Lure Games UK

Just a really quick one…

Whilst over in France for a Rockfish competition in October, a bunch of us got to see the French way of doing things and their attitudes towards ultra light fishing. It did somewhat differ to the way things are in the UK, and every one of us came back somewhat ‘enlightened’.

The atmosphere was so chilled. So many nice guys doing things in a way that we really liked and felt inclined to talk and do something about. The group we met with and who have inspired us so much were the ‘No Stress Fishing‘ guys. They’re basically just a big bunch of friends who have formed an organisation to promote and help others enjoy fishing more. It is not a commercial thing and does not involve commercial links with retailers or manufacturers. As a result, there are no motives or hidden agendas, and the concept (from what we saw) works very, very well. The competition we fished for example, worked so well because of the many volunteer stewards that lined the banks ensuring everything went smoothly. A single manufacturer or retailer could never (without volunteer help from a group such as this) match the group’s efficiency.

Perhaps surprisingly (as a tackle shop owner), I couldn’t be more impressed with this way of doing things (non-commercially), and I’d kind of been thinking about how good it would be for a little while before seeing it in practise. It’s right that competitions and meetings should not be organised by retailers or manufacturers themselves. What the UK needs is a group like ‘No Stress’ that are willing to use their own time to make events and fishing education more available. Obviously it relies on having the right people involved (who don’t mind doing such a thing for very little return), but the guys that I travelled with were all in 100% agreement that we can easily do such a thing among ourselves by including the great bunch of guys that we regularly fish with.

So, on our return we set about putting the building blocks in place to start creating an organisation of our own to run in close contact with the ‘No Stress’ guys in France. It took a while but we finally launched the website (www.luregames.com) a few weeks ago. Although I am involved (as an angler/helper), the idea of the group is to primarily create a blog that keeps things short, to the point and makes the most of some truly epic (tongue in cheek) photography and videos to give any readers a visual insight in to what we’re all up to and some of the fish we’re catching. The great thing about France was eating the food, drinking the drink, having a laugh, meeting so many good people and fishing brand new areas. If we want to sit down in a cafe half way through a ‘street’ fishing session, we’ll do it. Nothing is too serious - which is why the ‘No Stress’ attitude is so great. It is what it says it is and I don’t think the guys over there could have come up with a better name.

In addition, we’ll likely be organising competitions (as only a group can do most effectively) to really take things up a level. Whether you like to fish competitions yourself, there is no denying that competition is essential to keep pushing things forward with any type of angling. The plus side to events being organised through the group though is that there is zero chance of them being taken too seriously. Despite this, you will be able to bank on each event being very efficiently organised by the team. Sponsors will vary from event to event and despite my personal involvement, will often have no relation to myself or my shop. Hopefully our No Stress (France) friends will also be able to come and join us on occassion.

Anyway, check out the website at www.luregames.com and the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/luregamesuk.

As our own attitudes have relaxed, we’ve pretty much chopped down all of the boundaries when it comes to our own fishing – and I don’t mean that in a cheesy way – what I mean is that although nearly all of us have been hardened saltwater lure fishermen to date, we’ve all started looking at rivers, canals, ponds and streams in a different light. Fish are fish, and we like catching them.

Peace!

Crazy ass squid lures.

Until this year I’d not seen a squid in its natural environment. Over the past few months I seem to have been seeing them all over the place. Until now I’d not had any lures to target them, but when I mentioned it to Peter Koppman from Marukyu (Japan) he promised to bring me some of their Fish League jigs to try out. Also had a good chat about how to fish them and the differences between their designs. It all made a lot of sense and also lit a few lighbulbs in my head as far as jighead designs go as well.

I haven’t had chance to try them yet but these things are lush! Very, very well made. I sent a local friend out with a couple and he was back the day after having caught a load of decent squid in daylight from his kayak. They work!

Anyway, this is they:

I have various sizes from #2.5 to #3.5. All of them look super good and the two models are the ‘Dartmax’ and the ‘Flashmax’ (one of each below). Notice that the Dartmax has the line attachment on the top of the head while on the Flashmax it is on the nose. As a result, the Flashmax is useful for searching a larger proportion of the water column (with squid taking as it slowly sinks between jerks), while the Dartmax ‘darts’ more side to side, rather than up and down.

The spikes on the tail are super, super sharp!

…and the colours are wacky to say the least. Just need to try them all out now! Possibilities forming for Thursday! If I make it I’ll whack a report up (while I sit here with a squid filled belly!).

Are saltwater fish a bit thick or summat??!

