Perch Fishing with Kieran.

Hi guys and welcome back. This weeks post is going to be covering a couple of short Saturday afternoon sessions with my 7 year old son Kieran down at Longham water works. When ever I ask Kieran what fishing he would like to do on our next session I only ever get one of two answers, he either wants to go 'match' fishing with his 6m Browning pole and his seatbox or its dropshotting for Perch!

The last few times its been all about the Perch for him though as he has told me he wants to catch one over a lb, this is something I am more than happy to help him with and I'm also ecstatic at the fact he wants to fish with me more and more now!

He has taken two different approaches to targeting the Perch one being lure fishing, dropshotting with small shads and other small bug imitations, the other being to try live baiting for them with minnows he catches himself using maggots on a scaled down dropshot rig.

He has also been helping me test out and use some of the Realistic Shad lures reviewed in last weeks post, He has now also claimed my favorite Fin and Tide cap as it is 'his lucky Perch hat' as he likes to call it.

I prefer him to lure fish when targeting the species as I'm not over keen on live baiting my self, it was something that came about by accident one day and he has taken a liking to. He was fishing for Minnows and Bleak with me whilst I was fishing for Dace when a Perch took a minnow he was winding in. He found this totally amazing and was all he would talk about on the way home, telling me how that's just how nature works and he got to see it.

I do though however want to encourage him as much as possible to fish and feel as long as I can teach him that doing some of the things we see down there is wrong, like the other day when a guy used a 10oz Dace (roughly) as a live bait, I also know of a guy that thinks its okay to use 2lb Roach as live Pike bait. These are the types of things he WILL grow up not doing!

Back to the lures though, one of his favorite lures hes been using lately is the Crazy Fish Cruel Leach in a bright green color, he has been doing very well on it where small Perch or 'wasps' are concerned.

Something he has also been asking me about is competition fishing bless him, so I bought him a little lure bag and he sat down with me and marked out 15cm on the top, he insists next time we go he is going to beat me in a match! Again something I will also be encouraging as a little competition never hurt anyone and if it makes it more fun for him then all the better!

I have been fitting in a bit of fishing with him from time to time, in between unhooking countless fish for him that is, he is a little hook shy at the moment and doesn't really like touching anywhere near the hook which I guess at his age is something that can be a scary thing.

Another thing he has been enjoying is taking pictures for me of any fish I catch, I had my old camera from when I started fishing just sat in my room next to the computer gathering dust so I have let him have it, he spends a lot of time out in the garden now taking pictures of all sorts of things, potential photographer in the making maybe?

This year for me has been all about getting my boy to put his iPad, xbox controller and anything else along the lines down and trying to get him outside, to be honest I think its working as he loves fishing more and more every time we go, hes loving taking pictures of all the different insects and bird life we get in the garden. One thing he wants to do in the house that I do like the sound of though is he wants to start his own blog, this is definitely something he can do as we all know those bloggers are some cool people!

He did his own little write up the other day, with a little help from me, to print out and take to school, which is something I'm going to let him post on here in the near future possibly even make it next weeks.

Once again guys thanks for reading, I really sincerely hope you enjoy reading these posts as much as I enjoy writing them! For now though until next week I'm going to leave you with some extra pictures.

Realistic Shad Review.

Good evening all, so now you all know the name of the company mentioned in last weeks post we can get on with the review. At the beginning when I first decided to review the companies products I ordered a very small selection in comparison to what is on offer, now though I will be stocking lure boxes full of the rest of the range!

I can honestly say I have never been so happy that everything I had planned in my head when buying a lure worked out almost exactly as I had hoped, I bought these shapes and these colors to mimic certain fish when targeting predators. Allow me to elaborate.

Starting from the top, (of the above picture) these I bought for two different situations, firstly as you all know I have been doing a lot of LRF over the last few months, I bought this pattern and color to try to mimic some of the Sand Smelt and other prey fish to target Bass, unfortunately I haven't managed a Bass on this one yet but I'm putting that down to the fact the small checkers aren't around in big numbers yet. Secondly I felt they looked very much like small bleak and the plan was to use them for ultra light Perch fishing, however the first fish I did manage on this one was a awesome little Pike! 

 

Second pattern down and one I bought specifically for targeting Perch as I felt the color and size was a dead ringer for the thousands of minnows the Perch swallow through out the year. My boy has also been helping me put these lures through their paces and this one has become one of his favorites! Both him and me have been having a lot of success using this one on the dropshot.

 

Needless to say he has been keeping on at me to buy him a new lure box and fill it with these lures! Something I have agreed to and have also managed to talk his mum round by telling her its a great thing to encourage, this means I can sneak a few in the order for me each time as well!

