A first winner (on the Xmas give-away 4.)

We have a winner for the Feed Shallow that was up for grabs......well done Jaime!

Jaime if you put your name and address in the comments, I will post the lure in the next few days (I will not publish your name and address).

The other give-aways are still up for grabs so get in there....

Have fun!

Xmas give-away 4.

The last lure up for grabs is a Tackle House Feed Shallow in Pink Rainbow (or the "Poulet" as some call it but that's another story lol).

3rd person to answer correctly wins.......

Q: Which company makes "The Patchinko"?

Be quick to win.................

Xmas give-away 3.

Next up is a Rapala MaxRap MXR13 (15g)......

Win it by being the 3rd person with the correct answer in the comments box below.

Q: Which grow larger - male or female bass?

As usual the comments get posted on a winner....

Xmas give-away 2.

Next up for grabs are a pair of  Illex Kenbu metals (a gold and a white both in 20g).......

The 9th correct answer wins (answer in the comment box please)....oh and one answer each please.

Q: Who manufactures "The Gunfish".

Enjoy!

Xmas give-away 1.

As last year I have a couple of lures up for grabs. Quite easy - just answer the simple question & with any luck youll be a winner (decider as last year is your comment number).

Anyway first up for grabs is.....a packet of Team Cormoran Slickworms in SB-5.The 5th person to provide the correct answer will win the softs (the comments will be published once a 5th correct answer).........as last year these will be sent to you by post free of charge.

Q: Who manafactures "The Zonk" (now how easy is that?)

Answers below in the comments box (oh and one per person only & dont forget your name).


Good luck all (especially to those still fishing - brrrrrrrr)

Bits n pieces

Over on TLF, I entered the annual team bass competition, and to my amazement our team is up there in second place at the moment. The competition is run each year & random teams of four are created with each person being able to enter their best fish (with photographic evidence against the TLF ruler).

 

 

Our team "2012 A Bass Odyssey" have submitted four fish for a current total of 263cm (giving an average of just under 66cms!), the leading team still has 11cm over us, so I'm guessing we will finish second unless someone below us takes a lunker or two).

 

Anyways I have been asked, if I will do another December giveaway as I did last year, so keep an eye on the blog in December (just in case - who knows you might get lucky).

Apart from that not too much to report (my fishing's done for this season), but I thought I would just post up the silly video below for your amusement.

 

 Thats all folks..................

 

Sausage fingers, half a seal & Joes leg.......

Just back home from the usual poor fishing weather in the UK (what I had hoped would be 10 days of great Autumn bassing turned out to only be two whole days of tough fishing!)

I took a trip to Dorset where an East wind killed any real chance of bagging up big style but there were a few fish to be had but we really really had to work hard to catch. We did have a few as you can see below, (sorry about my poor editing to conceal the spot a bit) but certainly not as many as we would have liked.

Mr Sausage fingers.

 

This next pictures a testimony to Joe's Simms G4 waders - despite getting this nice graze on his shin the G4 waders were only slightly scuffed on the top layer (Ive ruined cheaper waders in the past with way less barnacle scrape than that)......well done Simms!

Nice pins Joe!

I also had a wander to West Wales, got up at 03:30, did a 2 hour drive ------- and found dirty water where I had been expecting water like gin. After giving it a couple of hours I headed home & found this half a seal on the beach on the way back.

Half a seal....

Anyways a bit disappointing despite having caught a half way decent fish (the boys headed over to Ireland & managed to pretty much blank there too but that's another story).

Tight lines one & all

Gone Fishing

Gone Fishing.

 

 

Report to follow......

A big girl for Mark.....

Mark just texted - a nice fish of 75cm...........looks a stonker!

Well done Mark!

Now why don't I catch fish like that? lol.

Rob did the job!

Just back in from a Dorset trip with Rob Staigis which turned out to be a blast despite the usual weather issues (this time we were blessed with the tail end of a hurricane & a months worth of rain in a day!).

On arrival conditions were actually pretty good & we sat off to Chesil where Rob managed to bag a schoolie on his second cast in England. Despite the other boys all catching a fist full of fish, I managed a spectacular blank.

 

 

 

Next day we headed off to some rock marks early where we had a few fish and a lot of fun (Rob was straight into the fish again - a very happy chappy), followed by an evening session which produced another second cast fish for Rob & Joe.

As we had caught there the previous day we headed to some rocks again & Joe managed 6 fish in a row on arrival but the fishing seemed to die off as the wind swung East.

Last day found us on Chesil with pure East wind (gusts to a savage 50+ mph with enough rain to drown a town). We did manage a couple of fish but the going was extremely tough!

 

 

All in all it was a big fun trip, although the average size could have been better (we caught probably around 60 fish between us despite the conditions) and it was fantastic to swap tips & tactics with Rob who introduced us to a couple of lures which worked very well in Dorset (perhaps not the patterns we would usually use but proved to be fish catchers for Rob).

Rob will I'm sure do a report on his blog & I will post a link when its done (Robs website can be found at www.wolfsbarsh.com)

Tight lines you bassers…………..

