Halco Twisty Cleans Up

My two days off were once again spent down in West Cornwall, so took the opportunity to get out on the deep rock marks, and see what was swimming around. Chose to use the Daiko Spear Blue Label 8'3 2-14g rod, with the usual Certate 2506 loaded up with my favorite Sunline Small Game 0.6PE.

The plan was to fish small plugs, but I had decided to take along a lure I often overlook, partly for it's simplicity, and maybe not fitting into the 'cool lure' club. The lure in question is the 10g Halco Twisty, A metal lure, similar in style to others like the Dexter Wedge, or Abu Toby.

At 10g, small and streamline, should you wish, long distance casting is easily achieved, and it can be fished in a variety of ways, making it a versatile little lure. Today I was switching between long swooping raises of the rod, keeping tension on the line, picking up takes on the drop as it fluttered back down, and also counting down off the cast, and working a straight retrieve, at varying speeds.

The fish came thick and fast, mostly Mackerel, which were fighting hard. They were all a good size, and the runs they made when close to the landing stage were putting a great bend in the rod, and making the drag sing. Mixed in were the Pollack, who were taking the lure in close over the kelp beds, sometimes hooking up from a very fast straight retrieve. Just the one Bass landed today, and a tiddler at that, but always a welcome sight.

DUO Tetra Works Bivi

More Metal Than Metallica

Day off number two spent fishing int the Penzance area saw me visiting a mark I checked out a few times in Winter. Clean sandy beach leading onto very deep rock and weed, nice variation and good fishing platforms. Needs a small swell to be safe, as the sea really surges up and over the rocks. I love the coastline down in West Cornwall, some amazing features, and very rugged!

Continuing on with the soft lures, I have had some really good success lately with the Sawamura 4" OneUpShads. Rigged on Ecogear 3D jigheads, with a treble on the lower eye, I have also added the Ecogear leaf blades in for added attraction. Leaves the little 4" shads filled with metal!

Fishing was slow over the low tide, with just a handful of fish landed. The small Bass seem to be out and about at the marks, with a feisty little spikey landed in this session. Other fish taken were Pollack, which are plentiful this time of year in West Cornwall.

Ecogear 4" Power Shad on an Ecogear 3D jighead

End of the session, I wanted to bed my line down on the spool better, so I clipped on a naked 14g jighead, and launched it to the horizon. Reeling in at double speed, suddenly felt a bump as I ripped the jighead back through the water to me, head shake, and the naked jighead had hooked a Pollack bang in the lip with the treble!

Schoolies Out For Summer

Fished a short session today, a couple of hours either side of low, in West Cornwall. It was slow going, with just three fish taken, a couple of schoolie Bass and a Pollack. I was pretty shocked to not see more Pollack today, this mark usually throws up double figure numbers on a regular basis.

Fished just softs on jig heads, mixture of Sawamura One Up Shads and Ecogear softies, Another successful session with the Ecogear 3D jig heads, with an assist treble hood attached to the underside of the jighead. Second session using the new Sunline PE x Fluoro hybrid line, and I can see it fast becomeing a favorite line to use over future sessions.

Lots of great new blogs are starting to appear on the net nowadays, so there is always something new, and up to date to read and absorb! One new blog worth checking out is John Hendersons, you can find it here at http://lightweightlure.co.uk/

Day 2: West Cornwall Bass

Following on from my last post, this is the session from the next morning, down in West Cornwall. Fishing the flooding tide, the swell had picked up a little more, with the surf fizzing round the rocks and small coves. Tackle today was my Daiwa morethan Branzino Urban Side Custom rod (8'7 & 5-24g). Lovely rod to look at, but in use, it has been a slow grower for me. Having had it for around a year now, I absolutely love it, and very happy I took the effort to import it from Japan. Sitting on the rod, a Daiwa Certate 2508 reel, freshly loaded up with another new line, some Sunline PE x Fluoro Hybrid, in 10lb / 0.6PE. This is a fluoro core line, with a braid outer.

Started out, searching the deep waters, by running the lure slow, alongside a finger of rock, lined with kelp. Was not long till I had my first Pollack, and conditions were looking promising. Following the same line, as the lure came into sight, darting out from the shadows of the kelp, came a Bass, taking the lure in one go, securely hooked, with a short fight it was landed at my feet, at around 3lb in weight.

You might not be able to see it, but the Bass is hooked on a treble, on the front of the jig head. Now this is the first time I was using this lure set up. An Ecogear 3D Jig Head (14g in this case) which has an eye above and below the jig head. The bottom eye, I attached a split ring and treble hook, sinking one of the points into the belly of the lure. This aids in retaining the lure, and also stops the treble swinging and tangling with the line. I had a good number of fish on this set up, using a combination of Sawamura 4" OneUpShads and Ecogear BTS Shads.

Moving to a shallower cove, time to break out the DUO lures, and do some searching amongst the surf. Starting out with a DUO Beach Walker 100 Vib, a combination of sink and draw, and steady slow retrieves, had a combination of Bass and Mackerel landed.