Okay so moving on to the middle lure in the picture, this is one I have not been using as much as the others, I bought it in this color so as to mimic Sand Goby in a hope to tempt a few Wrasse species to take. Until Thursday evening just gone I have been unsuccessful with this one.

This was one of those moments where bites on the Isome had stopped and the sandworm wasn't working so I thought I'd slow jig for a little while, I hadn't planned on using this one to be honest but it was the first one out the packet when I reached in so thought might as well give it a go, results speak for them selves I believe!

This little guy certainly like it anyway! Was also my last fish of the session as nothing else seemed to be hungry for anything I had to offer after that.

Moving on to the fourth one down and this one unfortunately I no longer own, I didn't loose it though, I binned it as it was well and truly torn to bits, I don't think I have ever used a single lure to so much success the whole time I have been fishing! I bought this purely for LRF as it just screamed 'I'm a Goby' the minute I laid eyes on it!

I have been catching so many small Ballan Wrasse with this little lure I don't think I could count them, I have also managed some very good ones including the biggest I have ever caught!

 

Finally the bottom one, I picked this one for the same reasons I bought the first one, simply I just felt it would be nice to have a paddle tail version as well, this one is responsible for the strangest species of fish I have caught on a shad, frankly one I never thought would have been possible. After a conversation with a good friend it turns out the Tompot Blenny may have attacked this lure out of a more defensive stands rather than taking it for food, it is highly possible that I managed to drop it in near to a nest and that was the reason for the strike.

More evidence of this showed itself Thursday evening when I pulled up another Tompot that was wrapped in a piece of weed than had small orange eggs all over it.

I decided to do a review on these products in the beginning because they were something I had not seen before, I had been looking for something to review on here for a long time as it was something I wanted to start doing, however I had been struggling to find anything that took my fancy until I stumbled across these on social media one afternoon!

I was firstly taken in because in most of my fishing I like to 'match he hatch' or use something that closely imitates something my target species would see as natural to them, obviously where this is possible to apply, I have also been known to chuck out bright pink fruity pop ups on six foot zigs as well though.

All in all I could not have been happier with the results and I honestly can't see myself buying lures form other companies for a long time to come!

Once again thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed as much as I did writing!

Few Short Salt Water Sessions.

So I realize its been a long while since my last post and yes I also realize I said that the gaps in posting wasn't going to happen anymore but this time that is 100% fact and that's a promise! There is going to be a new schedule on here and I'm going to be posting weekly and with a set time each week to get these uploaded. I will now as of today be uploading a post every Saturday at 7pm.

Over the last few weeks I have been out doing a lot of salt water fishing, be it LRF, bait or lure fishing I've been doing it all and had some great results as well!

To kick things off lets talk about the fact I'm now up to 12 species of LRF caught fish, over the last few weeks I've managed Bass, Rock Goby, Tompot Blenny, Goldsinny and Ballan Wrasse! Its been a great time to be fishing the Quay and I have enjoyed every minute of it!

I have also been doing a bit of bait fishing, this however has not been so productive I've been having plenty of Shore Crabs, a couple of Velvet Swimming Crabs and even a Brown Crab not so many fish but have had a few small Wrasse in close on bait and managed a Bass the other night as well.

Lastly I have been doing some lure fishing trying out some shads and things from a new company I came across not to long ago these have been working out really well for me and next weeks post will be a review on them.

They mainly make lures for fresh water fishing but after looking into the companies products I noticed a few of them was very similar in shape to Goby and thought I would give them a go for a few Ballan Wrasse, I succeeded!

 
I managed this one on the very first time of asking and they have done nothing but get bigger since!

The main thing that has surprised me though is the consistency in which I'm catching using these lures! I had Tompot Blenny on shad lures which I didn't know was possible, however after a chat with a very knowledgeable friend it turns out the chances are I may have dropped into a nest which would have triggered a defensive attack rather than one out of predatory instinct.

The fish pictured above is my biggest Ballan to date unfortunately it happened to come on the night I had forgotten my scales and my measure, something I also believe is known as 'sod's law' but I will be back out soon and hope to better this again!

Some of the other shads in their range have been responsible for my biggest Bass capture of the year so far! (Not very big I know but I haven't started fishing for them properly yet).

Once again thank you for reading, sorry to leave you hanging on a name for the mysterious lure company but I will reveal all 7pm next Saturday when I do a full post just on my captures using them!

