Scilly numbers of fish........

Sunday saw me heading up to Tresco to escape the carnage that was going on down on St Mary's, it was the World Pilot Gig Championships!! You couldnt move here so the best plan to keep my sanity was to head off to another island and smash some wrasse!! Hopes were high as we have just had a nice prolonged period of west and south west winds that have brought the sea temperatures up and slightly over 10 degrees. There was a little bit of swell but conditions on the whole were perfect (not many times can I have said that recently!!!!!).

I always have wanted to fish the North end of Tresco as it screams wrasse when you look on google earth.

 

As you can see from the photos the water was crytal clear and boy were the wrasse in a feeding frenzy! Straight from the off it was like a switch had been flicked and all those months of waiting patiently for the action to kick off was soon forgotten.

The wrasse were mainly on the small side but it was great fun. I had 30 fish before deciding to move on in the search for the larger wrasse that I was sure lived in and around the boulders. It was interesting to note that it really didnt matter what colour lure I had on from the first gulley as they were feeding like crazy they nailed each and every colour!!

The move was worth it as I took this better fish of 4lbs on a purple/blue lure. Plenty of blue in its mouth and spots on dorsal and fins which mean that they were still spawning so I switched over to a Blue Tube and the better and more aggressive wrasse nailed it.

This one of 4.5lbs was caught using a carolina rig with a 2ft trace, a method which seemed to find the better stamp of fish and put up a cracking fight in the shallow water. When I say shallow it was taken in 6ft of water and headed for every boulder trying to escape!!

Another move and more fish, again in shallow water with the Hawg Junebug Stickbait doing the damage.

By now I had caught upwards of 60 wrasse, much more like it after such a hard winter and all returned after a brief photo. It was time to head back to the New Inn pub to have a much deserved pint before getting the boat back home. Whilst waiting the five minutes for the boat I couldnt resist having a couple of  last casts from New Grimsby quay. Tap tap and it was wrasse on, and a great end to a cracking day. Silly numbers of fish, nothing massive but great fun all the same!!!!

Its slowly starting to wake up....

I ventured up to Bryher in the hope of getting amongst the pollack that should be feeding with this settled weather. They have been strangely absent for most of the year due to the storms and ghastly easterlies! Tides were perfect as was the weather with overcast conditions which we prefer for the pollack as it seems to favour the predatory nature of them. Maybe they feed more with the darker conditions making ambushing their prey easier?? This is proved many times as the action can come thick and fast at sunset and sunrise when the pollack really start feeding hard.  Neil was going to join up with me for the start of the flood, the prime time at this mark we have found! 

Shipman Head above can be an awesome spot, plenty of deep water and tide racing over the many pinnacles that are to be found within casting distance. We have both had many good fish from this spot, not to mention being smashed up on more than one occasion!!

I had brought along a new toy to play with, an 11ft Century Vectura and was keen to see how it would handle the deep water and hopefully some rod bending dives from a heavy weight pollack or two. Initial thoughts are that it is quite tippy but with it rated from 7g to 45g it could prove an interesting rod!! With its through action it loads effortlessly and recovers lightning fast meaning the 35g Fiish Minnow I was using was flying out!!

Action wasnt exactly frantic, as I expected with the back tide, but a few small pollack kept me going. Most were under 2lbs with a slightly better one around 3lbs taken just before low.

Bang on low, I hooked a cracking fish, slowly reeling the Fiish Minnow it was getting heavier, usually a sure sign that a pollack has taken the lure, and then all hell broke loose. With the Shimano Rareniums drag tight I could really see how the Vectura handled a better fish. I caught a glimpse of a stonking pollack just as it dived under the reef in front of me rubbing the 23lb fluorocarbon leader and snapping me off! After turning the air blue I set up again and was straight into some more pollack but none of the size that I had lost (typical anglers and the one that got away I know!!!!!!)

The best fish went 5lbs, not massive but very welcome. Neil joined me just as the tide was starting to pull and hopefully herald the better stamp of pollack to show. We threw every soft plastic that we had brought and apart from a few smaller fish up to 4lbs it just didnt happen.

A strange day, we really did think that we would bag up but maybe everything is still waiting to really kick off, its close maybe next time...................................