The Vib was switched over to a DUO Press Bait Kamuy. The distance this lure will travel is amazing, small and relatively heavy with no lip and a single assist hook on the rear, it flies through the air, cutting through the wind. I like to let this lure flutter down, then rip it up off the bottom, and let it flutter again. The takes mostly come on the drop, and makes for exciting fishing, as you really feel like the fish are hunting the lure.

The new Sunline PE x Fluoro Hybrid behaved very well on it's first outing, even in a stiff breeze that picked up throughout the session. I need to get some more sessions under my belt with it before I can give some initial thoughts on it, but todays session showed promising results.

Sunline Small Game Mono Initial Test

This week I received 3 new products from Sunline to test and try out. Amongst them was some Sunline Small Game mono, 150m of 3lb line, in the great pink colour! The other 2 lines, I will talk about in the future on the blog, but for now I have spooled up the mono onto one of my Daiwa Certate 2506 reels.

Since the recent storms and gales, I have not has the chance to fish, so took the opportunity to head out in todays relative calmness, down in West Cornwall. Fishing light, rod of choice was the Nories Slow Retrieve, the above Certate and Sunline Small Game 3lb Mono, and a selection of small softies, jigs and micro plugs. The usual gin clear clarity of the water had the stain of the bad weather, with lower visiablility that usual, with a 2-3' swell slowly rolling through the deep waters.

Staring out with my new favorite lure, the 5g Illeg B'eye, dressed with a 3' Ecogear Sansun on the assist hook, the first fish to be landed was a Pollack, hitting the lure as it dropped through the depths. Following on from the Pollack, I had the welcome sight of the silver flash, as I played a small Bass of around 2lb into my feet. This was followed up by another Bass, slightly smaller around 1.5lb, both taken on the Illex B'eye jig.

As the tide started to Ebb, the Pollack really started to turn on, smashing the lures, often a fish a cast. Started switching the lures and techniqes, the abundance of fish giving me the chance to try things out, find out the best retrieve, different speeds etc... Took a few pics of the Pollack, but high numbers were landed, quickly unhooked and back into the water. Tiny fish up to around 1.5lb at biggest were landed. They were going especially mad for the small DUO lures, the tiny Bivi vib claiming the most fish.

Ecogear 3" Para Max & Ecogear 3g Iwashi Head

Ilex 5g B'eye & Power Isome

DUO Spearhead Ryuki 50S

DUO Tetra Works Bivi

So the initial session the with Sunline 3lb Small Game Mono was great. At 3lb, its a low diameter, fine line, so casting is excellent, with jig or small plug. Coupled with a rod like the Nories Slow Retrieve, which is able to protect the light line well, the kiting Bass and hard diving Pollack were landed with no problems. I had my drag set fairly light, but with the extra stretch you get from the mono, in comparisson to braid, the runs and dives from the fish felt more elastic, the drag not doing much work, but the bend of the rod and the mono line cushioning the fight. Looking forward to getting out there again, and using this line some more.

Finally, for those of you who enjoy reading my blog, and those of others, there is a new one you can add to your reading list, from Neil Burnell, a lure fisherman from South Devon. You can check out his blog here at http://braidrunner.com/

Light Lure Experimentation

Pushing tide, hazy sun, too warm to fish without stripping off a little, the summertime feeling has returned, after a good long season of fishing wrapped up from the elements. The deep clear water was alive with bait fish of various sizes from tiny sand eels up to larger groups of Launce. The shoals would scatter and run every now and then, as a marauding predator darted in amongst them.

Fishing light today, with the Nories Slow Retrieve, Daiwa 2506 loaded up with 8lb Sunline Small Game 0.6PE. I have been using this line for around a year now, and still really impressed with each session I use it. I have fished in the Harbour environment with it, the fresh water reservoirs, estuaries and the rugged West Cornwall coastline. It feels good in the fingertips, very fine and slick, with a cool pink colour to it. As someone who likes to fish small light plugs around the 5g mark, casting them out with the Small Game PE can help you get that little bit more, over some heavier lines. As well as the usual mini species, I have landed some decent hard fighting Wrasse, and my best Bass of 2011 was taken on this line, at just over 5lb in weight.

Back to the fishing; I had made up a bit of a DIY lure, with various bits and pieces. I took a Delalande articulated jig head, added a Pontton 21 split ring, attached 2 Decoy size 6 Dancing Jacks, and rigged 2 Ecogear 3" Sansun lures. Casting out, working it off the bottom, could feel some fish plucking at it, then a Pollack was landed, with the take coming on the drop.

Next on was a 5g Reins Palpuntin, working it at distance, ripping it up, and allowing it to flutter back down, some good solid takes from the fish. I use a Decoy Plugging single hook on mine instead of the small treble, makes for much easier unhooking and does not affect the catch rate.

As the tide filled the small rocky cove I was fishing in, I was able to chop and change lures often, trying different retrieves and techniques. Ended up with large number of Pollack landed, some really fighting hard, with the occasional good size Mackerel thrown in. 

Ecogear 3" ParaMax & Ecogear Bottom Head 2.5g size 3

DUO Tetra Works  Yurameki

Ecogear CX 40HS 

Ecogear Aqua Milfle & Ecogear Iwashi 3.5g