LRF Update

Hey guys, once again I've found some time and managed to get out on 4 LRF sessions in as many days. I went out with the brother in law on the 10th, 11th and 12th for a few late evening sessions down the Quay and also headed out for my 1st trip to Swanage pier this morning.

         Having not fished much before the brother in law was keen to get out on a session with me and see if he could bag himself a couple of species on the LRF gear. He has managed a pair of nice sized Shanny before whilst crabbing with my boy, unfortunately though they got released by my son before he could snap a picture of them.

         I have now given him a rod, reel and a selection of lures so he can head out anytime and give it a go as I'm now going to be quite busy with work and possibly not able to fish again until next weekend.

          So lets get onto some fishing shall we, the first evening went by completely uneventful and ended on a blank for both of us much to our surprise as the conditions were absolutely perfect, Nigel had been down the Quay the night before for the weekly bike night and seen a lot of people fishing and catching all sorts, so as you can imagine getting there to find the same conditions as described from the night before I was super excited to get fishing, sadly though things didn't go to plan but hey that's fishing!

           Moving onto the second night, we decided to start in the same spot at the end of the Quay and work our way to the other end as we did previously. This time though I got a bite immediately but unfortunately lost the fish on the way up, this did though lift the spirits and fill us full of belief that it was going to be a good night. 3 and a bit hours then went by without another bite until we made it to the other end and on the 1st put in I got a few small knocks, this was followed 30 seconds later by a massive pull down to which I struck into my 6th species of the year so far and my favorite of them all!

Say hello Mr Scorpion! Could not have been happier to get this little guy up and in my hands, if I had to choose a single species of fish to only catch again this would be it!

           We decided to call it a night after this as I got the shakes from excitement, literally was like a child at Christmas! Our decision was also helped along by the fact it was raining and looked like getting a lot worse as well.

            Okay so onto the final evening session, this one started off on a much better note once again we started in the same spot with the same aim as before simply work our way along. With in the 1st 10 seconds of wetting a line I had my 1st fish in my hands so as you can imagine once again we were excited for a much better night again!

This time the fish came in the form of this awesome little Shanny (common Blenny) this is a species I had already caught this year, for me though that is not the be all and end all of my fishing, sure I like to catch new species and have a goal to catch 20 different ones this year but it really is more about seeing what is out there and I really do enjoy looking at every fish I catch!

         After maybe a hour I had managed to catch a further 8 Shanny and was really having a lot of fun doing so, Nigel however was having one of those sessions we have all had, one where everything that grabbed his lure only grabbed the lure and was never hooked, other than a really nice looking shore crab that dropped off on the bank and scurried back to the water, once again before a picture could be taken.

         One fish that really did catch my eye out of the 9 was this little fin perfect specimen (bellow), the coloration was captivating and I probably spent way to long looking and admiring it than was good for it but he went back swimming fit so no harm done.

We stayed in the area a further half hour or so but there was no more bites to be had, this signaled time to move spot for the first time of the evening, this time though we didn't move far at all before I noticed some swirling and ripples on the surface not far from a moored Sunseeker, as you can imagine I was pretty cautious casting to what was very likely a £5million yacht. I was already using a drop shot rig as I had been fishing close to the edge and that is my preferred method of doing so, however this is not something I have ever done at range so was a little unsure about how to work it. I decided to let it sink to the bottom count to 5 and give a single turn of the real handle, my plan was to repeat this all the way back to me but around 40 seconds later and I was playing s fish!

I had now managed 2 new species in as many nights, this time it was this really cool Sand Smelt that graced my hand! I have been told today that these are sometimes very hard to catch so am even more happy than I was last night which to be honest I didn't think was going to be possible, I was ecstatic when I got my hands on this fish! Believe it or not I actually spent most of the day before the session reading how and where to fish for these in my local area not once was the Quay mentioned though which only added to me excitement!!

Moving onto today, this is a trip I have been trying to find time to do for a very, very long time so when the other half said to me lets go and do it I fell in love with her all over again. The excitement and anticipation kept me up most of last night at which point Jen was probably regretting planning the day bless her. Unfortunately this session ended the same way as the 1st one a few nights ago but when you get the views I seen today along with some proper quality family time it doesn't even matter!!

Thank you very much for reading this post everyone, I have had the best few days fishing and have once again enjoyed writing about it to share with you so I hope you enjoyed it also!

Sorry its been so long!

Hi guys sorry its been so long since I last posted anything, up until the last few weeks I've been having a bit of trouble finding time to get out and do any fishing. Thankfully though that has now changed and things are looking up with the amount of time I'm going to have to myself now!

       Since my last post I spent the end part of the river season trying to bank my first ever Barbel and/or my first Chub (from a river).

