JINGLE BELLS = SAVAGE ATTACKS!

Again I must apologise for the distinct lack of new posts, work really does get in the way of fishing and having fun doesnt it!!!!!!!!


I have managed to get out only a couple of times recently albeit only very short half hour or 1 hour sessions trying a few new ideas and lures. Last night due to fog descending and causing flights to be cancelled I decided to nip out to a mark that I havent fished since I was knee high to a grass hopper and is only a 4 minute walk from my front door. It looked ''fishy'' with plenty of boulders and weed beds with some sand in between and with a flooding tide meant that I could see a few wrasse in the shallow water under my feet. Why have I only just remembered this place???? 
I started off using my usual go to lures but could see the wrasse were only following the lure and not being that interested. I was scratching my head but then remembered a conversation I had with Henry whilst he was over not long ago and after a rummage through my tackle box found what we were discussing. Wrasse are or certainly can be quite aggressive sometimes when you fish a lure such as an x-slayer because they have a built in rattle. Now being a tight fisted old sod I wont pay the daft money that x-slayers cost and always look for a bargain or two. I must admit that I like the sound of adding a rattle to the lures but am not that keen on using glass ones no matter how small as am sure that they could damage a fish were they to swallow them. So we looked on ebay and found some small 6mm jingle bells which looked fantastic. Nice and small that would make an awesome sound underwater when the cone weight knocked into it. Also they would rust in next to no time and thus not hurt the fish were they to swallow one and snap me off!

I cut off the hook, and added  one of the jingle bells and re-tied it all. A flick out to where I had seen the wrasse in the shallows and twitched the lure back on the spot for a second or two then BANG! A wrasse hit the lure very hard and caught me by surprise so I missed it. I twitched the lure back, it had only moved a couple of inches when the wrasse hit hard again and this time I was ready. After a brief but spirited scrap a nice fish on nearly 4lbs came to the rock.

I was using a funky lure that Monster Tackle had sent called a Molix Sligozzo. It has a nice big fat body that looks like it can handle being on the receiving end of an angry wrasse's hardware and a tail that will entice a bite or two as it flutters.

I had a few more casts with this lure before chopping and changing to see if it was the jingle bell or indeed the lure that was doing the business. I went for a small crawfish pattern from jackslrf and kept on the jingle bell. First chuck and as it was an imitation crawfish I decided to slow down the retrieve and twitching and see how it behaved. Well I hadnt moved the lure 2 feet before it was nailed again really hard (some sort of pattern forming here) and another fiesty wrasse was hooked. This pattern continued with several fish up to just under 5lbs.

They were certainly liking the crawfish pattern and the rattling from the red bell above it!!!! So I decided to take off the bell and just fish the lures to see how it compared. I still got bites and fish but they were no where near as aggressive in their initial bite or take so a change was on again with a different lure.


This time I started without a bell and put on a Mini Flipping Craw. First couple of chucks and wrasse tentatively took the lure and of only a couple of pounds but as soon as the bell was on again then the takes were far more aggressive and the stamp of fish was better too!!

Finally I put on a Junebug Senko and again the same conclusion, without the rattle, small tentative takes and with it,  far more savage and aggressive reactions.

Further proof that on quieter days it pays to experiment and try different lures, colours and also get yourself a rattle or two. It certainly paid off today and it was obvious that the fish were far more likely to attack the lure when I had the bell on the line as opposed to without it! Proves that its good to learn something new each day....

WRASSE AND......THE CHIP....??!!

It has been a little while since our last post, apologies! As the season gathers momentum and Scilly starts getting more much needed visitors, we all get busier and it becomes a little harder to get out and meet up for a session. This coupled with the recent unseasonably high winds, and some of our favourite marks have been unfishable! Sunday saw a dramatic drop in wind speed, and a change from west to east, which killed off a lot of swell and suddenly,I could get some shelter in a great spot, just inside Hell Bay on Bryher!  The weather wasn't great by any means, and the tides...well...far from ideal. I put the idea in Dels mind to come up to Bryher for a last minute Sunday session, but with the bad tides/times of high and low, was a little awkward for him, so a short solo session it would have to be!

With low water around 4:20, I made the "long" (15minutes), walk from my back door to my chosen rock. The sea was calm, had cleared up nicely and tucked away, low to the water, I was nicely sheltered from the wind. Literally first cast, half way back in, tap...tap-tap..strike...nothing! Reel in, and some cheeky little blighter has torn my "night crawler" coloured senko from jackslrf clean off! Put the same lure back on, and fish on! Small at around 2lbs, but a good start! Then....(tumble-weed!) nothing! Goes completely dead for the next 10 min. I am a recent convert to senkos, and until recently had no faith in them. Seen photos of others catching on them, but never had any joy myself, until I was reminded (on a previous session with Del), how effective they were, fished almost static, with just the occasional small twitch. So stuck to my new "go-to" lure, this time black with red glitter flecks. First cast...fish on! 

A beautifuly marked wrasse pushing 3 1/2lbs

Two casts later, and the tiny tap-tap of interest registered on the rod tip. "Annoying tiddler", I thought, then ever so gentle "vibration" was felt through the rod, almost as though the lure was being dragged over barnacles, and the worm weight scraping...- just felt weird? I tightened up to lift the senko off the bottom and all hell broke loose! First, big dive down, then bolted straight for the WRONG side of a ledge in front of me! Some quick but clumsy footwork resulted in a wet boot and a nice 4 1/2lb wrasse, with almost identical markings.

Then after that...dead quiet again! Secretly hoping for the possibility that Del hasn't lost his marbles and DID see a bass a few weeks back, on went a pearly fluke, and a much more aggressive style retrieve, which resulted in this little beauty

Two casts later and this guy hits the lure almost on the surface, right at my feet!

Then...you guessed it...quiet again!

Quick dig through the little bag of  "mixed lures" and this little chap grabbed my attention

What the hell is that! I hear you cry. Well, its the result of trying to model a stickbait when you have had a couple to many beers! I made a mould of it anyway, and decided to teach myself how to make Sps, with this, my first ever creation...that not even a mother could love!

Chucked it out, and thought "what the hell...it may look like a chip that's been in the fryer way too long and soaked up a load of oil!" but worth a go, nothing else is working! A few fruitless casts later and about to change off "the chip" for a real lure, I reeled in quick, and Smack, fish on! A beauty of 4 angry lbs!...oddly the first "orangey" wrasse of the session!

Then for the next 40 minutes, a fish a cast...all on the chip!

Most small, but a few decent ones amongst them, all on a very aggressive "twitch-twitch-twitch" ( 1 foot-ish twitches) then few seconds pause. All hits would come after about 5 seconds into the pause, and all very positive takes!

 Strangely of the 20 or so fish on "the chip", 80% were "orangey coloured....bit like the chip! Hmmmmm....

Last fish of the day, before the chip was too torn up to even survive being cast, was this little greeny-yellow guy, which seemed to fight like mad for a few seconds, then suddenly just stopped, and had some weird wounds on it. All looked like they had just healed a little, probably the result of a seal?

All in all a great 3hours on the water, the most inconsistent start, almost gave up and went home for Sunday roast, but saved by the humble little chip!