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

Christmas Joy

Out with Callum today as Derek is laid low in Hospital. We actually turned right out of the harbour and headed west, we tried a number of marks with nothing doing and we moved out a bit into about 35ft of fast flowing water. I was using a metal Duo, jigging just off the bottom.

The first drift produced nothing whilst the second drift I got hit by a fish, at first I thought it was a wrasse as it did little in the way of fighting. As it came to the surface we could see a flash of silver and also another larger bass swimming with the hooked fish.

After a neat bit of netting from Callum a nice 5.5lb fish was landed


The fish was measured at 62cms and tagged and released



Callum later managed a couple of wrasse but this fish was the only bass caught in the few hours we were out.

Winter has arrived

As winter fast approaches the fishing seems to be abating, especially on the eastern side of the island, Although Derek tells me that there was a lull last year in November.

Well Friday came and it was a beautiful day and anticipation was high, unfortunately it was not matched by the fishing.

we managed to get two bass at an offshore reef with all the other spots proving negative. I had been trying a new surface lure which has been made and designed by Keith White. I had one rise to this, I have to say this lure worked well and has a tantalising wiggle.

A beautiful scene at Seymour.

Yesterday I ventured out, solo this time and tried all the way up the coast with no luck apart from a few pollack. I made my way back up to town and proceed further west. I fished an offshore reef and immediately landed two bass on a madness shad.

This was about an hour after low and I then noticed a large number of gulls feeding well inshore. When I arrived I could see fish on the surface. Using Keith,s bone idol Percy lure I immediately hooked a small bass and this was quickly followed by four more. The fish and the light soon disappeared but it was fun whilst it lasted