Unfortunately I didn't catch, I do feel though that I learned a lot to help towards finally managing it this season! I did also get to spend some much needed time to myself with some great surroundings.

      It was due to the overwhelming desire to catch the elusive Barbel that all other aspects of my fishing got put on hold, that and the lack of good weather and the Quay seemingly being void of fish for the first few months of the year, this is something I now know is quite normal as the water gets colder but as a LRF noob I had no idea at the time!

       The LRF duck was broken finally though when a proper piece of opportunistic fishing seen me land a Corkwing Wrasse, The better half (called so in case she is reading this) and I decided to take the kids for a walk down the Quay as the sun was finally out for a change, I managed to hide my rod and small lure pouch in the car whilst putting some of the kids things in!

As it was the first fish in what felt like forever I decided to pose with it as if it were a 7lb version of one of its cousins, something I am also planning on targeting this year.

This is also something I have been doing whenever I have been out with the family on walks and things, every time I've managed to get near the beaches or anything of the such I have been looking for likely looking spots to target the Ballan Wrasse I'm after this year, something again I'm very new at having never targeted a specimen fish from salt water.

        I'm off out in the next week putting some rigs to the test targeting some Bream in a local lake, the particular water doesn't hold anything big although my personal best Bream is only 5lb so there is always a chance of bettering that!

        I spent a few days down the Quay over the last couple of weeks (only for a hour or so at a time) and have already managed 5 species, to most people this may not sound like much but after around 4-5 months of LRF last year I finished the year on 9 in total so its a good start on beating that. I have set myself a target for the year of 20 species so I will be putting a lot of time and effort in to reach that for the rest of the year!

         The second species I managed this year was the first one I ever caught so was very please to see plenty of them back around again.

This in case you don't know is a Shanny or common Blenny, feisty little guys and super aggressive for they're size I love nothing more than sight fishing for these little guys down by the boat yard at the old end, the water is only about 3ft deep against the edge at high tide so its very fun fishing.

      The next species I caught was a awesome little Black Goby, although they don't seem to be around in huge numbers yet I have manged about 3 of them now in comparison to the 50 odd Shanny.

Next trip out I managed another few Shanny, a single Black Goby and my 3rd species for the year in the form of this really cool common Goby!

The last species I managed this year so far came in the form of the smallest fish I think I have ever caught, made even better by the fact it was one I didn't get last year, it was so small I found it very hard to pin point what it was however after trawling through countless books and google searches, as well as getting some help from other LRF anglers I am now confident enough to call this a sand Goby!

So its been a very good start for me this year on the salt water front and it has also been a good year for my fishing partner after he managed to bag himself a Kingfisher award in the Angling Times magazine with this cool 5lb common Carp!

Thank you very much for reading and I really do hope you enjoyed the post! I am planning on getting back to doing at least 1 a week however it may take a bit of time for this to be possible so please bear with me!

Whitemoor Match.

As the title suggests once again I have been back out doing some match fishing, this time though it wasn't another practice session I threw myself in at the deep end and went straight into a match! I only say threw myself in as since the last time I wrote about match fishing practice I haven't done any and I haven't fished Whitemoor's canal lake in even longer.

       Okay so onto the fishing and how the day went for me, to start with as always I spent around five days preparing rigs and tying hook lengths as it is always better to be ready for anything and have it all to hand if you do need something, the alternative of course is do no prep work and spend a few weeks kicking yourself for not doing so! Sunday morning finally arrived and Mark and I set off around 8am to get to the venue in good time before the draw at 9am.

        When we arrived the weather was not looking great and we couldn't see to many anglers waiting but after a few minutes the car park began to fill out a bit more, all in all there was twelve anglers to fish the twenty peg lake so was going to be nice and spread out along the bank. On the way in I specifically said to Mark I would have been happy with any peg except the end peg 20, he on a similar train of thought to me said roughly the same apart from he didn't want peg 1 so of course it was inevitable that we both drew those pegs!

          Draw done it was time to head off and get ourselves set up, first thing I did was started soaking my 4mm Bait-Tech carp and course pellets for feed baits and pumped some 4mm Xpand pellets, I emptied a pint of casters into another tub and drained the water off my pellets before chopping up some worm and getting a tin of corn out my bag to, last but not least bait wise I had some bread I had prepared on the Saturday ready for a spot of dobbing.

