POLLACKING- LIKE WAITING FOR A BUS????

Managed to get out for a session the other day targeting pollack from the rocks. This year, as I and many others have found, has been such a nightmare but with the spring tides and perfect conditions I thought it had to be worth giving it a go. I had brought with me two rods so that I could try two different methods, for fishing casting jigs up to 60g I had the Graphiteleader Remoto EX9'6'' and for fishing my usual soft plastics I had the new Century Vectura Ti 11'. 

I arrived just as it was low water, to enable me to set up both rods and have everything to hand as usually the pollack come past this area in tight groups meaning the fishing prime time is a short window.

After an hour and with the tide now pulling hard,  I had a hit on the drop with the speed jig getting nailed by a small pollack of about 3lbs. Next cast and again on the drop the jig was hit by a much better fish. With steady pumping the pollack then made several dives and felt a decent weight when it somehow bumped off!! Gutted I checked the assist hook, nowt wrong with that just bad luck/angling on my behalf I guess!!!! I was really getting to grips with the Graphiteleader Remoto, it has a shorter stem/handle than I am used to, but then again it has this for a reason. It has been designed as a jigging rod and the shorter the better for imparting action to the jig. Rated to cast 25-75g a 60g williamson speed jig was being fired out well over 100 yards easily with a simple overhead thump, snap over the bail arm by hand and crank up the slack braid then starting imparting some life into the jig, simple! Interestingly both the pollack I had hit the lure as it was dropping. A couple of casts after the lost pollack, again the jig was hit on the drop, this pollack made a couple of dives before I had it beneath my feet. This was another good fish and with the help of a wave I managed to slide the pollack into my landing net.

Tipping the scales to 8.8lb it was a cracking pollack and proves that shore jigging is an awesome way of catching big pollack.

I decided to have a few casts with the Century Vectura Ti rigged up with the fantastic Fiish Black Minnow 140 and with a 30g shore head. A slightly longer drop and taking things nice and slow the soft plastic was flying out! I was initially rather hesitant about using the rod from this spot due to its extra length but that was to prove unfounded!! It was clearly the prime time for pollack as I soon felt the Fiish black Minnow getting heavier then bang the rod slammed over. This was another good pollack but it strangely was heading towards me!! Reeling like a crazy loon the pollack woke up under my feet and attempted several crash dives but with the drag done up tight the rod absorbed all the dives nicely and soon I was slipping the net under a stonking fish.

At 9.6lbs it was a cracking fish that after a few photos again went away strongly. I tried for several hours after the pollack flourish but not even a sniff, again proving that the window for the action is really small. Had I missed it by getting down later I would not have caught and been left scratching my head. Pollack fishing this season has been like waiting for a bus, I've waited a long time then two come along at once!!!!!

Christ that really is corny, I am off to find some more cheesey lines for next time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Catching up with old friends on Gugh.

Sorry its been such a ridiculously long time since I posted anything, it has been the worst year for fishing that I have ever witnessed here in the Isles of Scilly. If if wasnt a gale blowing then we had the dreaded may bloom and algae the like I have never seen before!!!! I wrote this a couple of weeks a go but was just waiting for a couple of photos from Simon so that I could finish it off. Not the best post thats for sure but at least Iam trying!!!

Sunday saw myself and Neil heading up to St Agnes to meet up with Jim and Simon from the Irreverent Angler. They have been camping and fishing their socks off for the last few days and with the weather being like summer (dare I say it) we were optimistic to say the least. We had drawn up a plan to fish the tiny island of Gugh, only accessible by a sand bar that covers at high water. Looking at google earth it looked incredible!!!!

Boulders, gulleys, headlands out into the tide, shallow weedy bays all looked like perfect wrasse and pollack haunts and with the likelihood of very little previous lure fishing action!! I remember fishing some of the marks around the southern tip at Hoe point 12 years ago with Henry Gilbey and his mate Kevin where we had several pollack but hadnt been out there since. It was Neils first time to Gugh in his eleven years of living on the islands.

We started at the southern tip, casting various soft plastics but apart from a couple of wrasse for myself it was pretty quiet, although it was the ebb tide so not exactly unexpected. 

We did see several shoals of mullet cruising past, moving very quickly with some of them being 6-7lb fish!! The water is definitely starting to show signs of warming up as I lost count of the jellyfish I saw which bodes well. 