Everything inside me says that we should probably give saltwater species more credit when it comes to evading capture. Years of coarse (freshwater) fishing experience in a competitive environment, trying to perfect presentations to catch more than anybody else have taught me that even the tiniest things can make a difference. So why are saltwater species always getting caught on rope-like lines and massive meat hooks? And perhaps more importantly, would we be catching more if we we refined our saltwater approach?

One massive difference between coarse and sea fishing is obviously the pressure that individual fish stocks are put under. For example, the commercial carp pools that we see in the UK are rammed with anglers every day, chucking all sorts of baits and rigs at the fish. Its no wonder they become harder to catch as time goes on. They have to feed, so they still get caught, but as time goes on it’s more and more likely that the guys or gals catching them are the ones who have worked harder on their presentation. It’s widely accepted around the World that pressured fish (from anglers) become wise to more ‘traditional’ tactics and become harder to catch. Not just in freshwater either. Seabass in Japan… Bream in Australia…

We’re a funny bunch in the UK (not necessarily in a bad way), and so much stuff that we do brings different results for different people. As a result I think we struggle a bit at times to get our heads fully around things. This topic for example. Experience, sense and theory suggests to me that we’ll catch more by fishing finer, more delicately and more invisibly, yet there are guys out there who I hugely respect who will fish boldly and heavy and catch fish that I just can’t confess to matching. So what’s the right thing to do? I’m stumped. Are our fish wising up? Either way, how do you know the answer?

Does it just depend on your target species and the lure’s you’re fishing?

I’ve been convinced since the start of the LRF revolution in the UK that now would be the time that it would become obvious that fishing finer and with more thought would start to shine through. On the lighter end, it has! Phew! An answer at last! I can certainly vouch for that one.  Especially in winter it becomes more and more essential to fish slow and light, otherwise you the fish won’t look at a lure. In summer you can fish heavier and more aggressively. Just because you can! It makes things easier and the fish, being more active, don’t seem to mind. Again this makes me wonder though. If fishing finer and lighter at the bottom end of the scale makes a difference, why the hell doesn’t it seem to affect fish at the heavier end????? Are the guys fishing heavy ONLY whacking hard lures in to rolling water with little visibility (to hide thick lines) or are they seriously catching fish in the various conditions that the rest of us find ourselves faced with? If they are, why can’t I do that?!

Should we consider the different ‘moods’ of fish and attribute some (if not ‘a lot’) to this?

If an angry fish sees or feels a lure buzzing through the water, regardless of whether the lure actually looks like a food item or not, and regardless of whether the fish can see or sense a thick, visible line attached to the lure, is it likely to still take a stab at it? The bold fish is obviously right at first not to suspect there to be an anglers hook in the vicinity – so what’s the harm in trying?? It can always spit it out again (or so it thinks) should it not feel quite right. In my head, this makes good sense and is obviously what many would call a ‘reaction’ strike or take – playing on the aggression of the fish to wind them up and force them in to snapping at any lure (hard or soft). This theory is fairly widely accepted and is relevant I think for all fresh or saltwater species.. I think the main thing to note is that it doesn’t actually matter whether they think your lure is a food item or not. You’ve just pi**ed them off and they want to snap at that ‘thing’ they’ve seen in the water.

What happens if the fish just aren’t in angry mode though or you find yourself expecting one set of conditions only to be presented with another? Less competition from other fish in the area? It’s not feeding time? The sun’s out, the seas flat and they’ve lost the element of surprise when it comes to hunting prey? Are some species so angry that they’ll still snap at something that invades their space regardless of environmental conditions? Do the fish chill out a bit (become less aggressive and likely to ‘snap’)  in water where they are constantly bombarded with aggressive looking/reacting lures? Are our saltwater fish in the UK being bombarded with enough of these silly looking bits of plastic yet to start getting more wary? I suspect not if the guys are still catching them on tow-rope…………………. But then I’ll go back to my original point. If scaling down can make such a huge difference at the bottom of the scale, why not with our Bass tackle – which afterall is what this is mostly about? I’m not on about going mentally fine, but SURELY you and I will catch more bass by refining just tiny things to at least attempt to swap a ‘follower’ for a landed fish. We all get follows. Some will just settle for the fact that the fish didn’t want it and admit defeat. This in itself is a whole other topic, but what if you’d just fished lighter, less aggressively or more thoughtfully (ideally from the start of your session) – rather than just swapping lures to a similar sized and equally wobbly version, maybe in a different shade of silver?… We must get millions of follows from fish we never even see. They’re out there, we’re just not doing it right a lot of the time. If we were, they wouldn’t be following – they’d be munching! To add another question, are we spending too much time fishing for angry fish and relying on reaction strikes? Probably, most of us. I do it myself a lot especially in daylight. It’s the easiest way to fish and naturally requires as little thought as possible.

