Lrf what you need.....

I came across this article about what you need for lrf fishing it was written by Ben Field of Art of fishing and I just thought it is a really concise and precise guide for anyone thinking about taking up lrf
A beginners guide to lrf
Anyway I hope you enjoy reading this guide and a happy new year to all my readers and followers
Tight lines
Jay

Happy Christmas!!!

Let me start by saying happy christmas and happy new year to
all my readers the blog has just broken the 10000 hits mark which
to be honest i never expected so many people to view the blog
let alone follow it.

Anyway its been a fantastic year of exploration and discovery for
me in the way my angling has improved and changed.
How i look at angling in general is vastly different than this time last year
i was interested in one thing BASS and only bass would do but now with
the advent of LRF(light rock fishing) and HRF(hard rock fishing) I'm just
under 20 different species this year from micro gobies to proper heart stopping
rock pigs all on lures from 5mm to 9'' .
Its great to see so many different people and nationalities taking up these styles of
angling they really do open up so many different avenues and possibilities in
lure angling all the new blogs that have appeared especially the LRF ones
even a few groups on facebook.
I have to say thanks to the people who were really behind LRF/HRF revolution
and that would be the lads on jerseybassguides Kevin and Keith White
Their blog has a vast amount of information on it for those who want to know
more about these stlyes
There are others such as Mike Sullivan of rock-fishing-revolution and Andy Kendrick of jackslrf
and many more who have openly shared information on techniques with me throughout the year
A huge thanks to all the guys!!

Theres also a new website set up by a bunch of guys who just love to fish for
fun called luregames.com its all about light lure angling for the craic of it and
not to confuse people by getting overly technical with the whole thing
which i think is a great idea

Right back to Christmas and as everyone knows Santa comes:

He was well.. when i say he i mean my girlfriend Aisling who got me a brand new 2011 Daiwa
Caldia 2506H ...thanks Ash
It really does look and feel the business really smooth with lovely line lay
Its got a load of new features over the older caldia such as mag seal , air rotor , ultimate tournament drag and others a big step up from the exage which in its own right is a very good reel and hasnt let
me down once

I also recieved a load of different lures, hooks and jigheads

some gulpworms, waveworms and senkos

various hooks and bits

some big hammer grubs and paddle tails

2.5'' craws look great for finiky wrasse

i can see the wrasse loving these so soft with the wave worm scent

I just need a break in this god awful weather we've been having recently to try these out on
some unsuspecting fish
Its been a great Christmas all in all

Since this is more than likely my last post of the year i just thought i finish by going over my favourite fish of 2011

#1 would have to be my personal best LRF wrasse of 5lb 8oz an absolute pig of a fish which
really tested my LRF gear you can read about it here:
http://wexfordbass.blogspot.com/2011/08/lrf-personal-best-smashed.html

#2 would be my personal best LRF bass of 5lb 8oz which took me by complete surprise and stripped line off the reel with a number of good runs

http://wexfordbass.blogspot.com/2011/10/lrf-surprise.html

Well i think i have went on long enough I cant express how much i am looking forward

to the coming year if i learn and achieve half as much as this year its going to be a cracking 

one lots to learn and lots to do but i love a challenge

Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to all my followers and readers

thanks to you all

Tight Lines

Jay

A little bit of lrf....

Went out for a bit of hrf the other day when i finally got a chance
and had a break in the weather at last but every mark i tried was filthy
with a swell and most were almost unfishable
So out with my LRF gear and i tried a spot of rock pooling as there
was quite alot of them around where i was and they were clean
so on went a power isome a little .5g size12 jighead cast in to a little crevice felt a few
tugs struck but missed so i tried again and pulled out a little rock goby

it wasnt even hooked just didnt want to let go of the lure i dropped the lure beside
another rock and out popped another goby for as look but went straight back in
so i left the lure on the bottom and just gave it a few shakes and twitches and another
much bigger goby came out and done a little smash and grab on the lure

quite funny to watch and it actually took a bit of coaxing to get out from under the rock good crack though
i moved on to another little pool had another few gobies moved on again to a pool full
of blennies i hooked a few but they all shook the hook before i could get them out of the pool
so i fished another little pool and immediately got struck by a little scorpion fish with some of the nicest
colouration i have seen on one of these fish

it was almost identical in colour to the weed that was growing in the pool
had a couple of these but that was it for the rockpooling i moved on to
a local quay and began to fish in tight to the walls to see what i could pick up
it wasnt long until i got my first fish a little coalie and after this another
i had about 15 in total in the hour i was there

that was all the fish i had that day one which i really enjoyed a new species for me in the goby i had caught gobies before but never ones dark with a yellow tipped dorsal i presume its a rock goby

On another note i met a guy out while i was doing a bit of hrf the other day he was fishing for bass
on lures with no success and we got chatting and i explained the technique i was fishing and what i was
fishing for so he gave it a go and within 3 casts he was into his first ever lure caught wrasse

he had 2 fish in the time i was there on a day in which i blanked i might add but such is fishing
thats all for now

Tight lines

Jay

LRF 27/10/11

Finally got out this week after what seemed like a
month of shit weather high winds and heavy rain
really dirtied up most of my bass marks so lrf
was my other option one which i have to say has
overtaken hrf big time for me i got to my first mark at dead
low tide slight colour in the water and a small swell
so i decided to try for some wrasse but they just werent playing ball
no matter what lure or presentation i used so i tried for some polllock instead
by slowing retrieving a worm over the rocks and seaweed around the mark this

turned up a few fish up to about 2lb

I had 8 or 9 fish like these all pretty much the same at the 1.5lb to 2lb mark , i decided to scale down and do a bit of rock pooling for some other species turns out there was plenty of scorpion fish around and a few 

blenny's 

that was all for the daytime so home i went after an enjoyable session to refuel for the night 

