West Cornwall Day 2 With Joe & Oli [04-10-2011]

Met up with Joe and Oli, down in West Cornwall, as they were fishing a mark right on my doorstep, and invited me along. I was keen to see what fish were about, as it is a spot I have totally overlooked, dismissing it. I was fishing light plugs and SP's, with the Nories Seabass Program 5-12g, Certate 2506 with 0.8PE Sunline Castaway. Fishing around the high tide, with the conditions very calm, with a light breeze now and then.

I started out with the Patchinko 100, fanning the water from my rocky perch. Meanwhile Joe was searching the bottom, and soon hooked into a Wrasse, which looked like the biggest fish of the day. Spurred on by this, I quickly rigged up an SP, and set about the rocky depths. Plenty of taps with no hook ups, I was being teased by the smaller fish, nipping the tail of the lure, with a good few bungee fish. Managed to hook into a few, and landed 3 Wrasse, nothing of any size tho;

Continued to swap between hard and soft plastics, but moving along the stretch of coast, did not see any more signs of fish, even tho the ground seemed perfect for the Wrasse. Making the way back to the car, stopped off and searched the water with the Patchinko 100 again, all 3 of us using surface lures. As well as a few swirls, and swipes, this also attracted the sea gulls, and I had one after my lure, luckily dropped after a short carry. Joe was not so lucky, and had to reel a gull in before unhooking it!

Into the realms of final cast territory before the car, searched at distance, and had a good follow. Next cast into the same area, had a solid take and hook up. The light rod bent into the fish, making it appear to be a beast, but when close in and landed, it was a small Bass, but a very welcome sight at a spot I had previously not even considered;

Cheers to Joe and Oli for a good exploratory session, will be good to meet up again in West Cornwall, see if we can find some bigger specimens. Finally, came across local beastie on the footpath, so put the macro to good use on the camera;

West Cornwall 03-10-2011

Fished down in West Cornwall, South Coast, one hour before and one hour after high. Started out as a beautiful windless morning, sun and calm water, within an hour it was grey, gusting winds and choppy swell. Tackle today was the Nories Seabass Program 5-12g rod with Certate 2506, Sunline Castaway 0.8PE.

Started out with a Patchinko 100, and was soon into a fish in the morning sun. Turned out to be a small Bass, landed on the rocks from deep water;

Moving spots, fished with an OSP Asura with single hooks instead of trebles, caught numerous Pollack on it close in, as the swell started to build;

As the wind got stronger, short range tactics were called for in the gullies, so rigged up some Nories SP's Texas style, and bagged a couple of Wrasse, the second one being the biggest fish of the day coming in just under 3lb;

Dartmouth LRF - 3 Species 28-09-2011

Headed back over to Dartmouth, to fish around the high tide. Lots of movement due to the big tides, could get a good drift with the light gear. Used the Nories Slow Retrieve, 2506 Certate with 0.4PE Sunline Small Game, with Ecogear Aqua Katsu Aji Straight 2'' mounted on Ecogear Shirasu Fine heads.

Had to be a bit more careful of all the mooring lines, as the current was swinging the lure onto them quicker. First fish was a small Bass, which took the lure as it drifted towards the corner of a small dinghy pontoon. As it thrashed the water, all the tiny baitfish which were everywhere, jumped on the surface;

Moving on as the light faded, had a very subtle take at distance, with little fight till close in, and surprisingly, landed a Mackrel amongst the boats and pontoons;

Throughout the session, there were a lot of Pollack taken, mostly near the bottom, after the lure had been allowed to sink in the moving water, some of them micro sized, with a couple more with a little size to them;

New Grounds - Light Action 26-09-2011

Headed out today to some new grounds East of Salcombe, fishing from low tide through the push for a couple of hours. Target species was Wrasse, on the light gear, Nories RockFish Bottom UltraLight 1.8-7g, Certate 2506 with Sunline Small Game 0.4PE, with Jackson Delicious Shiner, rigged weedless with 2-3g sinkers.

Fished from rock, close range, over a mix of rock, pebble and weed. The area I was fishing is close to a large headland point, that experiences turbulent tides, as currents meet. You can see in the photo below, that on the pushing tide, there was a fast flow between the rocks I was fishing from in the foreground, and the large rocks further out;

It was similar to fishing an estuary, cast out 'upstream', stay in contact and feel the lure bouncing the bottom. The Wrasse were very active with strong takes, and putting up a great fight, swimming with the current, really testing on the light gear. Managed to take six Wrasse, and stopped fishing once the flow was too strong to fish effectively with the light stuff;

Once back at the car, the beach I had set out from was covered, and some nice waves rolling in, so broke out the morethan Branzino Urban Side Custom and some plugs. Managed to loose a decent fish, and then land a small schoolie on a Zonk, right under the rock I was on;