I suppose it all depends on the various ratio’s of conditions and fish and the general moods of the fish in the area. I think I sound a bit mad talking about fish moods, but if some fish can be angry and confident feeders, surely on other days in different places, fish will just as likely be relaxed and as a result harder to catch. Do the guys using thick lines and braids still catch when things get tough? I honestly don’t know. This is what I mean about us being a funny bunch. They’ll most likely swear blind they do. But then, what’s to say that they might not have caught twenty fish rather than just one in calmer conditions if they’d fished a less visible line or smaller lure? They won’t have tried it and I won’t have been there to see it. So how do we get anywhere with this?……………. It’s brilliant and frustrating at the same time that we just can’t find the right answers.

Each of us can only believe in what we experience ourselves and perhaps it’s for the best that fishing is and always will be full of compete and utter unknowns.

I….. am……. knackeerrrred!

Sat in the shop tired beyond belief, I can only blame Luke Fox for this!…

This post mixes a few recent sessions all in to one because I feel like I have been out a surprising amount lately mixing LRF and bass sessions.

I’ll start way back in time in the back end of last week. Or was it the beginning of this week? …I don’t know. Anyway, a last minute decision at about 9pm had me looking locally for a spot that would be OK in the pretty rubbish conditions. There was an ok amount of swell which is always required to make things happen around here, but the tides were tiny and this often causes problems with access to the better spots. As a result, I just decided that I’d wander along a bit of coastline that I’ve never had a proper look at before, just to see what it was like. If I didn’t fish then it wasn’t going to be the end of the World.

Scaling the cliffs slightly madman stylee, I found a very, very nice looking little spot. I didn’t have much room to move, but I had swell, rocks and a nice bit of depth for some night time bass action.

Truth be told, the climb back up was constantly playing on my mind. Not knowing the best route just yet, I didn’t want to stay too late just so that I knew I could escape, but I did fish for an hour or so, and about half way through I felt the quite common ‘knock’ of a bass intercepting my lure on the way down. Most of my night time bass fishing around here is done with ‘sink and draw’ style tactics of lifting lures off of the bottom and then allowing them to fall vertically by following them down with the rod tip and winding in the slack as I go. Having a sensitive rod, light braid and a smooth reel helps massively with this – to the point that if I didn’t have the right kit, I honestly don’t think I’d catch anywhere near as many fish.

This one really engulfed the Ecogear BTS Shad. I’ve done really well with these after dark in the past couple of months. This was the only fish but at a chunky 3lb quite a nice one. Home before midnight quite satisfied…

It may have been the night after but I travelled down to the South coast to meet up with Luke, Shaun, Clint and Matt Jones to fish a spot they’d raved about recently. Shaun especially has had loads of fish there and the general area seems stuffed with fish compared to my homeland on the North. A real mixture of sizes too. I didn’t know what rods to take, and as much as I loved the idea of playing a few nice fish on the Slow Retrieve, I settled on the Nories Sand Wave 74 as an all-rounder.

Clint and I didn’t get there til dark, but Matt was by this point ripping numerous pollack out on an Ecogear VX35. I’d only taken soft baits with me but despite the fairly slow going, we all managed at least a couple of pollack. Eventually a move to shallower water produced a couple of small bass and further pollack. Ecogear Grass Minnow L was the bait to be on, but I had a couple on the Power Shad as well, combined with a 3.5g Iwashi Head.

A nice social session.

Moving on, I had a bit of a last minute one with Luke. At 9pm I rolled up down South again and after a bit of a walk we arrived at a spot to see fish splashing all over the place. MENTAL! Like nothing I’ve ever seen on the north coast! These quiet little south coast bays are craaaaazy!!

We decided not to just jump in on top of the larger group and risk spooking them, so fished the edges. Luke lost one pretty quickly on a Patchinko 100 before hooking a monster fish on the same lure. Initially jumping out of the water, the big fish (big!) eventually got in to the rocks and left Luke ‘reeling’. He later surmised that it was likely a beasty pollack.

At the same time I was busy playing and landing a 2.5-3lb fish taken off the top on a tiny Ecogear PX55. Crazy little lures, I’d always wanted to use one and this was my first chance. Love it!