I headed back out just after dark conditions were nice but it has really started to cool down alot  now

it was only 3c last night arrived at the mark a nice little quay and fished the walls for as while and had plenty of micro coalfish and a few up to 1lb mark good fun 

I didnt count how many of these i had some on little pieces of sandworm lures or 2" paddletails from 

jackslrf great little lures with a nice big paddle on the end

I fished like this for about an hour but then the water exploded with fish to my left so i cast out into them 

and picked up a herring another first for me lrf which is nice i fished these for another while with the shoal moving in and out of the harbour i must have had 20 at least the biggest of which being 11-12" smallest being 6" but great crack on the lrf gear the bigger ones put up a good fight but they are almost impossible to 

photograph as once they are out of water they just dont stop moving 

i only took photos of one herring as it was the only one to stay still for a second.
Well that was it for the night an enjoyable 2 sessions and my first night lrf trip

for a while.

Tight lines

Jay

LRF surprise.....

Decided to go LRF today since i had been doing
a fair amount of bassing.
So i went to a local mark where i had picked up wrasse before.
I geared up and waded out to the mark the tide was
falling and there was a fairly heavy swell with a slight
NW headwind first cast, tap tap fish on but after a couple
of turns of the reel it spat the hook and was gone this happened
another couple of times during the first hour and the wind had really
picked up and was blowing hard.
I fished on and yet again a very slight tap tap on the lure then
whack drag screaming on the reel the solpara doubled over
 i thought to myself this is a nice fish i evetually
 got it up from the bottom and saw a great flash of silver
 i thought a bass was following the wrasse
for all of a split second until the all too familiar head shakes and sudden run
told me this was a nice bass.
 A slight bit of panic and joy kicked in as this was going
 to be my first lrf bass after a couple more heart stopping runs the fish tired
a little and i began to get the upper hand and gained some ground on the fish
as it got closer to me i grabbed my net and used the swell to turn it
and run into my net , I couldnt believe it a whopping 5lb 8oz on the boga
and it had taken a totally deadsticked 3''lure off the bottom the first time
i've had a bass do this

I was overjoyed to land this fish and it really was an unexpected bonus I put the fish in a pool to recover
and once it had i released it
The solpara really never ceases to amaze me it was really doubled today but took it no bother
and such light lines can take an immense amount of pressure i was using sunline rockfish 6lb with 4lb berkley
leader.
I fished on but the headwind had really picked up i had a couple of micro pollock

but no wrasse which i found strange as i would normally pick up at least one from this mark
and no more bass but to be honest i didnt really care i packed up after a while and
strolled back to the car an extremely happy angler.


tight lines

Jay

Midnight bass....

This is a follow up from my previous post
I ventured back out to the same mark but
this time at low water just before midnight
the moon was high in the sky and full it was
almost as bright as day.
There was another angler there Marty from
belfast we had a chat and decided to go out onto
the sandbanks and give it a go
there wasnt much room to fish so we took it in turns
fishing into the current bouncing the sp along
we fished for around 3hrs with no bites then
a fish smashed my 7.5'' sluggo and ran like hell
it put up a really good fight and was eventually landed a
decent fish of just about 4lb in weight, Marty was good enough
to take a photo

that was it for the night until next time

tight lines

Jay

A few early morning bass.....

Got out this morning to a local mark and to be honest
it has been blowing a gale the last few days so i didnt really
expect much but i decided to give it a go anyway no point
in wasting time travelling to another mark the tide was falling
and there was a nice surf  but it was still blowing in gusts of around
30mph i waded out and decided since there was a small bit of colour
a chartreuse wave worm might work but after 15- 20 casts nothing
so on with a 6inch sluggo and since there was a good rip a heavier
jig head to get down deep.
I cast out and bounced the sluggo on the bottom the line went slack and i wound
straight into my first fish of the day a nice fat 3.5lb bass

this one almost swallowed the whole sluggo, back she went and a few casts later i was into another fish

this one was about 3lb but fought much harder than the first had another two fish of around the same weight
and one just over the 5lb mark

I had waded out a fair bit by now and it was a good 30yrds or so back to dry land behind me I had another 4 fish but the swell and current made it difficult to take any decent pictures although I did try......

As you can see being on your own and underwater photos dont really mix
But all in all an enjoyable mornings fishing and heres hoping this afternoon or maybe
tonight can be as or maybe more productive

Tight Lines

Jay

New Toys

Havent got out much lately and when i have its been either time

or the weather has been against me i did manage a couple of fish

the best being just over 5lb on a chartreuse wave worm from

absolutefishing 

I recently purchased an IMA/Rbb floatation vest from basslures.co.uk and i have to say

first impressions are very good it seem very sturdy and well put together now it claims

to be designed for saltwater use (I'll see how that goes) it has plenty of space in the front pockets

and rear bag loads of d rings for line clips , fish grips etc... 

 

it claims to be capable of keeping you afloat but to be honest i dont ever plan on finding this out

all in all though an impressive piece of gear and it came with an IMA lure box and a IMA stuka 

lure 

I also picked up some decoy pluggin single hooks from absolutefishing which i put on some feed shallows and an IMA sf125 and some weedless hooks in various sizes

The change of hooks didnt seem to affect the feed shallows at all but i think that i'll be putting 

the trebles back on the sf125 because the weight difference seems to have affected the lures ability 

to bite into the water on the retrieve and its action doesnt seem to be the same 

Until next time 

Tight Lines

Jay