Sunline Siglon Fluoro Vs Wrasse

I have previously mentioned on my blog, that I loaded up one of the spools on my newly acquired Daiwa Ryoga 1016HL baitcast reel with some Sunline Siglon Fluoro 10.3lb mainline. This line is available on a 275m spool, so plenty of line for a deep spooled reel, or even enough for a couple of shallow spools, depending on your reel size. This line is available in lighter breaking strains, down around the 3lb mark, so good for an LRF or light game mainline, as well as as the heavier BS such as the one I am testing out at 10.3lb, so ideal for the Bass & Wrasse.

So to give this new line a good first work out, I decided to head out into the rough stuff West Cornwall has to offer, at a very deep water mark, with thick kelp and huge granite heads, the perfect Wrasse playground! Rough conditions which seem to have plagued us of late, had subsided, with minimal swell and wind, and a little bit of bonus sunshine.

Fishing near vertical into the deep trenches, decided to go with a drop shot rig, with a 10g sinker, Decoy size 1 hook with a wire weed guard, and the lure to kick things off was the Ecogear Minnow M. From the first drop, the bites were there, and fish were being landed. I had my hook set a good 50 cm up from the sinker, keeping the lure clear of the thick weedy mat covering the bottom at this spot.

Searching a bit further out, switched to Texas rigged Ecogear 3" Bug Ants, and also some of the Ecogear 3.25" Straights, both of these are great lures for targeting Wrasse, a good mouthful size for most fish, with the hook up coming from the first hit. I use the Bug Ants a lot for LRF duties in the 2" size, but the 3" on a slightly heavier rig are certainly producing results just as well.

Biggest fish of the day was this one below, just as the afternoon light began to disappear, with the sun setting beyond the headland. A good, strong scrapper, taking some line against the tight drag. This was the biggest Wrasse I have had for a while, can't say a weight or length, as I have stopped weighing or measuring my fish for the meantime. Even managed to get the camera set up for a self shot!

A good mid November session, and good to be able to get out on a mark that is so open to the elements. The Sunline Siglon fluoro has been very promising on it's first outing, and was easy to use on the baitcaster outfit. Will be putting in some more sessions with this line, get a good feel for it, and gathering my thoughts for a future review.

Back to Basics After a New Arrival

You may have noticed that my blog has not had the regular updates of late. This is due to the fact my opportunity to get out on the coast and into the harbour environments being cut short. The good news is, there is a very good reason for this lack of fishing and blogging. Three weeks ago, my son was born, Thomas Charles Denton-Gunning, a fit and healthy 7lb 2oz. My girlfriend and I are obviously over the moon, as are the rest of our family.

 

So after the break, it has been a while since I wet a line. With an opportunity to get out in the Penzance area, I decided to go back to basics, with some light lure harbour action, targeting the Pollack, with a variety of methods, to get myself back into the swing of things.

Tackled up with the Nories Slow Retrieve 74F, and the line I would be using is the Sunline Small Game Mono in 3lb. I have been using this line on and off since June 2012, where I posted my initial thoughts after testing HERE. This line comes in 150m spool, and available in the following breaking strains; 1lb / 1.5lb / 2lb / 2.5lb / 3lb / 3.5lb / 4lb / 5lb / 6lb. The RRP for the 150m spool is around £12.95.

Onto the fishing; Started out fishing the seaward side of a Harbour wall, from around 20' up, over a mixed sand and rocky seaweed bed. Tied up a dropshot rig, with a 3.5 tungsten weight, with a size 12 barbless carp hook about 30cm above it. Lures doing the business were the Ecogear Aqua range (Straw Tail Grub, Katsu Aji Straight & Katsu Mebaru Shirasu), and of course the Power Isome. The Pollack were there in numbers, simply dropping the rig vertically into the water beneath me, getting bottom contact, and small twitches, combined with the tide and wave movements, bringing the lure alive.

After several Pollack falling to the dropshot, a move to the inner Harbour was made with a change of tactics. As the big tide flooded into the entrance, went with an Illex B'Eye jig with an Ecogear Aji Shokunin mounted on the assist hook.  Cast into the tidal flow, the small heavy jig sinks quickly to the bottom. Bumped along the bottom, did not take long for the Pollack to start hitting it.

Rolling the changes, clipped on one of the superb DUO Tetra works lures, in the shape of the small vib 'Bivi', searched the water column higher up, with a shallow sink and draw, letting the lure buzz up, before picking up takes on the drop. Working this lure quicker than the others so far, the takes were aggressive, with the flash of a fish visible before being hooked. 

Final method of the day was a small metal, a 3.5g Reins Palpuntin. Similar to the DUO lure, a sink and draw method, but this time much slower, searching the full depth of the water, making most of the flutter on the downward drop. A much longer, slower raise of the rod tip, taking up the slack line, picking up the bites thick and fast. On the day, this lure was pulling out most fish, and with the small rear treble changed to a tiny plugging single, unhooking was nice and easy on the small fish. 

Although a short late afternoon session, good to get back out there, and pick up with the basics again, getting the speed of lure right, and presenting the lure in the best possible way. Fishing these methods, the Sunline Small Game Mono feels at home. As I have previously mentioned, there is a noticeable stretch in this line in comparison to braid or even fluoro, but this is not always a bad thing. Sink and draw for example with small light lures, the stretch allows for a smoother lift, or with the drop shot, adding movement to the lure is easy, whilst maintaining bottom contact. Throughout my test sessions, I have found this line to wear well, and the knot strength good even in a light breaking strain with a low diameter. It behaves well with the wind, and in the swirling currents, cut through the water well, especially with the sink and draw lures. It's not a line to replace your braid or fluoro mainline, but can be a welcome addition to it for certain applications, and it comes in at a great price point, so definitely worth trying out.

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!