Despite the fish movement, it wasn’t as easy fishing as you’d expect. Darkness drawing in, the water was getting increasingly shallow and things quietened down a bit. I had a couple of nice plump pollack on all Grass Minnows and an XLayer, but it wasn’t until slack water at 11pm that it kicked off a bit.

Luke called out that he’d hooked something and listening to his reel drag screaming, I shouted that I’d be over with the camera. The first time it swirled it was obvious just from the sound that it was a nice fish. On 8lb braid and leader, it wasn’t too long before the fish was beat.

…what a beauty!!!!…..

Weighed at 6lb 4oz it was a proper fish! Taken on a white XLayer. Classic!

The bu**er then went on to hook this thing!….

A hard fighting pollack around the 3lb mark. A lovely fish from the shore. Luke was stoked to say the least and it was great to be there to witness what were, in my eyes, a couple of lovely fish. You certainly don’t see fish like them every day.

Sorry for the epic rambling length of this one. Feels like so much has been happening. Perhaps I should get back to work?!

A rare day off…

Jo’s been good enough to let me have Thursdays off for the time being, so after taking the dog on a mission (purely selfish motives to tire the little maniac out!), I grabbed a few hours yesterday to wet a few lures.

It’s apparently July, but amid the pretty autumnal period we’re going through, the sun was shining, the wind was enough to cause a stir and a nice bit of swell was rolling in. Before getting to the coast I was half concerned that it’d be like my last planned trip and I’d get there to find so much white water that chucking a lure was pointless. Luckily this time it was well fishable. Almost perfect in fact. The swell here is so vitally important for a good days fishing that it’s always a relief to find some.

The plan for the day was to just concentrate on the hard baits. I much prefer the hard lures in shallow, bright, predominantly rough water. I took a bit of a selection which I think was a good thing in hindsight because the area I fished did end up varying a bit in swell, cover and depth.

With two hours til low tide I started on a rock where I used to catch quite a few fish, but for some reason have struggled from in recent times. The sand seems to move around a lot here each winter (and even in between sessions) and I just think that something has changed… It just doesn’t seem what it was. Anyway, needing something fairly shallow but with some bulk to gett out and over the top of some weedy boulders, I ended up whacking out a 14cm Jackson Athlete. 20 minutes with no signs and a stupid amount of weed in the water, I carried on along the shore line, looking towards a gully full of water that I’d usually just wade through when it was shallower.

Hemmed in by rocks with just a narrow entrance and exit, I’ve always looked at this pool but never really chucked a lure. With the level of swell today creeping in here and stirring things up, I thought it was worth a pop. By this point I was on a natural colour OSP Rudra S, and flipping in 10yds in to 8 feet of water I yanked it down to depth and started a slow retrieve. A couple of seconds later I’d been met with the realisation that the fish that had just taken the lure might actually have some size to it!

After a couple of healthy runs, accompanied by his friend I caught sight of a dark backed fish in front of me. Not huge, but at 3lb he was above average size-wise for the area. Beached on a wave behind me, he’d taken a serious liking to the Rudra and had fully inhaled the back half. He unhooked easily though and after a quick pic was back in the water and on his way. Job done. I always feel relieved when I get the first fish of any session on dry land.

After the disturbance in this gully I didn’t hold hope of catching another so had just a couple more casts and moved on – considering myself a bit fluky.

Out on the main point of this mark and casting left the weed was a complete nightmare. I could have done with some softbaits There was also a lot of swell and presenting a hard lure was  pretty tricky. Casting right was a slightly different story. Much more manageable, despite being against the wind, the weed wasn’t half as bad and even standing out of the swell 10 feet above the water I could fish much more efficiently.

Five minutes along the line and while slowly winding a Laydown Minnow with the rod tip up I had a schoolie smash it so hard he jumped clear of the water before detaching himself. I then saw a niiiiiice fish cruising by himself about 20yds away. A quick wind back before whacking one out in his direction and while the lure was still mid-air he turned in the opposite direction that I wanted him to! Bummer – but nice to know there was a bigger fish around. I’d started to doubt their existence.

Another five minutes in and following a switch to the natural coloured Rudra S, a simple straight retrieve had me hooked in to another schoolie. Not big, but good fun.

By now the tide had turned and I needed to watch my back a bit. Pushed from this rock I had no choice but to enter the weedier zones again. It was good to be out again, but after this point I wasn’t feeling so confident or comfortable so headed back home for a much needed cup of tea!

Nice day when the sun popped his head out….