We moved from rock to rock catching the odd wrasse and Jim had four 3lb pollack in four casts when Neil decided to change tactics and rig up a larger homemade paddletail with a 40g jig head and blasted it between two pinnacles in the hope of finding a pollack. Third cast and his rod slammed over, he was clearly into a much bigger fish. Judging by his language it was a seriously powerful fish that he was fighting when disaster struck! The huge pollack dived and got tangled on a trailing lobster pot rope and was snagged!!!! He tried everything from giving it slack to eventually pulling for a break. Gutted doesnt even come close!!!!!!! As to how big it actually was we will never know, but I am sure Neil will be reliving that fight in his dreams many many times!!!!!!

It was approaching low water now and the tide had eased so we moved again to target the wrasse with the slack water. We found a lovely looking bay, really shallow but it screamed wrasse! After several small pollack to 3lbs on the drop we managed to find the wrasse with all four of us hooking up at the same time, awesome fishing and a great laugh. They werent the biggest wrasse with the biggest going 4lbs to myself.

 

Even the pollack were getting bigger with both Jim and Neil landing them to 4 lbs.

We lost count of the numbers of wrasse and pollack we had out of the bay but it was decided that we would head back out to the ledges where Neil lost the big pollack as soon as the tide started to flood.

Neil was soon into the pollack again with several small fish caught to a couple of pounds before he shouted for me to stop taking photos and get the net! 

  

A cracking pollack that put up a spirited scrap but nothing like the one that got away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It seemed that as quick as the pollack had appeared they disappeared. Another lesson learnt for this new mark, its only a really short window for the pollack as they move through with the tide!!! 

It was back to target the wrasse from the shallow marks and as with the pollack they were strangely hard to locate! Maybe with such a huge spring tide they were holed up and not feeding as we thought they would?

We all agreed it was time to move to the Turks Head Pub for a much deserved pint! It had been a good day, great to catch up with Jim and Simon and have a laugh catching silly numbers of fish. Sadly the real monsters had evaded us this time but theres always the next time. I think that we will be back out on Gugh again soon!!!!

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...................................

Idle Hands . . . . . .

In case some of you have been living under a rock for what feels like the longest winter in history: easterlies, gales and ground seas have pretty much ruined all hope/opportunity of fishing recently. So apart from sulking, swearing and wishing I lived somewhere warmer I decided to really think about my approach to HRF-i.e. wrassin with softies! 

I cut my teeth in lure fishing as a kid in South Africa, when I was introduced to bass fishing for fresh water large mouth black bass by watching friends, then "idols" on ESPN and various other satellite channels, I soon mimicked what they did, how and why. It didn't take long to work my way through a succession of outfits until settling on a baitcasting duo-pretty standard stuff given the style of fishing.

So...what the hells that got to do with this HRF lark? Well the similarities between freshwater largemouth bass and wrasse are undeniable! 

Behavior, aggression, territorial-ness(!), their love for structure and features to name but a few. Both can be forced to hit lures, both will definitely strike something to satisfy their inquisitive nature, and of course both engulf lures mistaking them for food. 

What then about the method...?

Jigs, soft plastics, carolina, texas...sound familiar...? All born out of freshwater bass fishing. Yes, this is no revelation I know. We are all familiar with some similarities in the rigging methods and the lures themselves, so what's my point? Why do we copy every aspect of a freshwater method of fishing for a fish which is so similar to FW bass, use the same techniques, but we use different rods and reels!?

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense to use baitcasting gear! Better casting accuracy. Better sensitivity/feel(imho). Better choice of rods-albeit on the USA market mostly. So if it's Better-Better-Better, why aren't we all doing it? There is a common misconception that these little baitcasters are a 'mare to cast/control, and have no place in windy conditions, but that is far from reality. Most modern middle-of-the-road baitcasters come with centrifugal and magnetic brakes plus spool tensioning knob; so yes, that's three means of effectively taming these unruly little devils. With too much time on my hands due to crap conditions, I had to satisfy my fishing obsession online, with "important research" on the matter. And that's where it got tricky. Not much tackle or info available for this "niche" in the UK. With a little help and advice on various forums and Facebook groups (thank you Mike Sullivan!), I eventually bought an Abu Revo stx gen 3, a mouthful, but a masterpiece in engineering!

