First impressions.....

I had been toying with the idea of getting a new light/medium rod for quite some time.
While I am more than happy with the solpara which is an outstanding rod for the price
and has never let me down the only thing was its range which is 0.5-5g and recently I found myself
wanting something capable of 6g or sometimes 8g.

So I set about looking at what was out there in midrange rods and there is quite alot with more
appearing online and in various shops almost weekly.
After a bit of looking and picking a few brains I eventually settled on a Graphiteleader Tiro GOTS762L
1-12g

I contacted Cian in Absolute Fishing and he said that it would be no problem to get me the rod and after a
week or so I had my new rod.

My first impressions of the rod are very good it has a very high quality of finish coupled with what appeared to be a very nice blank.

I couldnt wait to get out and fish with it but unfortunately I had to wait until the next day.

So I decided to go and try for some wrasse and I arrived at the mark glorious sunshine and blue skies
I rigged up a 2g cone with a size4 weedless hook texas style and began to search the various gullies around
and it wasnt long before i was into my first wrasse of the session

A lively little ballan of about a pound it put a nice bend in the rod which handled it no problem.

I continued searching and found several more ballans all around the 1 pound mark but bites were
obviously not as plentiful as they had been in recent weeks.

I went back to trying to find a better stamp of wrasse but the pollock had come on the feed and
it was almost impossible to get to the bottom without getting struck by a fish on the way down even
with heavier weights the speed of the drop still didnt deter them

Average sized fish for the gullies in this area annoying when I wanted a wrasse but a welcome change all
the same

I fished a much deeper gully and felt a tap and missed the fish then recast and in the same place another
much more solid tap and zing there goes the drag on the caldia a much better fish and a definite wrasse
after a couple of good runs and a bit of prising from the kelp. I eventually surfaced a lovely ballan of just
under 3lb

A very nice fish with plenty of spirit which put a good bend in the Tiro but again I never once felt in any danger of loosing the fish.

My initial thoughts of the rod are that it has a superb through action which cushions the line much
better than any other rod I've used meaning that I can give the fish a little bit more stick than I was
previously able. The finish as I have already said is superb. It's bite transmission is awesome with the
slightest tap registering as a shock throughout the length of the blank something that I think will come in handy in the coming months when fish tend to be a little bit more subdued.

I'm really looking forward to fishing with this rod alot more in the future and a big thanks to Cian in Absolute Fishing for getting the rod for me and to John at Lure Heaven for his advice and help in choosing the rod.


I hope you enjoyed the read,

Tight Lines,

Jay

A quick update..

After my session on the saltwater in my last post I decided to head to
the freshwater for a change and the species I had in mind were Dace
and Perch.

I arrived at where I intended to fish and I could see shoals of smallish
dace with some bigger fish a bit deeper down swimming up and down
the canal. Having never caught a dace I initially tried a small float setup with
a small hook size18 or 20 and a small section of power isome. I fished this way
for a good two hours with a few small taps here and there just to get my hopes
up.

I was then approached by a pair of fisheries officers asking a few questions like
what are you fishing for?  etc... Which was good to see them out and about doing their
job.

A change of tactics then stil trying for a dace a 0.5g jighead with a small section
of isome slowly retrieved at various depths but again nothing.


So I then decided to go after perch and these little guys were more than willing to take
whatever they could get their mouths around in the hour that I fished for them I must
have had around 20-25 all caught on varying lures from curltail grubs to power isomes

One thing i did notice however was that the weight of the jighead made a massive difference to
whether or not the fish came at the lure. I started with a 1g head and was getting fish after fish although
it was difficult to get down through the leaves on the surface of the water. Switched to a 2g head with the same lure and getting through the cover on the surface was no problem but the fish didnt want to
know switched back and fish on. I suppose the lure fell through the water column at too fast a rate and wasnt in the strike zone long enough, I've had the same with Pollock and Bass but this was the first time I had seen it make a difference to Perch which are normally very obliging.

Anyway I headed home and called it a day. The next day on my break from work I decided to head to my local pier for a quick half hour session.
I rigged up my gear dropshot style and began to fish down the sides of the walls I managed a few small
coalies straight away and then got a much better bite which turned out to be a nice corkwing

All quite then for a little while and I moved spot dropped the rig to the bottom and almost immediately
felt some bites which I had never felt before a very fast series of tiny bites. I didnt know what it
was so after some patience I eventually hooked the fish causing this

A tiny Scad(horse mackeral) or ''Aji'' as they are known in Japan this is another first for me and I have
to say I was delighted with it albeit small but perfectly formed.

I hoped you enjoyed reading,

Tight lines,

Jay

A trip on the train.....

My car was in the garage and that put pay to any plans that I had for fishing

that weekend. So I rang my good friend David to arrange an LRF and plans 

were made for me to get the train up to him and we could fish a few marks up his 

way.

Thursday night was spent going through gear and making sure that I had everything

I would need for the next days session. 

I arose early on Friday and the weather couldnt have been better so I took the 

short one hour train journey with my rod and gear (much to the amusement of some fellow passengers) 

up to David who kindly met me at the train station.

We said our hello's and decided to get straight into the fishing with a short trip to a local

pier. We arrived at the mark and rigged up our gear, we both rigged standard jigheads with

isomes and gulp and I drew first blood on the day with a stunning long spined scorpion fish

Next up was David with a nice rock goby...

A short while later it was my turn for another couple of fish another rock goby and a first for me a

goldsinney wrasse a species which has eluded me for quite some time.

It went quite then for an hour or so we put this down to the fact that a small diving bird a little

auk I think had started working up and down the edges of the pier so we decided to make our

move stop for a little bit of breakfast/lunch and make up our way to another mark that David wanted 

to try out.

We arrived at our new mark and began to fish I switched over from a jig head to dropshot and it made a marked difference with a nice corkwing falling to it almost first cast 

Then a nice Ballan 

David was also fishing dropshot after having no joy with a jighead was also picking up ballans and

corwings....

It went on like this with ballans and corkwing a plenty for both of us

Then David pulled out a nice little pouting which was a first for him on a lure and he was delighted
with that

I then managed another Rock goby followed by a long spined scorpion

I then managed my first ever Tompot Blenny yet another species that had evaded capture..

Both David and myself both got hit by a couple of trains which proved unstoppable one broke Davids line and the other spat the hook a shame but I suppose its the way it goes.
I also managed a pouting of my own a first for me this year..

So by now we reckoned that we had fished enough on this mark and decided to move on to some rocks
we had both being looking at earlier on in the day.

We fished the rocks with David drawing first blood with the biggest ballan of the day...

I was next with another fine ballan wrasse..

we fished on with another good few corkwing and ballans coming to our lures

A truly epic day with the evening fast approaching we decided that yet another change was in order but this time a move to fresh water.

To try for a species that David had caught but I had not we rigged up well rigged right down really i was using a japanese tenkara hook size 26 and the smallest piece of isome I could manage but it worked and I
got my first ever freshwater minnow

By now it was almost time for my train home and what better way to end the day than a nice cold beer
and a good chat about the days fishing and what a day it was with over 70 fish between the two of
us 8 species including new ones for both of us. It was truly a memorable days fishing and one that I wont
forget for a very long time.

So great craic was had by both of us and an epic days angling and plans were made for the future watch
this space.....

You can see Davids take on the day on his blog East Coast Fishing

I hope you enjoyed the read,

Tight lines,

Jay