Quick Urban Session

Managed to sneak a quick urban session whilst en route to Penzance to do some last minute work on the house. With grotty weather, one spot guaranteed to be sheltered from West & South Westerlies is down at Newlyn, walking along to Mousehole. Decided to go light, so fished with the Nories Slow Retrieve, and Sunline Small Game PE, to present a selection of 2 & 3" Ecogear lures.

Having pulled a few fish from here in the past, was confident I would avoid the blank (just!) even tho the water clarity was far from perfect, and with a lot of shredded weed and debris suspended in it. Just a couple of fish, a Ballan Wrasse taken on an Ecogear 2" BugAnt, rigged texas style with a wide gape weedless hook, and a micro Pollack taken on a 3" ParaMax.

Daiwa Ryoga 1016HL

To go along with my newly found fondness for bait caster set ups, I recently acquired a sturdy, no nonsense salt water safe reel in the form of a Daiwa Ryoga 1016HL. This is a Japanese reel, from the Japanese domestic market, not readily available over here in the UK.

I do tend to go for fishing gear that not only performs well, but also has to look good, and make you feel good when using it. Part of this is my liking for round bait caster reels. This Daiwa sits next to another, smaller round reel in my collection, the Shimano Calcutta Conquest 51DC. The Daiwa really is a nice bit of kit visually, the strong looking machined frame, with the milling marks still visible on the surface, definitely meets my liking. This is the left hand wind, high gear version, with a retrieve ratio of 6:3:1, with the standard model being a 5:3:1. Similar to the Calcutta, there is a really pleasing click to the spool adjust and the drag, so it sings when a decent fish takes line.

In addition to the reel in standard form, I decided to go for some aftermarket bling, in the shape of an RCS carbon 90mm handle with clear cork RCS knobs. The carbon handle does make the total weight a little less (fairly heavy little reel), but it's more for the looks than performance. The clear cork knobs match well with the cork grips on the Nories RockFish Bottom TR rod, upon which this reel will sit. To help with the performance, I added a RCS 1012 shallower spool (100m of 12lb opposed to 135m 12lb on the original). The second spool also means I can run with a braid and also fluro, being quickly interchangeable.

So on the 1012 spool, I have loaded up with some Sunline Castaway 8 strand 25lb / 1.5PE line, and on the factory spool, a new fluro mainline to test out from Sunline, in the form of Siglon Flurocarbon 10.3lb. I will be giving this new mainline a good going over in the coming sessions, so will be able to post my thoughts and impressions of it soon. Comes on a nice big spool, with 275m of line, more than enough to fill most reels or two.

Escaping the Storms

The weather was grim, with howling South Westerlys and heavy rain fall on my last outing down in West Cornwall. Looking at the conditions out of the window, and reading the forecast sites, seemed the only safe option was to head for the shelter of the estuary on the East Side of the Lizard.

Tides were not great, fishing an hour into the low, and a couple on the push, most of the usual terrain I fish over at this spot was high and dry! Tackle choice was the Nories RockFish Bottom TR casting rod (7-21g) paired with the mighty Daiwa Ryoga 1016HL reel, with a fresh spool of Sunline Siglon 10lb fluoro.

I wanted to try something different, so set about catching a Wrasse purposefully on a plug. I wanted something sinking, that could be worked slowly down near the bottom, brushing over the rock and week, able to jerk and twitch to draw the takes. The lure I picked for the job is the lesser known DUO Beach Walker 110S (110mm / 20g).

Being a small(ish) lure with a decent weight, it's not surprising that this lure casts really well, flying hard and fast. Fanning out from the rock I was casting from, a quick bump was followed by a take, and the familiar fighting run of  a Wrasse. Only a small one, but mission accomplished.

As the rain came down harder, switched over the the soft plastics. Rigged up a new Ecogear Minnow M on an Ecogear 7g Iwashi head. The Wrasse were straight on it, whether bounced along the bottom, dead-sticked or swam back with a jerk action. A really versatile lure, looking forward to giving it some more time in the future.

Recently I have found my fishing time to be a bit limited, and it is with very good reason! My girlfriend and I are expecting a baby boy, due any minute now in the next couple of weeks. My time has been well spent making preparations, and maybe making things a little more challenging by deciding to undertake last minute structural changes to the house by knocking out the downstairs, with a new kitchen, bathroom and central heating system! All good fun, but there will always be the time to sneak out for a quick session on the fish!

DUO October Contest

New month, new contest time from the guys at DUO lures. This is a chance for you, the DUO lures fan and user, to have your say, and let DUO know what lure you think should be added to their current range. Time to get your thinking cap on, can be something similar to a lure they already make, maybe a different size of colour pattern, or something totally different and unique, your imagination is the only limit!

So the question is; What lure would you like to see DUO produce? Which lure do you think is missing in our range?

Think about where in the world you are, where you fish, and the species you target. Maybe you have a particular species in mind, that the current range does not cover. Get your thoughts off to DUO, they want to hear all feedback, and maybe your lure ideas will get put into production!

Of course I have a few ideas myself about what I would like to see introduced into the range. I would like a small floating surface lure, around the 70mm / 7g mark. Silent with no internal rattles, in a natural baitfish colour pattern. A subtle, mini walk the dog action lure, for those days when it's calm and clear, or maybe for estuary work, when the fish are a little more shy, and you want to match the profile of the smaller bait fish in the water. Something similar to a  scaled down, silent version of the awesome DUO Realis Pencil 110 would fit the bill in my books.

The rules are; you need to be a fan of the DUO Facebook page in order to enter, and then simply email your answer off to duocontest@gmail.com You have until 5th November to submit your entry.

Three of you will be the lucky winners, and will receive a DUO lures pack, as well as one of the new DUO t-shirts. Good luck!