A Dorset Quickie.

Just back in from a night down in Dorset where the conditions have been difficult of late (although there seems to be a good stamp of fish down that way with several biggies being caught.

The fishing was tough (no wind, weed etc.) but we managed 11 fish. I suspect if the conditions had been slightly different (note different & not necessarily better) we would have bagged up.

Nice haircut lad!

 

Late night schoolie.

Not much else to report (but I hope to get out & land another fish or two later this week).

Be good & tight lines!

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

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…………..

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!

A spot of fun.

After a failed mission (35mph winds) in Pembrokeshire I decided a quick trip to Dorset was the way to go, so at short notice I chucked my gear in the rental car & headed down from Cardiff. On arrival a bitter cold NW wind was a blowing but we were in with the chance of a fish or two.
I arrived at lunch time and met up with Mark (any excuse to avoid work lol). After a few hours of thrashing the water for a schoolie each we decided it was time for a change of venue.

True to form, Mark clipped on a weighted sluggo (jig head) and on his first cast shouted over he was into a fish. "What sort?" I shouted over "weed fish or rock fish?" thinking he had just tripped a snag, and suddenly Marks rod arched over & the fish screamed off up current much to my suprise taking line as it did so. Being a true fishing buddy I declined Marks request of help grabbing it (well what are friends for), and after a fiesty scrap he landed the below at 63cms.

By now it was getting dark & we fished on with Mark taking another schoolie around the 3lb mark. A bit dissapointed at being beaten 3 to 1, I headed back to my hotel with the hope the morning session would be better.

The next morning I woke to find the wind had dropped with weed making the fishing very difficult (about 1 in 10 casts was coming back clean). Just as the sun broke the horizon my lure got smashed at distance and a fair bit of line was stripped from the reel on the inital run. Fish landed it measured 58cms and was a very solid fish as Marks had been the previous evening.

Somewhat happier I cast out again and was hit straight away by another which also gave a good scrap, this one went 54cms. I fished on for an hour or so, but the tide was slack & I had to leave to get back, so I missed the push of the flood which I suspect would have fished well.

We didnt catch any great numbers, but the fish we did catch were decent fighters so we were both happy & had some fun as we always do.

Hopefully I will get another trip in the the next few weeks (Dorset or Ireland both tickle my fancy), so with any luck I might catch a few more before silly season (winter) starts.

Thanks for reading!

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!

Off again in a week.......but where to go?

I will be off to the UK again in a week or so, but with it looking like the wind & swell will be up I still need to decide where to head for a couple of days fishing,
The Monday & Tuesday I was thinking of fishing show swells of 10+ feet over in Pembrokeshire (far from ideal with the wind shifting to possibly colour up the sheltered marks.........grumble)
It doesn't look much better in Dorset (again the in your face west winds) but with less swell predicted (6 foot swell is as bad as it should hopefully get),but conditions like this can be dangerous & very hard to fish.

Anyway I will be keeping an eye on the forecast & hopefully things will change for the better (the following week I should get a session or two in as well so all is not lost).

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!

Next Trips............

Ive just booked a couple of trips in the hope of a fat autumn fish (way things have gone for me this year it’s a long shot, but you’ve got to be in it to win it & all that).
Last weekend of September I will be heading to Dorset, followed by a few days (possibly in Wales or Dorset) in early October. There's been talk about a late November trip to Ireland (planning would be at short notice on that one as the weather and fishing could go either way at that time of year).

I seriously cant wait to get out fishing again (its such a drag living so far from the sea sometimes but hey - that’s life!).

Hope you are all catching (but leave one for me!)

A half day on Chesil.

After a bit of confusion as to conditions & meeting up with Steve (sorry about that Steve), I ended up popping down to Dorset for a half day yesterday. Mark was guiding for Dave and I caught up with them for a brief Chesil session.
True to form the perfect morning conditions changed on my arrival & the wind turned which pretty much killed the swell we so badly needed.Dave has only recently taken up lure fishing, so needless to say he was happy catching a few fish despite the going being tough,

A happy Dave with his first Chesil Bass.

The X-Rap in Ayu was the lure Dave was catching on (bait fish were abundant but the bigger bass didnt show up as we had hoped).

Greedy bait fish.

I managed a couple too.

Its was also great to see how close the bass will come in to get an easy meal - the fish in the above picture was caught in water that just covered its back (bold fish indeed!!).

Walking Chesil can break a man!

With the conditions looking average for the next day I decided to make the long haul back (I had intended to stay overnight if the fishing was really good).

I hope to get another trip out (possibly to the Gower) in the next few days in the search for a bigger fish or two........

Tight lines!