          So with bait being ready I began shipping out my pole to various different spots and having a good plumb around, I started off going really tight to the other bank but could only find between 6 - 8" of water there, I thought this was way to shallow due to the water being so cold and also it didn't seem to be as colored as usual, I decided to come back away from the edge a pole section and found myself averaging around 1.75 - 2' in depth in most places so was very happy with this. I shipped the same rig comprising of a 0.2g Dino F1 float and a strung shotting pattern of No11's over towards some rushes along the end of the lake at the same distance and was delighted to find the same depths along there as well, this meant a very easy day when it came to rotating lines! I set up a duplicate top kit in case of a break or a bad tangle so I could get back to fishing as fast as possible.

        I then also plumbed up a margin rig at 2 + 2 (or a top kit and the 2 top sections of my pole) this rig was a 0.3g Dino Trux margin float, this had a bulk of No9 stots and 2 No10 droppers. This was the line I was planning on feeding with chopped worm and caster for a few hours at the end to try tempt a few margin monsters out in the last hour.

         With this all done I punched a piece of bread with a 4mm punch and put it on the hook and sat waiting for what felt like an age for the all in shout. Once this was finally called I shipped out straight in front of me to the middle of my far bank and proceeded to lift and drop my bread around in the area to try tempt a quick bite, this couldn't have gone any better to start with as I had two fish in the first ten minutes but unfortunately the rain started to fall super heavy and it took nearly an hour to get my next bite! Although I was very happy to have finally gotten a bite it was only a small skimmer which was indication enough to me that was the end of my bread fishing for the day.

          I went back out on the same line this time though with a small kinder pot with about a dozen 4mm pellets and a Xpand on the hook, I poured the pellets in very low to the water as I didn't want to make any noise with them I simply wanted something on the bottom to stop fish in their tracks and start them feeding, I am a great believer in that feeding fish attract hungry fish so this was all I was trying to do! I could not believe it though when my float went under within seconds of it settling, at this point I couldn't help but think what if I have made this change sooner! for the next hour or so I had a fish a chuck and was now very happy with how my match was going. I spent the hour before watching the guy on peg 18 catch fish after fish and now finally was doing the same thing to him as he had to watch me catching whilst his float remained still.

           Once again though my bites had dried up so I decided to pot in 25 - 30 pellets there and leave it to rest, I headed out towards the rushes but to no avail so I decided to give my margin line a quick go to try nick a fish before heading back out to the rested swim, I managed to get a bite with in about five minutes unfortunately though the fish discharged the hook in my keepnet.

          After a battle with the net trying to get it out of the water and unhook it whilst the fish inside thrashed about I finally got back in the water to a swim the was wall to wall fish for another hour or so, once again though the bites stopped but this time it was for an all together different reason, the next bite I got came about fifteen minutes later on the same line but this time though it wasn't a shy timid bite the float was down and gone before I knew what was happening my elastic was over in peg 19, after playing this fish for about twenty minutes I thought for sure I had the big girl known as 'Bent Tail' she is a stunning mirror of around 15lb in weight or so now, I myself had managed this fish in the last match I fished there some time ago and she was 13lb 15oz then and I knew that if I netted her I was well in the lead! After the battle I slipped my net under a stunning mirror with the top part of its tail missing that barely fit in my landing net, at this point I picked up my phone and text Mark to tell him I had her! Unfortunately though when I came to the weigh in it turns out I got a little bit ahead of myself as the fish only weighted 9lb 8oz.

         I was now into the final hour and a half of the match and it was time to start feeding my edge line, I went straight in with a nice sized hand full of finely chopped worm and a few casters which I was planning on fishing a nice big worm over a bit later on, with that done I tried the 'rush' line again but as had been the case all day there was no fish at home or if they were they either weren't hungry or were to smart for me. so I shipped back out to the middle line again where I manged a further three fish before deciding to go on my margin line, this turned out though to be a waste of fifteen minutes as once again I couldn't get a line bite let alone a fish!

          I went back out on the middle line this time it was where I was going to be staying for the rest of the match the only problem was the rain starting really lashing down and I could barely see a thing in my peg! "ALL OUT" rang down the lake and now all I could do was wait for Tom the lakes owner to come round and weigh everyone's catch, I started to pack up my gear so as to take my mind off the coming event, I didn't have to wait long though as he started down my end and worked back to the club house.

          35lb 5oz was my weight and 46lb something was the guy next to me so by this point is was slightly disinterested with the rest of the weighing as I thought I was going to fish badly. This was not the case though as the only other weight close to ours was 30lb 12oz so I had managed to finish 2nd in my first match in a very long time and pick up some prize money also. Mark managed to win his section as well to grab himself a few pound to.

          Once again thank you for reading guys I do apologize for not having any pictures but unfortunately my phone is broken at the moment and I also didn't have anyone else there to take any pictures for me.