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