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

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…………..

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!

Not much to report...........

I must admit that I have been lazy about doing a report on my last trip to Dorset a few weeks ago (in my defence - the conditions were terrible & the fishing worse, so theres not too much to say)

All we caught were a few schoolies (also few & far between) despite fishing four days & walking a hell of alot of miles trying to find the fish!

A couple of pics................

A foot of swell would have been perfect

A night schoolie

 Getting smaller!

A first lighter (from the dirtiest water ever)

 I will be off for a spot of plugging again in a couple of weeks & really hope to actually catch something a bit bigger!


Tight lines guys n gals!

Cracking start to 2012 for Joe.......!

Good Buddy Joe (Adrian) has had  a cracking start to 2012 and landed this beauty in Dorset!

Now that's a top fish in anybody's books!!

Joe really deserved a double with all the time he has put in over the last couple of years - mission completed! - well done mate!

Below is another he caught (I think he had 4 fish for about 20lb in a few casts!

I know Joe is still buzzing (who wouldn't be?) - Joe's blog can be found here:

http://lurefishingforbass.com/

Thanks to Joe for the pics (and the great story behind them) - you are the man!

The going got tough.

Just a quick interim report from a few days in wild & windy Dorset. As expected I arrived to raging winds (W& SW @ 25+ mph with gusts to 40mph!), almost unfishable but we managed to find a couple of sheltered spots but fish were few and far between.

Mark with a rock caught 3lber

To cut a long story (well walk) short, we really covered a lot of ground and climbed alot of cliffs to find clean water away from the winds on the tides we needed. I ended up catching 10 fish (excluding the usual bycatch), all of which were taken on surface lures, with the biggest at about 53cm (a suprisingly fat little chap).

The schoolies wanted it off the top.

Always a pleasure to catch these pretty fish.

A very fat fish at about 53cm.



I hope to be out in the next couple of days again - probably West Wales (or maybe even Ireland if air traffic control go ahead and strike in Germany, but thats another story).

Good luck to Gee, Joe & Mark who are off to Ireland tonight (they have a few days over there with tides and conditions looking good - no excuses lads lol).

Tight lines & thanks for reading!

Hard Work...........

Anticipation was high for this trip, as the fishing had been excellent before I arrived (Mark had taken almost 100 fish in 3 days to over 7lb!) - what could go wrong?

Schoolies love a Zonk.

Well the weather calmed down the day I arrived, and the sprat schools seemed to dissapear overnight so the fishing was far tougher than expected.
We found ourselves having to cover alot of ground to find a few fish - hard work indeed.

One off the top.

To cut a long story short we managed to catch fish on each session (mainly schoolies), but had to work hard for them (low light early  did produce a couple of better fish for Joe & Richard).

Joe took this beaut in the dark.

6+lb of Dorset Silver!

All in all we had alot of fun (as usual).....................................

Richrad with a 6.5lb-er

Mark says love your fish!

He loves his favorite lures too!

One rucksack per car! We had an interesting choice of transport.

Great for drying out the gear though!

A big thanks to Mark, Joe, Steve, Richard, Elliot & Carl for the fun!

See you guys soon!

The Holland blank report.

We knew the fishing was poor in Holland at the moment, but were hopeful of at least a fish or two - we were to be dissapointed.........

On arrival we checked in at our somewhat eccentric hotel and headed straight out with high hopes.

After a couple of hours we decided to head off for "breakfast" and had some great bacon and mushroom pancakes in a windmill (as one does in Holland)

Back on the water we fished a spot with a very strong current and chatted to another fisherman who confirmed that the fishing was awaful at the moment (the previous week had been fantastic and he had taken fish to 72cm!). The water did look good so we put some effort in, but nothing showed).

Next day we decided to meet with Rob Staigis who was running a bass workshop for a couple of clients while we were there (Rob had already been out on a boat - they struggled for a couple of very small schoolies).

