Maggots and Wrasse

Following a short session on the small stream mentioned in the previous post, I was handed a load of spare maggots by fishing buddy Steve. Well I wasn’t planning on any coarse fishing for a few days, so what to do with them?

So there are me and John down along Poole Quay with the LRF gear set up with size 14’s and 12’s on split shot rigs drowning triple and quadruple maggot in the sea. And the Corkwing Wrasse, Goldsinnys, Blennies and Gobies loved them. So don’t go throwing those maggots away. Go catch some minis on the UL gear.

A Mouthful of Maggots starring Rock Goby

Read Full Post »

Poole Quay LRF ….. Where’s My Scorpy

The small and friendly forum I belong to here on the south coast holds a (mostly) monthly points competition for it’s members. These points add towards an end of year result. Nothing stupendous like winning a couple of expense paid weeks of Tarpon fishing or a years supply of bait with a couple of Zzippy’s thrown in (you reading this Bazza). Nah, this is for fun. This particular months comp is spread over a week and has points for Best Smut, Best Ray, Best Flat, Best Round and Most Species caught during the week. Note the last category. I mention all this guff as I will probably mention a ‘Species Competition’ quite a bit in my posts, and I hate confusing people. I don’t require an excuse to go fishing, but an incentive sometimes is nice.

That said I have been building up the species count the last three trips for the comp (currently standing at 10), and I was looking to add a couple more to the count. So down to Poole Quay with No. 2 Son for a couple of hours (read three) of LRF with a mix of SP’s, Isomes and Ragworm bits. My main target being Scorpionfish and Pollack, though a surprise would be nice.

No surprise on my saying that we had plenty of Ballans (up to a 1lb), Corkwings, Goldsinny and Blennies, but the Pollack stayed away tonight. It’s not very often that happens, but then it’s not that often that I REALLY WANTED one!!! Most fish caught on the ragworm bits as usual with a couple of Blennies on Isomes. Various Sp’s used to try and tempt a Pollack, but there you go.

I did, almost right at the end of the session, manage to bag a solitary Scorpionfish though, so not a total loss for the comp. Always a pleasure to catch one of these fish, and I am often surprised by the variation in colouring.

It was nice to see a few small Mullet feeding off the boat hulls while we were there. Soon be time to target them.

Scorpionfish – Poole Quay

Scorpionfish (Long-Spined)

Read Full Post »

Poole Quay LRF (Bait)

Following my teaching session with No. 2 son on the Tuesday, I found my self with a few ragworm left over. Now I hate waste, so I just had to use them for something. So out with the LRF gear and size 10 jigheads and a trip down to Poole Quay was slipped into the evening. Needless to say as soon as I mentioned the trip to Michael (No.2) he was keen to have a go himself, so out with the spare LRF gear, a few SP’s and Isomes just in case, and down to the Quay we went.

One of the main problems with LRF fishing at this venue is the massive quantity of natural bait available to the resident and visiting fish. In addition to this, they are fed a large quantity of worm and fish baits by local families and tourists out crabbing / fishing with the youngsters. As a result SP’s and Isomes catch, but nowhere near as well as naturals. No worries, just use small half inch to one inch pieces of Ragworm, Squid or Mackerel. Lets be honest here, LRFing is a highly enjoyable, ultra-light finesse method of fishing. There are purists out there who state that you are not fishing LRF style if you use bait. Sorry, that’s rubbish. Wise up you people and match the hatch. If that means ignoring the artificials, so be it.

To the crunch, we had a cracking session with plenty of rod bending action with the 0.5-5g LRF rods, 6lb braid and 4lb F/C leaders to 4g size 10 jigheads (a bit heavy but the tide was racing, lol). Goldsinny, Ballan Wrasse, Corkwings, Gobies, Black Bream and Pollack all showed with the largest fish being a few Ballans around the pound mark. All magic fun with the finesse gear. For those of you who haven’t yet tried this, do so. I promise you will enjoy it. I’ve been LRFing for close on two years now and just love it.

A few photos for your delectation, with a special mention to the awesome lime green Ballan caught by Michael. I’m well jealous of this fish.

Goldsinny Wrasse

Ballan Wrasse (Boring Colour)

Corkwing Wrasse

Mini Black Bream

Awesome Green Ballan Wrasse

All together we probably had around 25 fish during our 1.5-2 hour session. Not bad considering the strength of the tide and the large amount of weed sweeping through. Some great sport with the Wrasse diving strongly for the holes at the base of the harbour wall. Michael is even more hooked now.

 

Read Full Post »

SCSF Annual Mini Bash 2012

As per usual, the South Coast Sea Fishing forum guys decided to hold an annual mini-bash with the silly rods. Held on the Millennium Pier at Gosport, the rules were the same as last year. No rod/reel combo to be worth (new) more than £10. In other words, those cheap kiddie rod/reel sets we see in places like The Range and in beach shops all over the UK.

Held between 15:00 and 20:00 yesterday it was attended by ten mad buggers with all manner of cheap and nasty gear. My self and John decided to set our bendy rods up to fish LRF style (without any hope of ‘feel’). The only concession I made to try and help us was to load the tiny floppy reels with braid, which probably cost more than the rod/reel combos. I was just praying that I wouldn’t have a repeat of two years ago when my first fish of the day, a small Corkwing Wrasse, put too much of a strain on the plastic excuse for a reel and resulted in the gears stripping.

No problems this time around with the gear standing up to the abuse we chucked at it. And with the use of braid they actually allowed us to bag a few fish, though not as many as the three top guys of the day who stuck to mutli-hook bait tactics with size 12 / 14 hook and a typical bait matchman style. No matter, we were only really there for the laugh anyway, and to meet up with a few of the guys.

Myself and John managed to bag a few species on both Soft Plastics and micro-bait, all presented LRF style with Texas and Drop-Shot rigs. Species caught on the day; Corkwing Wrasse, Ballan Wrasse, Goldsinny, Smelt, Pollack, Pout, Bass, Long-Spined Scorpionfish, Tompot Blenny, Common and Black Gobies. There may have been more from the guys further away, but even eleven species ain’t bad.

Highlight for John was his first Scorpionfish on a LRF lure (1.75″ AGM Curly Tailed Grub in Watermelon).

John’s First Long-Spined Scorpionfish (Meow)

Highlight of the day for me was a cracking Tompot Blenny. Largest I have personally ever seen and gave me a good scrap as it tried to dive back amongst the snags under the pier. Took a medium Power Isome in Red.

My PB Tompot Blenny – a Scrapper

The winner of the day appropriately won a LRF starter kit. A good laugh as usual and fortunately the weather held good for us for a change. We’ll be back again next year.

Read Full Post »