DUO Contest November 2012

 The guys at DUO have another great contest underway. The reason behind this contest is to celebrate the fact that the DUO FaceBook page now has 10000 fans, a great milestone, and I am sure this number will grow and grow, because lets face it, DUO lures are simply fantastic!

The contest rules are simple and entering is easy, so no excuse not to enter. You simply have to be on FaceBook, and become a fan of the DUO page. On the page, you need to 'share' the 10000 Fans pic (as seen in this blog post) and leave a comment of your choice. And that is all you need to do!

Good luck to all those who enter, and don't forget to check out the DUO website, as well as the FB page. They have a full English language version, with a comprehensive catalogue of all their lures, as well as amazing international catch reports. Check it out at http://www.duo-inc.co.jp/en/

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!

Ecogear Para Max Finds the Bass

Summer has returned for a day or two, and with smaller flooding tides, my new doorstep mark was a good option to squeeze in a bit of the old lure fishing. Seems mad that a mark, 10 mins walk from my actual front door has been overlooked all this time, a mark I had always dismissed out of hand before really trying it out. Still early days sussing it out, but 3 sessions without a blank is a promising start! So with the gear in hand, started off down my fields.

I arrived at the head of the Creek, the tide at the far end yet to push over the shallow muddy flats. The walk down to the end is easy enough at this state of tide, but when fishing the flood into darkness, a deep wade back under head torch light awaits, and depending on the size of tide, chest waders are a must if you want to stay dry above the waist.

My last couple of sessions had been done on the ultra light gear, but this time I was using the baitcaster set up. I REALLY enjoy using this bit of kit, regardless of whether I am making things more difficult for myself, I just find the style of fishing with it fun and new (to me!).  A Nories RockFish Bottom TR 7-21g rod, paired with the Shimano Calcutta 51DC spooled up with Sunline Castaway 1.5PE line. I had a practice throwing some plugs on this set up, and was pleasantly suprised, so more to come with that in the future.

Lure of choice was the Ecogear Para Max 5" on an Ecogear Skip In The Shade jig head. These Para Max lures are simply awesome, see them in the water, the 2, 3, 4 & 5" just come alive with the smallest movement. I was working the lure in the direction of the water flow, bringing it round some rocks into a deeper section of water, where the water slowed, a perfect ambush spot for predators. As the light in the valley faded, I had a take, fish on and landed, a nice little estuary Bass, the only fish from this short session.

DUO Tetra Works Bivi Saves The Blank

Managed to grab a quick hour after a busy days work this week. Tide was just coming up to a spring high, so quick romp down the fields to fish the Creek on my doorstep. At the head of the Creek, there were many small Mullet, cruising the surface, making the water ripple in the last of the  evening light. As the estuary at the head of the Creek was starting to empty, made the deep wade along the edges, to reach the deeper channel where I would fish.

Fishing light with the Nories Slow Retrieve, opted for a light braid, with Sunline Small Game PE spooled up on the Certate 2506. The big high tide was emptying out, so the flow was strong. I wanted to use a small sinking lure, that would give a good attraction in the coloured waters, so opted to use the DUO Tetra Works Bivi (3.8g / 40mm vib). This little lure cast very well, as it's compact, and sinks nicely in the water column. Either a steady slow retrieve, or a subtle sink and draw method, you can feel the lure buzzing as it moves through the water.

As the last of the light faded, I had a tiny Bass take the lure, just as it dropped, following an upwards buzz. Quick pic and back into the flow, and I decided to make my way back up the Creek, wading by the light of my dim head torch, and scrabble back through the hedges to the fields and home.

DUO Tetra Works Bivi 3.8g / 40mm