We met up at Bass Hengelsport - a really cool shop dedicated to lure fishing for bass (they have a massive selection of softs - every colour and type you can imagine). The owner (aptly names Bas), really knows his local stuff & showed us some underwater video of large numbers of bass holding on local structure which was interesting). Bass Hengelsport is well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Off we went again - cast after cast produced nothing (we fished well on into the evening)

That evening we decided that we would leave early the next day and cut the trip short (sometimes you just know when you have been beaten).
We did have alot of fun (as soon as the boys got back to the UK they went straight out and Mark managed a couple of fish - typical!)...........

Stop Press......
Just received a message from Mark - hes out this morning.......10 fish to 76cm! (what a difference a day & 400 miles can make lol). Not jealous at all (cough cough).

Lending Lures - Lesson Learnt !

I've just arrived home after a few days of very difficult fishing in Dorset, and am "feeling the pain" of a couple of good falls on the rocks as usual.

We arrived in Dorset to find the wind had swung to North East, flat calm seas, crystal clear water & bright sunlight were the conditions we had to contend with (we knew fishing was going to be tough), so plans were changed and we decided that the rock marks would give us the best chance of a decent fish.

First evening we had a quick session (which only produced a mackerel) and we realised it was going to be even tougher than expected!

The next day my lesson was learnt about lending lures to mates - Mark asked if I had a Chartreuse Patchinko he could borrow (bright conditions - bright plugs and all that), as good as I am the said lure changed hands & Mark cast it way out to try a spot at range. Two turns of the handle & the water exploded with a massive splash, and a very decent fish managed to miss the lure!

Inspired by this we all pushed on but had no more rises until Mark hit a decent fish (in the line of rotting kelp) which smashed into the topper. The fish was just over 7lb according to the B.A.S.S tape.

A fine fish on the Patchinko.

Marks head was certainly bigger after this catch!

A happy plugger.

Lesson learnt was next time Mark asks to borrow a lure - tell him you were just about to use that one & clip it on yourself. Joe also had a couple of schoolies & I had the dreaded blank.

Joe with a pretty schoolie.

I was under pressure (being the blanker), and was most relived to take a schoolie which followed the lures until I had no more line and had to swing the rod around to get a hook-up (a very unusual follow as the fish was swimming at the same speed as the lure - the lure actually in its mouth, but its mouth wide open & not touching it (until the rod was swung & raised to get the hook-up).

"Tommy Three Chins" - shocked to catch a schoolie!

Graham_hk had been catching on the same spot the day before - he managed 18 schoolies in a very short period! (not the lunkers we were after perhaps but good fishing all the same - well done Graham on catching in Caribbean conditions).

Steve "Hound Dog" Payne also popped down from Wales to see us in the hope of a fish or two so we headed out to Portland after one of Steve's famous breakfasts, but the fish just didn’t seem to be there so we tried a few other spots without much luck.



Anyway - I ended up catching 3 fish (losing two) - I think there were about 30 fish caught between us all (a few people fished with us in various combinations & the lack of sleep makes this an estimation as I wasn’t really counting).

A few random pics…….

Hurry up Steve....

Almost there.....

There were schoolies about....

Topwaters & divers both caught.

While there I also got to try one of Richards (Dorset Fishing Rods) custom built rods and was impressed, especially after seeing some of the other rods he is designing (he has some really interesting blanks and is working on a rod which will probably do just what I want, so next time I'm over I will be having a chat and possibly order a short custom rod for hard baits). Richard can be contacted here http://www.dorsetfishingrods.co.uk/

Anyway I will leave you with the above for the moment (as I'm kaputt at the moment), but will post again in a few days with some observations I made, and some information on new tackle performance. Oh and I'm sure Joe will have a report on his blog soon too http://www.lurefishingforbass.com/


As a last note - a big thanks to Joe for collecting me from Heathrow and doing the driving, Steve for the fastest breakfast in the West, Richard and Graham for the laughs, Angie for the cooking & cleaning, last but not least - Mark......for well...."being Mark"  ;o)

Tight Lines!