Cornish Lure Festival – Knackering me out!

You’d be forgiven for presuming that running an angling festival was an easy thing. How hard can it be?!….

I do make it worse for myself by being annoying perfectionist and wanting to do everything myself, but sometimes things do just have to ‘make do’. I hate it, but with only 24 hours in a day it’s a real mission getting everything done in time for July 1st. No matter how far in advance you start planning, there is always more to be done.

My current gripe is with the nightmare I’m having trying to sort the trophies out. Nothing is easy.

If for any reason you don’t know what I’m on about then I am organising a county-wide lure fishing festival during the first weekend of July. Apart from professional guides (whose livelihood relies on knowing where the fish are), everybody is welcome to join in over the weekend. Full details are here: www.lurefestival.co.uk.

In the small amount of time I have had spare, apart from he odd fishing session (Bass and LRF), I’ve also started writing a number of slightly controversial entries for here. Once the festival is out of the way they will start to spring up from time to time. My intention on starting this thing was never to be all argumentative or in your face (whoever’s reading), but there are just a few things that I feel strongly enough about to make it worthwhile putting a point across.

This isn’t the longest blog post ever, but with the lack of time available until after July 3rd, I just wanted to keep myself ticking over and despite my current doom and gloom, there is a lot that I’m looking forward too…

The Festival – goes without saying. Also, Marukyu (the Festival’s main sponsors) are bringing in guys from Japan and Europe I believe. Seeing those I’ve met before, and meeting new ones will be great, especially since we should be able to get a bit of fishing in this time around!  You may have been in to the shop before and seen the Rock’n Fish DVD’s playing?! Orimoto, who stars in them will be here! Check out www.fishing-v.jp/rock/ for a little Japanese run-down.

Come and meet him at the Festival if you’re around for the weekend.

Right, I’d better go. Over n out.

Ignore the soft brigade… LRF metal rules!

I love fishing soft baits and have said so much on here in the past couple of weeks, whether it’s for bass, wrasse or on the light stuff (LRF). They’re brilliant baits to get in to with a million and one ways of fishing them. However, I do think that people can be sucked in and start ignoring the LRF metals. By ‘metal’s I mean the tiny casting jigs and small vibration lures.

Now that the water has warmed up a bit, I’m guessing that for the majority of anglers wanting to get in to some sort of ultra light fishing, the metal baits are actually going to be their best friend! There’s so much talk about the various complexities of soft baits that the most reliable, best fish catchers can actually be ignored. It’s certainly the case for me here on the North Cornish coast.

Like a lot of people out there I’d guess, I’m not lucky enough to have any calm, sheltered harbours (or similar) anywhere close to home. The coast here is rough, rugged and broken by massive rocky headlands. On the whole, deep water rules. Not the type of stuff you see in many of the online LRF reports.

I still target the shallower areas and catch plenty of fish, but for decent fish numbers in warmer weather, the headlands are where you’ll find me! I may ‘only’ find myself targeting half a dozen species, but out here metal baits rule! It’s a far cry from the type of marks I’ve been fishing whilst traveling over the winter.

4g Prime Area Tiebo Jig - killer!

As it happens, there’s actually not too much behind fishing these types of metal baits. They’re relatively aggressive lures to fish and if you’re not the softly-softly type then they will suit you perfectly. Every angler at some point in their life has fished with feathers for mackerel, and the easiest way to fish something like a small jig is the good old ‘sink & draw’. Exactly the same. I just ensure I keep it slow enough not to immediately have the lure fishing in the upper levels of the water. Ideally I like to keep the lure very near to the bottom – hunting out pollack and the odd surprise wrasse. If I want Mackerel (or the random fish I had one one a couple of days ago – I still don’t know what it was!) then I bring it up a bit. Garfish will snap at even shallower baits. I keep my fishing speed (sink&draw) about the same, but decide the depth by allowing the lure to sink to differing depths after casting.

There are two types of metal lures that I use with the ultra light tackle.

1) Casting Jig (like the picture above). Most of mine vary from 3g -7g and I’ve caught best lately on the 7g models. I choose a weight to suit the amount of wind I may be faced with and the depth of water. Like when fishing soft baits, I want the jig to sink as slowly as possible to give the fish the most time to react to it (they tend to take it as it falls so the more time it’s falling for, the more chance they have to hit it and the more time you are spending with a target in the water). On occasion this may also dictate the size of jig I choose. These are designed to be fished sink & draw. They have no ‘action’ on a straight retrieve. They cast brilliantly and catch fish non-stop when they’re hungry! Very easy lures to use, if you have a deep water (15′+) headland near you then they will catch you fish without too much effort (if they’re there).

