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!