The other misapprehension is that baitcasters don't have the cranking power, drag or robustness as they are, after all, born out of the freshwater scene. This reel is not the best available by any stretch, rather a good mid-range example of what is available these days : 11 bearings, choice of 3 different gear ratios, a massive 20lb max drag and aluminium main (ct) frame. All suggest that they are more than capable of handling our beloved rock pigs. I still lust after my "perfect" baitcast rod, and the more  research I do the longer my shortlist gets, so when I came across a second hand option at a good price I snapped it up in the form of a  Majorcraft Days 7ft heavy BC rod. Not perfect, but will tide me over while the search continues!

Now, before this goes any further, I am not discounting spinning reels altogether saying that you must switch immediately or you will get lost in the constantly churning gears of this evolving machine that is HRF. Lets face it, this-like all forms of fishing- need only be as simple or as complicated as we choose to make it. But with too much fishing "down time" and a mind that's enslaved by tides, tackle, techniques and ways of improving, this seemed to me a very obvious move to make. I have only had one proper little session with this new set-up and two aborted sessions (one in 25mph SE-desperate times!) so maybe it's too soon to say that I am fully converted, although I can't see myself ever turning back. I am yet to have an over-wind that needed more than a yard of braid (yes I am using braid which supposedly is impossible) to clear. No issues with digging in, unless pulling for a break directly onto the spool-which you should never do with braid no matter what the reel. It just feels a far more natural and intuitive set-up than my dedicated HRF combo, and is far more enjoyable to use. Granted this may come from an extensive background with this type of gear, but, if YOU know someone who has a BC set-up- borrow it, crank the mags up, engage the centrifugal brakes and let her rip...you may never look back! 

Tightlines all, until next time - Neil

 

AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God where do I start!!!!!!! This winter must have been my worst ever with regards to fishing, I simply havent been for months and apparently have been a total nitemare to be around (sorry)!! What with the strong easterlies then big southerly gales and the enevitable groundseas it has been impossible to get out with any hope of safety or actually believing that you will catch anything!!!! Slowly but surely things are a changing and it cant come soon enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With the water temperatures still way down on last year it has been noticeable from the distinct lack of sandeels and bait fish resulting in fewer sea birds around the islands and the numbers of pollack caught have been the lowest for years! Finally with our weather finally deciding to settle we should all see the catches improving day to day. Even the wrasse, our usually ever obliging soft plastic quarry have been almost non-existant and certainly far from their aggressive feeding best of last year but yesterday was the start of things as I actually managed to get out for a few hours (yes for those that had thought I had sold all my gear and started knitting, I havent but have been dormant).

I decided to head out under the airport to the marks that hadnt let me down all last year, water clarity was unbelievably good, best I have seen this year in fact and if I could remember how to fish I felt in with a chance!! Starting out with the Major Craft Crostage I rigged up a small crawfish pattern called Ghost Shrimp texas style and within a few casts and the odd missed bite (the expected rustiness from lack of fishing) I had the slamming over and the first of many wrasse was brought to the landing net.

Several small wrasse followed before I decided to move in the hope of finding some larger fish with the dropping tide.

A change to a new as yet un-named soft plastic from Jackslrf which certainly looked the business brought more success.

Notice the blue spots appearing on the fins and dorsal tail, a sure sign that the wrasse are starting to spawn.
This fish put up a decent scrap as it tried to find sanctuary in its rocky home. Now that I was back in the groove I changed over to my new toy, a Century 7'7'' Vectura-Ti. I got this rod purely for the big wrasse that Ive hooked and lost before. It will be put through its tests over the coming year but it certainly feels powerful, way more powerful than the Century HPR 7'3'' model that I have used before. This new range of rods are based on the exact same blanks as the HPR's just with the new 3M Powerlux™ resin system used and have the much improved Titanium SiC guides fitted as standard. I made several casts with the new rod and found it a joy to use and was certainly more than a match for many small wrasse up to 3lbs.

A final move back across the bay for the start of the flood saw the wrasse continue to snap up the lures being offered and were of a slightly better stamp with a couple of 4lb fish bending and testing the Vectura.

Things were starting to go quiet so I decided on having the last cast when I hooked the biggest fish of the session, not massive but at 5lbs it made the trip all the worth while.

All in all it was great to be back out on the rocks and even more pleasing was that I hadnt blanked. Now all I have to do is learn how to take photos again and everything will be ok!!!!!!!!!!