I start by casting out and letting the lure sink until it hits the bottom. The speed I retrieve will be dictated by the weight of the lure. I lift the lure sharply upwards perhaps 6 feet by sweeping the rod upwards, then lower the rod slowly at a similar speed to the rate I picture the lure sinking. With light line and a sensitive rod you should be able to feel the lure picking up slack line – so just follow it down. I want the lure to sink vertically, unrestricted by line tension. As I lower the rod I slowly wind line back on to the reel under minimal tension. The intention is to be in ‘loose’ contact. I don’t want slack line wafting around anywhere. Keep in contact but try not to restrict the lure’s fall. When  the lure nears bottom or my rod reaches it’s original position again, I repeat the lift and do the whole thing again. What I’m feeling for is a ‘tap’ as the lure sinks. A quick strike in to anything that feels fishy should have fish hooked. If I don’t hook up then I just continue letting the lure sink. The chances are that either the same fish or one of it’s friends will have another go. The bait’s obviously in the right place so there’s no point pulling it away to quickly.

7g Prime Area Tiebo Jig with additional assist hooks (more on those later).

2) Vibration baits (‘blades’). These are quite an adaptable lure. I fish these in anything from about 4 feet of water right up to the deep stuff. They can be ‘slow rolled’ (a slow, straight retrieve) but also fished sink & draw as above – and this is where I find them best around here. They sink more slowly than the casting jigs, but also don’t cast as well. In the water however, they probably do have more ‘presence’ and are quite good at angering fish in to having a stab at them. No fingers and thumbs = hooked fish. They can’t help it. As you lift the lure up off of the bottom you will feel the high-frequency vibration that these lures give off. Mental!

Again, sizes of these vary. This time anything from about 2g right up to 10g or more, and again size will be dictated by weather conditions and depth. I do like to fish as small as I can though, but I suppose I do have most success on lures around the 5g mark. Multiple species will quite happily have a grab at one of these and I do find that on the deeper water marks around here they are definitely more productive than soft lures after about April when the water starts to warm. Pollack to 2lb on light gear are brilliant fun. Mackerel obviously run like little steam trains too, and being small baits, they’ll catch almost anything.

Pollack on Ecogear VX35.

So what tackle to match these baits too?

In contrast to the short rods of the winter where close range control with tiny soft baits is essential, I find a longer rod can be really useful from the rougher headland marks with these types of lure. I use a 7’10″ mostly but have recently seen some great value 8’8″ versions that will be perfect for anybody wanting to try for a few mackerel on super light tackle.

A braided mainline (despite the unfortunate cost involved) makes a huge difference to both casting distance and sensitivity. Something around the 6lb mark is ideal I reckon. I use Sunline Rockfish PE0.4. A fluorocarbon leader is also pretty essential when you start going finer I think. You don’t need to be quite so subtle with this stuff as you do in winter, so although I use 4lb Sunline Small Game Leader FC mostly, I reckon I could probably catch as many fish on 5 or 6lb.

Fishing metal lures is great, great fun because it’s just a much more simple and relaxed way of fishing. And it works! I love to get to the bottom of various soft bait techniques, but sometimes the simple things really do work just as well. Get me back up to Plymouth (as I will be later this week!) and I’ll be looking at the soft baits again because they suit the area so well, but locally, metal rules!

Cornish Lure Festival 2011

Just quick one to let you all know that tickets for the upcoming Cornish Lure Festival (1/2/3 July) can now be purchased online! Doing it this way will save you a few quid over sorting it on arrival. Will also make my job way easier.

Check out all of the details here: www.lurefestival.co.uk

Busy bee!

I’m actually too busy right now to really be writing this one, but I’m just sat in front of the TV needing a break from ‘work’.

I’ve had a good, but busy past week or so sorting things for the festival, keeping on top of the shop and just generally getting to chat to a lot of good people.

It seems to have been fishing fairly well out there lately. There have been quite a few fish locally up to about 4lb or so on all manner of lures – along with the odd bigger escapee. The wind feels like it’s been trying to put a downer on things for what must be a month now, but still fish are being caught. To be honest, I think it’s actually been quite a fishy year so far. My own confidence has definitely been high of late, especially with the soft baits.

