocks like bambi on ice. In fact he broke the tip ring on his rod when connected to probably the biggest Wrasse of the trip, I could see it clearly and it would have went 3-4 pounds when the hook popped out. On top of the tip breaking… hilarious. He followed this stunt up by screaming at me and clawing at his groin area about half an hour later. He then stood on the rocks dropped his strides and killed the wasp which had climbed up his trouser leg…. absolute quality.

I had one Bass session late in the month. Being October I had visions of landing a bass bigger than my PB which is 6 pounds 6 oz. I decided to have an evening session and then a dawn session via a B & B stay. Having been reading up on lure fishing at night I gave it a go. I took two fish at dusk and then two fish around 9.30pm..Totally black, no moon with a really slow retrieve using a Feed Shallow. In addition I had six or so small Pollack. The Bass? These were about the smallest I have caught all year, in fact come to think of it this mark has produced pretty much all small fish, note to self. I did learn a few things and you definitely tune into the environment. I have to say that I did not like the seal literally sniffing about me less than fifteen feet away in the pitch black, quite spooky. That was the end of the fishing for that night. I gave it go at first light and despite what I would say were good conditions I blanked, that as they say is show business! Nice sunrise though.