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!