This year I have had a personal trend towards the softies. I must admit, over the past 12 months or so, I’ve been a bit frustrated chatting to people that get convinced that softbaits are the only way forward. I still know today that there are definitely days around here when you will catch more on a hard lure, but I am enjoying my soft baits more ths year. It probably has a bit to do with the crazy selection of rods I’m lucky enough to own to fish them with.

I think I’m becoming a bit of a rod tart to be honest. Having a nice selection of rods for specific jobs is actually making it harder and harder for me to explain to people in the shop that one rod WILL do it all for them. Of coarse it will, but the tart in me sometimes feels the need to over explain things in my own search for perfection. Of coarse when considering various budgets we need to be sensible, but I can imagine that I probably do confuse people with technical babble sometimes. The truth is, I just can’t help it… If there were more 8 foot, 5-30g rods out there then the job would probably be easier though!

Walkies…

Jo, Lily and I took a walk down nearer the south coast on sunday for a change of scenery. It just so happened that we might have accidentally arrived at a fishy looking river/estuary!! A lovely stretch to walk (and fish no doubt!) but the dog, Lily especially loved it. The highlight for us being one of her joyous hoppedy-skips through the long grass ending with an almight splash as she landed in the bottom of a muddy pool 6 feet below her, totally out of nowhere. Her top half soaked through, a bleery eyed little doggy quickly scraped herself back up the slope and shook herself off on the path.

We’ve got ourselves a water dog.

Funny little thing.

Will hopefully get out to catch a few later this week.

One lure, two ducks.

Bank holiday weekend leading in the now half-term is mental-time in St Merryn and the Padstow area. It would be nice to have some decent weather for a change, but from a fishing point of view it’s often been too rough, windy and too weedy for what feels like the last couple of weeks solid – up here on the North coast at least. I’d blame anybody else for making excuses if I didn’t know it were true. Apart from a few slightly more sheltered bays it’s been a real mission finding shelter. Finally over the last few days though the swell has started to ease and the wind had dropped a bit. Still firing in in that annoying NW direction though, but fishable.

The first I’ve had to fish recently was last night. After a few years away from the coarse fishing scene, I’ve been speaking again to Clint Elliott from White Acres quite a bit recently about his new found love for lure fishing. He may only have had a couple of fruitless trips to date, but I was keen to help him catch his first bass. On a lure anyway…

Dropping in on a sheltered spot that I know really well, the main idea was just to show Clint around a bit and point him in the right direction more than anything – what to look for and actually pointing to likely spots where I thought the bass would be waiting for him. I’d half joked before we left the house that he would catch his first bass, and conditions really did look good when we finally settled. A bit of a climb and we were stood facing in to a swirling mass of water with a couple of hidden gullies in the shelter of a shallow bar of rock 20yd in front, parallel to the shore. Behind the rock is a deeper pool that I know well, and to the left and right a gradually shallowing series of barnacle and weed covered rocks. To the far left and right we had as little as 3 feet of water. This was waaaaaaay rougher, shallower stuff than Clint had concentrated on before I think, but having caught loads of fish here before I was just hoping that one would turn up.

After a few fruitless casts, mostly to the right where I have caught before we stopped so that I could have a play with the Hearty Rise rod that Clint had had shipped over from France. At only 7′ or something we were just wondering whether it was a tad short for the rough conditions and the fact that we were stood probably more than 6 feet above the water. The shallow diving Jackson Athlete he was using was struggling to find it’s place in the rough water so I had a go just to see whether getting the tip down closer to the water would solve things. It did, but in the meantime I lent him my ‘lucky’ rod so that he could see the advantage of using a longer rod in such conditions.

True to form, after a few casts the rod was bent over and Clint was playing his first lure caught bass!!!!!!!!

I must admit that the ‘lucky’ rod (a Nories “Flatfish Program” Rough Surf 88) was yet to catch me a fish! It’s not the first time I’ve leant it to a friend to try either. Andy Bignell had previously borrowed the rod and on his second cast landed a 3lber! Mission on, I had to catch a fish on it now! In fairness to myself, I have spent way too much time fishing soft baits this year so have usually taken the lighter rods out with me.

Mega congrats to Clint though. Nories Laydown Minnow 110 in the very shallow water to the left had done it. I know that he wasn’t at all expecting to catch where he did, but it has properly shown him the type of place that it’s possible to catch around here. Rough, rough, rough!

A little bruiser around the 2lb mark. Needless to say he was slightly chuffed and I know I’ll be seeing him later in the week when he comes in to the shop to stock up on his lucky lure. Mine was a Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow. You never forget.

