Broke The New Rod In

Lovely near gale force winds, huge rough seas down in West Cornwall today. Really wanted to get out and try the new Nories rod, so decided heading over to the East facing side of the Lizard was in order.

Checked out a few possibilities on Google maps, and chose to head to a spot near the mouth of the Helford Passage. Have not been over there fishing before, it looked ok on Google, but I am sure many of you have arrived to find the rocks and easy access you were hoping for is actually a vertical cliff!

Arrived, geared up and set off along a coast path, and after a short scrabble, managed to get to some promising marks. Rocks, dropping off into what appeared to be very deep water, with many visible towering rocks, and deep gullies all around. I was fishing with an Xlayer, rigged with a weighted wide gape size 3/0 hook, held with a hitch hiker, and the hook point skinned in the top of the lure. I have not used these weighted hooks before, and instantly I was impressed.Casting out with the new Nories rod felt very nice. Small amount of effort, letting the rod do the work, saw the lure fly a good distance. I also noticed that the weighted hook rig meant the Xlayer flew very straight, no helicoper action at all.

I was doing a mixture of deadsticking, with an occasional twitch, and very slow retrieve. The lure was tight on the bottom most of the time, could feel every bump, small snags, and with a tiny twitch, it came free every time. A lot of feedback with the Nories rod, and superb confidence in the way the lure was handling the rough stuff.

After hopping to a couple of spots, casting close, felt the tap of a fish whilst the lure was stationary. Good initial scrap, and I quickly tightened the drag to stop it bolting too far. The Nories rod had a lovely bend in it, and felt superb as I brought the fish up, and away from the depths, and landed.

Ballan Wrasse, measured at 41cm rounded down, and weighing in at 2lb 9.5oz on the Berkley Tech digi scales.

Fished on for another hour, but no more takes. I was moving about a lot, exploring the new coastal stretch for future sessions.

So all in, a good day. Managed to find somewhere to fish, when conditions local to me were awful. Managed to catch first time at a new spot, catch first time using the new Nories rod, and cacth using a new approach to rigging the lure. Other things I was really happy with, are the Snowbee waist waders, and Snowbee XS Pro boots I have had for a few sessions now. And today was the first time I used my new Simms Head Waters Tech pack, very comfortable to wear.