HRF Bass & Wrasse 01-08-2011

Went out for a quick couple of hours this afternoon. Unfortunately my girlfriends daughter has chickenpox, so they were stuck indoors, but I needed to get out for a bit. Decided to try an area I have not fished before. Have walked there plenty of times, the highest point is just shy of 400 feet, with a very sharp decent to the rocks where I wanted to fish. Fishing an hour before low, and one hour into the flood, was hoping I would be able to get a bit of exploration in before the tide cut me off.

Was greeted with clear, kelp filled rocky waters. Calm conditions, started out with a Feed Shallow. Was not long till I hooked into a fish, decent size Pollack. Unfortunately, when landed, one of the trebles had literally pulled one of it's eyes out of the socket, so put the chap out of his misery, and gave it to the seagulls who were annoyed at my presence in this pretty unaccessible area.

Put off by the damage cause to the Pollack by treble hooks, switched over to HRF tactics with the SP's. Rigged up a Nories Power Balance 4" on a size 1 weedless hook, with a 4g weight. Second cast, I was hit hard, the line screamed off the reel, before it snapped off after around five seconds. Reeling in the slack line, could see that the 16lb fluro leader had snapped half way down it's length, with no signs of abrasion! So quickly rigged up again, and worked the lure deadstick amongst the thick kelp. Subtle take of the lure, and fish on. Landed a nice condition Bass;

Fished on with the SP's, switching to a Nories Ladyfish 3.5", and had some good fun with the Wrasse, four taken in total;

As the tide pushed, kept the session short, and made the epic climb back up the cliff. There was no path to follow, and with it being new grounds, was a little worried about being able to get back to the top ok, as there was heavy gorse in patches, cutting off the way here and there. Once at the top, decided it would be worth checking this area out again, as I only fished a small part of this stretch of coast, and it produced pretty well. Pictured below is the gulley where I took all the fish from today;