We moved constantly up and down the rocks keeping an eye out for tasty looking rough gullies as the tide receded. Eventually I spied myself as good one and after a few casts had myself a littl’n! Same lure, same rod. Second duck broken! It was also my first fish on a hard lure this year!

I’ve probably spoken about it before, but I really do love this lure. Really stable in the rougher water, they give off a huge amount of vibration even at slower speeds to make themselves an easy target.

As the tide dropped to a certain point where it reached deeper water on the edge of the rocks, the movement we were looking for massively decreased and we decided to call it a night. The fish may only have been small, but it was a successful mission on a lot of different counts. For both of us.

The Cornish Lure Festival 2011

….also keep an eye out for details following very soon about a super relaxed lure competition happening over the weekend of 1st/2nd/3rd July. There are Bass and Species-Hunt sections and some great pries up for grabs should you catch a few! It’s looking like being quite a big event with a few tackle demonstrations going on as well. Although the bigger ‘Lure Show’ may have been postponed, this festival is the whole reason that the idea even started. Keep an eye out on the blog and various forums for details coming over the next couple of days. Contact me if you’d like some early details.

Are we looking too far?

Just a quick one while a few thoughts cross my mind. Truth be told these things have always been in there but I’ve just never sat and properly pondered.

There’s an obvious and quite understandable pull towards Japan when it comes to looking at and considering new fishing tackle and techniques. They’re such fine perfectionists that the tackle that gets produced there is always high quality; created with precision to well thought out designs and often outstanding beauty.

Obviously this quality comes at a cost to us (the anglers), especially when you consider and understand the costs involved in shipping it half way across the World.

However, it’s always crossed my mind that there are some things that we don’t need to look so far afield for. I’ve always been as guilty as most of overlooking potentially viable alternatives – that may even be sat as close as a drawer in the garage – in favour of the newest, fancy Japanese made alternative. I absolutely love that the Japanese equipment is so perfectly designed for a purpose, but can we sometimes ignore what’s right under our noses?…

Sadly I’m not talking lures, reels or rods (bar, potentially the new Century HPR’s when we finally see them!), but about some of the little bits and pieces that have been produced (or at least sold) here for years and years. Mostly at this point I’m thinking about some of the coarse fishing bits that I was never without. Fly fishing equipment is also worth scoping. Split shot and tungsten putty are two obvious items. But had you considered things like ‘olivettes’?! You may not even have heard of them?!… With more pondering I know I could probably build a huge list, but what it really just needs is some proper thought as to the applications of some things.

Fully ignoring what it says on the packet (this is where some struggle – myself included at times), its about putting a bright yellow thinking cap on and applying an item with specific properties to the fishing technique or ‘job’ you want it to do.

I mentioned ‘olivettes’… For those that haven’t heard of them they are a usually tungsten-made style of weight (usually ‘teardrop’ shape) used for cocking a freshwater float. They come in varying weights from as little as 0.1g up to about 28g to suit various float sizes. These will either slide freely on the line (above a stopper) or be pegged in place – often with silicone tubing (I’ve even found this same silicone tubing to have it’s uses in lure fishing!). I’m thinking worm weights and Carolina rigs here…!

They may not be the perfect, perfect shape for fishing on the nose of a worm bait for example, but the fact is that they will still do the job, especially if you can find a short stubby one. As a Carolina weight (fished up the line in front of your lure) they are, brilliant! They’re perfect for it and can be found from companies like Sensas in various styles to suit your preference. From plain tungsten with silicone inserts to newer plastic types that claim to reduce reflections, the fact is that for less money, you get a LOT more product. The Japanese equivelents are often slightly more convenient to swap and change, but if you are open minded and look for options closer to home then these things will do the job.

Here are a few examples:

I already mentioned split-shot and many of you will already know and understand the uses for these when it comes to LRF, HRF or even Bass fishing. Again, they’re a very cheap item in the UK, but look to Japan and I’m guessing because they don’t necessarily use so much of this stuff, prices are higher due to the small quantities they manufacture. For once, we’re ahead. OK, what’s available in the UK at the moment may not be perfect, but for guys and gals who are less picky about the finest details, this stuff will enable you to progress your own fishing without paying more than you can afford.

These are just a couple of tiny examples and my intention here is really just to highlight that if you look, you may very well find. Like I said at the start, given time I reckon that among us we could build a huge list of products readily available here that, although not marketed as such, are fully suitable for our lure fishing needs. They’re also likely to be cheaper.

Just start ignoring what it says on the label and look at things with an open mind. Plenty to think about and lots more searching to be done…