Things at last picking up

What a dire season this has been, with the fish being non existent on the south east coast of Jersey, Yes I have picked up a few small fish. Guernsey have reported that very few fish were caught on the normal breeding grounds this winter and the Brittany bass landings are 75% down.

Does this mean the collapse of the bass fisheries around Jersey and the lack of action being taken to preserve breeding stock.

Well this week has improved with a number of fish being caught on the falling tide, but they are very localised

Very slow start

I am sorry that not much has gone on this blog this year. The season has been so slow to get going and this coupled with a holiday to the uSA and Iceland I have done very little of fishing or should I say catching.

Derek has caught a few but our numbers are well down, the constant easterly winds have not helped matters. Hopefully of the next few weeks things will improve

Has summer arrived

It has been a long winter and now there are signs that the fish are returning and feeding, I went out with Derek a couple of days ago and 3 smallish bass came to the boat

Day I went out looking for mackerel, I did not find any but found loads of pollack feeding everywhere on the flooding tide. I reckon I had about 50 in a few hours

I am also told that a lot of whiting and turbot are being taken on the banks over the last few days

Season up and running

Early days yet but the bass are back with Derek out fishing me once again this season. A week or so ago Derek took the first 3 bass, all small but a welcome return after a long cold winter. Last week I took a couple of bass using a Duo press fusion.

This morning we took 15 small bass all on savage gear slugs rigged weightless. They seemed to only like the pearl coloured ones. I managed to land 3 of the 15.

Poor Weather Continues

The freezing weather continues here with strong easterly and north easterly winds. With sea temps still down around the 7 degrees mark and the outside temp around 4-5 bodes badly for an early start to the bass season.

The boat comes out next Thursday for its annual service and with winds forecast for a force 5 north easterly it seems I will not be missing much fishing.

On a positive not and Derek thinks I am crazy for spending so much on a pair of pliers I have purchased a pair of Van Staal Titanium Pliers

The quality and feel of these pliers are fantastic and will be the last set of pliers I will hopefully have to buy. So until the weather improves there will not be much in the way of fishing reports

A lovely spring day

I thought I get out and try a bit of metal jigging this afternoon as it was so pleasant. So this is the first report of the year.

A school of Dolphins kept me company for about 20 minutes. Started Jigging with a pboy and caught a number of Pollack also had the first wrasse of the year, nothing big.




  So no Bass but a pleasant afternoon fishing

RONZ LURES

Having returned from Nantes I received a package from Ivan a fishing friend who travels back and to to America on a regular basis, He fishes for Tuna and Stripers.

Ivan had given me some Ronz Lures and the ones he has given me are tough and match the sandeels we have here. The Jig Head is 7gms and is made of Tin with a good quality hook. The bodies are tough and well made. I cannot wait to give these a try and have already ordered a few more from the States.

Nantes 2013

Why do I bother each year to visit the Fishing show each year at Nantes, well it is not just to look at the pretty rods,reels and boats.

This year a number of Japanese tackle manufacturers were present including DUO, TENRYU, MEGABASS etc and it was great to speak to the testers of the equipment. There was also a French company which impressed me called Creafishing which have begun to manufacture their own jig heads and rods.

I was also impressed by the latest range of ILEX RODS which look great for local waters

I see that MONSTER TACKLE already have some in stock and I will be approaching Tom from Monster Tackle to buy one it is a question of do I go for the one piece of the two piece version. There were lures from most of the main manufacturers and it was great to see each one in detail

So roll on the spring so that I can try out a couple of specials I bought at the show

Reeling in the New Year

I have been out a couple of times so far this year with no sign of any bass and just a few pollack being caught. I am determined to keep trying metals this year mainly off shore.

I have just bought a secondhand VSB 250 I know it is a bit powerful but the good price meant that I could not resist it.

The thing I notice about this photo is the loss of coloration on my VS 100 pictured on the lefthand side. I have emailed van staal to ask them if this is normal. I will await their response. The reel has gone to Germany for a service.

I am hearing that bass are still being caught including a few in the bay where I caught my last one