Gone Fishing.

Gone Fishing......

 

 

Back in a week.

Stellas bits....

Well my Stellas are back home after their service & one has received new internals to the sum of 150€. Below you can see the bits & pieces that were changed due to oxidisation.

 

In defence of Shimano I must admit this reel was well under water a couple of times & not cleaned afterwards (note to myself to be a bit more careful in future).

 

Let this be a lesson to me :)

Tight Lines...............

Getting the needle & Stella is in hospital

A couple of weeks back I took a pair of Stella's in for a general service & to my dismay heard back from the shop that one was unwell & needed to visit Dr Shimano, well fact is one of them needs new internals (oxidisation big time) & is in hospital but she should be home soon. Anyways, 100 Euros repair for a reel I bought last year, but my fault entirely as it went deep under water as I got knocked over by a wave early this year which incidentally killed my camera & mobile phone too grrrrrrr.

Ive been restocking on a couple of bits and pieces recently (getting ready for September really) & thought I would pick up a couple of needle lures & grabbed a couple of Super Strike Super "N" Fish in white & blurple.

These things look like they will cast a mile - I will be changing the hooks though (see below - the hooks that have been clipped to fit on a swivel without a split ring - popular way of mounting heavier hooks in America I'm told).

Anyways off to the shop to get some new line spooled ....

That's all folks.....

Dorset Silver.......

Here are just a few pics from a recent Dorset run - the conditions were borderline with strong winds making casting any distance very difficult (20 - 30 yards if you were lucky) but the water was clear so we were pretty confident..................

We started off well & the fishing kept pretty steady for an afternoon session through till dusk when we decided it was time to call it a day......

Next day turned out even better with us all taking a few fish (DFR man Richard even popped over to join us and had 4 or 5 fish in as many casts as soon as he got there).

All in all some fun fishing & am really looking forward to visiting again in September, when I will be dragging Rob Staigis from Wolfsbarsch.com over for for a few days to meet up with the guys.

Tight Lines People!

The DFR Custom Build.

Having wanted a new rod for a while, I decided to take the plunge and get myself a custom built rod made by Richard at Dorset Fishing Rods.
Earlier in the year I spoke to Richard about the type of rod I was looking for to see what he could come up with. Basically I was looking for a rod that would give me extra distance on the cast, as well as being light enough to fish with all day. I was after a rod that would have a quick recovery too for the top water work.
Richard suggested a St Croix blank and my only instructions on cosmetics were "black & gold" so it was pretty much up to Richard to decide on the design.
Something I did want was  a rod with the perfect butt length  & reel seating position, so after measuring our a few of my other rods (under Richards instruction) we found what was hopefully the optimal postitioning for the reel seat - Richard knew I would be using this with a Stella 4k so the weight was a known factor.

When I received the rod I was very very impressed with the build & design, so of course I was keen to put it to the test. First thing I noticed was that I was getting alot of extra distance on the cast (the rod compresses beautifully even with a little flick) and the braid rings / eyes seemed to let the line fly out - wonderful!
After some use I love this rod - it is light and responsive but has enough grunt to tame a decent fish in a current as well as being a pleasure to use all day.

Anyway here are a few pictures - sorry for the quality as the do not do the rod justice & I am not much of a photographer as you can see :)

Should anyone be interested in a new rod from Richard he can be found here: http://www.dorsetfishingrods.co.uk/

Thanks for the rod Rich - I promise to use & abuse it to the best of my ability :)

Tight Lines !

Tough going but a few fish...........

Just back from a week in Pembrokeshire where the fishing turned out to be about as tough as the weather (which has been awful over here for the last two weeks).
We started out with some rough Southerly weather which turned the Havens waters into pea soup (of course the West marks were dead calm & pretty dead as far as the fishing was concerned).

Start of the week proved very difficult & although I caught a few schoolies, things were just not right (even the clearer water West was devoid of life & any real water movement).

Being a tad frustrated with the conditions it was a real boost when the wind swung West (if only for a day) & it looked like things were on the up as the fish started to get that little bit bigger although not easier to catch.....

Not long after taking a fish of 48cms I was standing on a rock talking to Ricky (I had finished a retreive a while ago & was just holding my rod in one hand), when suddenly the water below me exploded and the rod was nearly ripped from my hand. I looked down to see the rod arching to the water & a flash of orange - arrgghhh pesky wrasse has popped up I thought until I managed to turn the fish from the boulders it was trying to dive under - yeeeessssssss Bassssssssssss...........
After a short but mental fight I landed a cracking orange / copper coloured bass of 60cms (really the wildest take I have ever had - the lure just lying on the water at my feet & not even a turn of the handle lol).
I will never know for sure, but I suspect the fish had followed the previous cast, which was probably 30 seconds gone - madness!

The next and last days fishing I managed a couple off the top (schoolies again), it was great to see fish feeding on top again (its been a really wierd summer so far - way less fish than last year & most to diving lures wheras last year almost all came off top!)

Anyway - enough for now, Iwill also try to some pictures of my new custom rod from DFR - its a beaut!

Tight Lines..............