New Ecogear Lures & Others

The Art of Fishing have some really great new paddle tail soft lures in. I managed to grab a couple out of the box last time I was in there, before they made it to the shelf. The lure I am talking about is the RT 4" & 5". In the hand, it is a nice thick bodied, dense lure, with a belly slit to allow for great weedless hooking. I only picked up 2 of the colour variations, but there are more available. Really looking forward to getting them wet soon, the Bass are gonna love em! Also picked up a few other bits and bobs whilst there.

Ecogear RT 4"

Ecogear RT 5"

Sawamura One Up Shad 4"

Sawamura One Up Shad 4"

Ecogear VX50 10.6 & Smith Wavy 65S

Evergreen Little Max 3.5g

 
Evergreen Little Max Rockfish Tune 3.5g

The Smith lure came from a forum member, and the Evergreen Vib's came from a group buy organised on the forum. Just a reminder, that this weekend The Art Of Fishing are having an open day to celebrate the new shop in Plymouth. If you get the chance, pop along, and check out many of the new  products that AOF have managed to get their hands on.

Second DUO Contest For March 2012

DUO have their second contest for March underway at the moment. In this contest, you have to email a question to be answered by Mr. Adachi, the general manager, and chief designer at DUO. This is your chance to talk to a lure designer, and finally ask the questions about all the tiny little details that have been bugging you forever.

Send any questions you might have for Mr. Adachi to duocontest@gmail.com The deadline is 30th March 2012. As before, in order to enter, you have to be a fan of DUO on Facebook

There will be 3 prize winners, and the prize you can win is below. To see the original contest post by DUO, take a look HERE

Nories Jig Head Snapper Rod & Ecogear Soft Lures

Recently I acquired a new rod for the collection, in the form of the magnificent Nories Jig Head Snapper. This rod is 7'10 in length, with a solid, very fine tip. Slightly longer handle than my other Nories RockFish rods, and this one is fitted with the Fuji K guides, with white whipping to the end eyes. This rod is able to read small LRF style lures, with weights down around the 1-2g range, as well as handling rigged lures to around 15g or so. A very sensitive tip, combined with some real backbone lower down, should prove a useful tool for fishing the soft plastics.

To go with this rod, I have also picked up some new softies and hardware. Particularly looking forward to trying out the screw in blades, to give the added flash and attraction to the lures. I have seen them in action, and they looked great. The BTS shads are new to me, and I have a feeling they will prove very useful for the Bass over the coming weeks, will be trotting them down my local estuary here in Devon and into the depths of the West Cornwall rock marks. The jig heads I have chosen to match up with the lures are a little more expensive than your average plain lead ball jig head, but these simply ooze quality, from the detail in the faces to the strong sharp hooks. The retaining sleeve on the hook shank looks like it will hold the lure on nice and snug. Finally picked up a very neat little lure box, to store up to 14 of my small plugs, up to 100mm, which is a size of lure I have found I am using more and more recently.

Ecogear BTS 4.5"

Ecogear BTS 3.75"

Ecogear Power Shad 4"

  

Ecogear Para Max 5"

  

Ecogear Screw in blades

   Ecogear Iwashi Head 1/0 5.3g/7.0g/11g & Ecogear Skip In The Shade 3/0 7g

Meiho Reversible 100mm Box

  

If you want to find out more about the rod, or like the look of the lures and hardware, then take a look at The Art Of Fishing site, and give Ben a shout. It's exciting times for Ben & Joe @ Art Of Fishing, as they are going to be opening up a new AOF shop in Plymouth later this month, take a look HERE for more details of the opening day.

Wont Be Long

Last two days I have fished the same West Cornwall mark, a mixture of deep water, sandy and rocky weed covered bottom, spread over some gorgeous coves. One thing is for sure, it wont be long now till the Bass are being caught in numbers, with a mix of other species thrown in.

Yesterday I fished with just soft plastics, a decent ground swell running, I was using a very slow retrieve, deep down with paddle tails, and bottom bouncing with some stick baits. Tried some out Neko rigged, a new style for me, and I can see it proving useful in some situations. No fish were landed, but I did get a knock, followed by a Bass swirling up in the water beneath my rocky perch. This was no schoolie, even in the water, which can skew perceptions of size, I could see it was a very good fish. Unfortunately that was the last I saw of him.

Today I headed out with just a selection of plugs and a different rod. A little less swell, but the water was foaming white round the rocks, it just looked like there would be fish there! Using a DUO Press Bait Kamuy, I searched the water column. Straight away I had bump after bump on the lure as it fluttered down, Sometimes a fish would grab hold for a few seconds, but the single hook on the tail of the lure could not connect. Switched to a DUO Bay Ruf vib, fishing the same waters, and it was not long till there knocks turned into a fish on! Turned out to be my first Gar fish for 2012, a welcome sight that things must be warming up.

Over the past few sessions, I have seen increasing numbers of fish species around the coast, with large Launce following lures in, and occasionally being hooked, big shoals of Mullet in the bays, the occasional Bass cruising, and a lot of small bait fish holding close in. Seems that the mild weather will soon lead to some great early fishing in 2012, wont be long now!

New Month, New Contest From DUO

With the start of March, comes the latest contest from DUO. They are actually holding two this month, so the deadline for the first one is March 14th. Very simple to enter, first, you need to be a member on Facebook, be a fan of of the DUO page, then to qualify for entry, post a link to the DUO Facebook fan page on your wall, and then email DUO to confirm you have done this.

So the info you need is the DUO page on FACEBOOK
Send your email to: duocontest@gmail.com
The content of your email is not important, you can even send it as a blank message.

To see the original page with all the contest info, take a look at the DUO site HERE 

And the fantastic prize on offer for this contest, just take a look at the pic below. Don't forget to get your entries in by March 14th, good luck!

Return to the Reservoir

Headed out for my fourth visit to the reservoir I have been trying my luck at over the past few weeks. Conditions were beautiful, glorious start to March, mild, clear water and not a breath of wind, with the sun rising on an early start.

Decided to fish with just soft plastics today, and with 2 rods. One for lures to around 15g, and one for the ultralight stuff up to around 5g. To help with the presentation of the SP's, especially the sub 2" softs, I got hold of some 10lb Drennen Soft Strand microfilament Pike wire, and the bits and bobs needed to make up some fine wire traces. This wire was a massive improvement, and did not seem to impact on the action of the light lures.

I was hoping to get some Pike action, but the closest I came was a fish on for around five seconds, before it came off. Reeling in the soft, it was apparent it had taken the tail half of the 6" Sawamura One Up Shad, missing the hook, which had pulled through to the nose of the lure. As I worked the various spots down one side of the Reservoir, I saw many Pike holding in the shallows, amongst the reeds, some just cruising the shallows next to the bank. I had a decent amount of follows to various lures, but nothing taken!

So a switch over to the ultralight tackle, and a chance to hunt the Perch. Had many micro Perch, some from a nearby stream, and some from the weir pool off the dam. These fish were going mad for 2" Ecogear Aqua lures. Heading back to the reservoir bank, working the deep end close in, had a take from my biggest fish of the day, and my biggest Perch so far, falling for a 2" Reins Rockvibe paddle tail softie. Each fresh water session leaves me with a little more knowledge, hopefully soon I will find that elusive bigger Pike!